Liberal MPs took part in a community event last night commemorating the recent death of a senior member of the Tamil Tigers in defiance of the Conservative government's decision to list the organization as a terrorist entity.
S. P. Thamilselvan, 40, the public face of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was killed in an air strike by Sri Lankan authorities last Friday. The LTTE has long fought for an independent Tamil state; Mr. Thamilselvan was both the political chief and top peace negotiator in talks to end the decades-old civil unrest in Sri Lanka.
Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis told The Globe and Mail last night that he was on stage at the event alongside fellow Liberal MPs Derek Lee, Maria Minna, Yasmin Ratansi and Borys Wrzesnewskyj.
Mr. Karygiannis said he met Mr. Thamilselvan personally when he visited the region after the 2004 tsunamis and had the approval of then-prime minister Paul Martin to do so. The LTTE should not be on Canada's terror list, he said.
"Here you've got a Conservative government that wants to divide and conquer and pit one community against another community," he said. "I am encouraging the Canadian government to get involved and speak to both sides in order to find a long-lasting peace in the region."
The Scarborough MP said the Conservative policy divides immigrants from Sri Lanka along Tamil-Sinhalese ethnic lines.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government added the LTTE to the terror list as one of its first acts upon taking power.
"The decision to list the LTTE is long overdue and something the previous government did not take seriously enough to act upon," said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day in April of 2006, when the move was announced. Mr. Day's spokeswoman, Mélissa Leclerc, said last night that the government's position on the LTTE is clear.
According to David Poopalapillai, the national spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress, the death of Mr. Thamilselvan shows the Sri Lankan government was not interested in peace talks.
"By listing LTTE as a terrorist organization, what [Canada has]done is strengthen the war-mongering side in the Sri Lankan government," Mr. Poopalapillai said.
Bill Curry