Canada’s Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree is facing mounting political pressure after media disclosures showed that, as a Liberal back-bencher, he twice asked immigration officials to allow an alleged member of the Tamil Tigers to settle in Canada. Letters dated September 2016 and 19 July 2023, written on House of Commons stationery, urged the Canada Border Services Agency to “review and reconsider” its long-standing refusal of permanent residence for Sri-Lankan national Senthuran Selvakumaran, whom the agency describes as having a “protracted involvement” with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The correspondence resurfaced days after Anandasangaree confirmed on 11 June that he had recused himself from all government decisions involving the LTTE and its Canadian proxy, the World Tamil Movement, citing a desire to avoid any perception of conflict of interest. The minister, sworn into the portfolio on 13 May, said this week the letters were issued before he joined cabinet and that, since becoming a minister, he has directed his constituency office to end such interventions. A Federal Court ruling on 9 July upheld the CBSA’s decision to deny Selvakumaran ministerial relief, noting national-security concerns outweighed character references, including Anandasangaree’s. Nonetheless, the National Citizens Coalition and several opposition MPs have demanded the minister’s resignation, arguing that any public safety chief who must step aside on specific terrorism files cannot credibly oversee national security. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office has not commented. Anandasangaree maintains that he supports law-enforcement agencies acting “impartially and effectively,” but the controversy threatens to complicate the Carney government’s efforts to advance border-security legislation aimed at reassuring Washington amid heightened trade tensions.