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Bravo Juliet said:
It would be the Canadian High Commission. Commonwealth countries don't exchange ambassadors.
Tamil migrant ship headed for BC (Arrived 13 Aug 2010)
- Thread starter CougarKing
- Start date
It would be the Canadian High Commission. Commonwealth countries don't exchange ambassadors.
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Keep your eyes on the news channels folks. Was at the Hospital this morning visiting my wife and son, and saw a security checkpoint being set up at the old emergency entrance to VGH, as well as a bunch of news crews filming around there, as well as the nearby youth detention centre. Word around the site was that the ship is expected this evening at some point.
George Wallace
Army.ca Dinosaur
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Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
Canadian navy boards ship carrying Tamil migrants
Thursday, August 12, 2010 | 7:05 PM
CTV
LINK
The Canadian navy has boarded a cargo ship off the coast of B.C. carrying 490 Tamil migrants, "including suspected human smugglers and terrorists," according to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
He said the government intends to prosecute any criminals that may be travelling on board.
One of the navy vessels that met the migrant ship was HMCS Winnipeg -- the same vessel that searched for pirates off the coast of Somalia this year.
"The Winnipeg attempted to hail the Sun Sea several times, and after establishing communications the vessel declared that it had refugees on board," Toews said.
Meanwhile, tents and portable toilets have been set up at CFB Esquimalt in Victoria in advance of the arrival of the migrants. They have been out at sea for months aboard a ship called the MV Sun Sea that left Thailand in May.
The condition of the people on board the ship is unknown. There are unconfirmed reports that at least one person has died, and many are suffering from tuberculosis.
Five RCMP vessels were deployed to meet the cargo ship. The ships carried armed men, though the RCMP would not provide details on their activities.
CTV's Janet Dirks reported that the main hospital in the area of the military base, Victoria General, "has set up at least 75 beds and they've called on extra emergency personnel."
Whatever ailments the migrants may have, Dirks said local health authorities "are ready to treat them."
"After they are treated, they will then go to two correction facilities on the Lower Mainland -- that's outside of Vancouver, in Maple Ridge," Dirks said.
"They could be there for months. People expect that they'll be filling out refugee forms, that's the claim they want to make -- to be refugees and to live in Canada."
Support and security concerns
Some reports and pundits have warned that the MV Sun Sea may be carrying members of the Tamil Tigers -- the banned terrorist organization whose military wing was defeated by the Sri Lankan army last year.
Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canada, said her government believes the cargo ship is tied to the Tamil Tigers -- a group she says profits greatly from human smuggling.
"This is a human smuggling exercise and Canada should look at it from that point of view," Wagiswara told CTV News Channel from Ottawa on Thursday afternoon.
Supporters say the migrants should not be prejudged.
"There has been a lot of innuendo about people being on there that are a threat to Canadian security," Manjula Selvarajah, a spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
"However, one of the things we have to be careful about is some of the things that we're hearing comes from sources that are linked to the Sri Lankan government, who have a poor track record when it comes to human rights, accountability, transparency."
The expected arrival of the MV Sun Sea will mark the second time a boat carrying Tamil migrants has landed in B.C.
Prior arrivals
Last October, the Ocean Lady brought 76 Tamil migrants to Canada from Sri Lanka.
One passenger on the Ocean Lady told The Canadian Press that he took the risk to come to Canada to flee threats against his life after the end of Sri Lanka's long and bloody civil war. He agreed to pay $45,000 for the chance to leave.
"I was very scared, I felt like I had to hold my life in my own hand," the unidentified passenger told The Canadian Press through a translator.
That ship was supposed to head for Australia, but abruptly changed course and sailed to Canada.
Seeing the news reports of the second ship headed to Canadian soil, the man said he has a sense of what they're going through.
"It's safe for me to say that I know what they're feeling, what they're going through, because I've been through it," he said.
"I think they are civilians just like me coming on the boat and looking for a better opportunity."
Queen's University law professor Sharryn Aiken said the public should look to the Ocean Lady as an example of how smoothly the process will go.
"Seventy-six passengers: All of them after very extensive screening, have been released. They are all awaiting refugee hearings and there has been no substantiated evidence brought forward to date that any of them pose various security risks to Canada," Aiken told CTV News Channel on Thursday afternoon.
"That's not to say that none will ever emerge, and it may be that some of them have links to the defeated Tamil terrorist organization in Sri Lanka, and if they do, they'll be dealt with according to legal procedures here in Canada."
