The truism that one man’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist is perhaps best displayed in Sri Lanka where a quarter-century conflict has claimed over 64,000 lives.

The conflict has its roots in the ethnic tension between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the mainly Hindu Tamil minority who accuse the government of discrimination.

In 1976 – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was formed as tensions increased in the Tamil-dominated areas of north and east of Sri Lanka.

The group quickly became notorious for pioneering the use of suicide bombers in their fight for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

Over the years the conflict variously described as a civil war to terrorism using child soldiers, depending on which side you are on, has led to an estimated 800,000 Tamils moving to other parts of the world.

Some 300,000 moved to Canada, mainly to Greater Toronto making it the largest congregation of Tamils outside of South Asia.

Here the community grew strong, gained clout with the Liberal politicians and became a source of money for the vicious fight in their homeland.

Many in the Tamil community saw the LTTE as protectors of their kin they left behind and raised money for the group in the guise of humanitarian aid. Others were coerced into giving.

The LTTE operated with various fronts under the protection of the Liberal government, which wanted the Tamil-Canadian vote, and refused to ban it as a terrorist organization.

That was until this month.

Putting national security ahead of political pussyfooting, the new Conservative government has outlawed the Tamil Tigers in Canada, making good on a promise to list the group as a terrorist organization.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced: “The decision to list the LTTE is long overdue and something the previous government did not take seriously enough to act upon.”

As expected, the policy shift has been hailed by the Sinhalese and decried by the Tamils.

Some experts called it “symbolic window dressing” and a move that takes Canada out of peace talks between the two sides.

Others say it will declaw the Tamil Tigers in Canada and show that the LTTE can no longer fool the international community with their propaganda of being “freedom fighters.”

While the debate rages, the RCMP enabled by the legislation has begun a series of raids across the country, including one on the Montreal offices of the World Tamil Movement.

Tamil media reported that other LTTE offices and shops of sympathizers which distribute the rebels’ literature, magazines and CDs can expect visits from the cops.

There is no place in today’s world for the atrocities that have been associated to the Tamil Tiger’s “war of liberation.”

The Conservative’s decisive action should therefore be commended.

However, listing the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group only goes so far.

The Conservatives need to use the momentum generated by their decree to push for the end of the institutionalized discrimination and human rights abuses against the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Ottawa should also demand more accountability for the millions it sends in aid to Colombo, little of which ever gets to the Tamil-controlled areas in Sri Lanka.

Our diplomats in Colombo, like those of the other nations which have outlawed the LTTE, have been unproductive when it comes to stopping the human rights abuses piled upon the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

It is time to heed calls for a special diplomatic representation in Jaffna to ensure the rights of the Tamil minority and to demand more accountability from the Sri Lankan government.

By banning the Tamil Tigers, the new Conservative government says it has come down on the side of democracy in Sri Lanka.

Lest it forget, the measure of a democracy is how well its majority treats its minority.