Wife of terror group ‘member’ backed by public safety minister does not live in his riding: documents
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s claim that he was helping a constituent when he lobbied federal officials to let a terrorist group “member” resettle in Canada is contradicted by documents on the case, a Global News investigation has found.
In defending letters he wrote before he joined cabinet that urged border security officials to approve the immigration application of a suspected member of the Tamil Tigers, Anandasangaree has said he assisted the man’s Canadian wife as an MP.
“That a constituent, a Canadian citizen, with a Canadian child, would want to reunite her family in Canada is not unusual,” Anandasangaree said in a July 14 statement explaining the letters he penned in 2016 and 2023.
“MPs from all parties provide letters of support for constituents as a routine matter,” he said. Last week, he added that he was only “executing my duties as a Member of Parliament, one that I believe constituents expect me to do.”
But court records and interviews indicate the woman is not Anandasangaree’s constituent. Rather, she is a longtime resident of Markham, Ont. — which is outside his Scarborough-Guildwood-Rouge Park riding.
Her immigration records, tax returns and commercial receipts each list a Markham home address, and two additional letters of support she gave immigration officers were from a city councillor and MPP — both in Markham.
Reached by phone, she declined to answer questions and referred a reporter to her lawyer, who confirmed the woman had resided in Markham since at least 2016 and could not recall ever living in Anandasangaree’s riding.
The revelations have raised new questions for Anandasangaree, who became Minister of Public Safety in May, and promptly recused himself from making national security decisions related to the Tamil Tigers.
When Global News first reported on Anandasangaree’s support letters, Prime Minister Mark Carney said his appointee to oversee Canada’s national security agencies had been “transparent about the details of that situation and he has my confidence.”
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the evidence suggesting the man’s wife was not actually Anandasangaree’s constituent. The minister’s office released a statement on Monday that portrayed his earlier statement as lacking clarity.
“It is not uncommon for MPs to assist Canadian citizens that are out of their riding, especially if the local MP is unable to assist due to their role in cabinet, as was the case in this situation,” the statement said.
“It is also important to note that this particular applicant’s family was introduced by a known constituent of Scarborough-Rouge Park. This should have been made clearer in the minister’s statement of July 14, 2025.”
Support letters for terror group ‘member’
Earlier this month, Global News reported that before joining cabinet, Anandasangaree wrote two letters asking the Canada Border Services Agency to grant permanent residence to Senthuran Selvakumaran.
The Sri Lanka man married a Toronto-area woman in the United Kingdom in 2005 after British immigration officials rejected his asylum claim. She then applied to bring her husband to Canada, but border officials have repeatedly rejected him on the grounds he was a self-admitted paid member of the Tamil Tigers.
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Also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, the group committed scores of assassinations and bombings during Sri Lanka’s civil war, and raised millions in Toronto, partly through extortion, before landing on Canada’s list of terrorist organizations in 2006.
“In truth, I have helped the LTTE not only because I wanted to help them, I also got payment for it,” Selvakumaran wrote in an asylum claim.
After telling immigration officers in Britain, and then Canada, that he had worked for the Tigers for seven years, Selvakumaran changed his story and insisted he had lied about his involvement because of bad legal advice. But the CBSA still had doubts and rejected him.
Writing on his House of Commons letterhead, Anandasangaree then asked the CBSA to reverse that decision, adding that “as a Member of Parliament” he had met and counselled Selvakumaran’s wife Nilushie Senthuran.
“Providing guidance, advocacy, or support letters in support of Canadians is a standard responsibility of Members of Parliament across all parties. It is part of an MP’s duty to assist, in accordance with federal rules, Canadian citizens seeking to reunite with their families,” the minister’s latest statement said.
Anandasangaree’s last letter to immigration officials on the matter was dated July 18, 2023. He was Parliamentary Secretary of Justice at the time and joined cabinet on July 26, 2023.
The Office of the Ethics Commissioner said parliamentary secretaries were permitted to work as MPs “for their constituents,” but declined to comment further. “At this time, we’re choosing not to make further statements.”
