CBC NewsThe display of Tamil Tiger flags during a protest by members of Toronto's Tamil community this week was legal, Toronto police said Wednesday, despite the fact the rebel group is banned in Canada as a terrorist organization.
Members of Toronto's Tamil community are seen waving the red-and-yellow flags of the Tamil Tigers rebel group, which was added to Canada's list of terrorist organizations.
Members of Toronto's Tamil community are seen waving the red-and-yellow flags of the Tamil Tigers rebel group, which was added to Canada's list of terrorist organizations.(CBC)
Thousands of Toronto Tamils formed a human chain around the downtown core on Monday, to call attention to the civil war in Sri Lanka and call for Canada to pressure the Sri Lankan government to engage Tamil rebels in ceasefire talks.
During the protest, men, women and children of all ages waved the red flags of the militant group that has led the fight for an independent Tamil nation in the north of the South Asian island.
On Tuesday, the city's police force said its legal department was looking into whether the flags violated Canada's anti-terrorism laws. But police spokesman Mark Pugash said the force's lawyers deemed there was "nothing illegal" about displaying the group's insignia.
"The best advice that we have from our lawyers is that it does not contravene any law," Pugash said.
The flags, which feature the image of a tiger jumping through a ring of fire under two crossed rifles, are easily available through the Internet on the website Craigslist and can even be delivered by calling a local number.
The rebel group is officially banned in Canada since the Conservative government listed the Tigers — known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) — as a terrorist organization in 2006 for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers during Sri Lanka's bloody 25-year civil war.