It is to indicate that we are very interested and earnest in our urging of the Sri Lankan government to attend to the humanitarian crisis in the northern province and to keep pressing for this humanitarian pause that I mentioned to you a few minutes ago, rather than use the word “ceasefire”, which of course suggests that the LTTE may be able to regroup if there's just a ceasefire. Nobody wants to see them regroup, except of course for the hard-line LTTE. Surely we have a responsibility to say publicly and internationally that Canada very much supports any humanitarian initiative in the matter of getting innocent civilians out of the combat zone.
After that, if there's any chance that Canada, through its aid programs, through its international clout, can persuade Sri Lanka to take more seriously bringing to birth a viable, honourable government in the northern province, which allows for Ceylon Tamil identity and legacy to be continued and given some dignity.... Right now I rather doubt that's going to happen. I wonder if there even are Tamil leaders who can come forward and perform those functions.
But that being said, I still think we need to indicate that this is what we would like to see and to remind the Sri Lankan government that we have possibly as many as 300,000 Tamils living in Canada and this is an important issue for us, too, because we want to make sure they have a place in Canadian society and that they are not totally aggrieved over what has come to pass in their homeland. That may be a roundabout way of saying that I still think the Canadian government should be able to voice a strong humanitarian position and also press for a credible autonomy for the northern, and for that matter, the eastern province as things settle down.
The eastern province now is technically in line with the government, but it's a cold peace. I was in the eastern province just a few months ago, and when I say a “cold peace”, the police blocks are everywhere. People are still very fearful of talking, of speaking. Technically speaking, it's not under the control of the LTTE, of course, but still, you wouldn't want to live there--not yet.