OTTAWA - Canadian Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper was put on the defensive Thursday after media reported that one of his party’s candidates for parliament had hosted a televised tribute to the Tamil Tigers, an organization banned in Canada as a terrorist group.

Harper told reporters his Conservative Party holds “a strong position against the Tamil Tigers.” His government banned the Tamil Tigers in 2006, despite days of protests by Tamil immigrants in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, and Toronto, the country’s largest city.

Their aid agency, the World Tamil Movement, was suppressed in 2008.

Still, federal police and security agencies claim the Tamil Tigers raise money in Canada and smuggling rings bring wanted Tamil terrorists to Canada.

The controversy arose Thursday morning after the daily Globe and Mail reported that Conservative candidate Gavan Paranchothy, a broadcaster, had hosted a pro-Tamil Tiger television show last November.

Paranchothy, who traveled with Harper to South Asia in 2009, is running for the House of Commons in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, which has a large Tamil population.

“Our position on the Tamil Tigers has been strong and unequivocal,” Harper told reporters at a press conference near Quebec City in French-speaking Quebec province. “This is the party that listed the Tamil Tigers (as a terrorist group); previous governments have refused to do so, and our position on that is not going to change.”

Paranchothy had hosted a television special to celebrate Tamil Tigers’ Heroes Day, an annual commemoration of Tamils who were killed in the Sri Lankan civil war.

According to the Globe and Mail, Parachothy referred to the militants as “strong and faithful people who stood guard for the Tamils, fought for freedom and peace.”

The show was broadcast on Tamil Vision International satellite TV and on a multi-cultural radio station in Canada. No charges were laid in connection with the broadcast then.

Parachothy won the Conservative nomination for Scarborough in March.

Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for Harper, said Paranchothy “was asked, and confirmed with the Conservative Party, that he in no way, shape or form was a sympathizer or supporter of the Tamil Tigers” before he was nominated. “If that had been the case ... he would not have been a candidate,” Soudas said. (Xinhua)