Over the last two and a half years, a number of research projects have been undertaken in Britain, in Sweden, and in Australia looking at the role of diaspora in the peace-building process.
I mean, everybody knows that diaspora plays a negative role. That is...and I'm talking diaspora writ large. I'm not just talking about Tamil diaspora, or Eritrean. It's right across the board. Increasingly, though, attention is being paid toward the peace-building roles they can play.
Now, within the Canadian context, specifically within the Canadian Tamil context, it is important that we look at first-, second-, and third-generation Tamil youth here in Canada. But we're in a very weird space here. The control that the LTTE exercises in Toronto is powerful. It's very weird. And I can tell you how weird it can be. I can tell you stories of meeting people who have fled Sri Lanka because of the intimidation and murders by the LTTE and who've come here to escape that, and then of hearing the daughter in the university talk about the sympathies she has with the LTTE, who killed her uncle.
There is a role for the diaspora in peace-building here in Canada, but we have to be very careful about who we deal with and how we deal with it. It's very opaque, it's very difficult, and it's very political. I think it's an opportunity, a big opportunity, that we can take advantage of very sensitively.