With files from The Canadian Press
Canadian navy boards ship carrying Tamil migrants
Thursday, August 12, 2010 | 7:05 PM
CTV
LINK
The Canadian navy has boarded a cargo ship off the coast of B.C. carrying 490 Tamil migrants, "including suspected human smugglers and terrorists," according to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
He said the government intends to prosecute any criminals that may be travelling on board.
One of the navy vessels that met the migrant ship was HMCS Winnipeg -- the same vessel that searched for pirates off the coast of Somalia this year.
"The Winnipeg attempted to hail the Sun Sea several times, and after establishing communications the vessel declared that it had refugees on board," Toews said.
Meanwhile, tents and portable toilets have been set up at CFB Esquimalt in Victoria in advance of the arrival of the migrants. They have been out at sea for months aboard a ship called the MV Sun Sea that left Thailand in May.
The condition of the people on board the ship is unknown. There are unconfirmed reports that at least one person has died, and many are suffering from tuberculosis.
Five RCMP vessels were deployed to meet the cargo ship. The ships carried armed men, though the RCMP would not provide details on their activities.
CTV's Janet Dirks reported that the main hospital in the area of the military base, Victoria General, "has set up at least 75 beds and they've called on extra emergency personnel."
Whatever ailments the migrants may have, Dirks said local health authorities "are ready to treat them."
"After they are treated, they will then go to two correction facilities on the Lower Mainland -- that's outside of Vancouver, in Maple Ridge," Dirks said.
"They could be there for months. People expect that they'll be filling out refugee forms, that's the claim they want to make -- to be refugees and to live in Canada."
Support and security concerns
Some reports and pundits have warned that the MV Sun Sea may be carrying members of the Tamil Tigers -- the banned terrorist organization whose military wing was defeated by the Sri Lankan army last year.
Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canada, said her government believes the cargo ship is tied to the Tamil Tigers -- a group she says profits greatly from human smuggling.
"This is a human smuggling exercise and Canada should look at it from that point of view," Wagiswara told CTV News Channel from Ottawa on Thursday afternoon.
Supporters say the migrants should not be prejudged.
"There has been a lot of innuendo about people being on there that are a threat to Canadian security," Manjula Selvarajah, a spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
"However, one of the things we have to be careful about is some of the things that we're hearing comes from sources that are linked to the Sri Lankan government, who have a poor track record when it comes to human rights, accountability, transparency."
The expected arrival of the MV Sun Sea will mark the second time a boat carrying Tamil migrants has landed in B.C.
Prior arrivals
Last October, the Ocean Lady brought 76 Tamil migrants to Canada from Sri Lanka.
One passenger on the Ocean Lady told The Canadian Press that he took the risk to come to Canada to flee threats against his life after the end of Sri Lanka's long and bloody civil war. He agreed to pay $45,000 for the chance to leave.
"I was very scared, I felt like I had to hold my life in my own hand," the unidentified passenger told The Canadian Press through a translator.
That ship was supposed to head for Australia, but abruptly changed course and sailed to Canada.
Seeing the news reports of the second ship headed to Canadian soil, the man said he has a sense of what they're going through.
"It's safe for me to say that I know what they're feeling, what they're going through, because I've been through it," he said.
"I think they are civilians just like me coming on the boat and looking for a better opportunity."
Queen's University law professor Sharryn Aiken said the public should look to the Ocean Lady as an example of how smoothly the process will go.
"Seventy-six passengers: All of them after very extensive screening, have been released. They are all awaiting refugee hearings and there has been no substantiated evidence brought forward to date that any of them pose various security risks to Canada," Aiken told CTV News Channel on Thursday afternoon.
"That's not to say that none will ever emerge, and it may be that some of them have links to the defeated Tamil terrorist organization in Sri Lanka, and if they do, they'll be dealt with according to legal procedures here in Canada."
With files from The Canadian Press
- Reaction score
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CBC is reporting that the DND is now saying that the ship was not boarded, only that they made contact with it.
- Reaction score
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Really simple concept guys, come here the legal way or stay out. If my own dad can do it so can you.
There are people in this country that have been working years and YEARS sweating and bleeding to get their own families here, they might as well mail them a rubber dingy. I am tired of illegals getting preferential treatment while people that are legally applying are getting put on hold as our system gets overloaded once again.
The gaping hole in our Immigration Policy really needs to be plugged.
There are people in this country that have been working years and YEARS sweating and bleeding to get their own families here, they might as well mail them a rubber dingy. I am tired of illegals getting preferential treatment while people that are legally applying are getting put on hold as our system gets overloaded once again.
The gaping hole in our Immigration Policy really needs to be plugged.
