{"id":57367,"date":"2016-08-05T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T04:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57367"},"modified":"2016-08-05T15:15:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T22:15:57","slug":"mr-stephane-dions-visit-to-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/05\/mr-stephane-dions-visit-to-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Stephane Dion’s visit to Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .\u00a0Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

5 August 2016<\/p>\n

The Editor<\/p>\n

THE HILL TIMES<\/p>\n

Ottawa, Ontario.<\/p>\n

Dear Editor:<\/p>\n

I was jolted with apprehension reading Peter Mazereeluw\u2019s\u00a0observations on Foreign Minister Stephane Dion\u2019s visit to\u00a0Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dion had the gall and temerity to go to Sri Lanka and lecture its government on its human rights and domestic policy when we Canadians have an appalling record on human rights dealing with our First Nation peoples.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dion was off base when he was discussing about Canada\u2019s Tamil refugee community which was created because of the Tamil Tiger\u2019s Eelam War, as it was his Liberal government that aided and abetted that war letting the Tamil Diaspora collect two million dollars a month for 13 years to stuff the Tamil Tiger war-chest to purchase sophisticated weapons to fight the Sri Lankan Government Forces.\u00a0 And it was his parliamentary colleagues, Paul Martin, then Minister of Finance and Maria Minna, the Minister for CIDA with 11 other Liberal backbenchers who patronized a $60-a- plate fund raiser for the Tamil Tigers on 6 May, 2000, in Toronto,\u00a0 The Liberal Government has been disingenuous to its core on their Sri Lanka policy, pandering to the GTA Tamil community seeking their votes.<\/p>\n

My litmus test on the honesty of Canadian parliamentarians of the three major political parties is simple.\u00a0 None of them have as yet acknowledged the most amazing classic text book example of<\/p>\n

Human rights protection in Sri Lanka when the Sri Lankan soldiers by the end of the Eelam war on 19 May 2009, rescued 295,873 Tamils from the clutches if the Tamil Tigers who used them as a human shield and herded them for 30 months like unwashed cattle from the west coast to the east coast under a scorching hot Jaffna sun.<\/p>\n

And none of the Canadian parliamentarians have acknowledged the very fact that the army helped to prepare a million meals a day \u2013 hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners to feed these 295,873 Tamil refugees in temporary camps.\u00a0 The lack of the capacity to be honest among the Canadian parliamentarians on the Sri Lanka\u2019s human rights record is appalling and disingenuous.<\/p>\n

Let me tell Peter Kent, the Conservative Foreign Affairs critic who admonished Foreign Minister Stephane Dion that he had been timid\u201d in calling for stronger human rights protection in that country.<\/p>\n

Sorry Peter Kent, I disagree, It was the Sri Lanka Government that was timid\u201d not to tell Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, Why don\u2019t you go back home and sort out your human rights problems of your Native Peoples which have been dragging on for decades before you come to us preaching that We are Holier than Thou\u201d, squeaky clean and lily-white when it comes to Canada\u2019s Human Rights record.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .\u00a0Canada 5 August 2016 The Editor THE HILL TIMES Ottawa, Ontario. Dear Editor: I was jolted with apprehension reading Peter Mazereeluw\u2019s\u00a0observations on Foreign Minister Stephane Dion\u2019s visit to\u00a0Sri Lanka. Mr. Dion had the gall and temerity to go to Sri Lanka and lecture its government on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57367","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\/57367","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=57367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}