Last year, the CBSA president recommended that, regardless of Anandasangaree’s request, Selvakumaran should not get permanent residence because he was a terrorist group member.
Selvakumaran appealed that decision to the court and used Anandasangaree’s endorsement as evidence against the government. In a court document, Selvakumaran’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, described Anandasangaree as the wife’s MP — a claim that was repeated in the judge’s ruling on the case.
But the lawyer acknowledged last week that was a mistake.
“While it is correct that we, as Mrs. Senthuran’s legal counsel, mistakenly stated that Mrs. Senthuran was a constituent of MP Anandasangaree, that was an error on our part,” Waldman said.
He noted that neither of Anandasangaree’s letters said she was a constituent.
“A referral between MP Anandasangaree and Mrs. Senthuran was made through a constituent,” Waldman said. “After MP Anandasangaree and his staff met with Mrs. Senthuran and reviewed her extensive documentation, he agreed to support her husband’s application.”
He said it was a regular practice for Members of Parliament to write letters of support, and there was “nothing improper or irregular” about Anandasangaree writing such a letter after meeting her.
But in his response to questions from Global News asking why he wrote letters asking the CBSA to give permanent residence to a foreign national who had been deemed a terrorist group member, Anandasangaree called her a “constituent.”
The Markham councillor and the MPP
None of residential addresses in the wife’s applications to sponsor her husband to immigrate are not part of Anandasagaree’s Toronto riding, according to the Elections Canada website.
“Nilushie has been a resident of Markham since the time she came to Canada in September 2002,” Juanita Nathan, then a Markham city councillor, wrote in a July 10, 2023 letter supporting Selvakumaran’s bid to immigrate.
Now the Liberal MP for the Pickering-Brooklin riding east of Toronto, Nathan told Global News her letter was incorrect and the woman had only actually lived in Markham since 2007.
She wrote the letter as part of her previous municipal duties, “which is a common practice among elected officials when assisting residents navigating immigration processes,” she added.
“The letter was based on humanitarian grounds and was not an endorsement of any individual’s past affiliations. My commitment has always been to support families in our community within the bounds of Canadian law and procedures.”
The Ontario provincial Conservative MPP for Markham-Thornhill, Logan Kanapathi, also wrote a support letter dated July 10, 2023. It identified the woman’s address in Markham. The home has been owned by her sister since 2007, according to property records.
Kanapathi did not respond to emails requesting comment.
The letters Anandasangaree wrote when he was a backbencher and parliamentary secretary in Justin Trudeau’s government resurfaced in court two months after Carney named him public safety minister on May 13.
The appointment has put the former lawyer and Canadian Tamil Congress activist in charge of Canada’s counter-terrorism and border security institutions, including the RCMP and CBSA.
In the public safety portfolio, he has been tasked with seeing through legislation to strengthen Canada’s borders and appease U.S. President Donald Trump amid a chaotic White House trade war.
Last month, Anandasangaree recused himself from decisions related to the Tamil Tigers and its Canadian front, the World Tamil Movement, which are both listed terrorist groups.
He also said that when he joined the federal cabinet, he instructed his staff to no longer provide letters of support, and as a minister he would not make decisions “on any matter wherein I advocated for a constituent.”
A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to illegally photographing classified U.S. defence facilities at the Space Force military base in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Xiao Guang Pan, 71, of Brampton, Ont., pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful photographing of military installations without authorization on three separate days in early January.
A U.S. District Court in Florida judge put Pan on probation for 12 months and immediately ordered him deported to Canada by U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) officers under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, citing his violations of American espionage laws.
Pan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A U.S. Department of Justice official was unsure about where Pan is in the ICE deportation process.
Pan’s guilty plea and deportation come as anxiety grows among U.S. lawmakers and ordinary Americans about hundreds of unidentified drones flying over sensitive American military bases amid concerns about foreign surveillance and spying.
A copy of Pan’s plea agreement reveals a stark contrast between what Pan said he was doing in Florida in January, when he was stopped by police, versus what U.S. federal agents actually found on his drone, phone and storage devices after seizing them.