- Reaction score
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I also find it interesting that we suddenly have an extra 100 beds available. What's up with that? How is it that illegals get better medical attention than our own people?
Enough of this special treatment, do what Australia did and turn this ship right back around.
Enough of this special treatment, do what Australia did and turn this ship right back around.
A
aesop081
Guest
I know how this is going to soud but......
I beleive that ship has already sailed.
So to speak.......
HavokFour said:
I beleive that ship has already sailed.
So to speak.......
- Reaction score
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ModlrMike said:
That’s correct; this is a problem that only a solid majority government can tackle.
When such a beast exists it must, first, come to grip with one key fact: refugees are not immigrants. Refugees are people who have, because of well founded fears for live and limb, fled their homes and are seeking refuge, which is, by definition, a temporary safe haven. We, as civilized people, have a moral duty to help care for refugees; first we need to provide refuge, but not necessarily here. Real refugees do not want to immigrate to Canada; they want refuge close to home so that, as soon as it is safe to do so, they can return to their homes and resume their lives in their country. In this respect the Palestinians are, still, refugees in that most want to return to what is now Israel and resume ‘normal’ lives where their great-grandparents once lived.
The CBC has it right: the Tamils on that ship are migrants; they are not seeking refuge they want what all migrants want: a new, better chance in a new, better place. Lots of migrants came to Canada over the centuries: 100% 0f my ancestors came here seeking something better. We call those people immigrants and we have systems in place to recruit the ones we want.
Then, what about the migrants we don’t want – like the 500± who just arrived?
Well, first, we are duty bound and treaty bound to ‘accept’ then and to treat them fairly and humanely.
What we need not do is to turn them loose into the general population and forget about them. We need not have long, drawn out refugee or immigration determination and appeals processes.
Anyone who arrives in Canada, by air or ship or bus or on foot, seeking asylum, should be detained, concentrated with other asylum seekers, in large camps – maybe we can call them concentration camps, Godwin be damned – where they can do some useful work, where their children can be educated, where they can be safe and secure until, eventually, they are almost all returned to the countries they originally fled. They claim, after all, to be refugees and refugees should want to go home as soon as it is safe to do so.
There are a huge number of laws and regulations that need to be rewritten, and they must be rewritten in ways that can either satisfy the Supremes about Charter issues or can be implemented using the ‘notwithstanding’ clause. Then there is the matter of Canada doing its full and fair share to solve the problems that create refugees in the first place – that may require a bigger, more expensive military that undertakes many, many operations far, far from home.
What we are doing now is the worst of all possible courses open to us – concentration camps are a better alternative.
- Reaction score
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Their claims should be processed in their own country, but hey, why not coming here in first hand and then let the host country deciding if your are a valid refugee, sounds like a good plan. Thus, how many more boats from where before we wake up?
My comment is a bit harsh and I understand that those people come from a difficult and unfair situation but if we have all our personal reason to break and bend the Law, why having laws, where does it stop ? Double standards ?
George Wallace
Army.ca Dinosaur
- Reaction score
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WTF ?
Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
Kevin Libin: Will Canada play host to a Tamil government-in-exile?
Kevin Libin August 14, 2010 – 10:00 am
National Post
LINK
A young Calgary man believes he has family aboard the MV Sun Sea. He also believes strongly in the cause of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a.k.a. the Tamil Tigers. He is, in a person, the predicament Canada faces if the Tigers, as some suspect, are employing human-smuggling ships as part of broader efforts to use this country as a base to rebuild their organization — the one behind a decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka. This country, say some LTTE-watchers, has all the moral support, infrastructure and political accommodation the Tigers need to make Canada their new headquarters.
“I don’t look at the Tigers as an organization that someone made, I look at the Tigers as my fellow people and citizens,” said the man, who asked not to be named, through an interpreter; he believes his father was one of the passengers on the ship that sailed, uninvited, into B.C. waters on Thursday, to deliver to Canadian shores 490 passengers, all suspected to be Tamils. “Everything [the Tamil Tigers] had done was to help us, to help Tamils.”What the Tigers have done is well documented by the 32 countries, including Canada, that have labelled the group a terrorist entity. In pursuing a Tamil homeland, they pioneered suicide bombings before the Palestinians, launching nearly 200 of them; they are believed to have been behind the assassinations of Sri Lanka’s president and former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, as well as any moderate Tamils who they considered disloyal to their cause. At the height of their power they operated a renegade air force, navy, police force, bank and radio and TV stations
In 2009, Sri Lankan forces decisively defeated the fierce rebel group. But the diehard movement has hardly disappeared, says Peter St. John, a professor specializing in intelligence and terrorism at the University of Manitoba. Beaten in Sri Lanka, their members rounded up by the government there, they may use Canada as their base; the MV Sun Sea, which Canadian officials suspect is ferrying at least some LTTE members, could be part of that strategy.
