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Two apparently unrelated stories on the front pages this week share an important connection -- one that goes to the heart of this country's anti-terrorism policies.

Yesterday, National Post reporters Stewart Bell and Graeme Hamilton reported that the Tamil Tigers, a group classified as a terrorist entity by our federal government, has been aggressively raising funds among Montreal's 25,000-strong Tamil community. According to an RCMP officer connected with the investigation, "People from the community are intimidated by them and feel obliged to give donations, as they know that these individuals are in fact working for the LTEE [Tamil Tigers]."

This report, though disturbing, is hardly surprising. The Tigers' bagmen have been raising millions of dollars through similar strong-arm tactics in Toronto's much larger Tamil community. The practice was tolerated by the federal Liberals for years because they wanted votes -- even votes from Tamil terror sympathizers. In fact, in 2000, senior Liberals personally hurled accusations of racism against those who opposed Tiger fundraising efforts. (Only under the Conservatives were the Tigers properly labelled terrorists.) Tiger fundraisers were permitted to operate with impunity under the perverse theory that preventing them from doing so was an assault against "tolerance" and multiculturalism.

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The same dynamic played out in the lead-up to the 1985 Air India bombing, which has also been on front pages this week thanks to spectacular new claims about what was known in advance of that attack. As Vancouver Sun journalist Kim Bolan documented in her definitive 2005 book on the Air India bombing, Loss of Faith, many people knew that British Columbia's Sikh community contained extremist elements. Yet few politicians were willing to confront the radicals for fear of appearing intolerant.

Whether the enemy is Tamil, Sikh or Muslim radicalism, Canada must have a zero-tolerance approach to the funding and promotion of terrorism. It's time our politicians got their priorities straight: Preventing terror comes before protecting multi-culti sensitivities.

© National Post 2007