He is known as "Nada," short for his full Tamil name, Nadarajah. He is a well-organized and hard-working man who never complains about the weather or the challenges posed by his carefully planned ventures.
After starting a new career as a side-order cook in a downtown restaurant 15 years ago, he never looked back. It was hard work, toiling from dawn to late into the night in the kitchen. But today he owns a neighbourhood restaurant and two major coffee franchises that employ more than 40 people, including part-timers.
Nada's story is not unusual; similar stories of immigrant innovation and entrepreneurship straddle the Canadian landscape.
Canada has benefited greatly by admitting persecuted minorities seeking refuge from civil strife and genocidal wars. Denied opportunities in the land of their birth, refugees have used their freedom and pent-up energy to invigorate the labour force. They are willing to take risks to create employment: Witness the nearly 3,000 small and medium businesses belonging to Tamil Canadians in and around the GTA.
After nearly 15 years, Nada has become a Canadian citizen, participating fully in Canadian life by sponsoring neighbourhood hockey and soccer teams, donating blood and participating in charity walkathons.
His family and relatives still live in northern Sri Lanka where a brutal war is killing and maiming civilians daily. It's an under-reported conflict, much worse than Afghanistan. Like others, Nada has visited his local MP many times to ask if anything positive can be achieved with Canada's help.
Like Nada, the vast majority of Tamil Canadians firmly believe that the West, including Canada, still holds the key to peace in the developing world. Canada has leverage: We can stop exporting lethal military hardware to Sri Lanka; put conditions on development aid; isolate the country in international forums; deny visas to government officials charged with atrocities; and recognize and apply equal pressure on the warring parties.
Canada, for its part, has tried in the past to influence events. This includes suggesting federalist arrangements, promoting the rule of law, and encouraging responsible governance in Sri Lanka.
Recently, Governor General Michaëlle Jean summarized Canada's position in a meeting with Sri Lanka's new ambassador. She conveyed Canada's deep concern for the well-being of Sri Lankans, especially the refugees in the north. She also told him that UN human rights monitors need to be stationed in the country to report serious rights violations so the UN can take action.
But when countries are entrenched in hegemonic and mythic superiority – very much a staple in resolving issues in the developing world – little can be achieved.
The Sri Lankan issue is a testing ground for the innovative value systems and solutions Canada has cultivated at the UN over the years. We have played a vital role in peacekeeping, the International Criminal Court system and the Responsibility to Protect project (R2P).
But these values will fall into obscurity if not put into timely, collective practice. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, who desperately sought to stop the Rwanda genocide, or Louise Arbour's vibrancy in prosecuting crimes against humanity will be covered by the dust of history if we do not seek to duplicate their heroics.
Toward that end, Canada's government should treat the pain of Tamil Canadians not as a partisan political game but an opportunity to re-establish our moral leadership in the international arena.
Surely Nada and his fellow citizens deserve no less.
Nimalan Veerasingham is a member of the Star's community editorial board.