Hon. Jason Kenney issues statement on 30^th anniversary of the Black July pogrom.

2066 Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1

26 July 2013

Hon. Jason Kenney, PC, MP

Minister of Employment and Social Development

House of Commons, Ottawa

Dear Jason Kenney:

On July 23, at 9:30 PM I received an e-mail from a Canadian-Tamil, one Thevan Paramsothy (tparamsothy@yahoo.com) with a subject line – Fw: (Tamil_Araichchi) Hon. Jason Kenney issues statement on 30^th anniversary of the Black July pogrom.  And the message was: “Here what our Tamil friendly minister saying….funny dog”

Jason, I hope you noticed that he addressed either you or me as “…funny dog”.   If it was supposed to be me, it does seem that whatever I say about the Tamil separatist Eelam issue bites him as if it was a dog’s bite.  And I like it if that is indeed the effect it has on him and his Eelam psyche, I believe I have been effective.  I don’t consider myself a vicious dog and I hope my bite wouldn’t bleed him.  I want to spare him with that unfortunate predicament.

And now to get on to your – Hon. Jason Kenney issues statement on 30^th anniversary of the Black July pogrom.

Your statement said: “Thirty years ago today in Sri Lanka, violent mobs of armed extremists began carrying out attacks against the country’s Tamil population.  Hundreds of Tamils were killed and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed in the ensuing riots.”

Jason, that is indeed correct.  It did happen and I abhor what happened which left a scar on all of Sri Lanka and me.  But it didn’t happen impromptu, unprovoked,  just like that, as you all would like us to believe.  It was a snow-balling culmination of many brutal acts against the Sinhalese by the Tamil Tigers for many years prior to that incident.  And there was ethnic cleansing from 1971 until 1981 which saw 27,000 Sinhalese who lived in the north for generations being kicked out having been terrorized and killed.  And that is a Fact and your Tamil groupies should be honest to say, “Yes, Asoka is right.  It did happen.”

It was on 13 August 1977, when the Tamil separatists stoned and chased 400 Sinhalese lecturers and undergraduates from the Jaffna University campus.  And the beauty was not a single Tamil undergraduate or lecturer in the Universities in the south was touched by an angry Sinhalese.   The Sinhalese in fact guarded them from possible harm.  And that is a Fact and your Tamil groupies should be honest enough to say, “Yes, Asoka is right.  It did happen.”

In March 1984, I had lunch with a prominent Canadian Vancouverite, a Member of the Order of Canada, in an Italian Restaurant in Gastown, and I told him: “I am still upset about the riots of  last July, especially the killings that went on.  As a Buddhist, I have difficulty to accept it.”  It  is the holy truth when I tell you that my eyes were welled with tears as I was hurting inside me.  He said, “Listen Asoka, you don’t have to be too upset about it. I know your Sinhalese people.  They are very generous and kind people.  They were provoked incessantly by these Tamil Tigers for months and years and the bubble had to burst at some point and it did happen on July 23rd last year, when they brought the bodies of the 13 army soldiers to Colombo for burial who had been killed in an ambush by the Tamil Tigers in the North. The people went berserk.  Although the Sinhalese are nice and generous people, it is too much for anyone to ask them to be a bunch of Saints when confronted with such a brutal situation. There were families, relations and friends in the hundreds were affected by these 13 killings by the Tamil Tigers.”  And that was an honest Canadian speaking.

And looking back Jason, this prominent Vancouverite was right.  When constantly provoked by killings, massacres of the Sinhalese innocents, by bombing the facade of the most revered Buddhist precinct in a mainly Buddhist country, the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of Buddha’s Tooth relic), Black July never happened again. The Sinhalese learnt their lesson, and also understood the cunning and baiting of the Tamil Tigers who were maestros to provoke incidents that would take the international stage to throw mud and poison darts at Sri Lanka.  They failed hundreds of times until they were eliminated on the shores of the Nandikadhal  lagoon on 19 May 2009.

But what was poignant about your statement was this – “I stand with the Tamil-Canadian community in commemorating the senseless destruction and tragic loss of life during Black July.”

But Jason, a year has 12 months and the Eelam War went on for 27 years.  If the month of “July” was a real concern of yours which prompted you to say “I stand with the Tamil-Canadian community”, will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community and the Muslim-Canadian community if they will commemorate the following brutal incidents by the Tamil Tigers which took the lives of innocent unarmed Sinhalese and Muslims unjustly?  Tamils happened to be just one of the communities in that multi-ethnic island.

