Angry in the Great White North

The National Post reported on a major lobbying campaign being undertaken by Tamil interests:

The Tamil Tigers have been waging an intensive "propaganda campaign" in Canada to win the backing of politicians, says a newly declassified intelligence report.

The Sri Lankan guerrilla group has "spent considerable effort and resources in Canada and elsewhere" on a lobbying and advocacy campaign, the "secret" report says.

"The main targets of the campaign in Canada have been the expatriate Tamil population, politicians and the general public," says the report by the federal government's threat-assessment centre.

The lobby campaign aims to portray the Tigers' independence struggle as legitimate, the intelligence report says. But it calls violence "central" to the guerrillas' strategy. "As well as conventional guerrilla warfare in Sri Lanka, the LTTE uses terrorist activities to achieve its goals."

The report also says that in addition to political lobbying, behind the scenes the Tigers use more unsavory methods to advance their cause in Canada.

Now here's my problem. I've checked "Tamil", "LTTE", "CTC", "0078", "Eelam", "Nadu", "Poopalapillai" and a half-dozen other terms and phrases associated with Tamil organizations in Canada, running them through the Public Registry Search maintained by the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists.

Not a single hit.

When Liberal MPs Mark Holland and Dan McTeague write to the prime minister with identical stories about constituents who have family in Sri Lanka looking for Canadian consular services, I really hope they kept careful records to make certain that these were really constituents and that they can be contacted at their constituency addresses later should any follow-up be required concerning their specific problems.

It certainly appears that the Tamils are lobbying under the radar. Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but I'd be concerned about whether the constituents were really constituents, and whether they raised concerns about particular family members looking for consular services on specific dates, or if they are just talking in generalities about Tamil hardship in Sri Lanka.

It does seem to be the case, though, that the lobbying is being done on the sly.