Canadian Jewish and Arab groups are at odds over Canada's decision not to add Hezbollah's charity wing to a list of banned terrorist organizations. Solicitor General Wayne Easter says he needs more information before he would ban the group outright.

Last week, Ottawa added six groups to a list of banned terrorist organizations, but left off Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based organization. The United Nations has Hezbollah on its register of 200 groups linked to terror.

Canada currently bans 13 groups, including the military wing of Hezbollah, but not the entire organization.

"We maintain that the federal cabinet was negligent in its duty to protect Canadians," Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of the Jewish organization B'nai Brith Canada, told Canada AM Monday.

B'nai Brith is suing the Canadian government for failing to crack down on the fundraising efforts of Hezbollah. Israel accuses Hezbollah of masterminding attacks on Israeli targets, including car-bombings.

B'nai Brith launched the lawsuit Friday in an effort to force Ottawa to freeze Hezbollah's fundraising activities in Canada.

"You can't say one wing is okay and the other is not," Diamant said. "It's absolute nonsense to separate them," he added.

Mazen Chouaib, Executive Director of the National Council on Canada-Arab relations, rejected the notion that the charity and militant arms of Hezbollah are one and the same.

But when asked by Canada AM's Lisa LaFlamme how someone donating money could be sure it was being used for charitable causes and not for terrorist activities, Chouaib said: "I cannot guarantee that."

Chouaib said money raised in Canada would largely be targeted for humanitarian causes. "They are funding some orphan here, orphan there," he said.

"We see this as another effort by a pro-Israel group to change Canadian foreign policy," Chouaib said, adding that banning Hezbollah outright would perpetuate stereotypes that Canadian Arabs are involved in terrorism.

Dimant said he was "shocked" by Canadian Arabs' opposition to banning the group.
"I would have hoped the Canadian Arab community would have stood shoulder to shoulder with us in fighting terrorism," Dimant said. "This has nothing to do with Israel."

Despite filing the lawsuit, Dimant says B'nai Brith doesn't want to have to go to court over the matter.

"We hope that public opinion and pressure will come to bear before there is actually a hearing," he said.

Easter says he won't add Hezbollah to the list of banned groups without first conducting a full criminal and security intelligence report.

"If I came forward with listings just basing it on headlines and not doing the proper research, you people would be asking me 'What about civil liberties, what about due process?' and you'd be right to do that," Easter said Sunday in an interview on CTV's Question Period.

"We want to be very, very careful that we've done our homework, that our facts are accurate and we're not impinging upon somebody's civil liberties."

According to reports issued by the RCMP and CSIS, Hezbollah has a significant presence across Canada and has been using it as an off-shore base for more than a decade.

A Canadian citizen, Fauzi Ayoub, was recently arrested in Israel and faces charges that he was sent to the country by Hezbollah to organize terror attacks.

But Easter said Ottawa had been reluctant to add Hezbollah to its Criminal Code list because of its charitable arms. Officials feared many people with no terrorist links could face jail time for simply supporting charitable causes. The penalty for belonging to or aiding a banned group is up to 10 years in prison.

"The decision to list an entity is a very serious one and listing carries severe consequences, not only for terrorists, but also for their supporters," Easter said last week.

Easter said Canadian security agencies will continue to monitor Hezbollah's activities and that the group could be added to the list in the future.