Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

4 May 2014

Hon. John Baird, MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada
Hon. Lynne Yelich, MP, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
House of Commons, Ottawa

Dear John and Lynne:

I have just read in ColomboPage the news item “Canada does not recognize Sri Lanka’s ban on Tamil Diaspora groups.”   To be honest I did not expect you all to recognize this ban for the very reason that you Conservatives are not in a position to do an act of Hara Kiri, when the federal elections are just 12 months away and the Tamil vote in the Greater Toronto Area is in a three way split between you Conservatives, Liberals and the NDP, and that your Conservatives may very well lose some of the 10 ridings that you claimed from the Liberals in the Greater Toronto Area the last time around. And that is a reality check for you John and Lynne.

I don’t think that the Sri Lankan Government was that foolish either that they expected Canada to support their ban.   But then they are not being foolish when they warn you lot of your naivet©-foolishness as they know through their intelligence reports about the Canadian Tamil Tiger rump, and tell you all, “Canada, you better smarten up, as we know these Tamil separatist characters, more than what you all think you do.” That too is a ‘red flagged’ realty check for you Conservatives. And I am not kidding as I have been very seldom wrong on this ‘Tamil Tiger Canadian rump’ file. The fact is that you Conservatives are been duped by the Tamil Diaspora and being played for patsies.

My hunch is that you Conservatives were very much concerned that if you had agreed to support the Sri Lankan ban, that on the next day there would be a black cloud of 30,000 Tamils descending on Sussex Drive under a sky of blood-red Tamil Tiger flags, blocking it for not hours but days, weeks and months, and there wouldn’t be much that you all could do. Fortunately for them the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are on their side. We saw how the government and police handled with weak knee-jerks when 30,000 descended in early 2009 blocking down town Ottawa traffic for days and months and harassing the Tax paying law abiding public.

More to the point John and Lynne, they would as they did in 2009 use every bare underground parking space and parks as their toilets.   In 2009 it cost the City of Ottawa $800,000 to clean it up plus policing time. Ottawa’s City Councillor Eli El-Chantry announced this cost which the federal government was expected to pay.

If by supporting the Sri Lanka’s ban, and 30,000 Tamils descended on Sussex Drive as they did in 2009, the first casualty would be the Governor General’s Rideau Hall’s pristine park lands which would be an ideal open air Tamil community toilet, as when nature calls and they have to go, they just have to go. So you did not want to support the Sri Lankan ban. Right, John and Lynne?   Who would fork-out a million dollars, to clean up the Governor General’s park land’s temporary Tamil demonstrator-toilets!

By the way John and Lynne, I have just come back from Sri Lanka after a 22 day visit. Before I got on the Air Canada plane at the Ottawa International Airport for London, I threw away my Canadian Conservative dark hypocrisy-blinkers in to the garbage bin opposite Gate 14.   Do you know what John and Lynne, I saw, witnessed and heard much more than what you Conservatives like Jason Kenney, Senator Hugh Segal and Deepak Obhrai did when they visited Sri Lanka.   At that point, my conclusion about the Conservatives was – what a bunch of Humbugs! Let’s be honest John and Lynne, you Conservatives couldn’t care two hoots of a Nepean Barn Owl for the Sri Lankan masses nor for their human rights. All what you are interested is in the Tamil votes to get elected to the next parliament.

John and Lynne, here’s why your Conservative Government has failed the litmus test of honesty about Human Rights and have abdicated the pretend-thrown of Human Rights Advocacy, and claim no moral right to be the whipping master pointing the finger at the Government of Sri Lanka as violators of Human Rights. Here are a few reasons why Canada’s slip has begun to show under your Conservative Government and you guys are sliding on a slippery slope in UN’s and international opinion. And the slip is blood-dirty.

1. The Tamil Tigers were militarily eliminated on 19 May 2009. Since then almost 7,080 days have gone by and the Canadian Government who think that they are part of the World’s Human Rights Police Force still have not acknowledged that the Sri Lankan Government gave back to its 22 million people the most treasured human right, the right-to-life, which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tiger terrorists, the most ruthless in the world for 27 bloodying years. This is the classic text book example of restoring the human right of the right-to-life, and you all have ignored it. You all have been disingenuous.

