Genocide, Refugees And An Inconvenient Truth About Harper’s Boycott
By Krisna Saravanamuttu -November 16, 2013
Krisna Saravanamuttu
“Canada will not tolerate the abuse of the Immigration system by terrorist elements escaping Sri Lanka.” — former Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney
In 2009, I was amongst thousands of Toronto’s Tamil community that protested against the war in Sri Lanka. We braved the bitter cold and formed human chains across downtown to desperately turn people’s attention to the carnage of chemical weapons unleashed on our families and communities.
While most Torontonians celebrated mother’s day, we occupied the Gardiner Expressway when over a thousand civilians were killed in 24 hours.
Despite months of protest and direct lobbying, the Harper government refused to condemn the Sri Lankan atrocities. In the Conservative Caucus it was business as usual in the midst of genocide.
Two years later a UN report vindicated our protests and accused the Sri Lankan Armed Forces of killing 45,000-75,000 civilians from January to May 2009. The report shed light on the Sri Lankan Armed Forces indiscriminate shelling of hospitals, churches, temples, food distribution lines and even government declared “No Fire Zones.” Fast forward to the fall of 2013. The Prime Minister announces that he will boycott this weekend’s Commonwealth meeting to be hosted by Sri Lanka in light of the country’s human rights abuses.
Analysts suggest that Harper’s boycott is really about courting the concentrated votes of Toronto’s 300,000 strong Tamil community in the next federal election.
Of course, Sri Lanka’s treatment of the Tamil people — characterized by occupation, dispossession and continued violence — warrants international isolation. However, by contrast, the Harper government’s treatment of 492 Tamil refugees onboard the MV Sun Sea raises a troubling inconsistency in the Prime Minister’s commitment to human rights.
Harper’s past treatment of Tamil refugees reveals inconsistencies with present speak
