Canada's Liberal Parliamentarian Bob Rae, born a Canada in Aug. 1948, has been officially deported out of Sri Lanka due to the Sri Lankan government's idea that he is a supporter of a group, The Tamil Tigers, who are labeled by the world as a terrorist organization. I will not get into the specifics of the organization, because that would make that organization relevant to what I am writing about, and in this article their status as a terrorist group is irrelevant. How does a Canadian member of Parliament be deemed a supporter of a terrorist group and get kicked out of the country? The man was born in Canada 61 years ago, and the civil conflict between Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers didn’t even open up as a war until the early 80's, almost 40 years after the birth of Bob Rae. What is more confusing to this situation is that Bob Rae has been involved with reconciliation efforts between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, dating back to his days when he was the founding Chair of the Forum of Federations. This Federation was a non-governmental organization that focused all on governance, sharing different types of experiences, and basically creating a world wide dialogue on many important topics such as diversity, conflict, and the needs for change in governments. Even as an MP he had involved himself in the tragedy that was occurring In Sri lanka, where innocent civilians of both side, Tamils and Singhalese, were perishing because of a country filled with leaders who would not share the beautiful island. Keep in mind some of this work may have been in Canada, but a lot of the work Bob Rae did was on location in Sri Lanka, meeting political leaders and speaking to them.

It is very unfortunate that the government of Sri Lanka would waste the time and more important the genuine good intentions of a man with authority and respect. Its a shame Bob Rae didn’t let the Sri Lankan Government know he was on the way. WAIT A MINUTE. He actually traveled across the world, with an understanding that the Sri Lankan government knew he was on the way with his good intentions, and this understanding was there because they granted the often visiting Bob Rae (and his views on humanitarianism and Government reconciliation amongst the government and the Tamil tigers) a visa to come to enter the country and provide his support. However once he landed at the BandaranaikeInternationalAirport in Colombo, an Army spokesperson deemed Bob Rae a terrorist and told him he had to leave the country he just entered, WITH HUMANITARIAN intentions.

My frustrations in this situation are as follows: How can a country's government deport political members of another country, particularly a country like Canada that promotes a multi-culture existence and Peace amongst all, under the premise that they support a terrorist organization. Bob Rae himself had spoken against the rebel organization just as much or perhaps even more than the Sri Lankan Government itself. Many innocent people are continuing to die in Sri Lanka, and now you can add Canadian MPs on the list of other terrorist supporters such as all the journalists, TV channels, and any other medias and individuals that want to just report what is going on in Sri Lanka, and not necessarily support or not support what is going on in that beautiful island. So my question now is, WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN SRI LANKA?

After careful thought and consideration, I have come to an understanding that I must be reading into this situation with Bob Rae the wrong way, and maybe because I am Tamil myself, and a large number of Tamil civilians are dying every day in Sri Lanka, I am in no position to make a judgment of these new occurrences. I feel because I am emotionally involved, I must be clouding myself from realizing the truth that the Sri Lanka government has EVERY RIGHT TO BAN any sort of reporting (through journalists, television channels, etc.) on the status of the country in terms of humanitarianism. I must also be completely out of my mind for not understanding that it is NORMAL POLICY for the government of a country to tell political ambassadors and United Nations officials they cannot step foot on their country to provide possible support and relief to the issues in the country. I do remember the last time a government did just that, when the Saddam Hussein regime claimed there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq, and heavily insisted that no U.N. officials are required to verify his fact on the nuclear weapons. Since Saddam Hussein is still in power, making his Presidential decisions, I must definitely be clouded on the idea of censorship by one government towards another government, and the world itself.

If anyone out there who, is not clouded by the humanitarian crisis that is occurring and is not emotionally attached, could please explain to me the recent actions by the Government of Sri Lanka and their rationale, I would be more than grateful.  I urge you to comment on this and let me know what you think.   I will leave you with words from Bob Rae himself about this situation he had to deal with.

Bob Rae said his episode shows the Sri lankan Government "is afraid of dialogue, afraid of discussion, afraid of engagement."

"All I can say is shame on them. If this is how they treat me, imagine how they treat people who can't speak out." Bob Rae.