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Tamil Protests downtown

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Brian69

Not the Messiah
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As most are already aware the large protests by Canadian Tamils created quite a stir downtown. On the one hand I sympathize with their fears about relatives caught in the conflict; on the other hand this is a war that has been ongoing for decades and has gone back and forth with little atrocities and human rights violations on both sides. Now that it is drawing to a close the apparent victory of the Sinhalese isn't sitting to well with the Tamil people, and understandably so.

For my part, if the LTTE wasn't so well represented in flags and comments by the protestors I'd have no problems with them provided they were done at City Hall or some other open space. Freedom of speech and assembly are rights for everyone in Canada. But to block traffic and cause some degree of chaos downtown seems to run counter to the idea of getting the Canadian public on side. And to make an open show of support for the LTTE when abuses have been documented against it (included the murder of a popular Indian Prime Minister) won't help win public sympathy. I wonder if this might cause a backlash among the public and and end up fueling hard feelings on both sides.

Thoughts?

(this could go in Toronto Issues but I believed it's more appropriate here)
 
I work right at Queen and Yonge and saw the protests. They weren't blocking traffic too much, apart from the "Tamil Security" vans going around. Just slowing things down a bit, though the sidewalks were impassable (though there's always the PATH in the financial district).

Yeah, the one thing that bothered me were all the Tamil Tiger flags. It would have been smarter to leave the LTTE out of it, at least visibly. While I am very concerned what the more militant of the Sinhalese will do once they get full control, they shouldn't have brought them into it. The pro-Palestinian protestors (which like pro-Tibet protestors have a wider level of support), are smart enough to leave Hamas out of it.
 
My wife and I were enjoying a pint at Volo on Yonge when the Palestinian marchers went by. Although I did see the odd Hamas flag the vast majority were Palestinian ones. While I'd say I'm not exactly in the Palestinian camp I didn't see much to complain about.

I would agree that more members of the general public understand the Palestinian and Tibet conflicts better and if the Tamil groups want to gain support rather than piss the public off they'd better change their tactics. Given the broad level of support for the LTTE among the Tamil populace (many of whom seem to consider them freedom fighters in the same mold as the IRA) I'd say that's unlikely to happen.
 
it is all a Point of View.


Your hero may be a bastard to someone else. :p
 
what exactly will this protest accomplish? is canada somehow involved? if it is, doesn't that make it a federal issue? shouldn't the protest be in ottawa then?
 
Gandhi is a hero to some in India to other he was a big bastard who really screwed India in the end.
 
what exactly will this protest accomplish? is canada somehow involved? if it is, doesn't that make it a federal issue? shouldn't the protest be in ottawa then?

The largest Sri Lankan Tamil community outside of Sri Lanka itself is in Toronto. Hence the protest is in Toronto.

And Canada is vital to the fight. Until the Harper government banned the LTTE, Canada was the last bastion for the LTTE in the western world. Significant funding for the LTTE was coming from Canada. After the ban came in, funding really took a hit and affected the LTTE's ability to counter a Sri Lankan military that was dramatically raising defence budgets in the hope of finishing the war once in for all. There are still many Tamils in Toronto who are hoping that once the Liberals are back in power, that the decision might be reversed.

The Tamil population in Toronto does have some sway for sure. They did manage in 2004/2005, to convince the government to send the DART to tamil areas of Sri Lanka to do disaster assistance and relief work while there were several other places the DART could have been used.
 
It's kind of irritating for people trying to go about their day. I understand that for people whose family may be in danger in their ancestral home, this isn't the top priority, but I think there are better ways of gaining support. And while I think people have the right to free speech, protests which actively disrupt the city in any significant way shouldn't be allowed....because at the end of the day, Canada is not Sri Lanka, and we don't have any inherent responsibility to concern ourselves with foreign wars, callous as that sounds....Support shouldn't be forced out of people, rather voluntarily taken..

But if they actually want my support then they will have to remove their open support of the LTTE group. I understand that both sides of the conflict have committed atrocities. I understand that the LTTE was a final resort after years of attempted nonviolent resolution. But I have standards for who I will "support" and those standards won't change based on context. LTTE have committed several human rights abuses so I'm not going to voice any support for them. I won't support their opponents either, to be consistent.

Now if it were simply about voicing support for the northern Sri Lankan Tamils who are in a dangerous situation at the moment, then that's a different story, but if the protesters insist on making this a protest about supporting the LTTE, in that case, leave me out of it.
 
^Moreover, there is plenty of evidence that the LTTE (as part of their fundraising efforts) have exported their know-how to transnational criminal groups (South American drug lords) and other terrorist organizations (Hezbollah). They show them things like how to make fake documents, how to infiltrate, how to make a suicide vest, etc. That's a big part of the reason they were banned. I sincerely hope that when the Liberals are back in, they don't reverse the ban. The world is better off without a group that exports terror technologies and practices.
 
I've never heard that before so I won't respond to it. But I don't think in such simplstic terms, regardless of the distasteful actions of that group, I don't think it's any better for one human rights abuser (the SL government) to defeat another human rights abuser. I am equally concerned about what is going to happen to the minority civilians in the North once that resistance is squashed, judging by the history, it won't be like Canada and the French.

Unfortunate.
 
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