{"id":104355,"date":"2020-07-09T15:41:03","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T22:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104355"},"modified":"2020-07-09T15:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T22:41:03","slug":"dear-high-commissioner-david-mckinnon-re-your-canada-day-message-to-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/09\/dear-high-commissioner-david-mckinnon-re-your-canada-day-message-to-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon: Re: Your Canada Day Message to Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr) <\/strong>Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

7 July 2020
Your Excellency David McKinnon
High Commissioner for Canada in Sri Lanka
33A, 5th Lane
Colpetty
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon: Re: Your Canada Day Message to Sri Lanka.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must stand together and embrace our diversity as strength.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> And you continued and said, Canada would continue to support<\/em><\/strong> the reconciliation process through their long-standing collaboration on national languages and by assisting with demining work,\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

High Commissioner, did you not hear a chorus of Sinhlese voices responding to you saying Oya okkoma boru..boru.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 With your smattering of the Sinhalese language, I suppose you were able to translate what they said.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t, well this is what they said, All what he said was lies..lies.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>And do you know what High Commissioner McKinnon, I agree with those Sinhalese voices 100 per cent.\u00a0 What you said was a load of Diplomatic disingenuous goody-two shoes, poppycock.\u00a0 But since your bellywyck is Trade, I will excuse you for your partial ignorance about Canada’s acceptance of foreigners who are non-white as equals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a splendid opportunity for you to understand without prejudice, the ingrained white policy\u201d in employment in Canada\u2026\u201dto embrace our diversity as strength.\u201d\u00a0 Nonsense! \u00a0 You cannot embrace an inequitable population of Asian-browns and african\/west indian blacks among the Canadian-whites and tell me that is where our<\/strong> Strength is.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Ummmm\u2026.Dream on High\nCommissioner McKinnon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity,\u00a0 of a\u00a0 Canadian Doctor qualified in Canada could practise\u00a0 medicine with no problem anywhere in Canada , but a Doctor qualified in Sri Lanka will be changing\u00a0 bed-pans in a Senior\u2019s<\/strong> Home.\u00a0 Such diversity has no strength, except for disappointment,<\/strong> and losing one\u2019s dignity.\u00a0 And some \u2018Brown\u2019 and \u2018Black\u2019 PhDs would be taxi drivers or Security Guards.\u00a0 I have met them all,<\/strong> That should be an exercise of a\u00a0 realty check for you, and you will be amazed!.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here are the reasons :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Story No, 1.\u00a0 High Commissioner, you’re wanting to embrace diversity has strength., has little currency when Canada operates a discriminatory white policy where employment is concerned.\u00a0 This has gone on for donkey\u2019s years. \u00a0 Here is the Litmus test that yours-truly, this brown-man, had experienced 49 years ago at the end of March in 1971.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The\u00a0 Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa was closed in 1969, promising the public that it will be opened with brand new exhibition Halls in a year,\u00a0 They didn’t have a clue what they were talking about as they knew nothing about Museum exhibition design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The National Museums Corporation of Canada created a Design and Display Division, to research, interpret the Natural and Human Sciences and write storylines, design and construct 15 brand new Halls for the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the National Museum of Man.\u00a0 This Division was housed at 39, McArthur Road in Vanier.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This new Division had no difficulty to fill the positions of Chief (Tom Wood -War artist), Head of Design (Jacques Saint Cyr, The designer of the Maple leaf in the Canadian flag), and Head of Administration – Retd, Army Major Charles Jessop).\u00a0 But they had difficulty to fill the position of Head of Thematic Research, with liberal research- a scientist who would understand design in Canada). So they went Headhunting and found \u2018yours-truly\u2019, \u00a0Asoka Weerasinghe, a research scientist (Geology\/Palaeontology), an award-winning published poet, an award-winning artist and a sculptor in England, a musician\/composer on the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So they invited me to come over to join the Museums Design and Display team on 2 June 1970. \u00a0 I accepted the offer and left a very good paying job as a Geologist at an engineering firm, Marples Ridgway in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After my Canadian immigration clearance in London I arrived in Ottawa on the 16th October and started working on 1 November., 1970,\u00a0At the end of March, 1971,\u00a0 Tom Wood,\u00a0 Jacques Saint-Cyr, Charlie Jessop and I, Asoka Weerasinghe, received letters from the Public Service Commision requesting us to come to their offices on Albert Street, to sign the papers of permanency on 1st April.