Hewage Law Group Administrative Tribunals and Legal Services Public Policy Matters Mailing Address: 2581 River Mist Road, Ottawa, Ontario, K2J 6G1, Canada
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HLG Hewage Law Group Administrative Tribunals and Legal Services Public Policy Matters Mailing Address: 2581 River Mist Road, Ottawa, Ontario, K2J 6G1, Canada. Telephone: + 1 613 612 7615 | e-mail: [email protected] | w3: www.hewagelaw.com By EMAIL October 14, 2020 To: Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, MP Minister of Foreign Affairs Global Affairs Canada House of Commons office Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 email: [email protected] Honourable Karina Gould, MP Minister of International Development email: [email protected] Mr. Rob Oliphant Ms. Kamal Khera Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Affairs Development [email protected] [email protected] CC: Mr. David Harman Ms. Gillian Frost Director General Exceutive Director South Asia Bureau South Asia Division [email protected] [email protected] Dear Hon. MP Champagne, Hon. MP Karina Gould, Mr. Oliphant, Ms. Khera, Re: A petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree and others Submission against the Petition Please find our submission on behalf of the Ontario Centre for Policy Research, against petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree and others to Foreign Affairs. We request the (if Government of Canada decided to respond) shall respond to the petition with a balanced view of this matter. If you need additional information, I am available at 613 612 7615 Yours very truly, HEWAGE LAW GROUP Neville Hewage, Ph.D. Senior Partner LSO #: P15799 CC: David Hartman, Gillian Frost (South Asia Division, Global Affairs). 1 Voice for accountability and Justice Ontario Centre for Policy Research 364 Moffatt Pond Crt, Ottawa, ON K2J 0C7, Canada Ontario Centre for Policy General e-mail: [email protected] Research www.policy-research.ca Issued Date October 14, 2020 To: The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne Minister of Foreign Affairs email: [email protected] Subject A petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree and others Submission against the Petition Dr. Neville Hewage, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst Submitted by email: [email protected] Index # Description Page 1 Submission against the Petition A petition # 432-00052 submitted by 1 MP Gary Anandasangaree and others 2 Annex A 19 Report Submitted to UN Office of the Commissioner Human Rights LTTE Tamil Terrorist Group Atrocities 3 Annex B 186 AAAS Report – High Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Conflict of Sri Lanka 4 Annex C 211 Report Submitted to UN Office of the Commissioner Human Rights Commission of inquiry on Lessoned Learnt and Reconciliation Voice for accountability and Justice Ontario Centre for Policy Research 364 Moffatt Pond Crt, Ottawa, ON K2J 0C7, Canada Ontario Centre for Policy General e-mail: [email protected] Research www.policy-research.ca Issued Date October 14, 2020, Total Pages: 18 To: The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne Minister of Foreign Affairs email: [email protected] Subject A petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree and others Submission against the Petition Dr. Neville Hewage, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst Submitted by email: [email protected] BACKGROUND 01. Founded in 1976, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a Sri Lanka-based Tamil terrorist organization that seeks to create an independent mono-ethnic homeland called "Tamil Eelam" for Sri Lanka's only about 5 % ethnic Tamil minority living in North and East. Over the years, the LTTE has waged a violent secessionist campaign with the help of ground, air, and naval forces, as well as a dedicated suicide bomber wing. LTTE Tamil Terrorist organization is a proscribed Terrorist organization, 32 countries, including Canada. 02. LTTE Tamil terrorists' activities caused billions of dollars of massive destruction to Sri Lanka's economy. Many innocent civilians were killed as results of indiscriminate attacks on civilians' centers across the country. 03. During the three decades of armed conflict, civilians of all ethnic groups, Sinhalese, Tamils, Moor, Muslims, were affected. 04. LTTE Tamil terrorist group was militarily defeated on May 18, 2009, which ended the civil war by killing a ruthless terrorist leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. 1 Submission against Petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree Analysis by Neville Hewage 05. MP Gary Anandasangaree, among others (petitioners), submitted a Petition 432-00052 to the Government of Canada (Foreign Affairs) requesting to refer Sri Lanka to the committee established under the Convention Against Enforced Disappearances pursuant to Article 32 of the Convention. 06. The petitioners also request to remove sovereign immunity as a defence by states, Sri Lanka for alleged international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearances. 