“The [Tigers] aren’t a huge threat at the moment, but they could well be in the future,” says Mr. St. John. “There’s always a small minority who won’t accept the verdict of history, and will be determined to keep fighting the fight from within a peaceful country like Canada.”
In addition to operating a reputedly sophisticated crime ring, including running weapons and drugs, sea piracy and human trafficking, the Tigers have since the beginning relied on the Tamil diaspora to raise the reported US$300 million a year — an estimated $12-million from Canada — that funded their fight with Colombo. Many, like the Calgary man, support the Tigers. But Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has pointed out that the group uses also “extortion and intimidation to raise funds within the Canadian Tamil community.”
Canada, with more Tamils — 200,000 — than any country outside Sri Lanka — is already a key seat of what is something of a rebel government in exile: In May, tens of thousands of Canadian Tamils cast ballots to elect the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, a 135-member parliament-style organization with more Canadian representatives, 25, than any other nation. The Sri Lankan high commissioner to Ottawa called the election a Tiger strategy “to keep the movement alive.”
“They’ve been talking about forming the Tamil government in exile here and setting up a number of institutions. Among the old support network for the Tamil Tigers here, they’ve resolved that the war isn’t over, or that it can always be resumed. As far as they’re concerned it’s war to the knife,” says John Thompson, executive director of the Mackenzie Institute, a Canadian security think tank. “Here in Canada, you’ve got all these young kids, their whole sole idea of Tamil identity has been defined by the Tigers. They’re being raised as a poisoned generation to perpetuate the conflict.”
A Canadian Border Services Agency report on 76 Sri Lankan men who arrived last fall on another ship notes that more than two dozen passengers were suspected Tiger members. “If the overseas wing’s intention is to regroup what is left of its Sri-Lanka based operation in Canada … these men clearly have the requisite abilities and experience to move that process along.”
Canada has long been considered fertile soil for Tamil radicals. With a large ethnic concentration around Toronto and Vancouver, and the reputed ability to mau mau even moderate Tamils into providing support, front groups have lured several federal politicians to their rallies and events: Paul Martin, when he was Liberal finance minister, along with Liberal MP Maria Minna, attended a pro-Tiger fundraiser in 2000. Even after Ottawa listed the Tigers as a terrorist group in 2006, Liberal MPs John McKay and Borys Wrzesnewskyj attended a Markham, Ont. vigil in 2007 to honour the LTTE’s assassinated political chief. Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis met with Tiger leaders on a visit to Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, and Liberal MP Gurbax Malhi told a rally of Tiger supporters last year “I am helping you guys, I’m behind you because you’re fighting for the right cause.” He later claimed he “did not realize” the significance of the prominent LTTE flags and featured pro-Tiger speeches.
There is a history of foreign movements successfully building secure bases in Canada to prosecute violence in overseas homelands, says David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for CSIS, now director of the international and terrorist intelligence program at Insignis Strategic Research in Ottawa. There is, for example, frequently more radicalism among Canadian Sikh separatists—with attendant violence including everything from temple brawls to the assassination of journalists and the bombing of Air India Flight 182—than there is in India itself, Mr. Harris says.
The ability of extremists to keep warm here old squabbles from abroad “is another one of Canada’s gifts to the world,” he says. And the government, he believes, is not fully prepared for the kind of underground organizing a sophisticated operation like LTTE is capable of which, he suggests, could well include infiltrating political and judicial institutions.
Overseas, he says, politicians in affected countries affected have occasionally expressed anger at the inability of governments here to tamp out Canadian sponsorship of terror movements abroad. “To the extent that this develops here, from whatever origins, we have to ask ourselves at what point a reasonable foreign entity that’s being targeted by some of our citizens and their affiliates, is entitled, as a matter of self-defense, to regard Canada as some kind of adversary,” he says. “That’s a big issue and it could be a growing one. You cannot wash your hands of these things, if you have … what seem to be shadow armies, formed on our own soil, and launching hostilities against other powers.”
National Post
Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
Kevin Libin: Will Canada play host to a Tamil government-in-exile?
