Toronto’s Tamil community reaping what they sowed?

by lalith | July 24, 2009 at 09:36 pm

372 views | 13 Recommendations | 18 comments

As Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war raged to a bloody end a few months ago, thousands of Toronto-area Tamils took to the streets to decry the deaths of loved ones back home.

Now, the same Tamil community is grappling with the violent deaths of two of its young men in Scarboroughin less than two weeks, and some wonder if a new kind of war, much closer to home, has taken its place.

“Since the protests have stopped, they have nothing to do,” a 25-year-old Tamil-Canadian woman said Tuesday outside an Eglinton Avenue strip mall where her family has a business. “I think the protests were holding us together really strong. Now, [their absence has] divided us into separate communities.”

The woman was reacting to the broad-daylight beating death of Annushath Indrakanthan, 19, during the noon hour on Monday, as he stood outside a strip plaza on Bonis Avenue near Birchmount Road. Mr. Indrakanthan, who was taking two summer-school courses to complete his high-school education at nearby Stephen Leacock Collegiate, had just bought a slice of cheese pizza and a Dr. Pepper when a white Ford approached carrying two or three more young men. Two of them set upon him, swinging weapons, including a hammer. As he lay dying on his mother´s birthday, the men drove off, throwing weapons from the vehicle as they fled.

Mr. Indrakanthan’s death came nine days after Kristian Thanapalan, 22, was similarly beaten by a large group of males armed with baseball or cricket bats in a park near Kennedy Road and Highway 401. Mr. Thanapalan, who was to begin studies at York Universityin September, had been playing volleyball with friends when he was swarmed.

The recent protests which were held by the Tamil Terrorist supporting minority of the Tamil diaspora in Canada angered many people. They blocked roads during protests and tokk the law into their own hands.

The killers should be brought to justice very quickly. We should also find out why Tamils are getting targeted. There may much more to this story.

Hopefully, with the efficiency of the Canadian Police, the truth will emerge and the culprits will be arrested.

The young woman, who was a friend of Mr. Thanapalan, asked that her name be withheld in fear her friend’s unknown killers would target her next.

She said the thousands-strong Tamil protests throughout the spring, including an impromptu shutdown of the Gardiner Expressway, gave Tamils hope that the world would pressure the Sri Lankan government into a ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, whose long separatist struggle enjoyed widespread support among Toronto’s estimated 200,000-plus Tamils before the rebel group was defeated, and its charismatic leader killed by government forces, in late May.

She said that “very devastating” defeat has taken the wind out of a unified movement and left Tamils, particularly youth raised in Canada on glorious stories of the war back home, without a cause, and possibly turning against each other based on old internal rivalries.

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tallison

at 22:38 on July 24th, 2009

Oh yyeah! Are they empty headed and empty minded? Satan will keep finding work for them.

sudharaka

at 23:26 on July 24th, 2009

“Since the protests have stopped, they have nothing to do,”

Sums up the situation very well.

"turning against each other based on old internal rivalries"

Hardly surprising.

Uncle Sam (not verified)

at 11:54 on July 25th, 2009

Hmmm..

It is called inertia...!

albertacowpoke

at 03:50 on July 25th, 2009

Isn't the idea of coming to a new country also the idea of starting a new life. Ethnic traditions in the new country are fine but coming to a new country should also signify the start of a new life and not the continuance of the wars left behind.

JamalDavid (not verified)

at 08:31 on July 25th, 2009

This is no continuation of any war left behind. These fights are amongst Tamils themselves, and this is hardly surprising as the Canadian liberal governments have allowed in many former Tamil Tigers as refugees. Serves you stupid Canadians right for believing these Tamil lies. Hope they turn on you now.

Uncle Sam (not verified)

at 11:54 on July 25th, 2009

Give up , Sir. They won't understand. Even if they do, they pretend like they did not understand.

Tamiya

at 21:03 on July 25th, 2009

The Sri Lankan government's dirt throwing on Tamils continue in Canada too I guess.

Sure!!! why not. as far as the Sri Lankan government is concerned Canadian MP, Bob Rae is a security threat to Sri Lanka, so the Tamils in Canada must be "terrorists" because they are protesting for rights in their family, friends and relatives in the Tamils regions in Sri Lanka.

