A group of Sinhalese protesters disrupted a ceremony in which a foundation stone was being laid to mark the beginning of the construction of the Tamil Genocide Monument in Brampton, Canada on Wednesday.
A group of Sinhalese protesters disrupted a ceremony in which a foundation stone was being laid to mark the beginning of the construction of the Tamil Genocide Monument in Brampton, Canada on Wednesday.
The protesters, who numbered just over a dozen in total, held Sri Lankan flags, shouted 'shame on you' and held placards that read claimed Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is 'destroying peaceful Sri Lanka’, as Tamils gathered at the ceremony. Their attempts to disrupt it come after the Sri Lankan government tried to block the construction of the monument dedicated to the victims of the Tamil genocide.
Tamil Canadians who were gathered however defiantly waved Eelam flags and chanted 'Sri Lanka - terrorist government!,' before continuing to proceed with the ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Brown told the crowd “I have a message for the Sri Lankan government”.
“We don’t welcome foreign interference in Canada. For those who are genocide deniers, go back to Colombo. These genocide deniers are attacking our democracy. They may have the right in Sri Lanka to bully those who are mourning their heroes, who are mourning their loved ones."
“They have no right in Canada to take our away our right to mourn heroes and family members,” he said to loud cheers from the Tamil Canadians. “What they are doing is unfathomable.”
A letter, exclusively released by the Tamil Guardian this week, revealed how Thushara Rodrigo, Sri Lanka’s Consul General in Toronto wrote to Brown in May 2024, in an attempt to halt the memorial being built.
Rodrigo claimed that the construction of a memorial would “severely disrupt communal harmony” within Canada itself and clained it “conveys a deeply distorted and false message of violence”.
The construction of a memorial Brampton was first proposed in 2021, in response to the destruction of a memorial dedicated to Tamil genocide victims at the University of Jaffna. At the time, Canada's Minister for Foreign Affairs and several MPs condemned the destruction, which sparked widespread protests on the island and in Canada.
“While the Sri Lankan regime attempts to whitewash their own blood stained history, we will do the opposite in Canada,” said Brown at the time, as Brampton City Council unanimously passed a motion to construct a memorial. “We will not forget the Tamil Genocide.”
The final design of the Brampton memorial was released earlier this year and will see a 4.8-metre-tall stainless steel monument stand permanently in place in Chinguacousy Park.
The final design of the Tamil Genocide Monument that Brampton City Council approved earlier this year.
