Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario Canada

June 18, 2009

The Editor (Letters) OTTAWA CITIZEN

Sir:

Karl Nerenberg’s essay ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Bob Rae was never soft on the Tamils”, (June 18) was not quite correct.

What he failed to identify was that Bob Rae’s efforts to promote federalism as the mantra to Sri Lanka’s woes when he went to Sri Lanka as the Head of the Forum of Federations, didn’t get anywhere, and he was made aware by the Tamil Tiger terrorists as it was the “F” word in their lexicon. And when he found that the Sri Lankan government was less accommodating to his thesis he turned to be a rabid critique of the Sri Lankan government. Thus, indirectly getting “soft on the Tamils.” And he became more so after joining the Liberal Party that refused to ban the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, whose mission was to support their GTA constituents wanting their separate mono-ethnic, Tamil state, Eelam.

Rae, has gone on record with his comment, “the sense of the Tamil people that they have never been able to find justice inside a failed state.” No doubt the Sri Lankan government made a note of his pronouncement of his comment that Sri Lanka was a “Failed State”.

Further, on June 2, he pronounced in parliament, “Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, It is clear that it is now necessary that there should be a public enquiry into the events that have taken place in Sri Lanka. What will the Minister do to ensure that an internal enquiry is carried out with regard to this question?” This was regarding the alleged human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government during the latter days of the Tami Tiger terrorists separatist war during early May this year.

This was after 29 countries defeated the motion to have such an enquiry at the UN Human Rights Council with the intention to produce the Sri Lankan Government at the International War Crimes Court.” This was exactly what the thousands of Tamil demonstrators were shouting for waving their red Tamil Tiger flags on parliament hill over as month ago, and Bob Rae heard it.

With such support for his Tamil constituents, it is disingenuous for Karl Nerenberg to say that “Bob Rae was never soft on the Tamils.” I don’t buy it, nor does the Sri Lankan government which now understands the real political persona of Bob Rae and his agenda on Sri Lanka.

Asoka Weerasinghe