Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario ., Canada

30 September 2011

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Editor (Letters),ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Globe & Mail,
Toronto, Ontario

Sir:

What you said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-In policy shift, Stephen Harper pressures Sri Lanka on human rightsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ is very troubling.

See who is talking!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Amnesty International has lambasted Canada year after year for its human rights violations against its indigenous peoples and having failed to implement the recommendations of UN human rights bodies concerning the protection of Indigenous peoples rights in Canada, pointing implicitly at implementing the land rights of the Lubicon Cree, the police shooting of Dudley George, and violence against Indigenous women, so why this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-We are Holier than ThouƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ prima donna attitude by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sri Lanka?

If our Prime Minister has difficulty to appreciate and acknowledge and give top marks toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government for giving back the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”right-to-lifeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ to 22 million of their peoples by eliminating the Tamil Tiger terrorists who had hijacked this most precious human right for 27 blooding years, with the help of Canada by letting the Tamil Diaspora stuffƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  two million dollars a month for 13 Liberal governing years to buy a lethal armoury to kill; ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and the liberation of 300,000 Tamils from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers who held them as a human shield, then Stephen Harper should stay back and not attend the ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ColomboƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Commonwealth summit in 2013, as that palaver would be better off withoutƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  having to deal with CanadaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s hypocrisy.

The Conservative GovernmentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s amazing volte-face is astounding as it was just a few months ago that they were whipping up public concern about the Tamil smuggling ships The Ocean Lady and Sun Sea saying that the Tamils in those ships were mainly Tamil Tiger terrorists and that we donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t want them in Canada.

If ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird are accusing Sri Lanka for human rights violations to appease the Tamil vote bank in the Greater Toronto Area, then the rest of the Canadian voters should take umbrage at thisƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  immoral turn around.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  And if Canada is now trying to promote itself as a bit player in the international field in upholding ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ human rights, then Canada should be ashamed of itself for picking at a little pip-squeak of an island nation ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ stuck somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean that eliminated the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world with no help from Canada, and not going after our big southern neighbour who has killed overƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ a million ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ innocent Iraqis on a lie, and many thousands of innocent Afghans and Pakistani trying to eliminate another bunch of terrorists, the Talibans, who are not as ruthless as the Tamil Tigers that Sri Lanka successfully eliminated.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  This strange betrayal eroding Canadian values by lashing out at Sri Lanka unfairly, is a tectonic shift in geo-politics drawing a line between the East andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the West nations as there is a show down ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ looming over the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo which doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t bode well for theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ glue of the Commonwealth of nations.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This is no way to reinstate the international prowess and crown of the Pearsonian-Canada which Canada abdicated long time ago by helping the Tamil Tiger terrorists surreptitiously through the Tamil Diaspora in Canada, to haemorrhage Sri Lanka for decades and kill scores of thousands of innocent unarmed Sinhalese and Muslim peoples.

Asoka Weerasinghe