Somebody Got Suckered

Short version of this story: Iggy refused to to deal with Tamil protesters because of their possible connections to the LTTE. The NDP had no such compunctions, and harvested the Tamil vote.

And the CPoC? They unleashed the hounds on any politician appearing next to anyone with even vague connections to The Tigers, which seems to have freaked out Iggy and co. and guided their response to the issue.

And then the CPoC turned around and quite shamelessly ran people with LTTE connections.

I'm shitty at poker, but one day before I die I would like to play poker with Iggy.

News From Sri Lanka: Tamil Tigers Support Harper And Hudak!

The Sri Lanka Daily News weighs in on the CPoC problems with Tamil Tiger supporters:

Since the war ended in 2009, remnants of the Tigers' large Canadian support base, based mainly in Toronto, have aligned themselves with the federal Tories and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

I suppose, as a LPoC partisan, I should worry that we've lost their support.

PS. I am informed the story quoted is a 100% rehash of this from the G&M.  Clearly, that means the SLDN trusts 'em to tell the truth!

Provincial Tory Candidate Goes To Ground

A provincial Tory candidate for Markham-Unionville appears to have gone underground after allegations he is linked to the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT), which a Toronto newspaper this week called a new Tamil separatist group with remnants of the banned Tamil Tigers.

[...]

Mr. Thayaparan said he was happy to give an interview on the situation and offered to do so in person the next day after first checking with his lawyer.

However, Mr. Thayaparan has not made himself available since...

My take on this is that Mr. Thayaparen is probably a more or less innocent victim of the kind of anti-Tamil paranoia that the federal Torys have kicked up over the past couple of years for base political purposes. Sri Lanka is a small island country with 20,000,000 aboard, and it simply isn't fair to tag everyone who knew someone who knew a Tamil Tiger with the "terrorist" epithet.

Nevertheless, there is that picture, which makes Mr. Thayaparen's involvement look a little bit deeper. He needs to provide an explanation for it. Hiding will serve him poorly at this juncture.

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.

Iggy On The Tamil Protest

The Liberal party did the right thing yesterday. The government, on the other hand, did nothing.

What They Want

...according to the Canadian Doctors of Tamil Descent:

1) Begin diplomatic pressure on Sri Lankan government and the United Nations to call an immediate and permanent ceasefire to halt this ongoing medical humanitarian tragedy;

2) Demand the immediate supply of food, water and medicine to people in 'no-fire zone' and internment camps by NGOs;

3) Begin dialogues with both sides to ensure the safety of the 130,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone;

4) Cease all direct monetary aid to the Sri Lankan government and divert through NGOs to ensure delivery of necessary humanitarian assistance
to the affected; and

5) Use legal expertise to initiate the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and other means to secure Tamils from the FAILED-STATE, Sri Lanka."

And I am glad, frankly, that Mr. Ignatieff's office seems to have gotten beyond the fact that some of the protesters may be waving inappropriate flags. I find myself unmoved knowing that the guys who did this ...sported emblems approved of by the international community.

Tory Attended Tamil Tiger Tête-à-Tête!

More Terrorist Trouble For Tories?

MONTREAL - Inside the school auditorium, the Tamil Tiger flag had been raised in a solemn ceremony and the audience of 600 people had heard a taped address from the terrorist group's leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Then an undercover RCMP officer watched as 'a Caucasian male' approached the podium.

'The male praised [Foreign Affairs Minister] Maxime Bernier and spoke about the position of the government, which is to favour the nonviolence, diplomatic solutions to the conflict, etc.,' says an RCMP affidavit made public on Friday by the Federal Court.

When the speaker drove his Mercedes away from the Martyrs Day celebrations organized by Montreal's World Tamil Movement last Dec. 1, a surveillance officer noted the licence plate. It belonged to Maurice Brossard, the Conservative candidate in the riding of Brossard-La Prairie on Montreal's South Shore.

Why do they hate America Canada?

(PS. Really, just the kind of thing that sometimes happens when you reach out to certain ethnic communities. But since the Navdeep Bains smear I haven't been able to work up much pity when the CPoC gets caught up in this kind of thing.)