Councillors present Tamil petition to MP

This is a news item about a Tamil politician, recently elected to the City Council in Markham area, who presented a petition to the Canadian Government with 4000 signatures of Tamils in Markham. While it raises an interesting question about the actual number of Tamil residents living in Markham, who elected a Tamil Politicians in a much larger Chinese community, our focus was to ask if this politician was wasting the city & tax payers money on an issue that doesn't concern the majority of it's residents. The reporter Ms. Tiffany Hsieh interviewed the Consul General Mr. Bandula Jayasekara and couple of us, to get the perspective of other residents, non-Tamil Sri Lankans in Markham. We appreciate Ms. Hsiesh's professionalism as a journalist, and taking her time to listen to both side of the story, unlike some larger media outlets like The Toronto Star reporters, who only listens to Terrorist sympathizer's side of the story. Below are the excerpts from the interviews given by our 3 readers, but click on the link below to read the complete story. -Sinhaya

Regional News, Markham Economist, March 21, 2009 08:41 AM

BY TIFFANY HSIEH

While Sinhalese accounts for the majority of the population in Sri Lanka, here in Markham, they are a small group. One resident describes the relationship between the local Sinhalese and Tamil communities as often "inflamed."

"Things are fine if I don't speak up to them (the Tamils)," said Shantha Perera, a 24-year-old Sinhalese from Sri Lanka who has lived in Unionville with his family for the last 10 years. "There have been times when I did (speak up) and it was intimidating."

In his final year of study at the University of Toronto, Mr. Perera calls Mr. Kanapathi's petition "pointless."

"I agree that this war needs to stop, but calling for a ceasefire at this point is not going to bring a resolution," he said. "Right now, there are a lot of civilian casualties being blamed on both sides, but the Tigers, given the historic context, will not value ceasefires. They are just buying time to rebuild."

Ranil Perera (no relation) agrees, but the 43-year-old Markham resident of eight years suspects Mr. Kanapathi of being "pressured, threatened, and bombarded" by the local Tamil community to present the petition.

"I have many Tamil friends here - I golf with them and my accountant is a Tamil," he said. "And most of them don't want this, but they can't speak up. I understand everybody has issues, but unfortunately innocent people are always going to be killed. It's not a genocide, if they (the Tigers) put their arms down, the war will end tomorrow."

Such are the views shared by Bandula Jayasekara, Consulate General of Sri Lanka. A former editor-in-chief of the Daily News, the largest newspaper in Sri Lanka, Mr. Jayasekara is on his first diplomatic assignment to Toronto.

"There are no two groups here. You have a government of Sri Lanka, which I represent, and you have a terrorist group, which we are fighting to eradicate. In Canada, you don't say you are French or English, you say Canadians. We have Sri Lankans," he said.

"If you look at the rally (on Monday), they carried the Tamil Tigers' flags, and they carried the photograph of their terrorist leader wanted by Interpol for the killing of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi of India (in 1991)."

Mr. Jayasekara figured by speaking publicly in support of the Tamils, that Mr. Kanapathi is a terrorist supporter.

"If this person (Mr. Kanapathi) has become a Canadian, he must promote Canadian values. He should try to solve the problems of the Canadians and not talk of terrorism," Mr. Jayasekara said. "Sometimes I'm really puzzled whether these MPs and local politicians are representing Canada or Sri Lanka. I really feel sorry for the Canadian taxpayers. There are problems such as unemployment and the economic crisis, but none of those seem to be handled and taken care of."
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