Jamie Sarkonak: Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree is unfit for office

National Post

a day ago

One basic prerequisite for becoming public safety minister should be a lack of perceived conflicts of interest with terror organizations. Heck, it should be a requirement for candidacy as an MP, long before cabinet enters the conversation.
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But no such requirement formally exists, which is why we have Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, who remains in his office despite recusing himself from all files involving two Tamil terrorist groups, and who, Canadians learned Tuesday, wrote letters of support to assist a former Tamil Tiger member's immigration efforts.
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Anandasangaree, originally from Sri Lanka — home of the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — joined Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet in May and became responsible for maintaining Canada's border integrity.
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The Tigers and the World Tamil Movement are both listed on Canada's roster of terror organizations, which the public safety minister must maintain. In June, Anandasangaree recused himself from decisions about both groups, explaining to Global News that this was done 'out of an abundance of caution' and 'to ensure that there is no perception of any conflict.'
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But the fact that he feels the need for an ethics screen is fuel enough for the perception of a conflict — and because of that, it should disqualify him from the job.
The recusal alone was a problem, but then came a follow-up report Tuesday: Global News, having sniffed through a number of Federal Court files, found that before joining cabinet, Anandasangaree had actually attempted to help a former Tamil Tiger member immigrate to Canada by writing to the Canada Border Services Agency in 2023 and 2016.
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That man, Senthuran Selvakumaran, 48, has tried for more than two decades to obtain the right to live in the West. Around the year 2000, the United Kingdom rejected his asylum application due to his inconsistent reasons for being a Tamil Tiger. On some occasions, he would say he joined because he wanted to help and make money, or because of a friend; on others, he said he was forced.
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In 2007, he began his long attempt to be legally accepted into Canada, where his story continued to shift to an unacceptable degree. Canadian authorities didn't buy his claims, rendering him inadmissible to the country for terrorist group involvement — but he's been able to gum up that process by launching various court applications to halt their efforts.
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Assisting Selvakumaran in that time was Anandasangaree, whose 2016 and 2023 letters of support were subsequently obtained by Global News. In the latest letter, Anandasangaree accused the border agency, which he now supervises, of being 'cruel and inhumane' by separating Selvakumaran from his wife and child in Canada.