Bob Rae says he was asked to sign a document while in Sri Lanka

OTTAWA -- The federal government has formally registered its "dismay and displeasure" with the Sri Lankan government over the deportation of Liberal foreign affairs critic, Bob Rae.

During the dispute, Mr. Rae called a Sri Lankan government spokesman a liar for branding him a supporter of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.

The diplomatic incident comes shortly after Sri Lankan protesters caused disruptions in Ottawa and Toronto that have attempted to draw attention to the violence in their homeland, but have only angered many Canadians.

"It is absurd to suggest that Mr. Rae represents a threat to Sri Lankan national security, or is a supporter of LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam]," said Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Emma Welford.

"We finally got a message saying that if I admitted that I had made statements that were ill-informed or something like that – and they gave me a thing I could sign – that they might reconsider the decision," Rae, who has travelled 10 times to the country in the past decade, said by telephone from London.

No one would tell him what specific statements had offended the government, so he refused to sign the document, securing his seat on the afternoon flight to London.

"I said that that's completely Orwellian."

Sri Lanka's deputy high commissioner in Ottawa, C.A.H.M. Wijeratne, confirmed that Rae's visa received a "green light" from officials in Colombo. But the country's Daily Mirror newspaper quoted a defence ministry official saying that the army has intelligence reports indicating Rae supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, the Sri Lankan high commissioner to Canada, Daya Perera, said it "might have been advisable" to allow Rae into the country to see for himself the aftermath of Sri Lanka's bloody civil war.

"The country has nothing to hide," Perera said.

Rae said Perera phoned him to apologize for his expulsion.

This marks the second time in recent weeks Canada has officially complained to Sri Lanka. In late May, the federal government reacted angrily after hundreds of protesting Sri Lankans vandalized the Canadian High Commission in Colombo, pelting it with stones, and spray-painting it with graffiti.