Terrorists and Gangsters as Candidates?

by John Thompson

November 2, 2003

Crooks, terrorists and politicians? Politics do make for strange bedfellows, and the attraction to politics of those who desire influence without responsibility has been remarked on many times.

Among those who gravitate towards politicians and politics in search of influence and protection are organized criminals and the supporters of terrorist groups. Politicians at all levels have a long and sorry history of being too willing to be amenable to the blandishments of those with money or the appearance of power in a particular community. In some cases, this becomes a complete trap.

In the Prohibition Era, the willingness of local politicians in Chicago (though they were not alone in this among American cities) to tolerate speak-easies, brothels and gaming clubs soon led to a situation where the likes of Al Capone owned the whole city — at one time, everyone from the mayor on down was on the take. Similar levels of corruption are just as common in many modern nations. In today’s Russia, crime is so blatant that Mafiya members openly sit as members of the Duma while both political and personal survival of other elected officials rests on the strength of their organized criminal connections.

Terrorists normally seek political power of their own, but modern groups often depend on vast networks of supporters for funds, resources, and to spread their message. The PKK depended on supporters among the Turkish-Kurd community throughout Western Europe to ensure that no rival perspectives emerged, to move the drugs that paid for their guns, and to garner political support which could interfere with their activities. Al Qaeda, Hizbollah, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and others also run similar networks in Western Europe and North America.

Canadian politicians are seldom corruptible in the ordinary sense, though it does happen that they almost invariably have weak spots when it comes to appearing tolerant of our different communities… Votes, endorsements, campaign contributions, photo-ops, and the chance to appear to be popular, it is as all as good as gold, and organized criminals and supporters of terrorist groups know it too.

We have a wide variety of terrorists and organized criminals in Canada — and they do get political influence. Babbar Khalsa members can get meetings with cabinet ministers, so can people with links to the Chinese Triads. Russian Mafiya and Italian Mafia members can haunt fundraisers, and so on. However, what is rare in Canada, is to actually see active members of crime groups and the support networks for terrorist organizations actually run for office.

Elagu Elagupillai is running as a candidate for the municipal council in Markham Ontario, and his campaign ads are featuring an endorsement from our next Prime Minister, Paul Martin. The well-educated and well-connected Elagupillai was (and still may be) a part of the support network for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In 1996, Dr. Elagupillai was attempting to get a job as a nuclear physicist, but failed to get the necessary security clearance because he was the Canadian president of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (the TRO). The TRO sounds innocuous enough, but has long been identified as a key front organization for the Tigers — routing money to the terrorists behind its cover as a charitable organization. Elagupillai left the TRO as a result of the investigation and insists that his days as a terrorist backer are behind him — a questionable claim.

While teaching at the University of Ottawa after being denied his security clearance, there were allegations that he helped facilitate the activities of pro-LTTE Tamil activist student group there. He was at the same table at the notorious 2000 Tamil New Year celebration hoisted by the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils — another identified LTTE front -- and it appears he may have been partly responsible for Paul Martin’s appearance there, certainly they sat at the same table there.

Likewise, other LTTE activists have been dedicated in soliciting political support from all levels of government in Canada: They are very discriminating — saving their efforts for incumbent parties — and have especially made inroads into the Federal Liberals. However, any political contact and any political office held by their supporters lends credibility to the supporters of the LTTE and gives them a stronger base for future activities.

Canada’s reputation in counter-terrorism is bad enough, not least because of our persistent refusal to suppress the LTTE. Admittedly, the election of one City Council member in a suburban Toronto community is not dire news — but it will be touted by the LTTE’s front organizations as further evidence of their ‘respectability’, and it will be yet another proof of our inability to suppress transnational crime and international terrorism.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca