Ottawa is pondering a plan that would allow victims to sue terrorist organizations and the countries that sponsor them. Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said he asked his officials to review potential recourse mechanisms yesterday after family members of the Air India explosion, the World Trade Centre attacks and a Jerusalem bus bombing joined forces on Parliament Hill.

Pleading for MPs to support the "Victims of Terror Compensation Bill," Sept. 11 widow Maureen Basnicki said having the right to take on terrorists will prevent future attacks. "These heinous acts can only be committed with money. We all know money is power, so I see this as a way of disabling terrorists more so than providing money," she said. Her husband, Ken, was killed in the Trade Centre.

Conservative MP Stockwell Day, who tabled the private member's bill, said the goal is to empower victims while tackling terrorists.

"If another government that is known to be a state sponsor of terror, through terrorist groups that are banned within our own country, that group or that country's assets could be seized," he said.

An "assertive" position with Libya after the Lockerbie disaster led to compensation for victims and might have led to Libya's decision to stop supporting terror, Day said.

NDP MP Ed Broadbent said the bill would chart a new course for the government helping stamp out terrorism.