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Letter to Stockwell Dayby Vel Velauthapillai, B.Eng, June 17, 2008
Dear Hon. Stockwell Day: I read your latest announcement about 'TERRORISM" and the ban on the World Tamil Movement today (Ref: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/media/nr/2008/nr20080616-eng.aspx). I am surprised to see that the Tories are bringing Canada to what feels like dictatorship. While US Democratic candidates Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton are showing maturity and expressing a willingness to reconsider their "list of terrorists", you are encouraging state terrorism and rewarding human right violations. After the Tories banned the LTTE in 2006, Sri Lankan government waged war against Tamils and killed more than 5000 Eelam Tamils. Now, the Sri Lankan government may plan to execute more massacres with newly pledged financial support from Iran. Tamils democratically decided to free themselves from Sri Lanka in 1977, long before the LTTE came into the picture. The problem is similar to Kosova, Tibet, or Bangladesh where a separation is needed to solve the problem. Tamils were waited for help from International community more than 30 years until 1977, then they decided to go separate and started to fight against Sri Lankan state terrorism. It is very hard to believe such a educated community could be threatened by the LTTE for money. Even if that is the case, I believe the Canadian police and the RCMP are capable of handling the situation with available laws. In fact, there are many Tamils who have worked for the police, army, and the RCMP as well. Please recruite more Tamils to the police if you want to know more about what is happening in the community. Branding Tamil organizations as terrorists, shutting down public voices or threating the Tamil community will not help in any way. In fact, it will be counter productive. If many Tamils are charged under terrorist laws, the rest will simply stop working and switch to public welfare because they know they will lose their hard-earned money anyway. On the other side, those who really want to help Tamils back on the island, will do so underground. Is this what the Tories want to achieve? In the 1980s, Canada faced the similar scenario as what is happening in Sri Lanka in Quebec, but a civilized and mature Canadian leadership very peacefully resolved the issues and provided adequate powers to Quebec. If Canada had banned the Bloc Quebec, the situation may be similar to Sri Lanka. It is always better to learn from history and good / bad experience. Tamils know how the Sri Lankan government has denied their rights using unnessary anti-terror laws (http://www.tamilsforjustice.org/). It was the US who armed the Taliban, and it was the US who armed Iraq. Now, it is the US and Canada who help Sri Lankan state terrorists. The problem is human rights and applying the best strategy to solve a problem. Dictatorship or governance using fear will cause more problems. Please don't play political games at the expense of a young fast-growing, productive, law-abiding community. I believe Canada still honors freedom of speech. Please don't apply any criminal charges for directly writing to you. Things are getting much more scary for Tamils, Sir!
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