Why, may I ask? What has been your problem, John Baird, the Foreign Minister of Canada? Stop fooling the Sri Lankans and the world, John.   These Sri Lankans are intelligent, smart, honest and proud people who are capable of recognizing a bunch of Canadian cured baloney hanging from meat-stalls right across Canada. Or even two dead capelin washed on to the shores of Conception Bay in Newfoundland. It is that simple.

 Canada’s hidden agenda is clear as the sound of a Canadian Sunday church bell. It wants to help the Tamils to establish their separate state in Sri Lanka carving out the top one-third of the island bordered by 66 per cent of the coastline.   Thus, acknowledging Sri Lankan Government restoring the right-to-life to its 22 million people will only stifle Canada’s mind-set and agenda to support the Tamil’s Eelam cause. John and Lynne, all what I can say to you Conservatives is: “Dream on”.

2. Here is another reason why Canada’s agenda to break up Sri Lanka is as apparent and clear as a Klondike polished diamond.   For you all not to acknowledge another classic text book example of restoring human rights by the Sri Lankan soldiers was the liberation of 295,873 Tamils by May 19, 2009, who were used as a human shield by the Tamil Tigers herding them along like unwashed cattle for 30 months from the west coast to the east coast. So Canada thinks that we are advocates and promoters of human rights in Sri Lanka as we sent our “We are Holier than Thou” emissary Minister Jason Kenney on 7 January last year to preach to the already converted, about human rights. This visit was not only embarrassing but it was also stupid, as on the very day, at the very hour when Minister Kenney was preaching to the Sri Lankan officials, Canada was getting slapped by its First Nation peoples for violating their human rights, and their Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence was on a hunger strike a stone’s throw away from Minister Kenney’s parliamentary office. Wow! That was something wasn’t it!   Foolish, and pathetic, one would say. No, its Canadian pit-bull-bully arrogance, I would say.
   

3. Your Conservative Government made it a point not to give the Sri Lankan Government its due golden Human Rights accolades for performing a miracle by preparing a million meals a day to feed the liberated 295,873 Tamils from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers a hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner. That itself showed the Canadian immorality and skewed mind-set, and I would gladly announce to the world with all honesty that. “Yes, we Canadians, when it comes to Sri Lanka are a bunch of Bah Humbugs.”

John, you made me laugh when you said that Canada suspended voluntary funds to the Commonwealth over Sri Lanka’s alleged human rights issue during Sri Lanka’s tenure as current chair of the Commonwealth.

What a load of piffle John. You guys couldn’t even recognize what are Human Rights and what are not Human Rights, even if they fell from the Sri Lanka sky over the famous Deepak Obhrai’s neutral Elephant Pass where three Tamil Tiger battles were fought where hundreds of Sinhalese soldiers were killed. You know what Johan and Lynne, the Tamil script on the banner on the wreath which he laid with photographers in toe to record this sick event said, “In memory of the minorities who died in this war.”   Not a tweak about the majority Sinhalese who died and were killed by the Tamil Tigers. This was a mentally sick, puerile and thuggish moment of Canada’s political history which we should never be proud of.

“Alleged human rights issue…” you said. You still haven’t been able to recognize and acknowledge that the Sri Lankan Government restored the most precious and treasured human right, the right-to-life, which was given back to its 22 million peoples after the most ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists were eliminated on 19 May 2009 after they had been killing innocent civilians, in the thousands, moderate Tamil politicians and two heads of state, one in India and one in Sri Lanka. They were serial killers using claymore mines and suicide bombers. Don’t you and Lynne understand this fact? Where are your Canadian ethics and morality?

