The Ontario Government is repeating it’s history of using scare tactics to bullying a minority group using it’s financial strength, when citizens attempts to question its “Tamil Genocide Education Week Act aka Bill 104”

The Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) is responsible for providing a fair and accessible justice system that reflects the needs of the diverse communities it serves across government and the province. It strives to manage the justice system in an equitable, affordable and accessible way throughout the province. While our legal team was busy preparing the submission of the factum for the appeal to the Superior Court verdict on TGEWA, MAG dropped a bombshell; going back on it’s claim of “not asking for costs in public interest cases”. It threatens to ask for cost if the appeal is not withdrawn. 

According to the attached letter, the MAG is calling the threatening letter a “SETTLEMENT”!

Whether the MAG is in fact acting to ensure a justice system that is equitable and affordable to diverse communities, or whether it acts errantly to protect the interests of the Ontario legislature can be judged from the actions of the MAG in a case affecting two minority communities living in Ontario.

Two main immigrant groups originating from Sri Lanka are resident in Ontario. They are the Sinhalese Canadians and the Tamil Canadians, the latter being approximately three times larger than the smaller Sinhalese community. Tamil Canadians are well known to have deep pockets and a powerful political lobby both at the provincial level and at the federal level. Both group, Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil, have immigrated to Canada mostly during the last four decades when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), deemed a Terrorist group by Canada, fought a war against the Sri Lankan government. LTTE used suicide bombers and child soldiers to kill thousands of innocent civilians and terrorized the island nation for 30 years. The LTTE hoped to carve out an independent state to be known as Tamil Eelam. The LTTE was militarily defeated and its leaders were killed on 18th May 2009 during the last phase of this war. Many carried blood money to countries like Canada, Nederlands, Malaysia and Germany. The UN Human Rights commissioner, as well as the main political parties of the Tamils have ruled that no genocide was committed by the Sri Lankan government, according to the currently available data. An investigation by the UK House of Lords, led by Lord Naseby also reached the same conclusion. But the TGEWA has legalised that the Sinhalese Buddhists (centric government) as COMMITTED A GENOCIDE. Without ever hearing both sides of the story or even expert investigations before enacting the law!

Nevertheless, the Ontario legislature passed a “Tamil Genocide Education Week Act” (TGEWA) implying that a genocide has occurred, ignoring the opposition of the Sinhalese Canadians who found themselves “tar brushed” as perpetrators of a genocide. In Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition & Sri Lanka Canada Association of Brampton, and members of Ontario’s Sinhalese diaspora brought applications seeking a declaration that the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act (Bill 104) is unconstitutional. In particular, the applicants argued that since no Tamil genocide has been recognized under international criminal law standards, Bill 104 was ultra vires and breached their rights under ss. 2(b) and 15 of the Charter. In its decision, the Superior Court dismissed the applications and found that Bill 104 was not ultra vires and did not violate the applicants’ rights under ss. 2(b) and 15 mainly because the politican’s made statements in the court.

The Sri Lankan groups that mounted the challenge, being dissatisfied with the court’s ruling that a claim or a finding of genocide perpetrated by a government or a state “does not tar individuals who may be members of the same nationality, ethnicity, or religious affiliation as those people who dominate the government or state in question”, have sought to appeal the decision. The Appeals Court has three judges who will hear the case.

Given the MAG’s mandate to provide a justice system which is equitable and affordable to diverse communities, a very reprehensible move has been made by the MGM in attempting to suppress the capacity of these dissatisfied litigants to seek remedy is seen in a letter sent to them by the Attorney General (AG), dated 3rd November 2022.

By invoking the “Rule 49”, the AG proposes the dissatisfied groups to renounce their right to appeal, or face the imposition of having to bear the legal cost of the appeal, over-riding a waiver by stating that “Despite Ontario’s waiver of costs set out in para. B. 1 above, if this offer is accepted by the Coalition after December 16, 2022, the Coalition shall pay to Ontario its reasonable costs of the Coalition’s appeal on a partial indemnity basis incurred from December 17, 2022, until the date of acceptance of this offer”.

While the MGM specifically stated that it seeks no costs at the first hearing, it is changing now and seeking costs at the appeals stage.

It is no secret that even the legal challenge to the TGEWA act has so far immensely taxed the Sri Lankan community. The ruling has deepened its sense of being politically ostracized by the vote-hungry politicians who have rushed to talk of a make believe genocide in Sri Lanka, while no such discussion in regard to what happened to Canada’s own indigenous communities have taken place, whereas that should have been given priority. The AGM and the justice department are seen not only as rubber stampers who are afraid to rock the boat, but are actively seeking to keep the legislators happy, while sacrificing fair-play, justice, and the mandate to provide justice in an equitable, affordable and accessible way throughout the province. This is a very serious threat since no one knows how much the legal cost would be.

While requesting costs by the MGM and granting costs are two different legal activities, we are hoping that justice will be served for the public interest case brought forward by the two Organisations representing many community members.

We will be continuing our fight!

Please continue to support our funding efforts to continue the fight legally. Here is the link to the Notice of Appeal:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_4QSDZM011dJsud03ySnJ-t48HxXddk6?usp=sharing

Here is our funding options:

1. eTransfer email (Auto deposit enabled):
eTransfer@srilankancanadian.ca

2. GoFundMe Link:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/legal-fund-for-fighting-against-bill-104

3. Paypal (one time or monthly donations):
https://tinyurl.com/28ndshwy

4. Cheque:
Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Inc
Suite 401, 900 Greenbank Road, Nepean, Ontario,K2J 4P6,Canada

Thank you!

Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition
Sri Lanka Canada Association of Brampton