Cohn: Long arm of Sri Lanka's Toronto envoy
A weekend protest by Tamil Canadians outside the Sri Lankan consulate general in midtown Toronto was a distant echo of demonstrations that blocked University Ave. and brought the Gardiner Expressway to a crawl last spring.
The consul general wasn't at his desk on a Saturday. But he remains an unusually high profile – and undiplomatically meddling – presence in this town, where the 27-year war that ended this year still evokes strong feelings.
With more than 200,000 ethnic Tamils still detained in government camps, and a climate of government intimidation, Sri Lanka is hardly a peaceful place. Torontonians got a taste of that last week, when the "Scholars at Risk" program at U of T sponsored a lecture by one of Sri Lanka's foremost thinkers, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. Better known as Sara, he has long been a voice of reason and clarity amidst Sri Lanka's bitter divisions, with journalists and diplomats making a pilgrimage to his think-tank on one of Colombo's leafy, traffic-clogged streets.
Now, instead of merely analyzing events, he is the victim of them – a scholar at risk.
The death threats started last August. In September, Sara – an ethnic Tamil – was detained and interrogated at Colombo's airport at the behest of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID). The state propaganda machine accused him of seeking regime change and maligning the country's reputation – a toxic allegation given Sri Lanka's record of political assassinations.
"Anyone talking about human rights and the culture of impunity is seen as the enemy," he told me before his lecture. According to government organs, "I am a traitor and working with the opposition."
But if Sara thought Canada would get him out of harm's way, it turns out that Toronto is hardly a haven for ethnic Tamil thinkers. Even 9,000 kilometres away from Colombo, Sri Lanka's government has a way of making itself heard – and felt – in the person of its high profile consul general in Toronto, Bandula Jayasekara.
Just ask another ethnic Tamil academic, Chelva Kanaganayakam, who was involved in organizing Sara's program. The consul general contacted him to "express some concern" about the university "compromising our objectivity," according to Kanaganayakam.
Or consider Cheran Rudhramoorthy, another Tamil Canadian academic living in Toronto. He received a series of bizarre emails from the consul general falsely asserting that he was behind a "terrorist website operating from Canada," followed by a letter, on consulate stationery, threatening to "make an official complaint to the University and to Canadian Law enforcement authorities." The professor hired a lawyer to send a "cease and desist" letter.
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, who gave a speech at the weekend protest outside Jayasekara's office, blames the consul general for sabotaging his trip to Colombo last summer, when he was given a visa by the high commissioner in Ottawa but turned back at the airport in Colombo: "I have reason to believe that he was passing on complete misinformation about me."
A Tamil Canadian lawyer, Gary Anandasangaree, described being accosted by the consul general at an event where he "asked me how much money I collected for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)." He said the diplomat was "belligerent and rude."
David Poopalapillai, a spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), says the consul general has called him a "terrorist fundraiser" at public events, despite the group's reputation for moderation.
When I contacted him Monday, Jayasekara made no apologies for his aggressive correspondence with academics, though he denied knowing Anandasangaree and declined to discuss his role in Rae being refused entry to Colombo.
And he quickly went on the attack, going so far as to suggest that "maybe the Toronto Star is getting money from the Tamil Tigers," adding: "Make my day."
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs says it has received complaints about his activities and raised them with his Sri Lankan superiors.
"Canada has registered its concerns at the highest levels with the Sri Lankan High Commission and the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry in Colombo and the Foreign Minister (Rohitha) Bogollagama himself," a spokesperson told me.
But the consul general appears to have outlasted his direct boss, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Daya Perera. His term was cut short after barely one year in Ottawa – vanquished, sources say, by a power play engineered by the voluble consul general in Toronto.
As for Jayasekara, he declined further comment, saying: "I'm going to cut the line." Which he did.
Martin Regg Cohn, the Star's deputy editorial page editor, writes Tuesday.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/729740
A weekend protest by Tamil Canadians outside the Sri Lankan consulate general in midtown Toronto was a distant echo of demonstrations that blocked University Ave. and brought the Gardiner Expressway to a crawl last spring.
The consul general wasn't at his desk on a Saturday. But he remains an unusually high profile – and undiplomatically meddling – presence in this town, where the 27-year war that ended this year still evokes strong feelings.
With more than 200,000 ethnic Tamils still detained in government camps, and a climate of government intimidation, Sri Lanka is hardly a peaceful place. Torontonians got a taste of that last week, when the "Scholars at Risk" program at U of T sponsored a lecture by one of Sri Lanka's foremost thinkers, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. Better known as Sara, he has long been a voice of reason and clarity amidst Sri Lanka's bitter divisions, with journalists and diplomats making a pilgrimage to his think-tank on one of Colombo's leafy, traffic-clogged streets.
Now, instead of merely analyzing events, he is the victim of them – a scholar at risk.
The death threats started last August. In September, Sara – an ethnic Tamil – was detained and interrogated at Colombo's airport at the behest of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID). The state propaganda machine accused him of seeking regime change and maligning the country's reputation – a toxic allegation given Sri Lanka's record of political assassinations.
"Anyone talking about human rights and the culture of impunity is seen as the enemy," he told me before his lecture. According to government organs, "I am a traitor and working with the opposition."
But if Sara thought Canada would get him out of harm's way, it turns out that Toronto is hardly a haven for ethnic Tamil thinkers. Even 9,000 kilometres away from Colombo, Sri Lanka's government has a way of making itself heard – and felt – in the person of its high profile consul general in Toronto, Bandula Jayasekara.
Just ask another ethnic Tamil academic, Chelva Kanaganayakam, who was involved in organizing Sara's program. The consul general contacted him to "express some concern" about the university "compromising our objectivity," according to Kanaganayakam.
Or consider Cheran Rudhramoorthy, another Tamil Canadian academic living in Toronto. He received a series of bizarre emails from the consul general falsely asserting that he was behind a "terrorist website operating from Canada," followed by a letter, on consulate stationery, threatening to "make an official complaint to the University and to Canadian Law enforcement authorities." The professor hired a lawyer to send a "cease and desist" letter.
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, who gave a speech at the weekend protest outside Jayasekara's office, blames the consul general for sabotaging his trip to Colombo last summer, when he was given a visa by the high commissioner in Ottawa but turned back at the airport in Colombo: "I have reason to believe that he was passing on complete misinformation about me."
A Tamil Canadian lawyer, Gary Anandasangaree, described being accosted by the consul general at an event where he "asked me how much money I collected for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)." He said the diplomat was "belligerent and rude."
David Poopalapillai, a spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), says the consul general has called him a "terrorist fundraiser" at public events, despite the group's reputation for moderation.
When I contacted him Monday, Jayasekara made no apologies for his aggressive correspondence with academics, though he denied knowing Anandasangaree and declined to discuss his role in Rae being refused entry to Colombo.
And he quickly went on the attack, going so far as to suggest that "maybe the Toronto Star is getting money from the Tamil Tigers," adding: "Make my day."
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs says it has received complaints about his activities and raised them with his Sri Lankan superiors.
"Canada has registered its concerns at the highest levels with the Sri Lankan High Commission and the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry in Colombo and the Foreign Minister (Rohitha) Bogollagama himself," a spokesperson told me.
But the consul general appears to have outlasted his direct boss, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Daya Perera. His term was cut short after barely one year in Ottawa – vanquished, sources say, by a power play engineered by the voluble consul general in Toronto.
As for Jayasekara, he declined further comment, saying: "I'm going to cut the line." Which he did.
Martin Regg Cohn, the Star's deputy editorial page editor, writes Tuesday.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/729740