ARCHIVED: Report No. 2000/04: International Terrorism: The Threat to Canada

Report No. 2000/04 has been archived.

May 3, 2000

Introduction

1. The terrorist threat wears many faces. Over the last thirty years, Canadians have been touched by several acts of terrorism, each with unique motives and means. Examples include domestic separatist violence in Quebec, Sikh separatist terrorism in the Air India disaster, and, in the recent case of Ahmed Ressam, a bomb plot whose motives are thus far unknown. To counter these activities, Canada has developed a response to terrorism that meets the challenge of a serious and perpetually evolving threat.

2. Legislators who drafted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act recognized that the use of violence in support of a political objective has consistently been deemed unacceptable by Canadians. Canada, however, has been a frequent destination for international terrorists and their supporters. They engage in a wide variety of activities, all of which have repercussions here and abroad. Canada's responsibility to deter those efforts affects our national integrity and our international obligations.

Canada's International Responsibilities

3. Terrorism is a global phenomenon, and the struggle against it must therefore be carried to the world stage. The 1999 Special Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence (the Kelly Committee) found that "to be effective, the fight against terrorism must be through a united international front."⁽¹⁾ Canada has been leading that front since 1963, when it was the first signatory to the 1963 Tokyo Convention on Offences on Board Aircraft, related to aircraft hijackings. Since then, Canada has been a party to conferences and consultations at the G8, P8 and bilateral levels, and has signed each of the eleven other international conventions on combating terrorism. Recently, Canada signed the 1998 Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing Offences and the 1999 Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.⁽²⁾

4. Targeting terrorist financing is a key element in the fight against terrorism. At the 1996 Sharm El Sheikh summit in Egypt, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said that all like-minded nations must take "whatever measures are necessary to ensure that no country anywhere in the world can get away with giving support" to terrorists. CSIS Public Reports since 1996 all refer to terrorist fundraising as a source of concern for the organization, and in a 1997 report by the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), the review body agreed that these activities could be of interest to CSIS as it plays a pivotal role in preventing politically motivated violence.

5. In 1998 and 1999, in the annual Statement on National Security, the Solicitor General cited efforts by CSIS and the RCMP to investigate groups "raising and exporting funds openly or covertly in support of terrorist activities,"⁽³⁾ but the strongest condemnation of terrorist financing comes from Judge J.A. Robertson of the Federal Court of Appeal. He ruled in January 2000 that "those who freely choose to raise funds to sustain terrorist organizations bear the same guilt and responsibility as those who actually carry out the terrorist acts."⁽⁴⁾

The CSIS Mandate

6. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act requires CSIS to investigate activities "directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political objective within Canada or a foreign state."⁽⁵⁾ This distillation of terrorism into its basic elements makes no effort to ascribe value to the motives of the actors, and gives equal weight to terrorist acts directed toward foreign states and to persons who provide support for such acts. Terrorist violence and activities in support of such violence may be carried out in the name of independence, freedom, or religious belief, but Canada has chosen through its legislation to give first consideration to the act of serious violence, not the nature of the cause.

The CSIS Act - in Action

7. In giving effect to this legislative requirement, the task of investigating individuals or groups that may pose a threat follows two general principles.

• To maintain vigilance towards groups which are known, both nationally and internationally, to use or threaten violence in the pursuit of political objectives.
• To identify individuals and groups in Canada who are suspected of working with terrorists in support of their activities.

8. While the precise numbers will vary over time, these principles translate into approximately 50 organizational targets and 350 individual targets in the CSIS counter-terrorism program. Their origins are in Punjab, Israel and the occupied territories, Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Turkey, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. Groups include Hizballah, Hamas, and Sunni Islamic extremist organizations, as well as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), and various Sikh terrorist groups. Canadians may not generally consider their country vulnerable to such a broad terrorist phenomenon, but the Kelly Committee found that Canada is a "primary venue of opportunity to support, plan, or mount" terrorist attacks.

Multicultural Pride and Homeland Conflicts

9. The portability of homeland conflicts offers a particular challenge to Canada's counter-terrorism efforts. Canadians have embraced the commitment to a multicultural society. Most immigrants or refugees coming to Canada do so only to seek a peaceful existence, often fleeing violent conflicts. In some cases, however, these conflicts are difficult to leave behind.

10. Canada has sought to discourage politically-motivated violence, and to prevent the spread of conflicts to Canada or the provision of Canadian support to conflicts abroad. Two examples illustrate just how quickly a homeland conflict can be played out on Canadian soil.

• On 5 April, 1992, the Iranian Air Force conducted a bombing raid on an MEK base in Iraq. Hours later, forty MEK supporters wielding sticks, crowbars and mallets attacked the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, wounding several people. Near-simultaneous attacks were carried out on Iranian Embassies in thirteen other countries around the world
• On 15 February, 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was arrested in Kenya. The next day, violent PKK supporters rioted in Montreal, and a day later in Ottawa. Several police officers were wounded, including one who lost an eye, and another who was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail.

