A way forward for Sri Lankan Canadians

Amiththan Sebarajah, Jacinta Kanakaratnam, Nadeesh Jayasinghe, Kumaran Nadesan, Suthamie Poologasingham, Vijay Sappani, Viranjith Tilakaratne and Yolanie Hettiarachchi, (National Post)

Sri Lanka: To many, it is a small island off the Indian coast, torn asunder by decades of civil war. Yet few understand the complexity of its conflicts or its people. Sri Lanka's demography is both Tamil and Sinhalese (along with a number of other significant subcultures). The ethnic profile of the Sri Lankan diaspora in Canada is representative of this diversity, but there has been very little interaction or dialogue amongst them, even here.

On April 11, a mixed group of Sri Lankan Canadian young professionals and business leaders met at the Holiday Inn in Markham, Ont., to change precisely that.

Responding to growing frustration amongst younger Canadian-Sri Lankans over the perennial state of emergency, deteriorating human rights situation, and increasing threat to free media and civil society within Sri Lanka, we felt that without frank and honest conversation, there would be no reconciliation; generations of Sinhalese-and Tamil-Canadians will continue to be caught up in cycles of learned prejudice and senseless violence. We felt that a fresh platform is needed to rethink Tamil-Sinhala relations in Canada.

Conceived organically on social networking sites and nourished by coffee-shop conversations, eight of us decided to launch a pioneering, grassroots initiative firmly grounded in our shared Canadian identity. Our concerns about the Sri Lankan diaspora community will be guided, we agreed, by a quintessentially Canada-first approach.

Our mandate was to invite 50 Sri Lankan Canadian young professionals to a networking luncheon where they could build their professional networks while creating a safe space for dialogue on the value of inter-communal solidarity in Canada.

We also invited mentors from the Jewish-and Indo-Canadian communities so that mentees could learn from the successes of those communities in Canada.

We asked mentors and mentees to examine the questions of identity politics, and discuss policy alternatives for improving access to higher education, employment, and social services for the community, as well as strategies for effectively engaging different levels of the Canadian government on these issues.

The participants responded enthusiastically. We were both heartened and humbled to witness the energy with which they embraced the concept and debated tangible solutions. One young professional observed: "While in Sri Lanka, linguistic and cultural barriers might have prevented us from reaching out but there is no reason to continue like that here in Canada where we all speak a common language."

To those participants born and raised in Canada, and for whom Sri Lanka's myriad exclusionary politics were a persistent impediment for negotiating the Tamil-Sinhala divide, the event provided a meaningful interpersonal experience. It gave them an opportunity to meet fellow Canadians of different Sri Lankan origins, and to reflect upon creating a civil, democratic space to discuss common aspirations and redress past grievances; to move forward as a united community.

Our aim was not to oversimplify intricate and seemingly irreconcilable socio-political realities of Sri Lanka, nor was it to absolve the injustice and violence committed upon all communities in that country. We focused, instead, on the prospects for open dialogue and inter-communal solidarity here at home in Canada, since we earnestly believe that this is the promise and promise of our greater Canadian identity.

Will the rest of you join us?

-For more information or to join the network, please contact

vijaysappani@gmail.com