INSIGHT BY SUNIL KUMAR

The aggravating news from Canada is  that the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canada has raised objections to the erection of a monument to commemorate what the Tamil community living there calls “genocide” of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka during the Tamil Tiger insurrection

This follows in the heels of the Media Report about the Canadian Prime Minister’s speech on the 14th of May calling the nearly 4 decade long insurgent uprising by Tamil Tiger Terrorists a Genocide which has raised anger and objections over the Canadian PM’s words from a a vast majority of Sri Lankans both globally and within Sri Lanka as the term Genocide has been wrongly applied to  defensive actions taken by the Government of Sri Lanka against an internal armed insurrection by Tamil Terrorists backed by some of the Tamil Community in a quest for separation and a break up of Sovereign Sri Lanka violating her territorial integrity where there were lives lost in a very intense war of wasted effects by the insurgents and huge losses of life and property where Terrorists inflicted nation destructive damage and the losses were reflected on both sides of the conflict which cannot be termed a Genocide. beyond being an internal armed insurrection which was put down legitimately by a Sovereign Nation in defense of people, territory and property.

The construction of this memorial in the municipal area called ‘Brampton’ in the greater Toronto area has taken place recently although incomplete  but the principle of it seems to rest on the assent of a misguided Mayor of Brampton as well as the Prime Minister who should never have consented to this memorial in the name of Genocide which seems to suggest that it was an act based on the appeasing of the Tamil community in Canada whose voter allegiances are for the ruling Liberal Party where a vast database of Tamil constituents exists, consequently securing their votes for the next election perhaps as the case appears to be.

Despite Sri Lanka’s objection,it appears that Brampton mayor Patrick Brown has granted permission to build this monument to commemorate the lives lost in the Sri Lankan Civil War. It is an area with a large concentration of Sri Lankan Tamils but somewhat myopic and misguided on the part of all concerned authorizing it on the basis of Genocide.

A top official of the Sri Lankan mission in Ottawa has acknowledged that a request for a similar monument had been made to another municipal council, but the mayor had turned it down probably being in possession of his sensibilities and cognizance relative to legality and definition.

The LTTE remains a banned organization in Canada. Therefore, extremist activists don’t use the word ‘LTTE’ in any of their activities  where they indulge in their covert activities underground and are not tolerated in any capacity as a recognized  organization.