Raghavan alerts parliament to resolution about to be passed in Ontario against Lanka

By Saman Indrajith

SLPP MP Dr Suren Raghavan yesterday called on the Speaker and other MPs to take immediate action to prevent a wrong being committed against Sri Lanka at Canada’s Legislative Assembly in Ontario.

MP Raghavan said that a Bill was being debated in the Ontario Legislative Assembly to name a week in May as the Tamil Genocide Education Week in that province.

“That Bill has passed its first reading stage and is being debated now in the second reading stage. If this is passed that week would be used to highlight what is called Tamil genocide here. That would also be taught in 4,800 schools in that province. We must protest and stop this.”

He said that particular Bill had been moved by Vijay Thanigasalam, who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the Progressive Conservative Party. “He is originally from Velvetithurai. His Bill is factually wrong because no genocide took place here. Five years after the war in 2014, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights too stated that there was no evidence to investigate genocide claims but only the war crimes charges would be investigated. Now, there is this Bill in the Ontario Legislative Assembly. It was moved on April 13, 2019. The Progressive Conservative Party is the ruling party in the Assembly. It has a strong majority and the support of the Tamil community there. Ontario’s Toronto has the highest Tamil diaspora concentration in a city. I know this since I used to have Canadian citizenship and taught at the University of Ottawa.”

Dr Raghavan urged Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena and MPs to form a Sri Lanka-Canada Parliamentary group so that Lankan MPs could discuss the matter with Canadian counterparts and prevent that wrong against this country being committed there. “Passing of this Bill will be inimical to whatever reconciliation processes we have here. I urge the Canadian politicians including Doug Ford, who is the Premier of Ontario to take the real situation and facts into consideration and throw this Bill away. I also urge fellow MPs in this House to take this threat against the motherland into consideration and take whatever action they can to prevent our motherland’s name being tarnished for political gains by several individuals.”