On an artist biography page published by the Brampton Arts Organization, Pan stated he was born in China in 1953, immigrated to Canada in 2001 and has lived in Brampton since 2003.
Pan worked as a Best Buy Canada technician for 18 years until retirement in 2022, the biography adds.
Pan entered U.S. via Detroit
Pan entered the U.S. on a tourist visa at the Ambassador’s Bridge in Detroit, Mich., on or about Nov. 2, 2024. The court documents don’t suggest what Pan was doing or where Pan travelled in November and December.
The retiree was charged by summons on Feb. 11 after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) detected drone activity near the Space Force Base and called in law enforcement on Jan. 7.
Brevard County Sheriffs responded. They saw Pan operating a DJI Mavic Pro 3 unmanned drone quadcopter from a parking lot in Port Canaveral and learned he’d been in the area for three days.
The local officers then tipped federal law enforcement agencies.
Federal agents caught the Brampton resident using his powerful unmanned drone and a separate camera with telephoto lenses to photograph and video classified military facilities and equipment near the Space Force base on Jan. 5, 6 and 7, without the base commander’s prior authorization as required under U.S. law.
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According to a statement of facts found in the plea agreement, which Pan signed and initialled on every page, U.S. federal agents interviewed him twice – no dates were given – and asked the Canadian what he was doing with the drone.
They also warned him: lying to federal agents is a federal crime in the U.S.
“Pan told the agents that he had flown his drone to take pictures of the beauty of nature, the sunrise, and the cruise ship port. He stated that he had not seen any launch pads and that he did not know that he was near a military installation,” the plea deal states.
Pan voluntarily submitted his devices to U.S. agents for a forensic data extraction.
That’s when the investigators found more than sunrises, nature and cruise ship videos.
The data showed Pan had flown his drone nine times and taken 1,919 photographs and videos during his three-day Florida visit, the plea deal states.
Of those 1,919 photos and videos, 243 photographs and 13 videos showed specific images of Space Force base military infrastructure and launch facilities, including fuel and munitions storage facilities, security checkpoints, and a Navy submarine platform, according to the plea agreement.
On Jan. 6, his second day of flying the drone quadcopter, Pan took nine videos and 166 photographs of Space Force installations.
This time, he launched his drone from a location several miles closer to the base; his photographs and videos captured the same military infrastructure as on Jan. 5, but in higher quality and from different angles, according to the plea agreement.
Pan also captured images and videos of mission control infrastructure and fuel and munitions facilities, including a photograph of a Space Launch Complex and payload processing facilities operated by two defence contractors.
On the third day of his drone flying, and before he was encountered by law enforcement, Pan recorded two more videos and took 56 photos.
Day 3 images included security checkpoints
His Day 3 images and videos showed roads, power distribution infrastructure, security checkpoints, mission control infrastructure, national security space launch infrastructure, fuel and munitions storage, and naval infrastructure, the plea agreement states.
After police stopped Pan on Jan. 7, federal agents interviewed him twice.
During those interviews, Pan was warned that lying to agents is a federal crime. He did so anyway, the plea deal suggests.
In addition to telling agents he flew his drone to record nature, sunrises, and cruise ships and didn’t know he was near a military base, Pan said his drone sends alerts and warnings to his handset and he received no alerts or warnings, the plea deal adds.
Investigators recovered flight log data from Pan’s quadcopter. It showed that on all three days he flew, the drone logged several alerts and sent operator messages about altitude and FAA airspace violations.
On Pan’s cell phone, agents also found several screenshots he created, including several Google Maps satellite overviews of Cape Canaveral. One screenshot taken Jan. 7 while Pan was at his drone launch location, prominently displayed the words “Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”
Pan surrendered his $5,000 quadcopter
Pan was charged in February after a multi-agency probe led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Homeland Security, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Pan surrendered his $5,000 quadcopter, control equipment and storage devices that housed his videos and photos to the U.S. authorities.
He is also banned from returning to the U.S. without prior consent from the Secretary of the Homeland Security department.
TORONTO – An old bat was a difference-maker for the Toronto Blue Jays in a wild 9-8 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.
