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

18 November 2013

The Editor, Ottawa Citizen

Dear Editor:

-Abuses -Ëœelephant in room-â„¢ at summit- was a disingenuous comment by Parliamentary Secretary‚  Deepak Obhrai, Canada-â„¢s representative to the Commonwealth Summit.‚  At first blush I thought that he was admitting Canada-â„¢s appalling human rights record on our First Nation peoples, but ‚ it seems that it was directed at the host country, Sri Lanka, which has come out of a 30 year war with the most ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists who fought wanting their separate, racist, mono-ethnic Tamil state, Eelam.‚  And Canada happened to be the Tamil Tiger Terrorists surrogate Godfather aiding and abetting the war by letting the Tamil Diaspora help the war with funds in the millions of dollars a month for 13 years during the Liberal Party governing years.

But then, the most pertinent remark that came out of President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, was, -This country is free, independent and democratic-‚  adding that -those living in glass houses should not throw stones at others.-‚  Deepak Obhrai knew which country he was referring to and don-â„¢t think he took it well.

I wish Deepak Obhrai left his blinkers back home when he went to Sri Lanka.‚ ‚  What amazes me was his observation of, –¦.found few reconciliation or reconstruction efforts have been made.-‚  That comment has the bitter flavour of a jilted lover, when every other country has praised Sri Lanka for its amazing reconstruction efforts of the North after the war, having spent‚  a staggering expenditure of‚  over Rs.2.5 billion in four years.

Canada that campaigned for two years to get its allies‚  boycott the Commonwealth Summit, found the UK, Australia, and New Zealand saying, -you stay home ‚ if you want to but we are going to make a contribution to the Commonwealth, and try to help Sri Lanka positively along the way.-

Deepak Obhrai gloated saying that India, Mauritius had boycotted the Summit together with Canada.‚ ‚  Correct.‚ ‚  That happened because of the domestic electoral compunction as did Canada.‚  Canada had to appease the 300,000 Tamils in their Greater Toronto Area electorates, India has 70 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu, and Mauritius has a Prime Minister who is a Tamil and 7 percent of its population is Tamil.‚  That answers why their Heads‚ decided not to attend the Summit.

I have dismissed Deepak Obhrai-â„¢s comments about the Summit and‚  the host country, Sri Lanka, as disingenuous‚ as it was spuriously delivered to the ears of the Tamil gallery.‚  From all reports, the Commonwealth Summit had been a great success and I take my hat off to Sri Lanka for hosting the Commonwealth Summit with such finesse.

Asoka Weerasinghe‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