January:   Jason, will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the Triple Tragedies inflicted by the Tamil Tigers.  The senseless powerful bomb attack by the Tamil Tigers inside a civilian bus in Seenigama (6 January 2007) killing 15 civilians and injuring 40 others; The senseless Truck bomb attack on the Central Bank Building (31 January 1996) killing 114 innocent civilians and maiming for life another 1338; and the senseless attack on the Sacred Temple of Buddha’s Tooth Relic (25 January 1998) killing 12 and injuring 13 others?  The explosives for the Truck bomb were bought from a chemical factory in the Ukraine in 1994, and paid with a cheque cut from a Bank account of a Tamil in a Bank in Vancouver. Will you Jason?

February:  Jason, will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the dual tragedy inflicted by the Tamil Tigers.  The senseless massacre (2 February 1986) by the Tamil Tigers armed with small arms and swords killing 19 unarmed civilians in a village in Kantalai; and the senseless explosion (19 February 1986) of a  mine by the Tamil Tigers which killed 39 refugees from Serunuwara along the Ella/Kantalai Road.  Will you Jason?

April: Jason, will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy inflicted by the ruthless Tamil Tigers?  On the senseless blood thirsty killing of 127 civilians in Habarana (17 April 1987) by the Tamil Tigers, the friends of your Tamil groupies. These Sinhalese civilians included 31 police and security forces personnel who were travelling in three buses and two trucks to Trincomalee, when the Tamil Tigers stopped the vehicles and dragged out the passengers, and shot them to death with automatic weapons and brutally assaulting them with clubs.  And 44 others were maimed for life.  They were children of the same God of the Tamils who died during the Black July riots for whom you stood for.  Will you Jason?

May: Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy inflicted by the ruthless Tamil Tigers who the Liberals christened as “Angels of Peace” during a vigil for Tamil Chelvam in Markham.  There was a dastardly attack on 14 May 1985 by a group of 25 Tamil Tigers who shot and killed 120 Buddhist devotees including children and wounding 85 others in the Buddhist sacred city of Anuradhapura. Will you stand with us Sinhalese-Canadian Buddhists, or do you find there are too few Sinhalese votes among us to make this sacrifice and antagonize your GTA Tamil groupies?  Will you? 

June: Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating two tragedies inflicted by the ruthless Tamil Tigers.    It was on 2 June 1987, that the Tamil Tigers massacred and brutally mutilated 33 young novice Buddhist monks and their mentor Chief Priest Ven. Hegoda Indrasara  at Aranthalawa in Ampara., having pulled them out of a bus and shot them dead. These Tamils expected another Black July with this massacre, hoping the Sinhalese Buddhist community would go after the Tamils in a riot, but it never happened.   And it was on 11 June 1990 that the Tamil Tigers brought 700 policemen in relays who had surrendered earlier to a jungle lookout.  Having  had their hands tied behind their backs, and asking them to kneel the Tamil Tigers shot everyone of them through their heads.  These Tamil Tigers were ruthless and nasty cruel bastards, I would say. Well, Jason, will you stand with us Sinhalese-Canadians when we commemorate their deaths?  Or would you find it tricky that if you do that the Conservatives would lose the GTA Tamil  bloc votes in an act of protest and move back to the Liberals?

July:  Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy inflicted by the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists. On 24 July 1996, the Tamil Tiger terrorists detonated multiple bombs on several carriages of the Colombo-Aluthgama train at Dehiwela, killing 56 passengers and maiming for life another 366 civilians returning home in the evening after work.  Those who were killed and injured were the same God’s children as were the Tamils who got killed during the Black July riots. Well, Jason, will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadians during the commemoration of this tragedy?  Will you?

August:  Will you stand with the Sri Lankan Muslim-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy inflicted by the ruthless Tamil Tigers.?  On Friday, 3 August 1990, the Tamil Tiger terrorists opened fire and killed 103 Muslims and injured 70 others while they were praying at the Meera Jumma Mosque in Kathankudy on the east coast.  That was brutal.  That wasn’t civilized.  That was animalistic.

And two months later on 28 October, the Tamil Tigers kicked out 100,000 Muslims from the north and east coast of the island, giving them 24 hours to get out leaving behind their gold and other valuables.  That incident made Uganda’s Idi Amin look like an angel as he had a heart when he kicked out Ugandan-Indians from Uganda.   He gave them three months to leave Uganda.  Well, Jason, will you stand with the Sri Lankan-Canadian Muslims when they commemorate the massacre of their people at prayer at the Mosque in Kathankudy?  Will you, Jason?  They too have a legitimate vote to cast during the federal elections, just not the Tamils.

