Harper panders to Tamils by boycotting Commonwealth summit

Saturday, 16 November 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Prime Minister Stephen Harper courts Tamil voters by boycotting the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, but his government has not been consistent in its support for Tamil Canadians.

By Max Berger THESTAR.COM: At first blush the decision by Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to attend this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, appears principled, even noble. Citing Sri Lanka’s past and present human rights abuses, Harper states: “We remain disturbed by ongoing reports of intimidation and

incarceration of political leaders and journalists, harassment of minorities, reported disappearances and allegations of extra judicial killings. ... It is clear that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to uphold the Commonwealth’s core values which are cherished by Canadians.” If anything, the Prime Minister has been consistent in his reluctance to rub shoulders with despots and dictators. At the recent United Nations General Assembly meeting, Harper passed on taking his seat among world leaders of dubious character. At the 2012 summit of La Francophonie, he expressed “hope that in the future La Francophonie and other major organizations will decide to hold a summit only in countries with democratic standards”. Critics have taken issue with this view, arguing that engagement rather than isolation best achieves foreign policy objectives of advancing democracy in the developing world. Former Prime Minister Joe Clark has admonished our current Prime Minister’s belief that “issues of democracy or development are best addressed from a distance than in the countries where they are most acute”. Evidence suggests otherwise One might therefore expect that Harper’s distaste for human rights abusers would be matched with sympathy and compassion for their victims. The evidence, and in particular the Harper Government’s dealings with the Tamil community, victims of human rights abuse in Sri Lanka, would suggest otherwise. Almost all of the 300,000 Tamils who call Canada home were either directly accepted in this country as convention refugees or can trace their immigration roots through sponsorship by someone who was. But when 76 Tamil refugees arrived off the shores of British Colombia on the Ocean Lady ship in 2009, followed by another 492 on the Sun Sea ship in 2010, the fury of the Harper Government descended upon them. There were no speeches by the Prime Minister condemning the lack of human rights in Sri Lanka. Instead, these refugee claimants were demonised as terrorists, carriers of disease, abusers of our refugee programs and summarily locked up. As the Immigration and Refugee Board began ordering their release, the Government appealed those release orders to try unsuccessfully as it has turned out to keep them in custody. As the board began accepting their claims to refugee status, the Government has been relentless in appealing those decisions. Ironically many of the Tamil boat people thus far accepted have been recognised under a principle known in refugee law as “refugee sur place” – where the basis for fear of return to the country of origin is the result of events having taken place in the host country. In this case, the board has recognised that the Government’s mistaken condemnation of the Tamil boat people as terrorists has itself heightened their profile and placed them at risk of persecution if returned. An even more telling example An even more telling example of the Prime Minister’s concern over human rights in Sri Lanka occurred in the spring of 2009. The decades long civil was drawing to a close and the Sri Lankan armed forces were on the verge of obliterating the Tamil Tigers, also known as the LTTE, who were fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the country’s Northern Province. Human rights groups estimate that anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 Tamil civilians were killed by Government forces in the final weeks of the war by relentless shelling. In Toronto, in a classic example of civil disobedience, tens of thousands of Tamils formed human chains along Yonge St. and in the downtown core to protest the genocide unfolding back home. Yet from Prime Minister Harper and his Government not a sound was heard, not a step in support was taken. Profound disconnect between rhetoric and actions How does one explain the profound disconnect between the Prime Minister’s rhetoric and his actions? The answer, cynical as it sounds, appears to lie in wooing the Tamil electorate in advance of the next federal election. The Tamil community in the GTA is concentrated in the Scarborough and Markham ridings which together hold six seats in the House of Commons, only one of which, Scarborough Centre, is currently held by a Conservative MP. Sen. Hugh Segal dismissed the notion that the Prime Minister’s decision to stay away from the Commonwealth summit was intended to court the Tamil vote. The Conservative senator stated correctly that the government has rarely enjoyed the support of the Tamil community. That is precisely the point: to change that voting equation the Government needs to win over the hearts and minds of the Tamil electorate, and what better first step might there be than by the Prime Minister boycotting the Commonwealth summit? So when Tamils walk into the polling booth on election day they might remember Harper’s grand gesture at the 2013 Commonwealth summit, but they will not forget that when it really mattered, when so many of their family and friends lost their lives at the end of the civil war, he looked the other way. Prime Minister Harper’s righteous indignation now over Sri Lanka’s appalling human rights record brings to mind a famous lyric penned in the sixties by Bob Dylan: You who philosophise disgrace And criticise all fears Take the rag away from your face Now’s not the time for your tears (Max Berger is an immigration lawyer based in Toronto. (source: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/11/13/harper_panders_to_tamils_by_boycotting_commonwealth_summit.html?)