\u00a0 All four of us were quite pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On Wednesday, 31 March, 1971,\u00a0 morning,\u00a0 the phone rang at the\u00a0\u00a0office, and a person from the Public Service Commission tell\u2019s me,\u00a0Mr. Weerasinghe, please ignore the letter that we sent you to\ncome over tomorrow to sign the papers of permanency.  It was sent to you\nin error.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Is this some kind of an April Fools joke. Are the other three\ncoming over to sign the papers\u201d,<\/em><\/strong> I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yes, Mr. Weerasinghe, but we have decided to open the competition\nfor your job across Canada.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> I was smarting by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s cut out that \u2018bull-shit, <\/em><\/strong> I said.\n  You guys couldn\u2019t find anyone to fill that position, and you\nfound me in London, England, and invited me.  I left an excellent job in\nLondon as a Geologist and here I am, and you tell me this.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If I had known that there was a White policy\u201d in employment in\nCanada which Says –<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you are White, you are alright<\/strong>
    but if you are Black stay back,<\/strong>
    and if you are Brown stick around, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yes, my skin colour is a beautiful shade of an Azetic-Bronze- Brown, but I won\u2019t stick around.\u00a0 And I give you until noon on Monday, to make up your mind whether you want My services or not.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t want me, I will be on the first plane back to London, England, where I came from.\u00a0 Let me tell you one thing.\u00a0 It was not the country Canada that made me decide to come over,\u00a0 it was the creative job in the National Museums,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>to interpret Sciences to the public through exhibits, an opportunity that I wouldn\u2019t have missed.\u00a0 A dream that I had since I was a child in Sri Lanka, to work in a Museum.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Well, High Commissioner McKinnon, the National Museums\u00a0\u00a0Corporation was bothered and was in an upheaval. And the issue went up to the\u00a0 Corporation \u2018s\u00a0 Museums Directors and finally to\u00a0the Deputy Minister for National Museums, Mr MacKenzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On Monday, 5 April, 1971, morning the phone rang at the office.\u00a0 It\u00a0\u00a0was\u00a0 a\u00a0 staffer from the Public Service Commission, who said,\u00a0Mr. Weerasinghe, we are sorry for the confusion, please\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0come to our offices to sign the papers.,\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thank you.\u00a0 It was an excellent decision, as it is a Win-win\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>situation, for me as I know I would love working at the<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Museums\u00a0 creating 15 brand new Halls, and the Victoria<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Memorial Museum gains an excellent creative research-<\/em><\/strong>Scientist. \u00a0 But please don\u2019t tell me that there was a\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>confusion\u201d\u00a0 about my appointment.\u00a0 Rubbish! as you all\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>knew exactly what it\u00a0 was all about.\u00a0 As it was all about the\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0beautiful\u00a0 brown colour of my skin, which I am very proud of.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>And there is one thing that you can be sure of.\u00a0 It is that no\u00a0\u00a0white-Canadianis going to take my dignity away because I am\u00a0Brown-skinned, a member of the visible minority population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0High Commissioner McKinnon, if you ask me the question,\u00a0\u00a0Asoka after 50 years in Canada, do you think that things<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0have changed for the better to erase your \u2018Second Class\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>citizen\u201d attitude\u00a0 in Canada, my answer is an\u00a0 emphatic No\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>And I am still waiting after 50 years in Canada for your\u00a0\u00a0Manthra to happen – We must stand together and embrace\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>our diversity as strength.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>The time has arrived for you to go\u00a0and preach it to your, hypocritical, bigot-White-Canadians, High\u00a0Commissioner\u00a0 McKinnon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • Story No. 2: If the 1971s Canadian employment policy of
      \u00a0If you are White you are alright,<\/strong>
      But if you are Black stay back;<\/strong>
