Civil War: Sri Lanka: Toronto Tamils in the thousands demonstrate to wring support for truce, prevent outr+t Tamil defeat

Toronto streets today became an extension of the civil war in Sri Lanka, now apparently in its own death throes. According to reporters Mike Funston and Dale Anne Freed of Toronto Star,

Several thousand Tamil demonstrators occupied parts of downtown Toronto for several hours last night prior to a planned candlelit vigil outside the United States consulate on University Ave.

For a time, the demonstrators blocked part of the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Sts., refusing to move until they could be addressed by a federal Conservative MP.

"All we want is for Canadians to help us," said Gowrishangar Kamalanphan, 25, the apparent leader of the demonstration.

Shouting "Stop genocide!" and carrying a banner "Democratic Society! Stop Sri Lanka's State Terrorism on Tamils," the group wants Canada and other western nations to impose economic and political sanctions on Sri Lanka until the government and the Tamil Tiger rebel group agree on a ceasefire.

At the moment, the Federal Government of Canada, under the Conservative party and led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper is concentrated on the politics and economics of the Arctic, such that a terrorist organization in the steamy isle of the Lankans is only a nasty mirage on the horizon, despite Tiger command over thousands of Torontonians. Civil r+ts for Tamils is not the equivalent of Tiger terrorism.

-- Politicarp