Ottawa Tamil Association sent the first copy of the petition to Prime Minister's office on Jan 5 with over 5000 signatures. Please continue to support this petition as it will be sent again in a month.
Following is the letter sent by the Ottawa Tamil Association with a copy of the petition.
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Office of the Prime MinisterMinister of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada
January 5, 2021
Recognizing Sri Lanka’s Genocide Against Tamils and the Upcoming March 2021 UN Human Rights Council Session
Dear The Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, Hon.François-Philippe Champagne,
We thank our Canadian government for unanimously passing the motion on June 19, 2019, to “call upon the United Nations to establish an international, independent investigation into allegations of genocide against Tamils committed in Sri Lanka”. Tamils in Canada find this motion as a renewed hope to deliver justice for the victims of the Tamil genocide.
With this letter, please find attached a petition with over 5000 signatures to request our government to recognize Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils.
Sri Lanka already denied the implementation of the 2015 UN resolution (30/1) and 2019 (40/1) called for a hybrid court with foreign judges.
We request the Canadian government:
1. To recognize the Tamil genocide as per the attached petition. Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamil resolution passed unanimously in the Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka on February 10, 2015. If not, please form a committee to investigate Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils as per June 19, 2019, unanimous motion at the Canadian parliament.
2. For Canada to immediately apply a travel ban (Magnitsky sanction) on the Sri Lankan army chief similar to the United States of America’s travel ban in Feb 2020 and economic pressure on Sri Lanka to stop systematic genocide of Tamils
We call upon our Canadian government to convey the following messages to the Core group in the upcoming UN session.
1. Since all UNHRC efforts (Resolution 30/1) to bring justice failed, set up a tribunal to investigate and recognize Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils.
2. Refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court by the UN Security Council
3. Recommend the application of Universal Jurisdiction and Magnitksy sanction by countries that have subscribed to it.
4. Appoint a UN Special Rapporteur to investigate and monitor human rights and ongoing genocide and land grabs in Sri Lanka.
5. It is well known that the victims of genocide in Sri Lanka are Tamils in the hands of the Sinhala government and its security forces. However, the victims of genocide, war crimes, and other crimes against humanity, naming words, Tamils have been conscious, omitted, and rarely mentioned in the resolutions of government and other UN reports. Therefore, we request our government to investigate this omission and needfully mention the word “TAMILS” wherever right.
Urgent action is needed by the co-members of the UNHRC and the Core-sponsors of the UNHRC resolutions 30/1 of 2015 and 40/1 of 2019. We are looking forward to tangible actions by our government in 2021.
Thank you.
Ottawa Tamil Association, a registered non-profit organization in Canada
Petition Link: https://www.change.org/p/the-right-honorable-justin-trudeau-prime minister-of-canada-canadian-government-to-officially-recognize-sri-lanka-s-genocide- against-tamils