      \u00a0If you are Brown stick around\u201d,\u00a0<\/strong>had improved, my lead letter to The Ottawa Citizen,<\/em><\/strong> on Page B5,\u00a0on Saturday, August 24, 2002, would not have picked-up ink,\u00a0with a 5\u201d x 71\/2\u201d photo of mine.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Minorities in the Public Service – Let\u00a0us be visible from top down Re: 1 in 5 PS recruits to be visible minority, Aug. 19.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I have waited 34 years to read a\nheadline like this one. And I am glad of the news.  It has been a long\nwait.  I believe in the honesty of Privy Council Clerk Alex Himelfarb and\nthat he is the person who will get the job done.  It certainly makes sense\nto hold back the performance pay and bonuses of deputy ministers and senior\nexecutives of federal departments if they will not achieve  these targets,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           Not\nthat there is  a lack of bright, clever,  intelligent, diligent,\nqualified visible minority candidates waiting to enter the public\nservice,  There are oodles of second-generation visible minority youngsters\ngraduating from universities who can be eligible for such appointments. \nAnd, of course, their parents, with university degrees, with years of work\nexperience, and the cream of the crop in their professions in their home\ncountries, can be picked like potatoes from the taxi, security, cleaning and\nretail industries.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

           However,\nI hope that such recruitment will not be an exercise to cluster the new visible\nminority recruits at the bottom of the public-service employment scales to make\nup the numbers, but that they would be spread right along the ladder up to\nsenior executive levels,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Although I cringe and have some difficulty accepting there will be two lists for recruitment one for whites\u201d, and another for non-white\u201d\u2019 – unquestionably an aparthied system – I don\u2019t care at this point anymore, as long as the federal government, which has encouraged these visible minorities to immigrate to Canada in the first place, gives back their dignity.<\/em><\/strong>
      Asoka Weerasinghe,<\/em><\/strong> Gloucester <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Say what you may, High Commissioner\nDavid McKinnon, your intentions may be genuine and sincere, to say to Sri\nLankans in your Canada Day message that We must stand together and embrace\nour diversity as strength.<\/strong>\u201d  I don\u2019t see how you could when the\nCanadian racist  \u2018white\u2019 bigots will not allow the Brown and Black visible\nminorities stand shoulder to shoulder with the Canadian-whites, that exercise\nwill  not be possible.  Embrace\u201d you said.  Let\u2019s not be naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • \u00a0Story No. 3. \u00a0 High Commissioner McKinnon, you may have wondered why the big fuss to employ a Liberal Research- Scientist to Head the Thematic Research Section of the Design and Display Division of the National Museum Corporation, and the Public Service Commission had difficulty to accept this Brown Asian scientist who was also an award winning published poet from London, England.\u00a0 And this is why.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        One late autumn of 1971, Dr.\nWilliam Taylor, the Director of the National Museum of Man called me into his\noffice and told me, Asoka we are in trouble with the storyline for the\nOrientation Hall because the Ethnologist and the North-West Archaeologist cannot\nagree.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        You are an anthropologist, a\ngeologist and palaeontologist and  also and also an archeologist and poet,\nwhy don\u2019t you hide yourself for two days at home and come up with a long poem\nto see whether we could break this negative spell.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        So this brown Asian-poet did as asked by Dr. Bill Taylor. \u00a0 The long Poem – The Trail of Mankind <\/strong>was accepted as the storyline for the Orientation Hall without an addition, editing or substraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        High Commissioner, you may recall\nthis Hall which was on the right when you entered the Victoria Memorial Museum\nwith a human skeleton at the entrance with a crown on its head, and the long\npoem was piped softly from the recesses of the ceiling and also on\npanels.  So this coloured brown Asian scientist-poet won the day for the\nNational Museum of Man.  So that was all the fuss about hiring me, a\ncoloured.  And I was not willing to let any White- Canadian take away my\ndignity as I am a proud coloured-Asian, proud\nof the colour of his skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        4, Story No. 4.  High\nCommissioner David McKinnon, here is the text book example  of \nproof  positive that yours and my 1975 Canada was well into practising \u2018apartheid\u2019,<\/strong>\nnot allowing a Brown-coloured person to be appointed to a higher position in a\nFederal government Department, or a Black applicant for that matter.. .Your truly, Asoka Weerasinghe, is a\nbrown-coloured Sri Lankan who was employed by National Museums Corporation as\nthe Head,\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Thematic Research Section of the\nDesign and Display Division in Ottawa.  They found me in London, England,\nand thought that I would fit in the position perfectly.  And I  came\nto Ottawa on an invitation by Canada\u2019s National Museums Corporation. \nStarted working on 1 November 1970.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The first two floors of the\nVictoria Memorial Museum with eight brand new Halls was officially opened by\nPrime Minister Pierre Trudeau, on October 4, 1974.   I was assigned\nto  guide Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife Margaet Trudeau\nthrough the Halls.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The International Museum reviews\nsaid they were excellent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        I continued working on the brand\nnew exhibition Halls on the 3rd and 4th floors  interpreting Canada\u2019s\nNatural and Human Sciences.