Sri Lanka during Question Period on Monday, May 11

Sri Lanka during Question Period on Monday, May 11:

Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.): 
    Mr. Speaker, violence continues in Sri Lanka today while Tamil Canadians mourn death after death. Civilians are being massacred and Canada has failed to step up to the international plate. Yesterday the UN called this conflict a “bloodbath”, but the UN is still not allowed a role in securing safety for civilians.

    Specifically, what instructions has the government given to our UN ambassador and our high commissioner to aggressively pursue a ceasefire and to ensure an international humanitarian presence?

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of International Cooperation, CPC):

    Mr. Speaker, our government has taken significant steps. We have continually asked for a ceasefire and unhindered access for humanitarian aid. We have increased our humanitarian aid support.

    I was in Sri Lanka last week. I gave instructions to our high commissioner there to diligently pursue the call for a ceasefire. We have engaged with the humanitarian organizations that are working there. We will continue to support the innocent civilian victims.

Hon. Albina Guarnieri (Mississauga East—Cooksville, Lib.): 
    Mr. Speaker, volunteers are today digging mass graves for Tamil women and children killed by Sri Lankan army shelling. Tens of thousands more have been herded into government detention camps where British television exposed horrific living conditions, murders, disappearances and rampant sexual abuse of women.

    I ask the government why it has been so late and so lame in the defence of women and children against this brutality.

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of International Cooperation, CPC):

    Mr. Speaker, our government is very aware of the impact this is having on innocent women and children. That is why we have called for unhindered free access for humanitarian organizations, who are being kept out of the no-fire zone, who are being kept out of the refugee camps.

    We are taking significant steps and we are joining other concerned countries in the pressure we are applying for a ceasefire and help for the innocent victims.

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Hon. Jack Layton (Toronto—Danforth, NDP):

    Mr. Speaker, the Sri Lankan civil war is rapidly becoming a bloodbath. This weekend, indiscriminate bombing has killed hundreds, perhaps even thousands of civilians, a hundred of them children, by reports we are hearing.

    Canada's 300,000 Tamils are calling, writing, appealing and are in the streets asking for our government to help.

    We simply cannot stand by and watch this slaughter continue. Will the Prime Minister or his senior government officials agree to meet with respected leaders of the Tamil community to discuss the crisis, and will he be in touch with the President of Sri Lanka to call a halt to the bloodbath?

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of International Cooperation, CPC):

    Mr. Speaker, first let me commend the leader of the NDP for the help he gave in defusing the situation in the demonstrations yesterday in Toronto.

    We will continue to have discussions. Many of the government members have met with the Tamil community. We share their concerns. We will continue to dialogue with them. We will have meetings with any Tamil community representative who is not part of a terrorist organization.

    We are working to enhance the ability for members of the government at a senior level to meet with this community.

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Statement by New Democrat Leader Jack Layton on Tamil protest in Toronto

Mon 11 May 2009

Tamil-Canadians continue to protest to stop the violence in Sri Lanka. Last night, I worked with the Toronto Chief of Police, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Police Services Board and representatives from the Canadian Tamil Congress to ensure the safe conclusion of the protest that had blocked the Gardiner Expressway.

I have urged the Prime Minister to have officials meet with respected Tamil-Canadian leaders in Toronto to discuss how Canada can better work towards an end to violence in Sri Lanka. I repeat that call today.

New Democrats will also continue our call for the Prime Minister to apply diplomatic pressure on the Sri Lanka President to end the conflict and work with the UN Security Council towards a lasting peace process.

The ongoing protests have caught the attention of Canadians, the media and the opposition parties, yet the Prime Minister and his Conservative MPs still refuse to act. Too many women, men and children are already the casualties of violence in Sri Lanka. Canada must work to stop the violence now.

Tories 'not prepared' to meet with Tamil Tigers, unsupported humanitarian wishes

Tories 'not prepared' to meet with Tamil Tigers

One Tamil protester told The Canadian Press the government is trying to use the flag to distract the public from their inaction towards the crisis in Sri Lanka.

"We can see that they are using the flag kind of like a shield to kind of divert any bad situation," said Siva Vimal, 20.

The red flags in questions feature a tiger jumping through a ring of fire under two crossed rifles. Vimal said the flags are a symbol of the Tamil Eelam movement, not the Tamil Tigers.

He said the writing on the flag that linked the flag to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was removed in 1990 when it came to represent the Tamil Eelam.

Tamil supporters in Canada have told the media repeatedly that they will not stop their protests until the government speaks out against the civil war in Sri Lanka that has killed thousands of Tamil civilians.

Interesting nuance...

Oda told Canada AM that the Conservatives have taken "significant steps" by calling for a ceasefire for months.

She said she is sympathetic to Tamil Canadians and their fears they have for their families and friends who live in the conflict zone back in their homeland.

"I think the international community all face the same frustrations," she said. "We don't have the ability to get accurate information or numbers. It's so frustrating because journalists and humanitarian workers are all being prevented from entering the conflict zone."

"We need unhindered access to provide humanitarian workers into those camps to help those victims," she said.

Why don't do press harder to achieve just that, Oda? Where is your United Nations motion? Where is your lobbying of the Security Council, of the United States?

Word of the Day: Agnolotogy

YorkU prof Lorraine Code named distinguished woman philosopher for 2009

One aspect of this research comes from Code’s interest in agnotology, the willful or culturally induced sustaining of ignorance. She alludes to practices of tobacco and pharmaceutical companies presenting research that sows the seeds of reasonable doubt in the minds of the public about the ill effects of their products. The issue of climate change is also frequently represented as contentious as a way of blocking actions and remedies. Code calls the matrix of understanding and ways of seeing the world the “social imaginary”.

You could call the Bush administration, the whole conservative movement as agnotologist...

Also, what a great last name for a philosopher.

(no subject)

Totally go read sabotabby's rant about the "can't they protest nicely without us having to pay any attention to them" crowd.

Tamils have the "right" to protest--we'll give them that because we are oh-so-generous and believe in abstract rights that cease to exist as soon as they inconvenience us--but said protests must conform to the tame and ineffectual standards of the impotent Canadian left.

Let's be honest here. White people in Canada, including the government, did not give a flying fuck about the plight of the Tamils until Tamil-Canadians escalated their protests. White people in Canada still don't give a flying fuck about the plight of Tamils, so this concern troll talk about alienating Canadians and losing support is bollocks. They never had that support, or any hope of gaining it, no matter how saintly and impeccable their behaviour.
[...]
What it comes down to is that white people hold brown people to a different ethical standard than they hold themselves to. The death toll in Sri Lanka now stands at around 8,500 over the past few months, and Tamil-Canadians have responded with peaceful protests. When a few thousand or so Americans and a handful of Canadians died on Sept. 11, 2001, the response was anything but non-violent. It was a brutal, bloody rampage against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq (who, like the Canadian commuters, had nothing to do with the murders). We demand not only pacifism from our fellow human beings in the face of their suffering--though we, the pasty-faced we, are anything but non-violent ourselves--but worse, we demand utter passivity.

She also links to this excellent Royson James column. Yes, the usually irritating Royson James.