Aug 22 - 28
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
Statement by Archbishop J. Michael Miller
The arrival of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has generated much discussion about Canada’s immigration policy and the appropriate means of dealing with the men, women and children who recently came by ship. [TC]
Allow Sri Lankans to seek the protection of Canada while overseas - B’nai Brith Canada
As public debate regarding the plight of the 492 Tamil refugee claimants intensifies, B’nai Brith Canada has warned against allowing racism to creep into public discourse on the issue and recommended three proactive solutions. [TC]
My trip to Jaffna: "That somewhere life was taking root again…"
Sri Lanka’s Andi Schubert finds hope amid ruins
I was traveling to the North with my uncle, to visit his home – a home he was rebuilding for the second time. [TC]
Tamil politics and Tiger strategy in perspective
by Dayan Jayatilleka
KP’s story continues to provide insights into the history of the LTTE, Tamil politics and the contemporary history of Sri Lanka. One disclosure stands out. [TC]
by Amarnath Amarasingam
In 2007, the Tamil Tigers approached Sabalingam Kumarasamy and asked him to work for them.
When he refused, the Tigers arrested him — he was released six days later only after agreeing to collaborate with them. To escape this enforced recruitment and fearing further trouble, he approached a smuggler who offered to take him to Canada. [TC]
Video: Reaction to the Tamil boat: Curious comparisons
By Seth Klein
If the 492 Tamil asylum-seekers who recently arrived by boat on B.C.'s shores are "queue-jumpers," then I guess my parents were too. See, they came as Vietnam War draft dodgers from the U.S. in 1967. [TC]
by No One Is Illegal.org
Myth 1: They are illegals who are jumping the queue.
There is no ‘queue’ for refugee claimants. Refugees are forced from their homes in emergency situations due to human rights abuses committed during wars, military occupations, or persecution against a minority group. [TC]
Hambantota and the Delhi-Beijing-Colombo triangle
by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
It is not that Sri Lanka’s foreign relations are not in need of repair, especially after five dismal years between Lakshman Kadirgamar and GL Pieris, but it is ironic in the extreme when the criticism comes from the UNP or its sympathisers. [TC]
'Sri Lanka has become my home' - Gill Westaway, Director, British Council
by Steve A. Morrell
Country Director, The British Council, Gill Westaway is an unavoidable adjunct to the British Council. [TC]
Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims remember Fr Jim Brown, who disappeared during the war
by Melani Manel Perera
Colombo (AsiaNews) - Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims together to remember Fr Nihal Jim Brown, an ethnic Tamil Catholic priest, who disappeared on Aug. 20, 2006. [TC]
by K.T. Kumaran
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand - William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet (1865 – 1939)
Tamils fleeing their homeland amidst continuing ethnic pogroms of the Sinhala State remember with certainty, the gracious manner in which Canada’s 18th Prime Minister Hon. Martin Brian Mulroney touched their lives, twenty years ago in August, 1986. [TC]
from the Opinion columns of The Ottawa Citizen
by Mohan Samarasinghe
A ship arrived in B.C. and tempers flared around dinner tables in suburban Ottawa.
Spurred by radio talk show hosts, many Canadians shed their benevolent skins and began bellowing that the 492 Tamil men, women and children who arrived on the smuggler-operated ship MV Sun Sea should be sent packing, back to sea. [TC]
How Prabhakaran met his death: KP speaks out - 3
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj (CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK)
Question: What happened finally to your plan of rescuing Prabhakaran and his family by helicopter? Why did the plan not take off?
Answer:
It’s a very sad story………
After Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony asked me to rescue his family members by air I devised a plan and made preliminary arrangements. I arranged for a ship to be kept waiting at a far –off port beyond the reach of the Sri Lanka navy. I also made arrangements to buy a second-hand helicopter from an Ukrainian contact. [dbsj]
Religion and Ethnicity among Sri Lankan Tamil Youth in Ontario
By: Amarnath Amarasingam
The Sri Lankan Tamil population in Canada has been increasing in size since the first refugees arrived in the early 1980s. [TC]
Saravanabava Enum: by Seyvita Sooriakumar
Karnatic Keerthanams by Seyvita Sooriakumar (13) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada: [TW]