Ty France sparked an eighth-inning rally with a solo homer and Addison Barger emerged from a 2-for-30 slump with a two-run double to help the Blue Jays to their AL-best 40th comeback win of the year.
Barger said France “randomly decided” to use one of his old bats from the cage before his pinch-hit appearance.
“I haven’t seen the bat since last year and he had a homer with it,” Barger said. “And I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I’m going to use that.’ And it worked.”
Barger lined a slider from Michael Tonkin (2-1) off the top of the wall in right field to bring home Alejandro Kirk with the tying run and George Springer from first base with the go-ahead run.
Seranthony Dominguez (3-4) got two outs in the eighth inning for the win and closer Jeff Hoffman worked the ninth for his 29th save as Toronto (78-56) took the rubber game of the three-game series.
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Toronto improved its record at Rogers Centre to 44-22, the best home mark in Major League Baseball at the end of the game.
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Barger became a regular in the lineup early in the season after providing consistent pop at the plate. Despite his struggles in recent weeks, he remains unfazed by late-game pressure.
With runners in scoring position in the seventh inning or later this season, Barger is hitting .389 with a 1.161 OPS (on-base plus slugging).
“Addy’s got talent,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “He can do that. We’ve seen him do that, we’ve seen him hit home runs.
“I think it’s just the natural course of the season for a young guy and I think he’s navigating it pretty well.”
On the mound, Schneider went right back to Hoffman a night after he gave up two homers and blew his seventh save of the season.
“It’s like a quarterback throwing an interception,” Schneider said. “You’ve got to have a short memory and you’ve got to move on to the next thing. And you know, Hoff, like everybody else on this team, they move on to the next thing.”
The game had eight solo homers — four from each team — and Toronto clawed back from three deficits before taking its first lead in the eighth.
Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (41) have had more comeback wins.
“These guys do not quit,” Schneider said. “They do not give a (crap) who they’re playing against. They don’t care what the situation is. I love it.”
Andres Gimenez and Davis Schneider, with a pair, also went deep for Toronto. Byron Buxton, with two, Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee homered for the Twins (60-73).
Toronto starter Eric Lauer allowed six earned runs and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave up five earned runs and five hits over 3 2/3 frames. He walked a pair and fanned two.
Toronto maintained its four-game lead on Boston in the American League East Division standings. The Red Sox edged Baltimore 3-2.
The Blue Jays will continue their six-game homestand Friday night against the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Shane Bieber (1-0, 1.50 earned-run average) is tabbed to start for Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
TORONTO – Addison Barger hit a two-run double in Toronto’s three-run eighth inning as the Blue Jays came back for a 9-8 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.
Barger drove a ball into the right-centre field gap to score Alejandro Kirk with the tying run and George Springer with the go-ahead run.
Seranthony Dominguez (3-4) got two outs in the eighth inning for the win and closer Jeff Hoffman worked the ninth for his 29th save as Toronto took the rubber game of the three-game series.
Each team hit four home runs. All eight blasts were solo shots.
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Davis Schneider, with a pair, Andres Gimenez and Ty France, who hit a pinch-hit homer to start the rally in the eighth, went deep for Toronto (78-56).
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Byron Buxton, with two, Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee went deep for the Twins (60-73).
Toronto starter Eric Lauer allowed six earned runs and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave up five earned runs and five hits over 3 2/3 frames. He walked a pair and fanned two.
Michael Tonkin (2-1) blew the save and took the loss.
Toronto maintained its four-game lead on Boston in the American League East Division standings. The Red Sox edged Baltimore 3-2.
KEY MOMENT
Blue Jays centre-fielder Daulton Varsho put a charge into the sellout crowd of 42,361 with his catch against the wall in the second inning. He made another brilliant catch in virtually the same spot in the third.
KEY STAT
Toronto owns the best home record in the AL at 44-22.
UP NEXT
The Blue Jays will continue their six-game homestand Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Shane Bieber (1-0, 1.50 earned-run average) has been tabbed to start for Toronto.
The Twins will return home for a seven-game homestand starting Friday against the San Diego Padres.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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