Canadians march over 400 km in solidarity with families of the disappeared

Canadian Tamils gathered in Brampton’s City Hall to begin the “Walk for Justice,” where 5 dedicated men began their walk to Ottawa’s parliament hill to call for an international investigation into Tamil disappearances in Sri Lanka.

This is in solidarity with families of the disappeared who are making the same demand of the UN Human Right’s Commissioner.

Read more here: Families of disappeared urge international community to fulfil ‘last wish’ of investigating Tamil genocide

The five men began their walk last Sunday and will be walking for a total of 150 hours, spanning 14 days and 424 kilometres to submit a petition to the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau to demand an investigation into the thousands who were forcibly disappeared. 

The men will be welcomed by politicians and human rights activists on Parliament hill once they reach their destination on 14 September. 

Demonstrators gathered holding signs reading “Eelam Tamils seek Canada’s commitment to combatting enforced disappearances across the globe” demanding justice for the 24,000 Tamils missing in Sri Lanka. 

The demonstration organized by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam took place on 30th August 2020 to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

Photo of MP Ruby Sahota (in pink) speaking to demonstrators

MP Ruby Sahota made a speech to the demonstrators stating;

“Our government stands with you” and “I will stand with you and encourage the international communities to make sure there is an investigation, a thorough investigation and all these lives are accounted for.”

MP Gary Anandasangaree and Mayor Patrick Brown also voiced their support in finding justice for Tamil families of the disappeared.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button