NCCT Demands Conservatives Remove Xenophobic Ad

TORONTO, March 28 /CNW/ - The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) is calling on the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, to remove an election advertisement which insinuates that Tamil refugees who are forced to arrive through unconventional means are "criminals", and apologize to Tamil Canadians.

The Conservative Party ad features a photo of the MV Sun Sea which arrived off the shores of British Colombia in August last year with 491 Tamil refugees fleeing war and persecution from Sri Lanka-a country marred by allegations of human rights violations, the denial of fundamental civil liberties, and extrajudicial killings. It calls the Tamils aboard "criminals" who trying to abuse Canadian generosity.

"This election ad is xenophobic and borders on racism," said Krisna Saravanamuttu, NCCT spokesman. "It is reminiscent of the political rhetoric used to turn back Sikhs and Hindus on board the Kamagata Maru in 1914, and Jewish refugees on board the MS St. Louis fleeing persecution in 1939. In these cases, refugees fleeing persecution were labeled "criminals" and vilified by politicians appealing to the worst instincts of Canadians to score political points and votes."

"We are confident that Prime Minister Harper would not have approved this ad, if he had seen it," said Saravanamuttu. "We urge the Prime Minister to review the ad and do the right thing by removing it from his party's campaign website as well as the party's You Tube account and apologize for labeling refugees and immigrants as criminals."

The NCCT also calls on the leaders of Canada's major political parties, Conservative candidates, and human rights groups like the Canadian Jewish Congress, Bnai Brith, and Amnesty International to review the CPC ad and join with us in calling for its retraction. "This election should be about uniting Canadians, no matter our ethnicity and how we arrived in Canada," noted Saravanamuttu.

You can see the ad via a link through the links above. Sorry. Blogger is screwing up Youtube embeds as well these days.

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.