Refugee claimant lived like gangster, police say
Stewart Bell , National Post
Published: Thursday, March 05, 2009
TORONTO -- A Sri Lankan man flown to Canada last week at taxpayers' expense is a high-ranking enforcer in AK Kannan, a violent Toronto street gang named after its favourite weapon, the AK-47 assault rifle, says a police report.
The Toronto police report implicates Panchalingam Nagalingam in the fatal shooting of two teenagers, a meat cleaver attack, the trashing of a community centre, threats, assaults and credit card theft.
The report is dated December, 2008, but last Tuesday, Canadian Immigration officials gave Mr. Nagalingam a plane ticket to Canada.
The reason: they had made a mistake when they deported him in 2005 - making him possibly the first criminal to be "un-deported" from Canada.
At an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in Toronto on Wednesday, Mr. Nagalingam listened with the help of a Tamil-language translator as an Immigration officer called him a danger to the public with no regard for the law. Mr. Nagalingam said his brother was willing to post a $20,000 bond to get him released. The board ordered him to remain in custody while the federal government decides what to do with him.
Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, said the government had to bring Mr. Nagalingam back because of a deal made by the Justice Ministry a month before the Conservatives came to power.
"We're pleased that Nagalingam will continue to be detained, and we will continue to argue that the safety and security of Canadians requires that his detention continue," Mr. Velshi said. "However, we remain outraged that a decision of the previous Liberal government has forced us to bring this individual back to Canada."
Also frustrated to learn of Mr. Nagalingam's return is Canada's Tamil community, which has worked to clean up Toronto's Tamil gang problem.
"We were happy to see these people be deported," said David Poopalapillai, the Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman. "We don't want this menace."
A history of Mr. Nagalingam's dealings with police, written by Detective Constable Cris Fernandez of the Toronto Police Service intelligence unit, chronicles a gang life that began shortly after he arrived in Canada as a refugee in 1994.
"Panchalingam Nagalingam was known to be a high-ranking member of the AK Kannan gang. His position in this gang was as an enforcer," Det. Const. Fernandes wrote in the report, which was read into the record at the refugee board. "This individual in my opinion is a recipe for yet another disaster on the streets of Toronto. He is a danger to the citizens of Canada."
His first encounter with Toronto police was on March 27, 1997, when he and two other men went to the home of an ethnic Singhalese Sri Lankan family, banged on the door and threatened the occupants. Mr. Nagalingam was seen holding a handgun while one of the others wore a balaclava and carried a machete. They left after the occupant said he had called 911, but police caught them nearby.
Eight months later, Mr. Nagalingam was arrested after he stole a credit card from a woman's purse and tried to use it to buy drinks at a nightclub. The following year he was arrested again after he allegedly struck two rival gang members in the head with a meat cleaver.
On April 30, 1999, he was arrested for assaulting a security guard at an Asian cinema. The next January he and two others went to a function at a Tamil community centre and started a brawl with the organizers. When asked to leave the function, he overturned tables, broke windows and smashed a chair over the head of a man who tried to leave with his family. The man's wife was also hit and needed 10 stitches.
Police spotted Mr. Nagalingam next at a planned "gang war" at a Tamil community function at Birchmount Stadium in August, 2000. In September, he was arrested for breaching two of his bail conditions. After four people were shot in Scarborough in October, 2000, two fatally, witnesses identified Mr. Nagalingam as one of the shooters. The intended target was allegedly Jeyaseelan Thuraisingam, the leader of the Seelapu gang, which was affiliated with AK Kannan's rival, the VVT.
In what police called an act of retaliation, the VVT shot up Mr. Nagalingam's car that December, but he was not hurt. The VVT later made a second attempt and shot Mr. Nagalingam five times, although he survived. In the fall of 2001, Mr. Nagalingam was arrested as part of Project 1050, which targeted the city's warring Tamil gangs. As a refugee, he could not be deported until the government obtained a "danger opinion" explaining why he posed a danger to Canadians.
The danger opinion was upheld by the Federal Court and he was deported, but that decision was overturned last April. The appeal court did not say that Mr. Nagalingam was not dangerous, only that Immigration officials had not followed proper procedure when they concluded he was so. The court told Immigration officials to re-do his danger opinion.
A hearing is scheduled for April 1 to determine whether he should be released from custody.
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