Since I'm planning to move northward, this certainly raised my eyebrows!
Steve
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> Canada 'haven for terrorists'
> BY STANLEY OZIEWICZ
> South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), January 4, 1999
>
> Canada's spy chief shed the service's legendary tight-lipped posture
> recently with a public bombshell.
>
> Canada was becoming the world's premier haven for international terrorists,
> he said.
>
> "We, uniquely among developed countries, exist alongside the United States,
> one of the world's pre-eminent terrorist targets," Ward Elcock said.
>
> "While distance from conflict and moderation in our policies may make us
> less likely than others to be a target, we also, for the same reasons, can
> be seen as a haven that might be safer than others."
>
> Nobody knows whether Mr Elcock's statement was made to justify a bigger
> budget for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service but it made a big
> impact.
>
> David Harris, a former high-ranking service officer who is now a security
> and intelligence consultant, called his statement an extraordinary revelation.
>
> And Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto history professor specialising in
> spy issues, said: "Ward Elcock is not a man . . . who is inclined to make
> alarmist statements. There's got to be a good deal of fire to this smoke."
>
> To those outside Canada inclined to think of it as a large, rich but boring
> backwater peopled by conservative and polite people who place great value
> on moderation and order, Mr Elcock's remarks may be shocking.
>
> These are some of the things Mr Elcock said, first to a secret meeting of a
> parliamentary committee, then on the service's Web site:
>
> With the possible exception of the US, there are more international
> terrorist groups active in Canada than anywhere in the world;
>
> The service's counter-terrorism branch is investigating more than 50
> organisational targets and about 350 individual terrorist targets;
>
> Among these groups are Hezbollah and other Shi'ite Islamic terrorist
> fronts, several Sunni Islamic extremist groups - including Palestinian
> Hamas - with ties to Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Lebanon and Iran, the IRA, the
> Tamil Tigers, Turkish Kurd separatists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and
> all main Sikh terrorist groups;
>
> Individuals and groups in Canada have been directly or indirectly linked to
> the World Trade Centre bombing in New York, suicide bombings in Israel,
> assassinations in India, the murder of tourists in Egypt, the 1996 bombing
> of US soldiers at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and
> the IRA bombing campaign.
>
> The activities of those under investigation included providing logistical
> support for acts of foreign terrorism, fund-raising, recruitment among
> ethnic communities and providing temporary succour and transit to and from
> other countries, particularly the United States.
>
> Mr Elcock said Canada's open immigration and refugee system made it
> vulnerable to terrorist influence and activities. Canada has been accepting
> well over 200,000 immigrants a year for years and is projecting it will
> take in a further million over the next five years.
>
> "While the vast majority of those immigrants and refugees have no greater
> priority than to be productive participants in a peaceful and prosperous
> society, there are those very few who slip through, bent on using Canada as
> a safe haven from which to support terrorist activities," he said. He did
> not name any specific individuals. However, among those to have surfaced in
> recent court cases were:
>
> * Mansour Ahani, an Iranian government assassin;
>
> * Iqbal Singh, a member of Babbar Khalsa International, which the Canadian
> spy service describes as an internationally active Sikh terrorist
> organisation advocating a means to establish an independent Sikh homeland
> in India;
>
> * Hani Abd Rahim Sayegh, a Saudi national who was wanted in connection with
> the Dhahran bombing that killed 19 Americans;
>
> * Manickavasagam Suresh, a fund-raiser for the Tamil Tigers.
>
> EDITOR'S NOTE: A story on the above matter was included in an Oct. 19
> CISNEWS posting, but Mr. Elcock's comments were not then available on line.
> They are now, at:
>
> http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/press/kellye.html
>
> ****
> ****
>
