A PUBLIC FORUM: The Tamil people in Sri Lanka are STILL IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

Date: 2011-06-22 at 6:00 pm

Address: OISE – Room 2214;252 Bloor Street West – (St. George Subway), Toronto, ON Canada
Fee: -

Details:
TWO YEARS AFTER MAY 18, 2009

The Tamil people in Sri Lanka are STILL IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

During the last election campaignHarper’s Conservative ads portrayed images of the M.V. Sun Sea, whichcarried 492 Sri Lankan Tamil women, men and children fleeing the countrybecause of outright or well founded fear of persecution from the on-going humanrights abuses in the aftermath of the war including abduction, involuntarydisappearances, and the increasing militarization of Sri Lanka’s Northand East. It was said that Stephan Harper had “takenaction to protect our borders from human smuggling”.

In early 2009 Toronto witnessed massiverallies, demonstrations, human chains, and the blockade at the GardinerExpressway organized by young Tamil activists to bring the attention of theinternational community to the last phase of the war where Tamils lost tens ofthousands of family members and friends in Sri Lanka. The April 2011report of the UN panel of experts says “theconduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime ofinternational law designed to protect individual dignity during both war andpeace”. The purpose of this public forum is to unpack the UNreport, and explore ways of pressing the demand for an independent inquiry onwar crimes and crimes against humanity, and also buildawareness of the current state of human rights in Sri Lanka.

Speakers:

Prof. Cheran Rudhramoorthy (University ofWindsor)

John Argue – Amnesty InternationalCanada

Leanne Wilkins – United Food andCommercial Workers Union

Rohitha Bashana Abeywardane – Journalistsfor Democracy in Sri Lanka (SKYPE presentation from Europe)

For further information:

John Argue: jbargue@direct.ca,

Jim Davis: jdavis@kairoscanada.org ,

Aparna Sundar: asunder@ryerson.ca

Contact:
Name: John Argue, Jim Davis, Aparna Sundar
Phone: -
Email: jbargue@direct.ca, jdavis@kairoscanada.org, asunder@ryerson.ca

via tamilcanadian.com