Charity Without Terror

We must find ways to encourage charities to increase the flow of humanitarian aid without letting it fall into the wrong hands.

In 2001, Parliament made it possible to imprison people who facilitate a terrorist activity for 14 years, even if they don’t know that they are doing so, and even if that terrorist activity was never actually carried out.

Nine years later, the B.C. Supreme Court just sentenced the first Canadian, Prapaharan Thambithurai, under that law.

If, after almost a decade, this is the most these laws have achieved in stopping “bad guys” from fundraising for terrorist organizations, I think we need to question whether they are more detrimental than helpful in the war on terrorism.

Thambithurai, a low-level canvasser for Tamil humanitarian aid, pleaded guilty to raising $600 plus pledges prior to March 2008. Given the broad language used for this offence in the Criminal Code, and that mens rea (a guilty mind) is not required for a conviction, presumably he was well advised to avoid the cost of a trial and plead guilty, which he did on May 14.

Thambithurai admitted to police that he knew a portion of the humanitarian funds given to the World Tamil Movement in Sri Lanka would inevitably end up in the hands of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. If the matter had gone to trial, it would have been interesting to learn if the court thought it was relevant that Canada did not even list the World Tamil Movement as a terrorist group until June 13, 2008, after the solicitations for which he was convicted.

Here’s the larger problem. The extent to which funds for humanitarian aid end up in the hands of terrorists is a hugely vexing and complex issue. I have personally visited the sites of Tamil Tiger street bombings in Colombo, which have killed many people. However, I also donated funds for humanitarian relief in Sri Lanka after the tsunami in 2004. Because I have no way of knowing the extent to which the Canadian charity I donated to was helping Sri Lankans in the Jaffna Peninsula and other areas that were under Tiger control, I have no way of knowing whether some of the funds I donated ended up in the hands of the Tamil Tigers. And since the Canadian government matched donations made to eleven specified charities in Sri Lanka prior to Jan. 11, 2005, it presumably is as guilty, or innocent, of funding terrorism as all Canadian donors.

The government of Canada was slow to specify the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group. Of the 42 terrorist organizations listed by the government, 33 were listed between 2002 and 2003. The Tamil Tigers, however, were not listed until 2008 (The European Union listed the Tamil Tigers in 2006). Many prominent politicians have regularly attended Tamil fundraising events. How does a donor know that contributing to a low-level canvasser such as Thambithurai is funding terrorism, but contributing to a big dinner held in Toronto and attended by politicians is not?

The Criminal Code provisions have created a chill for charitable giving to humanitarian causes in areas where terrorism is a problem. While there is often a thaw in the attitudes of regulators when the cause of suffering in a terrorism zone is a natural disaster, such as the tsunami, the need for humanitarian aid is no less when the suffering is the consequence of man-made disasters, such as brutal repression by the forces that control the region. These atrocities are characterized as terrorist activities when inflicted by insurgents, but the suffering is no less when they are committed by governments with the authority of law behind them.

The war on terrorism can only be won through a battle for “hearts and minds.” The best weapon in this battle is genuine humanitarian aid donated out of compassion, without a political or religious agenda. Stopping the flow of this aid to needy people because of the fear that some funds may fall into the wrong hands reduces the odds of succeeding in the battle for hearts and minds.

We must find ways to encourage bona fide charities to increase the flow of humanitarian aid, without its presence, or absence, becoming a political weapon to be wielded by terrorists. If Canada’s anti-terrorism laws are to succeed in stopping funding that benefits terrorists, they must also be administered in ways that makes ordinary citizens confident that the government recognizes the complexity of the relationship between political conflict and humanitarian need.