Tamils vote on support for state within Sri Lanka

(By Shane McNeil, CTV.ca News, Saturday Dec. 19, 2009) - Canada’s Tamil population is voting in a referendum today to gauge support for a sovereign Tamil state within Sri Lanka.

Canadians of Tamil descent are being asked whether they still support the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, which called for the recreation of an independent sovereign state for the Tamil people in the northern and eastern portions of Sri Lanka.

Saturday’s referendum is being run by the Coalition for Tamil Elections Canada, a non-partisan group created exclusively to run surveys and opinion polls to measure the political pulse of Canada’s Tamil population.

Their hope is to have a democratically-reached stance by Canadians of Tamil descent on the sovereignty issue.

“There have been various voices and opinions heard on the issue, whether for, whether against, and some undecided, but (political) agency isn’t available for those in Sri Lanka,” Coalition spokesperson Darshika Selvasivam told CTV.ca.

“Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we have the right to be able to organize in this manner and to be able to voice our opinions.” More …

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Tamil Eelam Heroes' Day 2009:
Videos & photos

McDonagh on Sri Lanka
at the British Labor Party
conference

"Next time you want to buy underwear from Marks & Spencer, you want to buy a t-shirt from Next, you want to go on a holiday of a lifetime in a beautiful island off the coast off India - Do you really want to spend your money on a government that chooses to lock 300,000 people up behind barbed-wire.

A country that is the most dangerous in the world to be a journalist.

A country where we can see on Channel 4 News, young men, naked and bound shot at close range.

Is that what we want for our money, for our democracy?

I ask you to not only support the emergency resolution on Sri Lanka but to use your money and not prop up that government,"

Damilvany Gnanakumar
witnessed the bloody conflict
from a Vanni hospital