Tamil Canadian MP Gary Anandasangaree has been appointed today as the Minister of Public Safety in Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet.
Anandasangaree will oversee key agencies tasked with Canada’s national security, including the Canada Border Services Agency, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
He previously served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General — the first Tamil-Canadian to do so — under Carney’s first cabinet in March. He held this role alongside that of Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, to which he was appointed under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s final cabinet in December 2024.
Anandasangaree was re-elected into his local riding with an overwhelming majority in the federal election in April, continuing his position as a Member of Parliament in Scarborough-Guildwood-Rouge Park (previously Scarborough-Rouge Park) since 2015.
A lawyer and a long-time advocate for Tamil rights, Anandasangaree has played an instrumental role in pushing for justice for war crimes and accountability for the genocide in Sri Lanka. He drove the implementation of sanctions by the Canadian government against Sri Lankan officials implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity. He also championed parliamentary efforts to formally recognise May 18th as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, with Canada becoming the first country in the world to do so — a move that was widely welcomed by Tamil survivors and human rights advocates.
Anandasangaree is a member of Carney’s new cabinet of 28 ministers, who will be supported by 10 secretaries of state. Anita Anand, an MP of Indian Tamil descent, was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as the Prime Minister in March, led the Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive mandate, but fell two seats short of the threshold of 172 seats needed to secure a majority government.