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        I created, for Canada, exhibits\nof  World Class- Excellence, within the walls of the Victoria Memorial\nMuseum on Argyle Street.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Then, the summer of June 1975 came\naround and there was a meeting called at the Museum of Natural Science,\nInterpretation Division, and chaired by the Chief of Interpretation\n(Al.H).  All who attended were white\u201d Interpreters trying to create new\nexhibits,  After the meeting was over, the Mammologist who attended the\nmeeting, made a beeline to my office and said \u2018Watch out Asoka, they are\ncoming at you with their daggers drawn!\u201d.  <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        What really happened\u201d, I\nasked.  Al, told us that,we cannot knock<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Asoka\u2019s work, but we cannot let a\ncoloured guy tell us what to do.\u201d  High Commissioner, if this comment is\nnot one of raw classic \u2018Apartheid\u2019, then what is it.?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        High Commissioner David McKinnon,\nthis white-Canadian got my goat as no White-Canadian will try to undermine my\ndignity since my skin colour was that of a beautiful shade of an\nAzetec-bronze.   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Follow this conversation that I had\nwith Al.H.     <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Al, what\u2019s this announcement that\nyou made at  the meeting about exhibits, telling the interpreters to not to\ncorporate with me, the<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Head of Thematic Research Section\nof the Design and Display Division, by saying, \u2018We cannot knock Asoka\u2019s\nwork, but cannot let a coloured guy tell us what to do\u2019.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

         You  disappoint me\nAl.  Since we may have to work together for at least another five years,\nthat observation of my colour should not have been brought into our work. \nEspecially, with my 20 white-staff minus one, the Botanist,  Dr. Fazal\nMohammad, a Bangladeshi,  working on the Botany Hall.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Do you know what Al,  I am quite\naware that you white-guys have difficulty to accept that I, the brown-Asian, in\nthe Museums campus in Ottawa,  was identified by the Deputy Minister\nMckenzie, to lead the Musuomobile Programme, and informed by memo to all the\nDirectors of Museums of the Corporation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        This is going to hurt you Al, as my\nobservation about you and of your colour is most acceptable by me – that my\nBrown colour is on the crown of your Head, and your White is on the sole of my\nfeet.  <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        But that’s OK<\/em><\/strong>!   I\nhave no reason to point it out to anyone.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        So lets not be stupid about all\nthis, and you better come down from your high-horse.  I know you seem\nstunned by my observation and seem that I have choked you.  And now you\nknow where I am coming from.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Let\u2019s shake hands, forget about all\nthis.  I have no intention to declare war on you, and I hope you will\nsanitize yourself with your Apartheid\u2019 notions about coloureds, specially me,\nas I won\u2019t<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        take it that kindly.  Lets\nhave some harmony at our workplace.  Al, now that you know where I am\ncoming from, and the contributions of Excellence\u201d that I have contributed to\nthese exhibition Halls , let\u2019s enjoy our Interpretive-creations and be proud of\nourselves.  Yes, I’m a coloured, a Brown, and so are you a coloured, an\negg-shell White,  and as a poet I could conjure the images of two\nbeautiful people. Brown and an egg-shell White\/ a halo of a heavenly\ndelight\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Let\u2019s shake hands Al. Come on,\nlet\u2019s not be stupid. We both have<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        great jobs to do, and let\u2019s enjoy\nit.  I have no hard feelings anymore.  Trust me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        High Commissioner McKinnon,we were\ncautious from then on and<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        not trample each other’s toes, and\nwe were extremely civil.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        High Commissioner McKinnon, back to\nyour comment in your Canada Day message to Sri Lankans, We must stand\ntogether and embrace our diversity as strength<\/em>\u201d is a charm for a Happy\nCanada. Since Canada is peppered with white- racist bigots, you will have to\ndrum your manthra into their thick-skulls to succeed.  I don\u2019t think it\nwould happen in my lifetime, but I pray that it happens during your lifetime,\nand for you to be proud of being a citizen of non-racist- Canada.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Sincerely,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr) Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada. 7 July 2020Your Excellency David McKinnonHigh Commissioner for Canada in Sri Lanka33A, 5th LaneColpettyColombo 3Sri Lanka Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon: Re: Your Canada Day Message to Sri Lanka. We must stand together and embrace our diversity as strength.\u201d And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asoka-weerasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}