What an ignorant way to forget about the issues that need immediate attention in Sri Lanka. There are 300,000 Tamils detained in the so called welfare concentraion camps, subjected to all types of human rights violations, but the author is here trying to bring false allegations on the 300,000 Tamils living in Canada using a Sinhalese chuvanist source.

There is no media from Sri Lanka that can write anything other than what the Sri Lankan government dictates, and God forbid if they ever do, then they will be banned as the Lanka News Web for refusing to follow the lines of the government.

Domestic access to the independent Web site Lanka News Web was shut down over the weekend, according to several sources. The site, which is still accessible outside of Sri Lanka posted a statement today saying that government had directed domestic Internet service providers to block access to the site, which is hosted outside the country. The statement said that site managers had received no formal explanation but suspected the shutdown stemmed from a story on Saturday saying that the president's son had been the target of stone throwers at a refugee camp.
The same day, the official Web site of the Ministry of Defense carried an article headlined, "Traitors in Black Coats Flocked Together," which identified five lawyers who represented the Sunday Leader newspaper at a July 9 hearing in a Mount Lavinia court as having "a history of appearing for and defending" LTTE guerrillas. The article carries pictures of three of the lawyers, making them identifiable to government supporters who might accost them. The ministry's Web site has criticized several individuals in the past who have gone on to be targeted with threats. The paper's parent organization, Leader Publications,has been in court defending itself against contempt charges stemming from critical coverage of Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa. The lawyers had recently replaced the original defense attorneys, who had resigned because they said they did not support criticism of Rajapaksa, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother.

If an isolated event of violent is supposed to make all the Tamils in Canada violent and terrorists, then how about the Sri Lankan president and his troops who have just killed over 30,000 Tamils and still has not been punished for it ? and how about the Sinhalese, who have supported the blood bath ?!! what kind of values are these Sinhalese teaching to their kids ? anything other than to be a chuvanist, rude, ignorant, violent and inhumane beings ?!!

The article is quite funny!!!. It has completely ignored the plight of 300,000 Tamils suffering in Sri Lanka, but still got time and insight to go around the world to analyze the mind set of 300,000 Tamils living in Canada because of a single incident happened. Wow, what an insight analysis.

Uncle Sam (not verified)

at 22:22 on July 25th, 2009

There is no need to throw dirt on those LTTE terrorists who dug themselves deep in cow dung and hiding there. The world know and they themselves know this fact. Just understand this. LTTEs are not Tamils, so it is futile to hide behind them - you will be more visible.

The now the vicious dogfight for the remaining crumps and bones are visibly coming onto the surface.Let us hope that such incidents keep happening till those poor westerners who generously gave asylum to such types suffer more and more. It is a pleasure to watch them sew their mouth tight and swallow whatever they feel with dignity - in the name of humanity. It is a pity to see that they are wasting those gestures on LTTE supporters.

However, people should have freedom of choice, at the end..!

Law and order, Hogtown-style, is all about playing favourites. Clearly there’s one law for Tamil Tiger terrorist supporters (allowed to march onto the Gardiner Expressway, complete with infants in baby strollers), naked Pride marchers (full-frontal public nudity not merely accommodated but seemingly encouraged), and CUPE thugs. And clearly there’s another law for just about everyone else.

More than the trash stinks in Toronto these days.

Uncle Sam (not verified)

at 22:29 on July 25th, 2009

Well, it seems that the majority of the people are not able to tolerate the support to terrorism. From the comments on the news articles about LTTE supporters and their antics, common people are really got pissed of with them.

Keep them coming , folks (foxes).

The underlying problem for Canadians predates these recent Tamil activities. How do we keep immigrants from bringing their fights to Canadian soil? From Canada’s beginnings, violent foreign organizations have received support from landed immigrants or even Canadian citizens from countries embroiled in religious conflict.

The line between legitimate support for relatives in the "old country" and even political interests in those countries and support of terrorist organizations is often fuzzy. In many cases the supporters may not even realize that their donations are being funneled into these terrorist groups.

Perhaps, our immigration laws should include background checks on people’s political histories. Surely we can devise a policy that would not discriminate on the basis of other aspects of their lives while identifying those who wish to use Canada as a base for terrorist operations in their former countries. Is a person who seeks to overthrow his country’s legitimate government automatically a refugee?