“Alleged human rights issue…” you said. When you have not been able to recognize and acknowledge the liberation by the Sri Lankan soldiers of 295,873 Tamils who were under the clutches of the Tamil Tigers as a human shield and were sustained with hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners for months to keep them alive, you don’t qualify to be a judge nor a jurist on Sri Lanka’s alleged human rights.   Let’s, cut it out, John. Why don’t you admit that you are supporting the Greater Toronto Area’s Tamil Diaspora wanting to dissect that island into two for them to have the prime real estate for a separate, mono-ethnic, racist Tamil state, Eelam. For this, Canada has for long been doing the bidding for the Tamil Tiger rump.

Shish…..what a load of rubbish, John. What buckets full of cods-wallop!

What is disingenuous on your part, John and Lynne, is that when the US Department in a recent report has gone public with a statement that the LTTE (aka Tamil Tigers) uses its international contacts and the large Tamil Diaspora in North America, Europe and Asia to procure weapons, communications, funding, and other needed supplies, you two said, “We are concerned by the Government of Sri Lanka’s lists, of 16 entities and 424 individuals for purported links to terrorists activities, including some with the ties in Canada.” Are you really!   Come again John and Lynne. I am not sure whether I heard you right. At least as a courtesy for the Canadians who voted you all in, you should have ascertained the veracity of the information provided by the Sri Lankan Government without dismissing the list by saying that it will not have any legal effect in Canada. Hmmm……..not a good excuse when Tamil Tiger terrorism has many AK47 carrying arms that has shown up in the UK, in France, in Norway and in India. And it will be a matter of time when it shows up on the shores of Canada. When that happens, I will be the first Canadian to tell the Conservatives, “Didn’t I tell you so!” It almost happened on June 1987, when the Tamil separatists threatened to blow up the 15 storey Centennial Building at 200 Kent Street, in Ottawa, because I worked there for a federal department. It was a major security issue that day.

Have you got difficulty to admit that Canada is a hot bed of Tamil Tiger terrorism supporters? Well, ask CSIS and the RCMP. Let’s see what they have to say.

It was in 1994 that the Liberal Government let a Tamil cut a cheque for 7.5 million dollars from a Vancouver Bank to purchase 50 tonnes of TNT and 10 tonnes of plastic RDX explosive materials from the Rubezone Chemical Factory in the Ukraine. It were these explosive materials that were used in a truck bomb to bring down the Central Bank building in the heart of Colombo on 31 January 1996, killing 114 people and maiming for life of another 1338.

Would you not say that you Canadian politicians are playing Russian roulette with the lives of the innocent Sri Lankans by aiding and abetting the Tamil Tiger War in Sri Lanka. And we are not the Goody-two-shoes ‘We are Holier than Thou’ Human Rights advocates that we think we are. Far from it.

It was on 6 May 2000 that Liberal cabinet Ministers Paul Martin (Finance) and Maria Minna (CIDA) together with other Liberal parliamentarians, Tony Ianno, John McKay, Judy Sgro, Tom Wappel, Bryon Wilfert, Jim Karygiannis and Joe Volpe attended a $60-a plate fund raising dinner organized by FACT in Toronto. The monies were collected to stuff the Tamil Tiger War Chest to buy sophisticated weapons to kill and maim innocent Sinhalese and Muslim peoples.

Would you not say that you Canadian politicians are playing Russian roulette with the lives of the innocent Sri Lankans by aiding and abetting the Tamil Tiger War in Sri Lanka. And we are no innocent ‘babes in the woods’ but are a bunch of morally and ethically bankrupt lot supporting serial killings by Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and trying to teach human rights to Sri Lankans as well as trying to teach their Grandmothers how to suck eggs.   Not good, John and Lynne. Not good.

It were the Liberals who for 13 long years that let the separatist Tamil Diaspora collect two million dollars each month to stuff the Tamil Tiger War chest to buy killer weapons to snuff the lives of innocent Sri Lankans. You Canadian politicians didn’t care two prairie straws about Sinhalese and Muslims getting killed as long as you all got the Tamil votes. Right, John and Lynne!

