Harper wants to boycott the Commonwealth Summit of 2013 in Coolombo
Posted on September 18th, 2011
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada
17 September 2011
The EditorƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
EMBASSY, Ottawa
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sir:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper lost my admiration when heƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ announced his agenda of the GTA Tamil vote-buying vulgarity, when he wanted to play Pied Piper among the Commonwealth of Nations, wanting to drag the rest of the nations to boycott the 2013 Commonwealth summit to be held in Colombo.
His reasoning is to seek accountability on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka during the final five months of the Tamil Tigers-336 month war which haemorrhaged Sri Lanka and killed over 100,000 civilians.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ One-third of the Tamil Tiger war budget went from Canada when the Liberals let the Tamil Diaspora collect two million dollars a month to stuff the Tamil Tiger war chest to buy military weapons to fight for the want of their mono-ethnic, racist, Tamil state, Eelam in the north and east of the island, carving one-third of the island bordered by 66 per cent of the coastline for 12.6 per cent of the population in 1981, now standing at 3.9 percent.
CanadaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s double standard when it comes to foreign human rights violations is staring at our faces with shame as human rights violations certainly didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t matter too much when it happened in China as it were the mighty trade dollars that mattered, andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ when it came to Sri Lanka it were the 100,000 Tamil votes that mattered toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ win nine GTA ridings where the Tamils live, so he goes afterƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the poor developing nation, Sri Lanka,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ to satisfy the Tamil Diaspora.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ How cheap can we be with our politics?
If we are telling the Sri Lankans that we are ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Holier than ThouƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and we are impartial when it comes to Human Rights, letƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s show them and the world how impartial we are by dragging CanadaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Liberal politicians like Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Maria Minna and their Tamil Tiger supporting ilk during their governing 13-years, who looked away when the Tamil thugs forced Toronto’s Tamil businesses and households to pay monies to fund the Tamil Tiger war, to the War Crime CourtƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in the Hague for trial.
Asoka Weerasinghe
September 21st, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Commonwealth was a prominent opponent of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and suspended Nigeria from its membership for 3 years after the 1995 hanging of the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Zimbabwe was suspended from Commonwealth in 2002. The Commonwealth allows for member countries to be suspended for Human Rights abuses, but ignores the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on some of the poorest countries in the world. The definition of serious violations should embrace much more than it does now.
Canada’s lack of action on climate change is contributing to droughts, floods and sea level rises in small island states and vulnerable commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh, Maldives and Mozambique. Canada’s emissions have risen by more than 25% between 1990 and 2007. Canada is at the bottom of the G8 league table for action to tackle climate change. Canadians consumes far more than their fair share of petroleum and owe a debt to developing countries of the Commonwealth for the impact of their emissions on the climate. Canada is getting away with climate crimes that are destroying homes and livelihoods of the people live in developing countries of the Commonwealth. Present Canadian government continues to support for the extraction of oil from Alberts tar sands, a process which is 3 times as damaging to the climate than extracting conventional oil.
Individual countries are rightly suspended from the Commonwealth for human rights abuses, but the Canadian government is contributing to the greatest human rights scandal of all time. Extracting millions of barrels of dirty oil from Alberta tar sands and abandoning the Kyoto treaty is not the behaviour of a responsible commonwealth country and Canada should be suspended from Commonwealth immediately. Canada’s complete failure to cut its emissions is making the global situation worse. If the Commonwealth countries are serious about holding their members to account, then they should suspend Canada immediately since it is threatening the lives of millions of people in developing Commonwealth countries. Unless Canada is willing to stop blocking international climate negotiations through its continued support for the Alberta tar sands, Canada should withdraw its membership with Commonwealth. The Commonwealth should hold Canadian government to a higher standard. Just because Canda is not using arms, doesn’t mean Canada is not causing harm on a grand scale. Canada should be suspended from the commonwealth for its record on climate change.
– Nalliah Thayabharan