Balan Ratnarajah On His Deal With Jason Kenney

A follow-up to the last post. This is from Balan's interview on Tamil Radio that was mentioned in the previous post. Note that he explicitly refers to "our government in exile" as the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), though this may be an interpolation on the part of whoever wrote up the transcript:

“There is a wrong opinion in the community about the support letter we have released on Bill C-49. We never supported the entire bill except of a portion that deals with human smuggling. We have certain other concerns on the bill and it has been addressed the Minister. “

“Around 8,000 to 10,000 Tamils fled from Sri Lanka and living temporarily in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. We all have to think about their situation and act favorably. Due to our efforts the Canadian Government assured us that they will take necessary actions to protect these people and with the help of UNHCR to resettle them in a safer place. The Canadian Government informed us that they will carry out this operation with the help of Australian and Thailand governments. Even the Canadian Government has advised the Sri Lankan Government to resolve this problem. “

“You all should understand that in order to gain a big benefit from the government we have to give up certain petty things and be little flexible to the government of Canada. Our aim is the bigger benefit and we don’t think about the petty issues.”

“A member of our government in exile [LTTE] visited to Malaysia recently and reported to us that the situation on refugees in Malaysia is worst. Although UNHCR granted refugee status to those 4,000 to 5,000 Tamil people the Malaysian government has not provided anything to them yet. So we addressed this issue to the Canadian Government and we have been assured that it will be taken care of. “

“This supportive letter created a controversial atmosphere in the community that we are working closely with the government of Canada. We are not working closely with them and we are only focusing on those 8,000 people who fled and temporarily reside in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.”

“Due to our efforts the Minister had taken necessary measures and addressed in the Parliament saying that Canada will take-up this matter and work along with Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. Thank. Thorough our cordial relationship we have brought the government of Canada to pay more attention on this issue. “

“We have no intention of blocking future arrivals of those refugees to Canada and in fact we want to extend our helping hands to them. There is a kind of fear that hearing of these refugees, who arrive after March 2010, will be dealt differently by the government. We have discussed this issue with the government and it was a fruitful discussions but I don’t want to reveal the outcome to the public now.”

On Tories And Tamil Tigers

In light of this story in today's Globe, I would just point out a post I did back in November on some of the odd endorsements the Tory's were getting for their human smuggling bill (C-49). One was from Balan Ratnarajah of the Peel Tamil Community Centre (which may be non-existent: see below), who was elected to Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam (PTGTE), which some have called a front group for the Tamil Tigers. Turns out he got face-time with the minister:

Later it turned out that Peel Tamil Community Centre is not in operation and Balan Ratnarajah is not in favor of the proposed bill C-49. In an interview Balan Ratnarajah revealed what Minister Jason Kenney promised to them to obtain that support letter to the bill. Indeed Balan Ratnarajah and few others had a private meeting with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration so it is very interesting for all of us to see what Minister Jason Kenney promised to the LTTEiers. Canadian Tamil Radio gave a good 6 minutes to Mr. Balan Ratnarajah to say what has happened in the meeting and the real story behind the support letter issued by him. Below are from his interview to the Canadian Tamil Radio (LankaWeb : 31 January 2011).

And I wonder if the Globe post was not inspired by this piece from nearly a month ago--Tamil Tigers infiltrate Federal and Provincial Conservative parties--in which both Ratnarajah and Nehru Gunaratnam (mentioned in the Globe piece) are accused of being in cahoots with the Tigers. It ends on an ominous note:

There are also strong rumors of LTTE fronts preparing to seek federal conservative nomination in a Scarborough riding for the next federal elections.

More On Strange Endorsements Of Tory Human Smuggling Bill

Imp's got a nice post up this morning, riffing on a G&M story about the endorsements the Tory government has thus far received for its human smuggling bill, which are, as the story notes, "not all they seem". For one thing, it looks like at least one of the groups supporting Bill C-49 was told that the contentious aspects of the bill would not be there in the final version. So, if I were to guess Tory strategy, I'd say they are either going to a) let the oppo parties strip out the crazier bits of the legislation, pass it and blame "the coalition" for the watered-down result, or b) refuse to compromise, let the bill die, and blame "the coalition" for stalling the reform of our broken refugee system and etc..

Also interesting is the reference to Balan Ratnarajah and the Peel Tamil Community Centre, a group that came out on October 22nd to endorse the bill, whose endorsement was widely retweeted by the likes of Jason Kenney and Alyknan Velshi.

For one thing, after googling around a bit, I can't find any sign of the community center's existence on-line previous to...you guessed it...October 22nd, and then suddenly their endorsement was everywhere. For another, a fellow named Balan Ranarajah ran and was elected to the first Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam for district 3 (Western Ontario). Now:

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (PTGTE) is an organization formed by the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora which aims to achieve independence for Tamil Eelam, the state which Sri Lankan Tamils aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka.[1] The PTGTE and Tamil Eelam have no official status or recognition by any state or authority. The PTGTE has been called a "ploy to perpetuate terrorism" by the government of Sri Lanka.[2]

I don't know how much credence should be given to allegations that the PTGTE was formed by remnants of the LTTE (the Tamil Tigers). Probably not much. But if the Tories are looking for endorsements from Tamil separatists, then that's something to think about as well.

PS. And the PTGTE Ratnarajah is described here as a "business consultant"; the guy behind the Peel Tamil Community Center (the phone numbers match) runs a company called Blr Management Services, who are located in Mississauga and described as accountants. Furthermore, the PTGTE definition of "Western Ontario" = Etobicoke, Rexdale, Brampton, and Mississauga. So I'm pretty sure but not 100% certain that these two are the same guy.