Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .Canada

17  February 2014

Hon. John Baird, PC., MP, Conservative Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada
Hon. Thomas Mulcair., MP.,  Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada and Leader of the Opposition
Hon. Justine Trudeau, MP, Leader of the Liberal Party of  Canada
Hon.Elizabeth May, MP, Leader of the Green Party of  Canada
House of Commons, Ottawa

Dear John, Tom, Justine & Elizabeth:

Re: Canada co-Sponsoring the Third US Resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in Geneva in March.

“Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye always together.”

 You leaders of the non-governing political parties might wonder why I did not address this letter to the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservative Party and my Prime Minister.  I know that all letters to him other than official business ones are passed on to his Correspondence Unit at the Langevin Building and that would be the end of it.   So John, I have taken the liberty to honour you being his Foreign Minister, who also did the unpalatable song and dance routine slamming Sri Lanka at the UN’s Security Council, to receive this letter for the Conservative Party.  So I hope you will make an effort to read this over a cup of tea.   Preferably, my favourite, a good brew of Ceylon Orange Pekoe.  Doing so, you may feel the pulse of the non-Tamil Sri Lankan-Canadians on the stance that the Canadian government has taken on Sri Lanka for the only reason that they wiped out the Tamil Tigers militarily, the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world  on 19 May 2009, after a 27-year long brutal and bloody war.

I say eat your hearts out Al-Qaida!  You were not the top guns of the terrorist world.  The Tamil Tigers were.  You didn’t assassinate two leaders of states, but the Tamil Tigers did that of Rajiv Gandhi of India and President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka.  Al-Qaida, you didn’t pluck an infant sucking on her mother’s feed and bash it’s head on a rock and watch the blood ooze from a split  skull like Tomato Ketchup, but the Tamil Tigers did.  Al-Qaida, you did not line up 700 policemen who surrendered to you with the promise that you will send them home to safety and then tie their hands behind their backs and blindfolded them and shot them through their skulls, but the Tamil Tigers did.   Al-Qaida, you didn’t stop a bus carrying 33 novice Buddhist monks on their way on a pilgrimage and massacred them with gun-shots and machete chops, but the Tamil Tigers did.

 I doubt I need an Oxygen mask as I am not in shock that Canada has established herself as a hostile country against Sri Lanka and Prime Minister Stephen Harper boycotting the Commonwealth Summit last November held in Colombo was a bastardized baby of our Sri Lankan policy.    So Prime Minister Harper did not attend the CHOGM….Whoopee- do! So what?   What I am told is that the sun still keeps rising every morning from the eastern horizon, and Stephen Harper couldn’t change this phenomenon to keep Sri Lanka in the vindictive isolated dark. Not a chance!

And then to want to destabilize Sri Lanka by the Americans, Canada happens to be one of the US Pied Pier’s  “Yes, Sir” lemming brigade that will be co-sponsoring the US-UK Resolution against Sri Lanka’s  Peace that was won after a brutal war with the Tamil Tigers and the  fragile reconciliation process that is well under way.  This bogey-man’s concern that Canada is working in tandem with is the alleged human rights violations during the last four months of the Tamil Tiger’s 27 year conventional war when over 100,000 innocents were killed and over 5,700 Tamil children were kidnapped by the Tamil Tigers and trained to be their front line Baby Brigade and suicide bombers.

John, Tom, Justine and Elizabeth, what is sick about Canada’s decision to hold the bucket for the Obama administration, is that these are the Yankees, who to kill one man in Iraq, Saddam Hussein, invaded that country on a lie and dropped 88,500 tons of bombs by 2,800 fix-winged aircrafts during 109,000 sorties, as well as used 2,095 HARM missiles, 217 Walleye missiles, 5,276 guided anti-tank missiles., killing 1.2 million innocent Iraqis. Shocking isn’t it?     And Canada has lacked the guts and gumption to ask the  mighty US  for accountability, like the way we bully puny Sri Lanka to show accountability for the deaths during the last four months of their Eelam war.  Canada seems to be operating on the premise that ‘Might is right’.  Phew!  And Canada has  metamorphosed into the Yankee Pied-Piper’s lemming brigade, for the want of hanging on to political power in the House of Commons courtesy of  the Tamil community votes to hold onto the 10 ridings in the Greater Toronto Area having taken them from Justine Trudeau’s Liberal party at the last federal election.