As Canadian humanists, we need to balance humanitarian concerns with our own security. The Tamil demonstrations, as annoying as they were, may just be the tip of an iceberg that Canada has to deal with and soon.

lalith

at 00:05 on July 26th, 2009

This is an old article. Very interesting reading.

http://webhome.idirect.com/~sluna/8000ts.htm

lalith

at 03:35 on July 26th, 2009

If an isolated event of violent is supposed to make all the Tamils in Canada violent and terrorists

All Tamils in Canada are not violent and terrorists. We all know that. The terrorist supporters are a minority. We all know that too. Do not generalize to dramatize your comments.

In 1974 when 91,000 rupees was robbed by LTTE Terrorists from the Multipurpose Cooperative Society in Tellipallai, it was considered an 'ISOLATED ACT' too.

Tamiya

at 06:50 on July 26th, 2009

You just generalized and misled the whole thing by using the title "Toronto’s Tamil community reaping what they sowed?"

and if one would check the comments on the source you have posted, it is quite easy to see the hatred and animosity expressed towards Tamils in Sri Lanka and all other places too. You call this not generalizing and not fueling hatred towards Tamils ?!!

lalith

at 09:41 on July 26th, 2009

You are using a headline I quoted. That's good.

This is only the beginning. You will see many more criminal acts by the LTTE terrorist supporting Tamils, especially against the innocent peace loving Tamils in Canada.

Read my comments on the original post and you will see what I mean. Take it easy. Your guys lost. You write with a lot of hatred.

There is no hatred towards Tamils but the Terrorist supporting Eels are the one's who should be weeded out.

Take care my Tamil sister.

Tamiya

at 11:35 on July 26th, 2009

If Tamils lost, and the Sri Lankan government won, then US, UK, France and Germany would not be opposing to the IMF fund to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan government got China, India, Iran, and all other list on its side. These countries could not care less about human rights violations in their own country, let alone worry about the human rights violations under Rajapaksa government.

Osama Bin Laden also would have thought he "Won" during 9/11. That's the same thing the Sri Lankan government is thinking right now, Human Rights Violations could never be called winning of anything and one with any shred of decency should be ashamed to support such a government, and if you want to call this "hartred", so be it.

Justice will prevail for Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the protest for justice will continue until justice is served to the government who killed 30,000 Tamils in the veil of war, and still continuing to do so in the internment camps to 300,000 Tamils.

eastvanray

at 10:46 on July 26th, 2009

Don't they have drugs to sell?

Manik (not verified)

at 11:52 on July 26th, 2009

"and how about the Sinhalese, who have supported the blood bath ?!!"

Yeah? LOL! Then how about ALL the Diaspora Tamils who funded a terrorist group supporting it to carry out despicable crimes victimising unsuspecting innocent people for 30 years?

"it is quite easy to see the hatred and animosity expressed towards Tamils in Sri Lanka and all other places too."

If you look at it the way you want to see it...it is quite easy to see, when in actual fact, it is those who supported separatism that harbour hatred and animosity...still! It just takes one to know one! :)

lalith

at 18:17 on July 26th, 2009

Tamils did not lose. With the end of Prabhakaran and his goons, the majority of the Tamils won.

THE LTTE terrorists and its followers lost. Somebody is in the habit of reading a part of a comment and then jumping on it.

Once again. The Eels lost. Prabha the great is dead. So is his so called invincible army or whatever. There are only stragglers now.

Prabhakaran was one of the biggest human rights violators in the world. His hands were strengthened by the terrorist supporting minority of the diaspora. Most of the diaspora donated money through sheer fear. These peace loving Tamils are a happy lot today.

When one criminal is dead, it is always good to find another criminal to lead the LTTE. The LTTE found this criminal in KP.

Just look in the mirror before you agitate.

By the way, US, UK and France with a total of 27% of the loan lost too. UK and France will keep on losing. They have to address their own woes. Also, the days where they could bully third world countries are gone.:-))

Hiranya Malwatta

at 04:52 on July 27th, 2009

It is interesting to see how some hardcore LTTE supporting Diasporans still try very hard to mislead the ignorant IC by using phrases like "Tamils lost and Sri Lanka won" - please get it into your thick skulls that Tamils in Sri Lanka are SRI LANKANS and they finally won !! LTTE terrorism and you lost !

Thanks for the post Lalith.