Immigration authorities have deported a gang figure who came to Canada 17 years ago as a refugee and promptly embarked on a life of crime and violence

Stewart Bell:

Jeyaseelam Thuraisingam was the leader of the Seelapu gang, one of several Sri Lankan Tamil street gangs that Toronto police and Canada Immigration have been working to dismantle since 2001.

He was deported to Sri Lanka last Monday, the same day his final court appeal was thrown out. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) had determined he was a danger to the public.

"CBSA's diligence in this case has been rewarded," said Anna Pape, spokeswoman for the agency, which has been trying to deport Thuraisingam since he was first convicted of criminal offences in 1997.

Known on the street as Seelapu, Thuraisingam came to Canada in 1989 and was granted refugee status. The following year, he became a permanent resident, but he later joined a ruthless Tamil gang and was repeatedly arrested.

His gang was the Scarborough wing of the VVT, which immigration authorities described as ''a group of military-trained terrorists from Sri Lanka'' who help raise money for the Tamil Tigers.

During the 1990s, the VVT and its affiliates were engaged in a long-running turf war with a rival Tamil gang called AK Kannan that caused the deaths of at least three bystanders.

A joint investigation called Project 1050 resulted in the arrests of dozens of Tamil gang members in October, 2001. Since then, many have been deported to Sri Lanka for immigration violations.

Thuraisingam's refugee lawyers had claimed he could not be deported because Canadian police had publicly linked him to the VVT and Tamil Tigers terrorists, and he would therefore be mistreated by the Sri Lankan authorities.

A Federal Court judge initially agreed and halted his deportation in 2004, but on Dec. 8, he was again deemed a danger to the public and on Jan. 23, the courts cleared the way for his removal. Immigration officials wasted no time, putting him on a plane to his homeland that same day.

"We succeeded in establishing that any potential risks to this individual upon deportation are far outweighed by the danger he presents to Canadians," Ms. Pape said.

This month, the Immigration and Refugee Board upheld the deportation of another Tamil gang member, Kaileshan Thanabalasingham. In its decision, the panel said more than 100 Sri Lankans had already been sent back to their homeland and none had been mistreated as their lawyers had claimed they would be.

During the federal election campaign, the Conservatives promised to add the Tamil Tigers to Canada's list of outlawed terrorist groups and to clear up the backlog of unexecuted deportation orders, starting with those involved in crime and terrorism.

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