VIDEO: Protestors disrupt ceremony for controversial Tamil Genocide Memorial in Brampton

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Published August 15, 2024 at 2:08 pm

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown (centre) and Coun. Pat Fortini (right) at the Tamil Genocide Memorial foundation stone laying ceremony on Aug. 14, 2024.

Mayor Patrick Brown says the city won’t back down in the face of what he calls “foreign interference” over plans to build a controversial Tamil Genocide Memorial in Brampton.

“We don’t welcome foreign interference in Canada,” Brown said during a ceremony laying the foundation stone for the monument on Wednesday at Brampton’s Chinguacousy Park. “For those who are genocide deniers, go back to Colombo.”

About a dozen protestors opposed to the monument’s construction came to the event, some with signs calling out what they said are Brown’s “divisive politics.”

The monument and the mayor’s past comments on the bloody, decades-long Sri Lankan civil war have stirred controversy in Brampton over the years.

In an interview with INsauag.com, the mayor called it “unfathomable” and “vile” that anyone would protest “an event of mourning.”

“Like other communities, there are moments and part of the journey that we remember, and this is very important to remember for the Tamil community,” Brown said.

The more than 30-year conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government in 2006. The war saw clashes between Tamil and Sinhalese Sri Lankans with between 80,000 to 100,000 killed, according to the United Nations.

The protestors at Wednesday’s were of Sinhalese descent, according to a video posted online by the Tamil Guardian.

The UN has been looking into alleged war crimes with the UN Human Rights Council accusing Sri Lanka of “obstructing accountability” in 2021. Brown was one of the first Canadian politicians to publicly call the civil war a genocide and has been a critic of that country’s government.

Ontario’s Bill 104 marks seven days each year ending on May 18 as “Tamil Genocide Education Week.”

“There is much work to do for justice and reconciliation but Canada continues to stand tall in the fight against the barbaric Sri Lankan regime which continues to evade accountability at the International Criminal Court,” Brown said in a post on social media.

Peel Regional Police officers can be seen in the video, however, police spokespersons were not immediately available for comment.

Brown called on the federal government to “take a hard line” against the Sri Lankan government earlier this week following allegations of “foreign interference” in relation to the monument.

A letter from Sri Lanka’s Consul General in Toronto sent in May urged the city to scrap plans for the memorial. Brown fired back calling for the government to hand over “the war criminals responsible for the Tamil genocide to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”

Earlier this year, Brown revealed he had been briefed by Canada’s spy agency about “examples of foreign interference in Brampton and Peel Region” following a report that found India, Pakistan and Iran “engaged in foreign interference activities” in Canada.

China also “allegedly interfered in the leadership races of the Conservative Party of Canada” – a race that Brown was disqualified from in 2022 over allegations he broke finance rules.

An integrity commissioner complaint was filed against the mayor in 2021 after sparring with a resident over the memorial. Brampton’s integrity commissioner found the mayor’s behaviour was less than “exemplary” but didn’t violate codes of conduct.

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