A Canadian MP was stopped from entering Sri Lanka on Wednesday and was set to be deported for alleged supporting the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said. Bob Rae, a Liberal member of parliament and outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan military's offensive against the rebels, was stopped at Bandaranaike International airport and prevented from passing through immigration. "He is barred from entering the country. He is being deported . . .we have intelligence information that he is supporting the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," chief immigration controller P. B. Abeykoon said. Abeykoon said Rae arrived from New Delhi and would be sent back on the first available flight. Canada gave asylum to more than 300,000 ethnic Tamils who left Sri Lanka in the 1980s, and members of the diaspora have held angry anti-Sri Lankan rallies there in recent months.
Last month, Canada accused Sri Lankan police of failing to guard its embassy in Colombo when it was targeted by stone-throwing protestors and demanded a full inquiry. Dozens of protestors shouting anti-Canadian slogans pelted the mission building with stones and spray-painted the entrance to the diplomatic compound. The protestors accused Canada of being overly sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were wiped out by government troops in a final battle last month.
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