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PhotoTO: The Tamil Chain

By Miles Storey

A river of red flags flowed through the downtown core yesterday as thousands of Tamils lined the streets to protest the latest Sri Lankan government offensive in the long-running conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, claiming that thousands of civilians had been killed, injured, or forcibly relocated. After forming a human chain along the streets for much of the afternoon, the well-organized demonstration gathered at Union Station where police closed part of Front Street.
All photos by Miles Storey/Torontoist.

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  • http://undefined RealityCheck

    Adulatory pictures of a terrorist leader, tshirts and flags adorned with bullets, crossed AK-47s, and a growling tiger. Definitely a peace rally.
    They all were providing material support to a terrorist organization and everyone there should be in jail. Thankfully the police are investigating, though of course no charges will be pursued.

  • http://undefined montauk

    investigating YOUR MAMA!

  • http://null flashman

    What’s interesting is that I have seen almost no mention in the media
    coverage of this event that LTTE is listed as a terrorist group in no
    less than 32 countries… The CBC had a great interview this afternoon that clearly explained the kind of organization that the Tamil Tigers are, but that’s about all I’ve seen or heard.
    And it’s not like LTTE are “sort of” terrorists, or just the victims of mislabelling – they hold the record (by far) for greatest number of suidcide bombings, and indeed invented the suicide bomber vest. Al Qaeda or Hamas have nothing on LTTE…
    It’s absolutely flabbergasting that anyone could have any sympathy for
    LTTE – or that a proscribed terrorist organization in Canada is
    allowed to hold a rally… Fundraising for LTTE in Canada is illegal -
    as should be public assembly in their favour.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Tigers_of_Tamil_Eelam#Human_rights_violations

  • http://undefined warmflash

    I’m not surprised there has been so little conversation about this ” peace rally. ”
    In my own unscientific poll, 99.9% of Torontonians have no idea who or what the Tamil Tigers are.
    Because Sri Lanka is not in Toronto — and because the ” peace rally ” was not about shopping, personal development, real estate or television, — this ” peace rally ” would be of little interest to citizens of the Big Smoke.
    I thought there would be more complaining about Union Station being closed at rush hour. But no. I guess it’s so awful in that train station that any excuse not to enter is a good excuse.

  • http://null Ananth

    It seems that people don’t have much knowledge of the conflict that is happening in Sri Lanka to understand the Toronto Tamils emotions and aspiration. The flag is not a LTTE flag, it is the national flag of Tamil Eelam and the flag that Tamil people have endorsed as it fully represents them.
    Some people might consider LTTE as a terrorist organization, for the Tamil people they are their saviours from total annihilation by the racist Sri Lankan state and an organization that is fighting for their political aspiration. The Tamils first lost their sovereignty to the Portuguese, Dutch then the British whom eventually handed down that to the racist Sinhalese dominated Ceylon (which was later renamed to Sri Lanka). When the racist Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan state used violence to kill, rape women, uprooted Tamil people for colonization, torture the Tamils; the Tamils just protested it peacefully which went on for more then 30+ years since independence. Then the Tamil leaders decided to restore the sovereignty of the Tamil people and created the Vadukkodai resolution in 1976. They put forward that resolution as their election platform in 1977 and the Tamil people elected them with an overwhelming vote. The Sri Lankan state rejected it, used violence, uprooted the Tamil people from their lands in a speedy process of colonization, raped women in mass scale, tortured the youths, killed so many of the Tamil people. The Tamil youths saw no other option then to pick up arms to protect their people which they did, but the western governments (including China, Israel, Iran, Pakistan) supplied and keeps supplying the Sri Lankan state with weapons to carry out an open genocidal war in return for economic and geo-political promise by the Sri Lankan state. The Tamil Tigers, with fewer weapons and in desperation to protect its people have adopted suicide bombing to bring the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and the Sri Lankan economy to its knees.
    So labelling a group as just terrorist without understanding the root cause is not helpful and only creates more problems.

  • http://null flashman

    The distinction between the Tamil Flag and the LTTE Flag seems fairly minor – minor enough that one could be forgiven for calling it a distinction of convenience…
    http://www.tamilnation.org/tamileelam/defacto/flag.htm
    “The Tiger symbol of Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) created in 1977, was designated as the National Flag of Tamileelam in 1990 differentiating it from the LTTE’s emblem by leaving out the letters inscribing the movement’s name.”
    And you know how a group gets labelled as terrorist? It commits acts of terror. It’s pretty straightforward, really – moral relativism and “root causes” don’t have a thing to do with it.
    But it’s all soon to be academic anyway – the final gasps of another defeated terrorist organization…
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/21/tamil-tigers-sri-lanka-karuna

  • http://null Ananth

    Jailed Tamil warlord has deadly influence on election
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/13/sri-lanka-journalism-tamil-tigers
    Civil strife in Sri Lanka began long before the Tamil Tigers existed
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/13/sri-lanka-journalism-tamil-tigers