But then, there is some sanity prevailing in some corners of the geo-political world.  And it is exciting to watch how this will play on Canada’s stupidity.  And here is an example:

Anatoly Viktorov, the Russian Federation Foreign Affairs Ministry Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights Department’s Director said on St. Valentine’s Day in Colombo: “Russia strongly rejects threats or implying sanctions against other countries considering those to be human rights violators. “We are of the view that although human rights could be a legitimate concern of the international community, they must not be used as a pretext for interference in internal affairs or, worse, use of force.”   Sweet Mother of Jesus, Hallelujah! I say.  Minister Viktorov was not pussyfooting around this issue.  He was clear as the Russian Orthodox Church Blagovestnik bell ringing on a Sunday for morning Mass.  It was quite clear and I heard it.  I hope you John, Tom, Justine and Elizabeth heard it too.

You know what John, Tom, Justine and Elizabeth, we are being told that majority of the lawmakers of the US who are bringing the  3^rd resolution against Sri Lanka  at the UNHRC in March couldn’t  even identify Sri Lanka in a world map.   So there goes the caliber and honesty of these Yankees.  They certainly are no Yankee Doodle Dandies, are they now?.  Can you imagine that?

I am hoping that, if not all at least the majority of you Canadian parliamentarians could do better than that.  For those, who don’t, here is a clue.  This is the island which is the shape of a tear drop under the chin of India separated by 18 miles of salt water.  And it is in the Indian Ocean.   I hope that will help you all.  And here are more clues. This is the Island that produces the best Ceylon Tea, which I am sure you have been taught this fact in Middle School.   And that  this island is no banana republic as 92% of the population are literate, can read, write and understand,  and as  such have  concluded that Canada is an hostile country and no friend of theirs and hell bent to destroy the peace that they achieved after eliminating the most ruthless terrorist group in the world, the Tamil Tigers..  And this is where Abraham Lincoln’s statement props up like Jack-in-the-Box wagging its golden thumb at Canada – “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”  Wow! How true.  This is where Canada has failed with her policy on Sri Lanka which I have concluded as a country of cowardly HUMBUGs.

John, Tom, Justine and Elizabeth, you might question my accusatory term – “cowardly HUMBGS”.  Why you might ask!  Here’s why.

You are co-sponsoring the US Resolution against Sri Lanka because of the alleged human rights violations during the last four months of the Eelam war which lasted 27-long years.   I don’t think we are in any position to paint ourselves as a bunch of lily-white goody-two shoes.

John, Tom, Justine and Elizabeth, let’s be honest.  We couldn’t care two dead capelin washed on the shores of Conception Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador about Human Rights in Sri Lanka.  Right? 

If we were sincere and truly honest, Canada would have acknowledged by now the classic text book example of restoring the most treasured human right in Sri Lanka, when President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government with the help of its brave soldiers, gave its 22 million Sri Lankans back their right-to-life which was hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 27 years. Not a hum, not a whimper, not even a pip-squeak from Canada, to acknowledge this act.  Where is your honesty Canada?  And you are trying to tell me/us that you all are truly concerned about the Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka?  What nonsense.  That’s hog wash warm in its prime!

What was your problem, John.   Don’t tell me that if your Government had acknowledged the eliminating of the most ruthless terrorist group in the world, who perfected the suicide body pack that got India’s Rajiv Gandhi and 100s of the other bystanders; that got Sri Lanka’s President Premadasa and 100s of innocent bystanders; that got Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industries C.V. Gunaratne and 100s of innocent bystanders and so forth, that you all were concerned how to handle 30,000 Tamils descending  on Ottawa under a sky of red Tamil Tiger flags and taking over Wellington Street and Sussex Drive and improvising every inch of public parking garages and park land as their toilets?  And that there was nothing much that the police could have done as these Tamils were covered by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Right?

