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.”
The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear an appeal of a lower-court ruling that upheld a First Nation’s ownership of a stretch of land at a popular Ontario beach after a lengthy dispute.
Canada’s top court has dismissed the appeal request from landowners and the province after a stretch of land along Sauble Beach was returned to Saugeen First Nation in 2023.
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This dismissal comes nearly two months after members of Saugeen First Nation changed the iconic “Welcome to Sauble Beach” sign that greeted beach visitors.
The temporary “Welcome to Saugeen Beach” sign was erected to reflect the First Nation’s ownership of the land, with the town’s mayor expressing disappointment that he wasn’t alerted of the change.
The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld last December the decision that 2.2 kilometres of the coastline in South Bruce Peninsula was incorrectly surveyed 170 years ago.
The portion of the land is valuable fishing ground for the First Nation community and was surrendered in 1854 in an agreement with the Crown to give up portions of Bruce Peninsula.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
The majority of post-secondary students in Ontario are stressed about their finances heading into the school year, a new survey found.
The survey from TD Bank, which collected data from post-secondary students across the country, found that 92 per cent of all respondents in Ontario are stressed about their finances.
“The survey was clear that our students are experiencing a lot of stress, which is a bit unique from previous generations because of the multitude of factors that are just hypersensitive at this point, with higher unemployment, higher cost of living, higher tuition,” says Joe Moghaizel, vice-president of everyday advice journey at TD.
The survey found that while 78 per cent of Ontario parents believe their child has experienced financial stress in the past three months, that figure was well below the actual number of 92 per cent.
“What’s interesting is the amount of pressure and stress that they’re currently facing and feeling, and the disconnect between what their parents believe they’re experiencing,” Moghaizel says. “Parents were not aware of the amount of stress that the students are feeling.”
Moghaizel pointed to a number of things leading to this financial pressure, including the high cost of living and high rate of unemployment among young people in a difficult job market, leading to many students to have what he called a volatile income.
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The survey also found that Ontario had the highest percentage of students stressed about tuition costs at 35 per cent, compared with an average of 26 per cent in other provinces.
The government of Canada estimates it will take almost 10 years for the average student to pay off their student loans and the total student loan debt in Canada surpassed $23.5 billion in 2022.
“You go back to over two decades ago, when I was in school, the financial pressures that students deal with now are significantly higher because tuition is a lot more expensive and the cost of living is more expensive, and inflation has really taken a bite at students,” Moghaizel says.
Another key takeaway from the survey was that 36 per cent of all respondents found that social spending stressed them out the most.
Moghaizel says the social pressure speaks to the online environment that students find themselves in today, where everything they do is shared online.
“They all feel the pressure to spend and keep up, which, again, it’s not too dissimilar from other age groups and we’re keeping up with the Joneses and just keeping up with the spending habit of your circle creates a bit of pressure,” he says.
Moghaizel says this can leave post-secondary students feeling ill-equipped to manage their finances better.
Despite the concern, Moghaizel hopes this information is not discouraging to students and is an opportunity to start establishing good financial habits early in life.
He said that with societal pressures, it’s good for students to understand their needs versus their wants, and focus on prioritizing the necessities. Moghaizel says that through tracking their spending, students can see where all of their money is going.
“We want to make sure that we’re equipping students with the right understanding of financial knowledge for the products and services,” Moghaizel says.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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.
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