No to Tigers

There's no obvious way to distinguish Tigers from other Tamils, but we must do so before admitting them to Canada. I took in a refugee family, who lived with me in various combinations for six years, during which time the father became a (or the) leading Tiger in Canada. Tigers were collecting/extorting millions of dollars here to buy weapons. Had they not done so, the war would have ended several years earlier. It's clear retrospectively that I enabled my guest to support the war financially; I feel deeply guilty for not having kicked him out from the beginning. The rest of his family also silently condoned this violence, evidently without feeling guilty, preferring peace in the family over peace in Sri Lanka.

I tried to set up a peacebuilding dialogue group but no non-Tiger Tamil would join, fearing they'd be pushed under a subway on the way home. Recalling the huge rallies of Tamils at Queen's Park when the war ended, we must recognize realistically that Canada may indeed become the stage for further civil war in Sri Lanka. We should not let that happen. Refugees to Canada must leave their wars behind them permanently.