The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 74/No. 24      June 21, 2010

 
Montreal rally defends
right of Tamils to organize
 
BY MICHEL PRAIRIE  
MONTREAL—On May 18 more than 500 people, the big majority of Tamil origin, participated in a vigil outside the U.S. Consulate here to mark the first anniversary of the murderous assault by the army of Sri Lanka against the forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the civilian Tamil population in that country.

More than 40,000 civilians were killed during the military offensive of the Sri Lankan government, which ended in May 2009, and 300,000 were subsequently interned in concentration camps.

Similar actions were held in other cities around the world that day, coinciding with the holding of an election for a world council of Tamils.

An editorial in the Globe and Mail denounced that initiative. “Rather than relive old battles,” it said, “Canada’s Tamil diaspora should support peace and reconciliation in their homeland. Otherwise, Toronto, home to half of Canada’s estimated 200,000 Sri Lankans, risks becoming a base for disaffected members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.”

In his greetings to the May 18 event in Montreal, Malcolm Guy from the Tamil Action committee recalled that in April 2008 the Canadian government seized and closed two cultural centers belonging to the World Tamil Movement (WTM) in Montreal and Toronto on the pretext that the organization was collecting money for the Tamil Tigers.

Speaking on behalf of the Communist League, John Steele condemned the recent sentencing in Vancouver of Prapaharan Thambithurai to six months in prison for having collected $600 for the WTM. Steele called for freeing Thambithurai, repealing all “anti-terrorist” laws, opening Canada’s border to Tamil refugees, and withdrawing Canadian troops from Afghanistan.

John Steele contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home