[Fdu] public forum on Sri Lanka at OISE

[Cynthia Wright]

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY AND ATTEND THE EVENT ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 22



TWO YEARS AFTER MAY 18, 2009

The Tamil people in Sri Lanka are STILL

IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE



During the last election campaign Harper’s Conservative ads portrayed images of the M.V. Sun Sea, which carried 492 Sri Lankan Tamil women, men and children fleeing the country because of outright or well founded fear of persecution from the on-going human rights abuses in the aftermath of the war including abduction, involuntary disappearances, and the increasing militarization of Sri Lanka’s North and East. It was said that Stephan Harper had “taken action to protect our borders from human smuggling”.



In early 2009 Toronto witnessed massive rallies, demonstrations, human chains, and the blockade at the Gardiner Expressway organized by young Tamil activists to bring the attention of the international community to the last phase of the war where Tamils lost tens of thousands of family members and friends in Sri Lanka.  The April 2011 report of the UN panel of experts says “the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace”.  The purpose of this public forum is to unpack the UN report, and explore ways of pressing the demand for an independent inquiry on war crimes and crimes against humanity, and also build awareness of the current state of human rights in Sri Lanka.





A PUBLIC FORUM

WEDNESDAY JUNE 22 – 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

OISE – Room 2214

252 Bloor Street West – (St. George Subway)



Speakers:

Prof. Cheran Rudhramoorthy (University of Windsor)

John Argue – Amnesty International Canada

Leanne Wilkins – United Food and Commercial Workers Union

Rohitha Bashana Abeywardane – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (SKYPE presentation from Europe)

Solidarity Messages: Canadian Federation of Students and No One Is Illegal



Organized by: OPIRG Toronto, Urban Alliance on Race Relations, Canadian Forum for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka, Canadian Tamil Congress, Centre for War Victims and Human Rights, National Council of Canadian Tamils, Tamil Resource Centre, Tamil  Workers Alliance, Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.



Endorsed by:  CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee, United Steelworkers Toronto Area Council, Canadian Arab Federation, ILPS Canada, No One Is Illegal, Philippine Solidarity Group, Socialist Project.



For further information: 

John Argue: jbargue at direct.ca , Jim Davis: jdavis at kairoscanada.org , Aparna Sundar: asundar at ryerson.ca



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