Bandula Jayasekara Courtesy The Island

There were many ‘Sri Lankans’ who bad mouthed the country at the time of the terrorist conflict in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka fought two fierce wars , one on the ground and the other a well oiled LTTE propaganda war worldwide. LTTE and its supporters managed to bait many from INGO/NGOs, and even politicians which was no secret. The anti LTTE Democratic Tamil Forum, in Toronto was well informed and they told me that MP Mano Ganesan was coming to Toronto, to attend a pro-LTTE meeting in Canada. Together we got into action.

Mano was to address several meetings, in Canada, to honour the so called ‘Heroes Week’ of the LTTE. However, with the cooperation of the Canadian Intelligence officers in Toronto and Anti – LTTE Tamils , the Consulate General was able to stop a Tamil Tiger front meeting to be addressed by Ganesan, at the University of Oshawa (Durham College) It was booked under ‘Tamil Students Associaton’ for a cultural show. I managed to speak to the Assistant to the President of the school , Cathy Pitcher, and the Security Supervisor Steve Mairs in the morning and informed them about the Pro LTTE groups plan. Sri Lankan Canadians were asked to send email and to call the University to educate them. Intelligence in Toronto was fully aware of the situation that the Sri Lankan MP was going to address the meeting. They even informed me that he was staying with his sister in Toronto and asked me as to why he was issued with a diplomatic passport and questioned ” How could we act against him since your government has sponsored him?” ( meaning the diplomatic passport ) Obviously the MP was using his privileges as a MP to discredit his own country , like many others at the time.

However, Mano addressed the main meeting which its poster read ‘SRI LANKA- TAMIL REGION OF WANNI IS UNDER SEIGE’ ( we are reproducing the poster here for our readers to get the truth and for our readers to understand what Ganesan had come to do in Canada)

As a defensive measure , Ganesan got the LTTE mouthpiece ‘Tamil Net’ to publish a news item on Monday the 24th November , 2008, under the heading ‘Mano Ganesan blames Sri Lankan Consulate in Canada for fabricating stories on his visit’ It read;

“Western Province People’s Front (WPPF) parliamentarian and the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC) in Colombo, Mano Ganesan, who returned to Colombo last Friday after a visit to Canada on the invitation by a Canadian organisation, blamed the Sri Lankan Counsel General in Toronto for fabricating a story in Sri Lankan Defence Ministry website on his trip to Canada. The story had alleged that Mr. Mano Ganesan was invited to Canada by the LTTE to attend a meeting “to give boost to LTTE fund raising.” “The fallacious tale says that I was to attend a LTTE- sponsored meeting at University of Oshawa in Toronto on 18 November (Tuesday) when I was actually at meetings with Canadian federal foreign ministry officials and Hamilton East-Stoney Parliamentarian Hon. Wayne Marston miles away in Ottawa on the identical day,” Mr. Ganesan said in a press release issued from Colombo on Monday. The author of the story, Bandula Jayasekara, the Sri Lankan counsel general in Canada who was a former correspondent of the Sinhala nationalist English daily ‘The Island’, “exposed his credibility by the fabricated story posted in the Defense Ministry’s website,” Mano Ganesan said. “I was invited to Canada by the Canadian Forum for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka convened by Mr. Jim Davis and Mr.S.Loganathan.” “The name of the forum speaks for itself. It is a Canadian organization dedicated for the protection of human rights and equality of all Sri Lankan ethnic groups. I participated as a guest speaker in the meeting titled as ‘Ending the war and bringing justice and peace to Sri Lanka’ in Toronto at the Steelworkers Union hall on 16th Sunday,” Mano Ganesan said. “The meeting was moderated by Khaled Mouammar, the president of Canadian Arab Federation. Co speakers with me were Ms. Amina Sherazee, Barrister and Human Rights Activist and Professional Lawyer and Activist Mr. Rocco Galati and Co-Convener of the Forum Mr. Jim Davis. I know nothing about any other meeting.”

“Bandula Jayasekara, the Sri Lankan Counsel General in Toronto cooked up this story and got it loaded in the defense.lk on Thursday 20, 2008.” Jayasekara’s story also said that a ‘large number of Lankan Tamils living in Canada’ sent emails to Oshawa University and got this ‘meeting’ canceled. “This is laughable when the only repeated complaint to me in Canada was that I did not stay longer more than six days,” Mano Ganesan said adding that he was given a warm welcome by the diaspora Tamils in Canada. “The meetings arranged by the Canadian Forum for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka and discussions arranged by Canadian Tamil Congress were very successful,” he said

However, the Democratic Tamil Movement in Canada which was battling the LTTE in Canada issued media statement to a Sri Lankan newspaper. Exposing Ganesan, the release said ” Member of Parliament Mano Ganesan continues to discredit Sri Lanka and its people not only in Sri Lanka but in Canada, a member of the Democratic Tamil Forum in Toronto said today. “We were saddened the way he attacked the Government and the People of Sri Lanka after having used privileges offered to all MP,” the member told the ‘Daily Mirror”

Though Ganesan issued a statement that he left Sri Lanka to attend a joint conference held by Tamils and Sinhalese it was evident to us that the event was organized by the LTTE and some of its front organizations” the member of the Democratic Tamil Forum added.

“All he said was that the Government was bombing north. He did not mention a word on how the Sri Lankan Tamils are suffering under the jackboot of the LTTE. Ganesan is in the pocket of the Tigers. He does not know how the Tigers are harassing the Tamils in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada” said the member who did not want his name mentioned due to fear for his life. Democratic Tamils and other organizations have declared this week as “Terrorism Free Week’ in Canada . In a release at the time , I said that the Consul General was not in the business of fabricating stories like Ganesan and it was a shame to discredit ones own country in foreign soil , that too whilst holding a diplomatic passport issued by the Government of Sri Lanka. What he did in Canada was giving a voice to a banned terrorist organisation. Ganesan goes on to say that I was a former correspondent of The Island. Yes. I was and am very proud of the fact I worked for a newspaper such as The Island. I am not sorry Mr Ganesan that I did not work for the LTTE mouthpiece Tamilnet you chose to send your release to. Many Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada got the courage to stand up against the LTTE. As a mark of protest they even declared a ‘Terrorism Free week’ in Canada the day Ganesan arrived in Toronto. These courageous people had defied the LTTE here; they have gathered strength and let me tell you that they are not pleased with the actions of Mano Ganesan in Toronto. As for the meeting in Oshawa,Ganesan knows better what happened. I salute all those Sri Lankan Tamils who stood up and saw to it that it was a non event. Canadian authorities are well aware of what happened.

Don’t insult your country Mano Ganesan at least when you are away from your country. Canadians and Sri Lankans living here do not like such acts especially when you are carrying a diplomatic passport with the emblem of Sri Lanka. Only the LTTE act that way and of course some money making NGO’s