Australian & Indian Veiws on Sri Lanka vs. Canada
Posted on November 1st, 2013
Ira de Silva Ontario, Canada
Members of Parliament
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario.
News reports from Australia during the visit of the Indian Foreign Minister headlined “India,
Australia back CHOGM in Sri Lanka” state that Australia and India will not follow Canada in boycotting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka due to concerns over the country’s human rights issues. It is a sign of mature, balanced diplomacy that they have made this statement in contrast to Canada.India which has the state of Tamil Nadu where over seventy-two million Tamils live and is the homeland of the Tamils of the world, has an aggressive, extremely anti-Sri Lanka government policy. In Tamil Nadu as in Canada, all political parties take turns to bash Sri Lanka for domestic political gain. Another similarity that India has to Canada is that India created the Tamil terrorists, gave them bases, provided money and political support to terrorise Sri Lanka for thirty years. While Canada did not provide military training and bases, it was Canadian citizens who sent two million dollars a month for decades for terrorism in Sri Lanka supported by Canadian politicians. Canadians were exclusively responsible for the bombing of the Central Bank buildings in Colombo. Based on these facts, the Canadian attitude that it is boycotting the summit based on Sri Lanka’s human rights record, when both India and Canada have violated the human rights of all Sri Lankans by supporting terrorism for decades is extremely hypocritical.
Australia’s foreign minister states “it’s our view that Commonwealth countries should work with Sri Lanka to meet the challenges that they face and we certainly will be encouraging countries to do that,” Ms Bishop said. “We have sent that message to Canada in a number of ways”. Australia too has thriving LTTE support groups who have promoted LTTE terrorism and actively engage with politicians to influence Australia’s attitude to Sri Lanka. The difference is that Australia does not base it’s foreign policy on a few hundred Tamil votes because it has a better understanding of diplomacy and Commonwealth values. India’s Mr. Kurshid states “there are obviously very, very serious concerns that may have been felt in domestic terms by the Canadian government”. Everybody knows that those “serious concerns” were the Tamil votes in the Toronto area.
Having made the decision that Mr. Harper would not attend based on his promise at the “ethnic media round table” with the Tamils in Toronto two years ago, it must have been a surprise that the number of LTTE supporters who came to parliament hill on Monday to thank Mr. Harper for his boycott was about 250. Perhaps you had memories of the thousands who were there waving their Tiger flags in 2009 and thought that this action would also bring that number to show their support of your unprincipled stand. It is unprincipled because Canada’s stand is made at a time when Canada is being investigated for human rights violations of it’s own citizens. In the circumstances the statement issued by Mr. Kenney that he and caucus colleagues “reinforced Canada-â„¢s steadfast commitment to the protection of human rights and freedoms in Sri Lanka, and called on the Rajapaksa regime to pursue true reconciliation” is the height of hypocrisy. Should the Canadian Government not be concentrating on protecting the human rights of it’s own citizens and working on reconciliation in Canada before making judgements and statements on Sri Lanka or is it ego’s that need inflation by 250 Canadian Tamils that provides oxygen for Canadian parliamentarians?
The Indian Foreign Minister commenting on the Canadian stand states “but I think it is important for leaders to take some things in their stride and look at the larger picture and the commitment that we all have to the Commonwealth.” Obviously with it’s narrow, myopic view on foreign policy based on getting a few hundred Tamil votes in Toronto, Canada is blind to the “larger picture” and is now the odd man out at the summit and has no commitment to the Commonwealth. As a result Canada’s stature as a mature, influential voice in the world has been diminished and it has lost the respect of it’s fellow members of the Commonwealth.
It is not the Commonwealth that has failed on it’s core value by allowing Sri Lanka to host the summit as claimed in the banner that was shown by the Tamil Tiger supporters to the gullible, unprincipled parliamentarians gathered on parliament hill to receive them, but Canada that has shown it has no understanding of the core values of the Commonwealth as indicated in Australia by the foreign ministers of India and Australia. Canada should learn from Australia’s foreign minister about Commonwealth values and not depend on some Tamils from Toronto who supported terrorism and still do, as to what constitutes core values. The Australian foreign minister states ” both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and I will be there, working with the Sri Lankan government, encouraging the Sri Lankan government to address its challenges to be a contributing regional and Commonwealth global nation”. Canada being the spokesperson for the Tamil terrorist agenda has nothing to contribute.
The only consolation for the current government is that for 250 Tamils from Toronto Mr. Harper is a hero, however, considering that there were many parliamentarians from the other political parties present even that number cannot be relied upon by the current government. However, what all these parliamentarians can rely on is that the majority of Canadians will view this “event” on Monday, October 28th with disbelief and disgust.
Yours truly,
Ira de Silva
Ontario, Canada
November 2nd, 2013 at 3:25 pm
Canadians should be reminded that White Canadians such as Harper robbed the land of the natives, deceived them, killled them, gave natives small pox infested blankets, drove the natives away from their home land to do a land grab, totally abusing the human rights of natives. In Canada, the natives were even treated as second class citizens.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Screw Manmohan Singh and his cronies who are kissing US ass in fear of China’s domination of the World. China and Russia, the new superpowers, will soon set the path to a just world, not ruled by the self-possessed, warmongering USA.