Two Days of LTTE Terror at Sri Lanka Festival in Toronto
By Bandula Jayasekaea
I hear from my friends connected to the government in Ottawa that Gary (name taken) Anandasangaree, Member of Parliament in Canada, has prevented a motion in parliament to declare January as Tamil Heritage month and next Monday (today) there will be a roundtable in the Canadian parliament to discuss what is described as Tamil genocide. I have no issues with naming a heritage month for any community, Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim or Egyptian. However, there is a problem when pro-LTTE parliamentarians try to create problems in other countries. There is a new government in Canada as well as in Sri Lanka. I fervently hope sanity prevails. But, now let me tell you how the LTTE terrorised Toronto for two days during my Assignment in Toronto.
When the Sri Lanka Day committee headed by myself as the Consul General of Sri Lanka in Toronto and a group of dedicated Sri Lankans who have been living in Toronto for nearly 30 years and the Harbour front Centre announced the Sri Lankan festival, the Harbourfront Office received nearly 89 emails and calls from the Tamil Tiger supporters discrediting Sri Lanka. They were up to their usual tricks and appeared as innocent people. Their idea was to disrupt the cultural event which was planned to showcase Sri Lanka to Canada.
Harbour Front officials were worried. Undeterred the organisers went ahead with the event without giving in to LTTE pressure. Then the Tamil Tigers in Toronto followed a terror tactic which they had used for nearly 25 years in Toronto. On the day of the opening 20 September, the Tiger supporters called the Harbour front saying that there were nearly 40 bombs placed at the Center. Having instilled fear among the organisers and the Harbourfront staff, LTTE terrorists immediately announced through the Tamil Tiger radios in Toronto that the event was cancelled. That was their objective. I received many calls from law abiding Sri Lankan Tamils living in Toronto who were keen to attend the event to find out if the event was cancelled.
Thanks to the effort of some Police officers in Toronto with the help of the Harbourfront Security checks were done and an announcement was made that there were no bomb threats and it was another hoax. There were families with children who had come to dance and Canadians from all walks of life. Only if they knew why the Police were checking the place. The organisers didn’t let that happen. Toronto Police at the time carried out their task in a very efficient manner without creating any panic among the public.
Having failed in their endeavour the LTTE terrorist backers as their next step, brought women, children and misguided youth and even elderly people in bus loads to protest in front of the Harbourfront. It was evident that they were well organized and well funded by the Tamil Tiger terror machinery in Canada. I who was at the event made several complaints to authorities regarding the protests and rallies against a friendly country which was promoting itself to Canadians like any other country would do. However, I received the usual response saying that it was a right to protest peacefully. LTTE protests were never of a peaceful nature.
There was more terror when the protestors walked in to the festival wanting to provoke innocent people who were at the festival. They wore T. Shirts which propagated terror, they threatened innocent Sri Lankan ladies who were managing stalls and other event desks . The terrorists told them that their throats would be slit. They attempted to push people who were walking peacefully, they distributed leaflets of terror. Organisers were in fear and I as the Consul General and the Head of the Organising Committee called 911 on behalf of one lady who was threatened that her throat will be slit. The Canadian lady who responded at 911, asked her to stay out of the place. That was all. We had no help on its way.
The Tamil Tiger protesters also threatened and forcibly took away the Sri Lankan Tamil astrologer and his wife who had a festival stall and forced them to carry a placard against Sri Lanka in front of the Harbourfront. The Sri Lankan Tamil Canadian vendor who was supplying food was threatened. He hid in the car and sent word to the Festival Organisers to get the food from the car. It was frightening what was taking place in the centre of Toronto at the Sri Lankan festival. I never could understand how a Terrorist group banned in Canada could do such things at a public festival in Toronto.
Then the protesters walked in with placards in intimidating style and stayed on. Nothing happened when I as the Consul General of Sri Lanka with a deep concern for my people called a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer who said that it was the Toronto Police which was in charge of the place. Later a Police Officer came to the scene and made notes. He didn’t do anything else much to the anger of the Sri Lankan Canadians at the festival. To add insult to injury , we later heard that some LTTE terrorists supporters had posed for photographs wearing Tamil Tiger T. Shirts with the Canadian Mounted Police.
Several of us witnessed a small plane carrying an anti Sri Lanka and Pro LTTE banner circling over Harbour Front. Canadian authorities didn’t do anything about it and the Police didn’t take any notice when fear was instilled among the organisers and other attendees at the Sri Lankan festival in Toronto.
Even Canadians questioned as to how the law enforcement authorities in Toronto could allow such acts and the plane flying very low to instil fear. Sri Lanka Festival was an event organised to showcase Sri Lanka to Canada and many Sri Lankan Canadians came to me for help; they asked me to contact the authorities. It was more than a disappointment that day , when the law in Toronto looked the other side.
I feared for the lives of all Sri Lankan Canadians and their families and our guests who were at the festival. The law in Toronto was definitely not on the side of the innocent people even when the government of Sri Lanka and the organisers of the Sri Lanka Festival had as its Government partners, The City Council of Toronto, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council .
It was two days of LTTE terror in the heart of Toronto I will never forget.
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