September:  Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy inflicted by the ruthless Tamil Tigers?  It was on 18 September 1999, in the small village of Gonagala in the District of Amapara, 50 men, woman and children were hacked to death in the middle of the night by the Tamil Tiger terrorists, a canker that was wiped out by the Sri Lankan soldiers on 19 May 2009.  According to survivors there had been a significant presence of female cadres among the almost 75 Tamil Tigers who took part in the killings.  Well, Jason, will you?

October: Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy incited by the ruthless Tamil Tigers?  It was on 15 October 1997 that the Tamil Tiger suicide bombers with a lorry laden with explosives attacked the World Trade Centre and the Galadari Hotel in the heart of Colombo.  They killed 12 innocent civilians and maimed for life another 113.  And do you know what, Jason? Those explosives were bought from a chemical factory in the Ukraine with a cheque cut from a Tamil person’s account from a Bank in Vancouver.  Aren’t we Canadians a bunch of killers, and yet have the gall and temerity to go around the Third World countries preaching the Canadian brand of Human Rights.  Give me a break Jason!  I have identified you as one of those starched white collarless preachers.   Well, Jason, will you?

November: Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy that was inflicted upon them by the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists?  At Dollar Farm in the Welioya District, 33 Sinhalese were killed on 30 November 1984, and several others were injured in the shooting carried out by the Tamil Tiger terrorists.  On the same day at Kent Farm another 29 Sinhalese civilians were killed, increasing the total of the dead to 62.  Among the causalities were men, women and children. The Tamil Tigers had used sub-machine guns, automatic rifles and hand grenades to kill.  Survivors also reported that the Tamil Tigers had killed children by bashing their heads against the walls.  Surely with such a macabre killings of the Sinhalese by the Tamil Tigers, how could you refuse to stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community during their commemoration ceremony?  You did it for the Canadian-Tamil community for the Black July ceremony, didn’t you?  Will you Jason?

December:  Will you stand with the Sinhalese-Canadian community in commemorating the tragedy inflicted upon them by the Tamil Tigers?   On 1 December 1984 the Tamil Tiger terrorists killed 11 Sinhalese civilians in the fishing village in Kokilai  in the Mullaitivu District, for no reason of theirs.  Will you, Jason?

Well, Jason, all these love-ins with the Tamil community in the Greater Toronto Area by you for the Conservatives, Justin Trudeau for the Liberals and Rathika Sitsabaiesan for the NDP is turning out to be a Federal election horse race.  I could  almost hear the Federal election race commentator reporting  -

“.. here they come…around the bend…all three are neck to neck…the Conservative horse Curry-in-a-Hurry; Markham’s Wanni the Liberal’s horse and the horse Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show of the NDP.  All three are ridden by three Tamil jockeys, Velu, Logan and Suresh. (you could hear the galloping sound  of the horses and the  excited sounds of cheering and hooting by Tamils in the background)

“They are just 400 meters away…..and the NDP Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show has a slight lead pushed by Liberal's Markham’s Wanni.   I am afraid  Conservative's Curry-in-a-Hurry is slipping back and struggling.

“200 meters to go and  the Conservative's Curry-in-a-Hurry is slipping back…and  Liberal’s Markham’s Wanni is coming from the outside of NDP’s Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show….and it’s just 100 meters to go and the Liberal’s Markham’s Wanni has caught up with  NDPs Tamil Blarney Gong Show…The Conservatives Curry-in-a-Hurry has slipped way…way back.

This is exciting….25 meters to go and the Liberal’s Markham’s Wanni is shoulder to shoulder with the Tamil Blarney Gong Show……my goodness….the Liberals are going to nip the NDP at the finishing line….. O My Goodness…and it has…it has…and the Liberals have won a few more seats from the Conservatives and most likely will form a minority government.

“I wonder what really happened to the Conservatives.  No doubt some young Conservatives jumped ship and joined the youthful Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, and the Sinhalese-Canadians deciding not to vote for the Conservatives because of their love-ins with the Tamils, did the Conservatives in. And those few votes  of the Sinhalese-Canadians may have made the difference from winning and losing in the Gdeater Toronto Area ridings.”

There you are Jason.  You ignore the Sinhalese voters…well be prepared for the Conservative downfall.  That is my prediction. And I am seldom wrong.  But what is important to us Sinhalese-Canadians is whether you will stand buy us like you have done with the Tamil-Canadians when we commemorate the massacres of our people by the most ruthless terrorists in the world, the Tamil Tigers.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe.