Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

18 March 2011

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Editor
EMBASSY
Ottawa

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Dear Editor

You were correct when you said in “Diaspora politics ‘divisive’ and discriminatory”, “To be fair, the Conservative government has angered many ethnic communities as well. For instance, shortly after coming to office, it listed the Tamil Tiger a terrorist group. This despite the fact Canada has the largest Tamil population outside Sri Lanka, including Toronto. Previous Liberal govenments had long refused to take such a position, and it was no secret the party was actively interacting with the Tamil community in Canada.”

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What it was is that the decision was a toss of a coin: on one side was’ to seek Tamil votes and to hell with Sri Lankan lives’, and the flip side was a moral issue ‘whether to give back the’right-to-life’ to 21 million people in that island’ which was hijacked by the Tamil Tigers who were killing people willy-nilly with claymore mines and suicide bombs in the hundreds. The Consevatives took the moral ground.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There was state of euphoria in all of Sri Lanka the day when the Tamil Tigers were banned by the Consevatives and the people said “Thank You” to Minister Stockwell Day who they identified a their ‘Saviour’.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Asoka Weerasinghe