{"id":88590,"date":"2019-05-11T15:24:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-11T22:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88590"},"modified":"2019-05-11T15:24:38","modified_gmt":"2019-05-11T22:24:38","slug":"tamil-genocide-remembrance-day-may-18th-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/11\/tamil-genocide-remembrance-day-may-18th-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"TAMIL GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY, MAY 18th 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ira de Silva<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Mayor John Tory
City Hall
100 Queen Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5H 2N2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Sir:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I refer to your proclamation Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, May\n18th, 2019. I am curious as to why you have chosen this date, May 18th for\nremembering “Tamil Genocide”. For Sri Lankans the day reminds them\nthat it was on May 19th, 2009 that the leaders of the Tamil terrorist group\ncalled the the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were killed.  Given the\nwide publicity in the Canadian media of the terrorist attacks by the LTTE and\nthe fact that Canadian Tamils funded and supported them for thirty years, with the\npublic backing of Canadian politicians, it would be more appropriate for you to\nissue a proclamation remembering the end of Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka, the\nliberation of all Sri Lankans from Tamil terrorism and the beginning of a\nperiod of peace for all Sri Lankans.  You use the word\n“genocide”. Are you aware that the word genocide implies a conscious\nand systematic plan to extinguish an entire ethnic group? The Tamils of Sri\nLanka are thriving in Sri Lanka and constitute  12% of the population.\nThere has been no reduction in this percentage over the last thirty years which\nmakes your claim a pathetic lie and indicates your ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of wide media coverage in Canada of the acts of terror in\nSri Lanka by Tamil terrorists, you seem to be oblivious of the fact that a\ngroup called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought to divide Sri\nLanka for thirty long years using extreme acts of terror on the entire\npopulation of Sri Lanka.  These acts of terror were “celebrated”\nin Toronto by the supporters of the Tamil terrorists who funded terrorism in\nSri Lanka and were backed by Canadian politicians of all political parties who\nhelped them raise funds and provided political backing to terrorize Sri\nLankans.  Sri Lankans who were being killed by this callous disregard of\nlife and liberty by Canadian politicians knew that this support was just to get\na few Tamil votes in Canada although it caused thousands of deaths in Sri\nLanka. The media all over the world reported on these acts of terror by this\ngroup of Tamil terrorists (LTTE) who earned the dubious distinction of being\nrated as the most ruthless terrorists in the world. In spite of the funding and\npolitical backing from overseas of these terrorists, Sri Lankan forces\nliberated the country on May 19th, 2009 when the terrorist leader was killed by\nthe Sri Lankan forces. He died with a gun in his hand. Some of his hard core\nfighters were also killed in this final battle. In your view, is the fact that\na group of ruthless terrorists were killed in battle “genocide”? If\nso, are Canadian forces sent to countries such as Syria and Afghanistan to\ncommit “genocide”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You state that you “gather on this solemn day to remember, to\ncommit that such a tragedy is never repeated and to continue to seek justice”.\nSri Lankans who were terrorised by these Tamil terrorists, gather to remember\nthe thousands killed in Sri Lanka, acts which were supported by politicians all\nover the world who were merely counting votes in their countries with callous\ndisregard of the fact that their actions were responsible for death and\ndestruction in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans  also do not want such a tragedy\nrepeated but proclamations such as yours indicate that Canadian politicians are\nagain supporting the possibility of the same tragedy being repeated just to get\nvotes in Canada at the expense of lives in Sri Lanka. It also indicates that\nCanadians who supported Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka  have been successful\nin getting your support.  You state that you “continue to seek\njustice”, so do Sri Lankans; the difference is that Sri Lankans seek\njustice that will bring an end to Tamil terrorism by holding those who\ncommitted the acts of terror to justice whereas you seem to seek justice for\nthose who committed the acts of terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2009 Sri Lanka has had relative peace in spite of the fact\nthat those who supported terrorism from Canada still continue to support a\ndivision of Sri Lanka whether by terror or other means. Your proclamation\nindicates that you have decided to support them to the detriment of peace and\nthe liberty of Sri Lankans who did not and do not support the division of Sri\nLanka. You have issued this “proclamation” to get votes.  You\nseem to forget that there are other voters who do not support your point of\nview and you have lost their support by this “proclamation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours truly,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ira de Silva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ira de Silva Mayor John ToryCity Hall100 Queen StreetToronto, OntarioM5H 2N2 Dear Sir: I refer to your proclamation Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, May 18th, 2019. I am curious as to why you have chosen this date, May 18th for remembering “Tamil Genocide”. For Sri Lankans the day reminds them that it was on May 19th, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88590","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=88590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}