Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  When we didn't get the police clearance, I told my wife to contact the clearance office. She contacted them, and they said it was with the National Intelligence Bureau. We can't talk directly to the NIB, so my wife contacted a Sri Lankan deputy minister and asked if he could help

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The minister talked to the NIB director.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know his name but he is the director of the National Intelligence Bureau of Sri Lanka. He said if I do that, then the minister can write to my wife. My wife told me to do that, but I just can't. This is blackmail.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In the detention centre in Boossa there were about 150 when I was there in 2008. At the inquiry headquarters in Colombo, there are about 50 to 60 people most of the time for what are just inquiries. These are illegal, not legal, detention centres. At the Boossa one they have ab

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Not today. Today it's even more. I'm talking about 2008.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The numbers, you mean?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  On Boossa I don't have specific numbers, but there are more than 200. About 50 or 60 are detained at the TID; and then at the detention centre at Welikada Prison, there are 59 to 70; and at Anuradhapura Prison in the centre of Sri Lanka, there are another 70. It goes on like that

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That has just not been happening in the past two or three years. From the day I was born in 1970--I am 40 years old--there have been ethnic riots. Tamils were chased in the 1958 riots, the 1977 riots, and in 1983. Our family was personally affected by all three riots. So this r

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It was one year at the TID detention centre, including the Colombo detention centre and Boossa, and two years in normal remand prison, like a normal prison in Sri Lanka. But at the detention centre, it was for total of one year, exactly one year.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's right, sir.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  She's a Sri Lankan citizen. They have not come to Canada yet. Because I was a citizen, my children got citizenship. They are there, yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  First of all, thanks for giving me the opportunity to be here to share my experience. Basically, I came to Canada in 1990. I'm a Canadian citizen. I went to Sri Lanka in 2005 to get married. My wife was pregnant, so I decided to stay there for a while. The terrorist investigat