11. These incidents make it clear that MEK and PKK support networks in Canada are directly linked to their parent organizations abroad. Terrorist support here contributes to the groups' activities internationally, and when those activities trigger retaliation, violence can reverberate in Canada.

12. While incidents of violence on this scale are relatively uncommon in Canada, the support activities of terrorist groups here are far more prevalent, and well-documented. Over the past fifteen years, we have witnessed a disturbing trend as terrorists move from significant support roles, such as fundraising and procurement, to actually planning and preparing terrorist acts from Canadian territory. In order to carry out these efforts, terrorists and their supporters use intimidation and other coercive methods in immigrant communities, and they abuse Canada's immigration, passport, welfare, and charity regulations. A multitude of examples illustrate the activities of international terrorists in Canada.

Planning Terrorist Acts in Canada and Abroad

Inderjit Singh Reyat, a British Columbian Sikh extremist affiliated with the Babbar Khalsa (BK),⁽⁶⁾ was convicted of building a suitcase bomb that killed two men in 1985 when it exploded at Narita Airport in Tokyo. This attack occurred on the same day that an Air India flight originating in Vancouver exploded in mid-air, killing all 329 passengers; that catastrophe is also believed to be the work of Sikh extremists campaigning for a separate homeland in India's Punjab state.

Fraudulent Use of Travel Documentation

Thalayasingham Sivakumar, a high-ranking member of the LTTE,⁽⁷⁾ travelled to Canada on a false passport in June 1989. The LTTE's chief procurement figure, Tharmalingam Shanmugan, is still known to travel internationally using Canadian and other forged passports.

Procuring Weapons and Materiel

In December 1989, two IRA ⁽⁸⁾ supporters living in Toronto attempted to purchase a Stinger anti-aircraft missile and grenade launchers. They travelled to Florida with two US-based IRA members, and offered undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents $20,000 for the munitions, and $10,000 for delivery to Ireland. All were apprehended in a CSIS-assisted joint RCMP-FBI sting operation.

Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Terrorism

In April 1993, Canada Customs at the Alaska-Yukon border seized 130 grams of the deadly poison ricin⁽⁹⁾ from an American possessing neo-Nazi literature who later was linked to "survivalist" groups. Three years later, gas masks and chemical protection suits were among the items seized from the British Columbia cache of a US right-wing militia group in October, 1996.

Recruiting Members and Supporters

In 1995, the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF)⁽¹⁰⁾ recruited 50 new members in Canada and the UK, according to media reports citing the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis and Wing. The same year, Hardeep Singh, a leading member of the KCF, was deported on the basis of a Canadian Immigration Security Certificate. The certificate revealed Singh had received specialized terrorist training.

Manipulating members of Émigré Communities

In December 1995, retailers of a Tamil publication critical of the LTTE faced intimidation tactics. Shopkeepers were warned through anonymous threats not to carry the magazine, Muncharie, and at least one advertiser received harassing letters and phone calls. Toronto police arrested one man for beating a Scarborough shopkeeper and stealing copies of the paper. The editor of the magazine was eventually compelled to suspend publication due to the threats.

Providing Safe Haven

Hani al-Sayegh is a member of Saudi Hizballah, and a suspect in the deaths of nineteen US soldiers during a June 1996 truck bombing at the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia. After the bombing, Sayegh fled Saudi Arabia and passed through several countries before arriving in Canada, his final destination, in August 1996. Upon his arrival, al-Sayegh attempted to integrate quietly into the community, studying English, and working part-time. He was arrested in March 1997, deported to the US in June of that year, and finally deported to Saudi Arabia in October 1999 to face criminal charges.

Fundraising in Support of Terrorist Activities

Aynur Saygili, a PKK⁽¹¹⁾ member, entered Canada under a false name in May 1996, and quickly became involved in the Kurdish Cultural Association of Montreal. She was arrested under a Canadian Immigration Security Certificate in November 1996. In upholding the certificate, the Federal Court of Canada accepted CSIS findings that Saygili was a member of the PKK, and that like another PKK member arrested in 1994, Hanan Ahmed Osman, she had been sent to Canada to gain control of the general Kurdish community for the PKK's own financial and strategic purposes.

Illegal Entry into Canada

In September 1998, Muralitharan Nadarajah, a top international leader of the LTTE, walked into Canada at a border crossing south of Montreal. Nadarajah then claimed refugee status under a false name, and lied to the RCMP when questioned about his immigration documents. His refugee claim is still before the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Providing Logistical Support for Terrorist Operations

Mahnaz Samadi is identified in an MEK⁽¹²⁾ publication as a leader of the organization. She was responsible for directing some MEK operations from Iraq, suggesting that she was sent to the US, and then to Canada, to act in an organizational capacity. Another MEK leader was arrested and deported from Canada in 1993; Robab Farahi-Mahdavieh was alleged to have masterminded the 1992 attack on the Iranian embassy in Ottawa. Samadi was arrested in December 1999, and in February lied to the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board regarding her membership in the MEK in order to be released from custody. She was deported to the US in April 2000.

