Authorities need to "get down to the bottom" of who was really among the almost 500 Tamils who arrived in British Columbia by boat last month, said spokesman David Poopalapillai.
"If they have enough evidence against anybody involved in illegal activities, let’s go after them, and work with our law enforcement officials and put them in front of our laws," he said.
"That’s all we want, but . . . there’s an allegation, a suspicion. It doesn’t sit well with the community."
Poopalapillai’s words followed comments by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who said Wednesday that Ottawa must check whether all refugee claimants have ties to terrorist organizations when there is "reasonable suspicion of involvement."
"That’s not a prejudgment on any particular person who came on that vessel," Kenney added.
The Tamil community is troubled that the government continues to say there are suspicions that those aboard the ship may have ties to the Tamil Tigers, said Poopalapillai.
"It hurts the community down the road when you say there’s a suspicion, there’s an allegation," he said, adding Canadian Tamils are particularly concerned with the earlier comments of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
In an Aug. 12 statement, Toews said the vessel was carrying refugee claimants "including suspected human smugglers and terrorists."
Kenney defended Toews, saying his colleague did not call the migrants criminals, but was referring to the need for officials to be careful about enforcing Canada’s laws.
"It’s no secret that a lot of the human trafficking from that region has been tied back to an illegal terrorist organization, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," he said.
"We make no apology for . . . (checking) the background of people for whom there may be a reasonable suspicion of involvement in that banned terrorist organization," Kenney said.
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