Ottawa tries to keep Sri Lankan migrants behind bars

VANCOUVER - In an apparent bid to buy more time in a difficult immigration case, the Canadian government has taken the unusual step of invoking a controversial section of federal law to keep 25 Sri Lankan migrants with alleged ties to the Tamil Tigers behind bars.

In the coming weeks, closed-door hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver are expected to begin, with Ottawa expected to argue the men represent a national security threat.

The secret hearings, permissible under Section 86 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, are open only to government counsel, the IRB member hearing the case and a special advocate, appointed by the government to represent the interests of the detainees.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the migrants are entitled to only a general report of the allegations against them.

The move by Ottawa came after the IRB ordered the release of 35 men, all ethnic Tamils, who arrived in a boat off the coast of Vancouver Island in October.

Of the 76 men on board, many came with passports, but others were unable to prove who they are.

The men have all sought refugee status in Canada, claiming their lives are at risk in their war-torn homeland.

But the federal government maintains that several of the men may have ties to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, an organization the Canadian government considers a terrorist group.

Vancouver lawyer Douglas Cannon, who has represented several of the migrants to date, said one of his clients has been named in the government application.

That man - whose identity is banned from publication - was among the first of the migrants to be ordered released by the IRB on Dec. 16 after Mr. Cannon says the government was unable to produce credible evidence to back security concerns.

The government later applied for that order to be stayed, with the case scheduled to be heard in Federal Court in Vancouver on Thursday morning.

Mr. Cannon said the government was "grasping at straws."

"From what I've seen so far, not only do they [the government] have any information that my client has done anything wrong, they have nothing at all. They have nothing more than pure speculation and that is why my client was ordered released [in the first place]," he said.



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