Widow, 74, Faces Deportation over Tamil Link

Sugunanayake Joseph was greeted with open arms when she fled Sri Lanka for Canada six years ago. Now, she's being told to leave.

The 74-year-old widow of an assassinated Sri Lankan politician has been deemed a terrorist and is to be deported from Canada. The Immigration and Refugee Board determined that Sugunanayake Joseph was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam because her husband, a Sri Lankan MP, was a member of a political coalition that attempted to broker peace between the Sri Lankan government and the paramilitary group. Neither Joseph nor her husband were official members of the Tamil Tigers, which Canada considers to be a terrorist organization. After her husband was killed at a Christmas Eve mass in 2005, Joseph fled to Canada, where her two children are citizens. Joseph says she fears for her life if she has to return to Sri Lanka.