07. Sri Lanka has not been referred to a competent judicial authority to investigate alleged genocide and war crimes. Also, there is no decision against Sri Lanka and its administration. 08. While I admired the Petitioners' walk to Ottawa from Brampton and Montreal, their walk does not substantiate against allegation as set out in the petition. ISSUES On its surface, petition 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree and others is a political stunt. However, I have identified four significant issues arising from the petition. 09. Issue 01 Have many of Tamil Diaspora's relatives living in Canada disappeared while in the custody of the Sri Lankan Government (Enforced Disappearances)? 10. Issue 02 Is an OISL report determined that Sri Lanka has many disappearances as per established principles? 11. Issue 03 Did the state (Sri Lanka) commit crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and enforced disappearances as per the Report of the Expert Panel (POE) appointed by the UN Secretary-General on Sri Lanka and the OISL report? 12. Issue 04 Should Canada refer Sri Lanka to the committee established under the Convention against Enforced Disappearances pursuant to Article 32 of the Convention? 2 Submission against petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree Analysis by Neville Hewage I will analyze all five issues as follows. 13. ISSUE 01 AND DISCUSSION Have many of Tamil Diaspora's relatives living in Canada disappeared while in the custody of the Sri Lankan Government (Enforced Disappearances)? 14. A armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and Tamil Terrorist Group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended May 18, 2009, after killing ruthless terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. 15. The LTTE proscribed terrorist organizations in Canada. LTTE has waged a brutal 26 years- long campaign against Sri Lanka to create a mono-ethnic state of Tamils. 16. During the three decades of armed conflict, not only Tamils, civilians belonging to all ethnic groups, Sinhalese, Moor, Muslims also were affected. 17. The LTTE Tamil Terrorists had an extensive network of fundraisers, political and propaganda officers, and arms procurers operating within Canada's Tamil diasporas. Although the Tamil LTTE was militarily defeated on May 18, 2009, subversion, destabilization, and fundraising continues, particularly within the diasporas.1 18. At the end of the armed conflict, the Sri Lanka government has recovered over US$ 34,000,000.002 (Thirty-four million) of military hardware. It is reasonable to conclude that Tamil diaspora in Canada actively provided financial support for three-decades-long armed conflict. Many incidents were reported extortion from Tamils 3 4 in Canada too. 19. The CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) report says that between CDN $1-2 million is raised here each year for the Sri Lankan LTTE Tamil Terrorist group making Canada 1 https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx#46 2 Annex – A Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka – Factual Analysis 3 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tamil-tigers-extorting-money-from-canadian-families-report-1.612015 4 https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/03/14/funding-final-war/ltte-intimidation-and-extortion-tamil-diaspora 3 Submission against Petition # 432-00052 submitted by MP Gary Anandasangaree Analysis by Neville Hewage one of the largest contributors worldwide, and alleges that some of the money is being channelled to the LTTE's weapons procurement arm in Thailand.5 20. However, other reports suggested that Tamil diasporas in Canada sent anywhere from $7 million to $22 million a year in direct and indirect support for the LTTE Tamil terrorists.6 21. These financial contributions were utilized to procure weapons, and if any civilians caught between armed conflicts will be affected. (died, wounded, or disappeared) 22. Regarding population statistics 2012, 997,754 Tamils were living in Northern Sri Lanka.7 Composition of population by ethnicity, Sri Lankan Tamil represents 11.2% of the total population, 21,670,000, which is 2,427,040. 8 Population data is established that 41.10% of Tamils live in the North (conflict zone), and 58.9% of Tamils live in the Southern part of Sri Lanka, with the majority ethnic group Sinhalese. 23. When we transform population data to Tamil immigration to Canada, 59 (up to 98) percent of Tamil arrived in Canada from the Southern part of Sri Lanka has not been directly affected by the armed conflict. 24. There is no sufficient evidence that most Tamils living in Canada have directly affected the war and disappeared during government forces' custody. 25. Abusing the Canada Asylum system has a connection to the bogus claim of enforced disappearances As an example, the petition submitted by MP Gary Ananadasangaree also arrived from Ireland to Canada. He was living with his mother in Ireland before July 1983 incident. MP Ananasangaree and many Tamils were living in Europe took advantage of Canada's asylum system. Most of them are not real victims of armed conflict. They have arrived in Canada for purely economic reasons, and they are bogus-refugees.