Great article by Blatchford. I am concerned that this is going to be the new de rigeur protest method. Around the world there are enough serious conflicts to have interest groups blocking roads year round. It's an idea that needs to be nipped in the bud. Protest all you want, but make them get a permit and use a designated space and keep off the roads. You have a right to protest in Ottawa and I have a right to be sympathetic or not.

In Ottawa the local police bill for the Tamil protests is $900k, and I'm sure it is as much or more in Toronto.

Around the world there are enough serious conflicts to have interest groups blocking roads year round. It's an idea that needs to be nipped in the bud. Protest all you want, but make them get a permit and use a designated space and keep off the roads. You have a right to protest in Ottawa and I have a right to be sympathetic or not.

You succinctly articulated my point.

Sorry I'm too big a fan of Jack Bauer. Really though, I did mention I was generalizing to use as an example. The point I was trying to drive home is we need to promote individualism and minorities...to a POINT but not at the expense of our own ideals and laws. We have to draw the line somewhere and do it soon.
I can completely agree with this comment. Being and immigrant myself (well a refugee actually, from the conflict in El Salvador) few things annoy me more than when other immigrants whine and complain about the canadian way of life.

Most immigrants would say to those few "If you liked life back home so much more, why the hell dont you go back??" (A true example of this happened when my parents took ESL classes)

Well lets remember that we are all immigrants to this country so please lets stop the immigrant bashing and focus on the Tamil situation and more specifically the impact the protests are having on life in the city.

I can completely agree with this comment. Being and immigrant myself (well a refugee actually, from the conflict in El Salvador) few things annoy me more than when other immigrants whine and complain about the canadian way of life.

Most immigrants would say to those few "If you liked life back home so much more, why the hell dont you go back??" (A true example of this happened when my parents took ESL classes)
The problem is, kids or grand kids of immigrants forget where their folks came from, and automatically think they are better than everyone else that arrived recently, whichever way you wan to look at "recently".

Like Hugh said..."let's not all forget where we came from". The protests are becoming a nuisance, not just here but in places in Europe with Tamil settlers. The way they are going about it is wrong, and hopefully this doesn't set a precedence.

So anyone who shows discontent with the US/Israel/The West is a terrorist in your eyes Riley???? Riight. And let me guess, the US/Israel/The West is free to use whatever force they deem fit against the rest of them thar terrorist barbarians? Please, the world isnt that cut and dry.

You're right, the world isn't cut and dry. However, from what i've understood, the Tamils are an ethnic group that decided they wanted to carve out their own peice of Shri Lanka and created a military wing to further those goals. What they've done since then sure sounds like terrorism to me..

Tamil Tiger recruits are given a rigorous military training and ideological makeover.

On passing out, each one is handed a cyanide capsule to be worn around the neck. Martyrdom is achieved through avoiding capture by suicide.


The aftermatch of a suicide attack in Colombo

The dedication of the rebel force is demonstrated by the very small number who are captured alive by the Sri Lankan security forces.

The Tamil Tigers are notorious for their suicide attacks, and the LTTE has carried out at least five times more such attacks than other similar organisations put together.
The suicide attackers consist of highly-motivated men and women who turn themselves into human bombs by strapping explosives onto their bodies.

Fearsome reputation


Women are also recruited into the Tigers

The fighting force is said to be around 10,000 men and women, who use artillery, surface-to-air missiles and rocket launchers. They also are known to recruit under-age children to fight.

Apart from fighting a conventional war, the apparent willingness of the Tigers to target civilians has been highlighted in instances when they have deliberately attacked villagers.
In one pre-dawn attack in late 1999, Tiger units were accused of hacking to death women and children in a majority Sinhala village.

The LTTE is also blamed for ethnically cleansing Jaffna, when they asked all non-Tamils to leave the de facto Tamil state in 1990.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/526407.stm

I agree we throw around the terrorist name too easily, but if it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck.

I could respect these protesters if they didn't try to take a city hostage to make themselves be heard. Do they really think that our Federal Government is really going to try and intervene in a conflict with a group that we've designated as a terrorist org.? Personally, the Tigers started this fight, it seems to me like they don't like the fact that someone else is ending it for them.

Guys last warning. This thread is about the situation in Toronto and dealing with the disruptions.

The following is factually correct, not politically correct. This is about protesters holding Toronto and Canada hostage. We must not give in. Giving in to their extortion merely invites more extortion. There are dozens of similar other "causes" out there...

Remember Armenians making bomb threats against Toronto subways in the mid-1980's as part of their agitation against the slaughter of Armenians by Turkey in WWI?
the Darfur slaughter merits as much "attention"
Tibetans being suppressed massacred by China
the treatment, and occasional killings, of Moslems in Israeli-occupied territory

and I'm sure there are dozens of others that I can't think of off the top of my head. Canada has done its fair share of providing refuge to victims of distant wars. We do not have any obligation to sends thousands of our country's youth to go die in a foreign war at the beck and call of those who wouldn't stand up and fight in their own country.

Modern foreign wars destroy the invaders as much as they destroy the invaded. We've already wasted enough of our money, and more tragically, lives of our soldiers in Afghanistan. We must not allow ourselves to be railroaded into more foreign wars.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090517/world/international_us_srilanka_war

Hopefully the bloodshed and protests have come to an end...

Hopefully the bloodshed and protests have come to an end...

I doubt it will stop. There is now a photo circulating on the net showing their leader is supposedly still alive.

Come on, even my little cousin can do a better photoshop than this.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-05-21-s320x240.jpg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/tamil-tiger-leader-vellup_n_206531.html

I guess the "photographer" forgot to add in the power and video cables for the TV, and I like how the newspaper is being held. :rolleyes: