ForTheRecordVille
The following is the piece that Kim Bolan published on Feb 20th, the day before she wrote the Bains/Saini pice.
I thought I had best archive it, as a public service, before it too disappears behind the subscription wailing wall:
Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, February 20, 2007Paul Martin solicited the support of the terrorist International Sikh Youth Federation in his failed bid for the federal Liberal leadership in 1990, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Martin made an impassioned speech to the ISYF's national convention in which he said he was honoured to "meet friends who share the same belief in this country, the same belief in peace, the same preparedness to defend themselves."
At the time of Martin's spring 1990 speech, the ISYF had already been identified as a terrorist group by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Four in the group had been convicted in B.C. of the attempted assassination of a visiting Indian politician. Other B.C. members had met with a young would-be assassin who shot newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer in 1988.
The Martin speech came two years after then Conservative external affairs minister Joe Clark warned Canadian politicians to steer clear of the federation, the Babbar Khalsa and the World Sikh Organization because of terrorist links. The ISYF was banned in Canada in June 2003 by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien.
Liberal MLA Dave Hayer, whose father Tara was assassinated in 1998, was shown a video copy of Martin's speech by The Sun.
Hayer said he was disturbed to see a future prime minister standing in front of a banner of a terrorist organization.
"When you start going to some groups that are involved in terrorism, people think you are endorsing that group's beliefs," Hayer said. "We as politicians have to be careful not to look like we are supporting extremist views."
Hayer said witnesses have been reluctant for years to come forward in cases like the 1985 Air India bombing and his father's murder because they see how closely suspects are aligned with politicians of all stripes.
"It is difficult to find witnesses when suspects have very close connections with politicians," Hayer said. "It sends the wrong message."
Martin said in the 1990 speech: "I want to tell you what a great honour it is for me to have the opportunity to come and speak to you on this the fifth annual meeting of the International Sikh Youth Federation."
He pledged to take up the issue of human rights abuses in Punjab, as well as to establish a visa office there.
Martin was flanked at the ISYF convention by Albina Guarnieri and Maurizio Bevilacqua, who encouraged delegates to support Martin and the Liberal party.
"We now in the Liberal party are in the process of choosing a new leader and on behalf of Paul Martin and myself, I thank you all for your friendship and your trust and your support," Guarnieri said.
Bevilacqua also praised convention delegates saying: "What I really admire about your community is that you fight for the things you believe in."
Martin, Guarnieri and Bevilacqua are still members of the Liberal caucus, which has taken a position against extending part of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which the RCMP is using to advance the Air India investigation. The Liberals claim concern for civil liberties in supporting the expiry of certain provisions of the act.
After the Liberals spoke at the convention, an ISYF leader explained in Punjabi how it was important to have politicians on side "to reach our target faster." Repeated references to fighting for Khalistan were made by other speakers, including a British leader of the ISYF. British federation members were convicted in 1986 of plotting to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi.
Martin lost the Liberal leadership in 1990 to Chretien, his long-time rival. He later won his party's nod, becoming prime minister in December 2003. He stepped aside as leader after the Liberals' poor showing in the January 2006 federal election.
Bevilacqua did not return phone calls about his appearance at the 1990 ISYF convention, and the office of current Liberal leader Stephane Dion had the party's critic for public safety, Susan Barnes, return The Sun's call. Barnes refused to comment on The Sun's revelation.
The 1990 ISYF convention speeches are not the only ones made by Liberals over the years. Several Liberal MPs and Ontario MPPs attended the March 1988 Toronto-area ISYF convention to condemn Clark's statements about the group.
Members of the terrorist Babbar Khalsa also addressed the convention, including Ajaib Singh Bagri, who was later charged and acquitted in the Air India bombing.
At the ISYF's national convention in Vancouver in 1989, former B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Wilson, who later joined the NDP, spoke from the stage, as did Bagri.
A group of pro-Khalistan delegates to December's Liberal leadership convention were instrumental in the victory of Stephane Dion, delegate Tarek Fatah said in an interview.
Fatah watched as some of those delegates objected to references to the Air India inquiry made by leadership candidate Bob Rae.
And last week in Surrey, Liberal and NDP MLAs stood in front of a Khalistan sign at Surrey's Dasmesh Darbar temple as they were praised by worshippers for acknowledging the tenets of Sikhism in the legislature.
"It is not just the Liberal party," Fatah said. "[The politicians] go to temples and mosques and they have no clue what is being said."
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