Prime Minister Mark Carney stood by his public safety minister on Friday, saying he had made “the right decision” to keep a distance from national security decisions in which he could appear to have a conflict of interest.
After Global News reported that Gary Anandasangaree had put up an ethics “screen” around issues related to the Tamil community, Carney praised the minister for his “standards of integrity.”
“We have a rigorous vetting process and he’s taken the right decision, in his judgment and my judgment, to make these arrangements. We will be well covered with respect to all public security decisions,” Carney said.
Anandasangaree, who is leading the government’s initiative to secure Canada’s borders amid White House tariff pressure, announced Thursday that he had effectively recused himself from decisions regarding his community.
“In an abundance of caution, and to ensure that there is no perception of any conflict, I have asked Public Safety officials to implement a screen on any national security issues relating to the Tamil community,” the minister said.
A conflict of interest screen is a preventive compliance measure mutually agreed upon by a politician and the federal ethics commissioner. It aims to help MPs avoid conflicts of interest.
The screen consists of a statement in which an elected official agrees “to abstain from any discussions, decisions, debate or votes concerning the matter that forms the subject of the conflict of interest,” according to the commissioner’s website.
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The minister released the statement after Global News asked questions about his past actions and statements, some of which could put him at odds with the work of the border and national security agencies he now oversees.
Dan Stanton, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer, said the minister was doing his due diligence by removing himself from decisions so there is no perception of conflict.
“So I certainly don’t have a problem with it. I think he is just trying to stay ahead of any possible criticisms down the road if there is a national security issue involving Tamil Canadians.”
He said the main issue for his former agency was fundraising for the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan rebels that fought a long civil war against government forces until their defeat in 2009.
The government responded by placing the Tigers on Canada’s list of terrorist entities. The World Tamil Movement, a fundraising front in Toronto, was also outlawed and its assets were seized.
“That was the big issue for many years in the Toronto area, large sums of money going over,” Stanton said, but the conflict has ended and he did not think it was troublesome for the minister to keep away from the topic.
“I think it’s just a matter of, there’s probably been rumblings on this subject. And so in order to represent himself as Canada’s minister of public safety, he’s just detaching himself from the community.”
Anandasangaree came to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1983 and was a Tamil community activist, Realtor and lawyer before becoming a Liberal MP in the Scarborough area of Toronto in 2015.
His father, from whom he is estranged, was the leader of a Tamil political party in Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers fought for independence from the island country.
After the war ended, Anandasangaree helped hundreds of Sri Lankan migrants who had paid human smugglers to ferry them to Canada’s West Coast on board the ships MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea.
He and his wife have also been critical of the national security agencies the minister now oversees, particularly when it comes to their handling of issues related to Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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