Would you not say that you Canadian politicians are playing Russian roulette with the lives of the innocent Sri Lankans by aiding an abetting the Tamil Tiger War in Sri Lanka. And now preach to Sri Lankans about violations of Human Rights.   A white-neo-colonial attitude trying to make the world right when Canada itself has been slammed by the UN as human rights violators. Politics is a mugs game, isn’t it? The Canadian politicians are in the thick of it when dealing with Sri Lanka.

Let me tell you one thing John and Lynne.   You Conservatives know nothing of Sri Lanka pandering to the separatist Tamil Diaspora. When did you last discuss the Sri Lankan issues with a Sinhalese constituent? Did you, ever?

And a final comment before I conclude my observations about my Canada playing ‘nasties’ at my Motherland, Sri Lanka, which does not cut mustard with me. I am resentful.

Sri Lanka has achieved the near possible almost five years ago, when its valiant Security Forces crushed the Indian, Norwegian, British, and Canadian supported terrorists, the Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless in the world on 19 May 2009. Their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead on the shores of the Nandikadal lagoon in the island’s east coast.  

The fact is that the Sri Lankan government and its security forces are not going to give up the hard won peace they achieved almost single handed after a 30-year brutal war. Most certainly not because Canada’s bullying wanting them to give up their military presence in the North and East. A few security forces camps will remain in the North and East, as it is vital to maintain such camps in strategic locations in the larger interest of the national security, and they owe nothing to the Canadian Tamil separatist Diaspora who are lobbying the Canadian parliamentarians to get them removed. Nor does Sri Lanka owe anything to Canada either.

It is regrettable that you Canadian politicians have assumed the role of self-appointed defence advisors to Sri Lanka to dictate to the authorities concerned as to where the military camps should be located as well as dismantled. Phew! Are we Canadians thinking too big of ourselves? For the want of getting into the inner-circle of world leadership, so Prime Minister Stephen Harper boycotts the Commonwealth Summit held in Colombo, hoping that others would follow this western Pied Piper like a bunch of brainless lemmings. The response told us that the 52 Commonwealth nations were not going to buy Prime Minister Harper’s hissy fit.

So Canada decides on her next move by suspending voluntary funds to the Commonwealth over Sri Lanka’s human rights issue during Sri Lanka’s tenure as current chair of the Commonwealth.

What is disappointing with this move is that Canada has difficulty to comprehend that Sri Lanka is not the Commonwealth.   And with this move Canada has elected to isolate itself one more time to be notorious in the Commonwealth for neglecting our responsibilities towards the people of the other Commonwealth nations.   That is the rub.

John, I know you and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are huffing and puffing threatening to blow Sri Lanka down, but you are in for a surprise.

In spite of Canada’s effort to blow Sri Lanka down for domestic electoral compunctions, my stay in Sri Lanka showed me that the Sun rose every morning from the east and did set in the evening in the west. Reconciliation is proceeding among the communities in leaps and bounds so is prosperity among people. The cost of living is high and so is it anywhere else. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is popular than ever  before and they will continue with their agenda on growth with or with out Canada’s support.   Of course, there is corruption among the politicians and so we have witnessed in amazement the corruption among our Canadian politicians and senators too. And that is nothing new.

As for the separatist Canadian Tamil Diaspora seeking to resurrect the Tamil Tiger terrorist movement by living with the gun, they better be prepared to die by the gun as we saw in April when the Tamil terrorists Gopi, Thevian and Appan were shot dead when they attempted to flee the Army cordon set up to capture them.

As for my sentiments on Sri Lanka, I say “Hallelujah and Long Live Sri Lanka.   You are doing well and keep it up for the sake of the peace loving people and that includes the Tamils in the North and East of the island who resents interference from outsiders like the Canadians.”   “These Canadians are bad people. They are creating trouble fore us ” said a  young well spoken Tamil taxi driver in Colombo. The Sri Lankans have suffered enough. And enough is enough! And I hope Canada’s Conservative politicians are hearing me well and keep their noses out of Sri Lanka’s business.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe