Sri Lankan Communities in Canada Still Divided

By Paul Weinberg

TORONTO, Sep 20 (IPS) - While peace appears be settling over Sri Lanka after two decades of a brutal civil war between a national government dominated by the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, their counterparts outside the country are still not talking to each other.

But the just-concluded peace talks may be stimulating better relations between Canadian authorities and the Tamil community in this country, often viewed with suspicion for its links with freedom fighters at home.

Canada houses the world's largest expatriate Sri Lankan communities. One local Sinhalese community spokesperson complained to IPS that the Sri Lanka's prime minister "is seeking peace at any price".

Mahinda Gunaekera, president of the Sri Lanka United National Association (SLUNA), says most members of his largely Sinhalese organisation abhor any discussions with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which, he charges, is seeking full independence.

(The LTTE has publicly stated its preference for autonomy within a single Sri Lanka state.)

Although Gunaekera says that members of his group "are not aligned with any political party" very few, he continues, support the current Sri Lankan government, headed by Sinhalese Ranil Wickramasinghe, who was elected late last year.

But SLUNA is out of step with the majority of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka who back Wickramasinghe's peace efforts, says Father Francis Xavier, a retired Anglican priest, therapist and the co-ordinator of the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils.

SLUNA, suggests Xavier, is siding with current Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who opposes the peace talks but has been unable politically to stop Wickramasinghe.

Married to a woman of Sinhalese origin and a distant relative of Gunaekera, Xavier says he has spoken to members of SLUNA who are excited by the current developments in Sri Lanka.

"Now they (the organisation) are a little bit embarrassed. But here and there, they are saying that Ranil is right and they are coming back to speak to us."

Xavier has seen a gulf grow between himself and his Sinhalese relatives on his wife's side and expects it will take time to repair the bruised feelings between the two Sri Lankan communities in Canada.

He estimates that out of 250,000 people of Sri Lanka origin in Canada, about 30,000 are Sinhalese and the rest are Tamil many of whom arrived in this country, and the greater Toronto area in particular, in the past two decades as refugees fleeing persecution and war in their home country.

Tamils in Canada are relieved that they are finally able to visit their relatives in Sri Lanka after years of strife, says R. Cheran, a former Jaffna journalist of Tamil origin who now teaches sociology at York and Queens universities in Ontario.

"One sign of peace is that the air fares to Sri Lanka are up."

Cheran thinks that if peace continues, many Tamil Canadians who are established in Canada will stay in their adopted country rather than go home. Others will seek duel Canadian and Sri Lanka citizenship, he predicts.

Cheran plans to eventually divide his time between teaching in Toronto and in Jaffna.

Because many Tamils in Canada politically backed the LTTE freedom fighters ("if not their methods", says Xavier) the community became highly suspect in the eyes of Canadian authorities.

A planned Tamil community event last year was cancelled by the Toronto police, which feared violence.

And the Canadian government tried but failed to deport Manickavasagam Suresh, a refugee claimant and LTTE supporter, when the Supreme Court agreed that he could face torture at the hands of Sri Lankan authorities upon his return.

Prominent members of Canada's Liberal government were harshly criticised in some media for attending a Tamil community function.

But peace talks abroad have also led to discussions between Toronto Police and local Tamil leaders trying to smooth out a fractious relationship.

The talks are a major development from a year ago, when it seemed police were more focused on alleged LTTE activity in Canada than on making a serious effort to root out gangs in the Tamil community that preyed on innocent people, says Xavier.

Every shooting in Toronto's Tamil community was reported in the Sri Lankan media as having been instigated by the LTTE, even though they were largely gang related, he said.

Crime writer Lee Lamothe is less sanguine that violence among Tamil gangs fighting for turf in suburban Toronto will stop with the onset of peace in Sri Lanka. He agrees that the local police have had a hands off approach to the Tamil gangs, but attributes that to a reluctance to trample on Tamil community sensitivities.

Xavier counters that many of the serious Tamil gang members were arrested and charged after a late-night Toronto police blitz one year ago. "What we have found is that it has brought a lot of relief to the Tamil community."

While many arrested gang members were found to be LTTE supporters (and allegedly beaten by police), Xavier says support for the LTTE can be found in every Tamil home in Canada. "Every house has it."

It has been suggested that young Tamil men drifted into gangs in Toronto because they had a frustrating time adjusting to urban Canadian society.

But the majority of young people in the Tamil community are law abiding and a large proportion of them end up in university, states Cheran. Some "idealistic" students might return to help rebuild the northeastern portion of the island country where the majority of Tamils live, he believes. (END/IPS/NA/IP/PW/ML/02)