Terrorism allegations against Tamil migrant dismissed
The Canadian Press Posted: May 13, 2011 7:26 AM PT

An Immigration Review Board adjudicator has dismissed allegations by the federal government that a Tamil migrant who arrived on a ship in Victoria last summer was part of a terrorist group. Leeann King ruled the man can make a refugee claim in Canada and she systematically dismantled the federal government’s evidence against him, calling the information trivial, unreliable and riddled with mistakes and speculation. “In this case, what [the man] has told officers and what he testified to before me about what happened to him in Sri Lanka is the only credible and trustworthy evidence before me,” she concluded in her ruling Thursday.

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By Douglas Quan, Postmedia News May 12, 2011

VANCOUVER — The arrival to Canada in 2009 of a boatload of Sri Lankan Tamils plus a “surge” of Tamils attempting to reach Australia in similar fashion was closely watched by the U.S. government, which noted that the cases represented their “increasing desperation and sophistication,” according to new diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The cables — obtained by CBC News — were written in the days following the arrival on Oct. 17, 2009, of the MV Ocean Lady, carrying 76 Tamil men.

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Monday May 30. Starts at 7 pm. Cost: $20 per ticket at GCBC Lower Hall (Grandview Calvary Baptist Church) 1803 East 1st Ave (just east of Commercial Drive).

Accessibility info: Grandview Calvary Baptist Church’s kitchen’s entrance is at street level, which gives access to washrooms, kitchen and lower hall. The women’s washroom has a stall that can accommodate a wheelchair. The washroom door opening is 86 cm, and the stall door is 61 cm.

Please join us in a fundraiser to support Abousfian Abdelrazik, in active defiance of the UN 1267 sanctions regime. According to federal law implementing the 1267 sanctions regime anyone who contributes money to Mr Abdelrazik risks federal prosecution. Join the hundreds of individuals and labour unions who have decided to openly defy the unjust sanctions by making a donation to Mr. Abdelrazik (view full list here: http://www.peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik/supporters.php)

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Fri Apr 15 2011, Toronto Star

After her husband was assassinated during midnight mass at a church in Sri Lanka on Christmas Eve 2005, Canada welcomed Sugunanayake Joseph. Former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham spoke at a memorial service for her husband, Joseph Pararajasingham, a Sri Lankan MP, calling him a “man of peace.” Five years later, the Immigration and Refugee Board has ordered the 74-year-old Toronto grandmother deported, concluding her role as a politician’s wife — supporting her late husband’s career and accompanying him to political events — amounted to membership in a designated terrorist organization. “My husband was not a terrorist,” Joseph told the Star on Thursday. “I am also not a terrorist. He was an innocent man. A man of the people.”

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The Canadian Press. Date: Friday Mar. 18, 2011 6:28 AM ET

VANCOUVER — With the Tories on the verge of an election, a Salvadoran father and refugee claimant who helped guerilla forces resist a brutal dictatorship in the Latin American country is heading to Ottawa to press the prime minister on immigration. Jose Figueroa and his 12-year-old son depart from Vancouver Friday on a cross-Canada bus tour, aiming to raise awareness about flaws in immigration law. The final destination is Ottawa, where they hope to present a 1,300-name petition to politicians and gain a reversal on a deportation order handed down to him last May. The father of three, who’s lived in Langley, B.C. for more than 13 years, was devastated after immigration officials suddenly reviewed his pending refugee claim and declared he was inadmissable.

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