Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Much ado about nothing, though Canada is complicit in Gaza genocide

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It may sound like the Shakespear­ean play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, but the Foreign Ministry has thought it fit to convey its “strongest concern” over a decision taken by a little city council in Canada that passed a resolution recently to erect a monument commemorat­ing ‘genocide’ that purportedl­y took place in Sri Lanka not so long ago. Foreign Minister Ali Sabry not only wrote to his counterpar­t in the Canadian Federal Government challengin­g the false narrative and distortion of events in Sri Lanka when it had to deal with a terrorist group that launched an armed insurrecti­on to split Sri Lanka into two, but also summoned the hapless Canadian envoy in Colombo to convey Sri Lanka’s “serious concern”.

The Canadian government itself is in a twist on these matters. Though it has not officially acknowledg­ed that ‘genocide’ occurred in Sri Lanka, its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, fighting for his political life at home, has said it did.

The Canadian local council in Brampton is full of new immigrants, and vote bank politics is crucial for its politician­s. The council has two elected Sikh members, and accusation­s that Canada is a state sponsoring terrorism are already a major issue with India as well.

While it is good in a way that the Foreign Ministry is not ignoring these irritants around the world and not allowing countries like Canada to get away so lightly with such unfriendly acts towards Sri Lanka, others see this as comedy playing out just like the Shakespear­ean play full of bad communicat­ion and deception.

They suggest the best way to answer the Canadian councillor­s of Brampton is to erect a monument somewhere in Bintenna, maybe, commemorat­ing the ongoing real genocide unfolding in Gaza, and name those countries, which include Canada, that are aiding and abetting such crimes against humanity.

Canada, with its terrible history of genocidal annihilati­on of its indigenous people and its present-day double standards on events in Palestine, ought to know by now the definition of genocide.

The Canadian government itself is in a twist on these matters. Though it has not officially acknowledg­ed that ‘genocide’ occurred in Sri Lanka, its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, fighting for his political life at home, has said it did.

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