Engaging in Terrorist Acts in Canada and Abroad

Ahmed Ressam was arrested crossing the US border from Canada with explosives in December 1999; he has been accused by the US of working on behalf of Al-Qaeda.⁽¹³⁾ Information suggests he illegally acquired a Canadian passport, as well as other identification, including a driver's licence. In cooperation with an accomplice, he acquired and partially assembled bomb-making components and planned to transport them to an unknown US destination.

13. This sampling of terrorist activities in Canada demonstrates the dangerous evolution of the threat we face from international terrorism at home. Canadians, however, are also at risk internationally: in 1995, Montrealer Hélène Viel was killed in a Paris metro by an Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) bomb, and James McGarry of Calgary was shot and killed by GIA terrorists in southern Algeria. In 1996, Canadian Ambassador to Peru Anthony Vincent was briefly held hostage by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary movement, and over Christmas 1999, Shirley Macklin of Winnipeg was aboard the Air India flight hijacked by the Kashmiri group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

Unacceptable Alternatives

14. These activities, left unchecked, can escalate in any number of ways. The danger to public safety from a potential terrorist attack is obvious, but there is another concern with dissident groups who actively oppose authoritarian regimes. If Canada does not take action against terrorists on its territory, others may. Some foreign governments are capable of silencing their opposition from a distance, and such an attack in Canada could conceivably put Canadians in the line of fire.

The following example illustrates the threat.

• In September 1992, four Iranian dissidents belonging to the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran were assassinated in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant. The owner of the restaurant was wounded in the attack. In 1997, a German court found that the Iranian government's Committee for Special Operations had ordered the killings.

Conclusion

15. The threat to Canada from international terrorism is forever changing, and may yet become more serious. Canada must continue its efforts to thwart terrorist activities-both those directed at Canada, and those targeting foreign states from our territory. This vigilance within our own borders has worldwide benefits: as the Governor General noted in the 1999 Speech from the Throne, "Canadians recognize that their quality of life depends in part on the quality of life of... those who share this planet with us. A world where people are secure is a world where fewer people are forced to flee their homes, where there is less crime and terrorism."⁽¹⁴⁾

Annex

International Counter -Terrorist Conventions Ratified by Canada

1963 Tokyo Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft.

1970 The Hague Convention for the Suppression of the Unlawful Seizure of International Aircraft.

1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation.

1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents.

1979 Convention Against the Taking of Hostages

1979 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials

1988 Montreal Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports Servicing International Civil Aviation.

1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against International the Safety of Maritime Navigation.

1988 Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the International Safety of Fixed Platforms located on the Continental Maritime Shelf.

1991 Montreal Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection.

1998 Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing Offences.*

1999 Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. *

* Ratification pending the introduction of appropriate legislation.

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1. Report of the Special Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence, January 1999.

2. Canada's ratification of the 1998 and 1999 conventions is anticipated once appropriate legislation is in place.

3. Statement on National Security, Solicitor General of Canada, April 30 1998 and December 16, 1999.

4. Manickavasagam Suresh v. The Minister of Citizenship & Immigration et al, FCA, January 18, 2000, paragraph 43.

5. Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, R.S. 1985, c. C-23, article 2c).

6. The BK is a terrorist group fighting the government of India for a separate theocratic Sikh nation of Khalistan in the Indian state of Punjab. It targets the Indian military, as well as civilians, particularly Hindus in Punjab.

7. The LTTE, or Tamil Tigers, have since 1972 been locked in a struggle with the Government of Sri Lanka to establish a separate Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. As well as fighting a guerrilla war with the Sri Lankan military, they have killed Sinhalese civilians and non-combatants since 1975, including Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi, the Mayor of the city of Jaffna, Sri Lankan President Premadasa, and, in 1996, more than 90 bystanders in a particularly indiscriminate bombing in downtown Colombo.

8. The IRA is a radical terrorist group formed in 1969 as the clandestine armed wing of Sinn Fein, a legal political movement dedicated to removing British forces from Northern Ireland and unifying Ireland.

9. Ricin is an extremely toxic nerve agent, causing death within days if inhaled or in contact with the skin.

10. Like the BK, the KCF is a Sikh terrorist group demanding a separate homeland in the Indian state of Punjab. Its headquarters are in Pakistan.

11. Founded in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK is battling the government of Turkey for an autonomous Kurdish Region in the south of the country. Along with acts of guerilla warfare against security forces, PKK members and supporters are known to have kidnapped expatriates and tourists, and to have bombed a department store and a park in the centre of Istanbul's tourist district.

12. The MEK is an Iranian dissident group based in Iraq. In its efforts to overthrow the Iranian regime, it has adopted terrorist tactics by killing civilians and other non-combatants. In 1998, the group assassinated a former head of Iran's prisons, and in February 2000, one bystander was killed in a mortar attack on the Presidential Palace complex in Tehran.

13. Al-Qaeda is the core group of terrorists led by Osama bin Laden. The group's goal is broadly anti-Western, and they particularly seek to remove US influence from Islamic countries. Al-Qaeda is believed responsible for the deaths of more than 261 people in the bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998.

14. Speech from the Throne to open the Second Session of the Thirty-Sixth Parliament of Canada, 1999.