So Canada is co-sponsoring the 3^rd resolution by the US against Sri Lanka, as you say that Canada is concerned about the human rights violations during the last four months of the 27-year long war.  That’s a bunch of baloney hanging from a stall in the ByWard Market, isn’t it?   Canada couldn’t care a tuppence, couldn’t care two prairie straws whether a Sri Lankan got killed during the last phase of the war, when Canada has not acknowledged yet the Sri Lanka Government’s classic text book example of liberating 295,873 Tamils who were used as a human shield by the Tamil Tigers, and were herded for 30 months from the west coast to the east coast like unwashed and unfed cattle on their way to the slaughter house.   What was Canada’s problem, John, and Tom, and Justine and Elizabeth?  It’s the Tamil votes, wasn’t it?  Couldn’t afford to lose even one in the Greater Toronto Area wasn’t it?  Let’s spill out the truth.  And there lies the rub!

Here is what China had to say, and please take note. That people in Sri Lanka had the wisdom and capacity to manage their internal affairs and opposed some countries’ interference in Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs under the pretext of the human rights issue.  Bravo! China.  You are so right. You have seen it through US’s and Canada’s veils of deceit.

John, it is time that your Conservative Government back off and take a deep breath.   Let ‘s not come up with accusations against Sri Lanka that none of you can substantiate nor could  your supporters of the Tamil Tiger rump in the GTA and the vindictive NGOs.

It is time that all of you acknowledge the magic that the Rajapaksa Government performed by preparing a million meals a day to feed the 295,873 rescued Tamils a hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner each day and not let them starve to death.  That is a prime example of sincerity and loving kindness of the  majority Sinhalese community who gave the government a hand to prepare the million meals a day to feed their Tamil brothers and sisters.  John, your Government has still not acknowledged this amazing performance by the Rajapaksa Government.  Shame on you all John.  What has been your problem?  You Conservatives have failed Sri Lanka miserably.  Stop being irrational…stop being so blinkered…. Stop being so vindictive, and stop pretending that you are concerned about human rights in Sri Lanka….and that Canada is a friend of Sri Lanka.

But the truth on this sordid affair will stand as a bright beacon atop that puny, beautiful island my dear four parliamentarians, where I come from.  The fact is that Sri Lanka has eliminated Tamil Tiger terrorism from her soil and as a result no bomb has exploded at street corners during  rush hours or under seats of public transport vehicles; and mothers are not standing  anymore at their front door steps looking way out into the distance at 2 o’clock in the afternoon waiting for their sons and daughters  to arrive home alive and not dead in caskets having been bombed by the Tamil Tigers.   The truth is that the working adults on their way to work each morning do not have to make the sign of the cross or put their palms together in prayer before getting on to public transport vehicles praying that they come home seven hours later in one piece and not in a wooden casket in a puzzle of a bloodied head, chunks of flesh and limbs blown to smithereens by a Tamil Tiger bomb.  And that a reality check for all of you.  I thought you guys got a heart.

Let’s be honest human beings.   You Canadian parliamentarians are living a lie when it comes to dealing with Sri Lanka.  It is time that you give Sri Lanka’s Peace a Chance.   That is not hard to do, is it now, John, and Tom, and Justine and Elizabeth.

Before I conclude let me share a few more words of sanity that might slow down the US-UK-Canada trapeze act at the UNHRC circus this March,

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says, “The Australian Government places a great value on our longstanding relationship with Sri Lanka.  The Government recognizes that Sri Lanka has come through a period of conflict over 30 years, nothing less than human tragedy of massive proportions.  “And to those who say isolate Sri Lanka, I say engage with Sri Lanka.  And we have urged the Sri Lanka Government to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.”   “Yes, you can criticize, yes you can judge but you must also recognize that much has been achieved in resettlement and reconstruction”, she pointed out.

What a breath of fresh air in a world of  bully politics, chaos and insanity.  All what I can say to you is – “O Canada…let’ follow the steps of Waltzing Matilda.  You certainly won’t go wrong.”

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe  (a former Conservative)