SL Global Forum requests Canadian Govt to repeal Tamil Genocide Act

Global Sri Lankan Forum, a movement of Sri Lankans domiciled abroad, has requested Canadian High Commissioner David Mckinnon to take steps through his government to repeal the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, 2021 (Ontario-bill 104) .

The Forum said the bill which received Royal Ascent on May 12, 2021, and tabled by MPP Vijay Thanigasalam of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, describes the entirety of the war, from 1983-2009 as a “genocide that the Sri Lankan state perpetrated against Tamils.

Genocide is described in the bill as the deliberate and organised killing of a group or groups of people, with the intention of destroying their identity as an ethnic, cultural, or religious group.then the bill goes on to say that genocide against Tamils started in 1948 and was perpetrated through Sinhala-buddhist centric government policies, programmes, land grabs and ethnic cleansing. Furthermore, the bill refers to a UN estimate of 40,000 to 75,000 civilians killed in May 2009 alone. Also, there is reference to a higher death toll of 146,679 apparently derived from the difference between pre and post war statistics of regional population.