Kevin Libin August 14, 2010 – 10:00 am
National Post
LINK
A young Calgary man believes he has family aboard the MV Sun Sea. He also believes strongly in the cause of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a.k.a. the Tamil Tigers. He is, in a person, the predicament Canada faces if the Tigers, as some suspect, are employing human-smuggling ships as part of broader efforts to use this country as a base to rebuild their organization — the one behind a decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka. This country, say some LTTE-watchers, has all the moral support, infrastructure and political accommodation the Tigers need to make Canada their new headquarters.
“I don’t look at the Tigers as an organization that someone made, I look at the Tigers as my fellow people and citizens,” said the man, who asked not to be named, through an interpreter; he believes his father was one of the passengers on the ship that sailed, uninvited, into B.C. waters on Thursday, to deliver to Canadian shores 490 passengers, all suspected to be Tamils. “Everything [the Tamil Tigers] had done was to help us, to help Tamils.”What the Tigers have done is well documented by the 32 countries, including Canada, that have labelled the group a terrorist entity. In pursuing a Tamil homeland, they pioneered suicide bombings before the Palestinians, launching nearly 200 of them; they are believed to have been behind the assassinations of Sri Lanka’s president and former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, as well as any moderate Tamils who they considered disloyal to their cause. At the height of their power they operated a renegade air force, navy, police force, bank and radio and TV stations
In 2009, Sri Lankan forces decisively defeated the fierce rebel group. But the diehard movement has hardly disappeared, says Peter St. John, a professor specializing in intelligence and terrorism at the University of Manitoba. Beaten in Sri Lanka, their members rounded up by the government there, they may use Canada as their base; the MV Sun Sea, which Canadian officials suspect is ferrying at least some LTTE members, could be part of that strategy.
“The [Tigers] aren’t a huge threat at the moment, but they could well be in the future,” says Mr. St. John. “There’s always a small minority who won’t accept the verdict of history, and will be determined to keep fighting the fight from within a peaceful country like Canada.”
In addition to operating a reputedly sophisticated crime ring, including running weapons and drugs, sea piracy and human trafficking, the Tigers have since the beginning relied on the Tamil diaspora to raise the reported US$300 million a year — an estimated $12-million from Canada — that funded their fight with Colombo. Many, like the Calgary man, support the Tigers. But Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has pointed out that the group uses also “extortion and intimidation to raise funds within the Canadian Tamil community.”
Canada, with more Tamils — 200,000 — than any country outside Sri Lanka — is already a key seat of what is something of a rebel government in exile: In May, tens of thousands of Canadian Tamils cast ballots to elect the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, a 135-member parliament-style organization with more Canadian representatives, 25, than any other nation. The Sri Lankan high commissioner to Ottawa called the election a Tiger strategy “to keep the movement alive.”
“They’ve been talking about forming the Tamil government in exile here and setting up a number of institutions. Among the old support network for the Tamil Tigers here, they’ve resolved that the war isn’t over, or that it can always be resumed. As far as they’re concerned it’s war to the knife,” says John Thompson, executive director of the Mackenzie Institute, a Canadian security think tank. “Here in Canada, you’ve got all these young kids, their whole sole idea of Tamil identity has been defined by the Tigers. They’re being raised as a poisoned generation to perpetuate the conflict.”
A Canadian Border Services Agency report on 76 Sri Lankan men who arrived last fall on another ship notes that more than two dozen passengers were suspected Tiger members. “If the overseas wing’s intention is to regroup what is left of its Sri-Lanka based operation in Canada … these men clearly have the requisite abilities and experience to move that process along.”
Canada has long been considered fertile soil for Tamil radicals. With a large ethnic concentration around Toronto and Vancouver, and the reputed ability to mau mau even moderate Tamils into providing support, front groups have lured several federal politicians to their rallies and events: Paul Martin, when he was Liberal finance minister, along with Liberal MP Maria Minna, attended a pro-Tiger fundraiser in 2000. Even after Ottawa listed the Tigers as a terrorist group in 2006, Liberal MPs John McKay and Borys Wrzesnewskyj attended a Markham, Ont. vigil in 2007 to honour the LTTE’s assassinated political chief. Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis met with Tiger leaders on a visit to Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, and Liberal MP Gurbax Malhi told a rally of Tiger supporters last year “I am helping you guys, I’m behind you because you’re fighting for the right cause.” He later claimed he “did not realize” the significance of the prominent LTTE flags and featured pro-Tiger speeches.
There is a history of foreign movements successfully building secure bases in Canada to prosecute violence in overseas homelands, says David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for CSIS, now director of the international and terrorist intelligence program at Insignis Strategic Research in Ottawa. There is, for example, frequently more radicalism among Canadian Sikh separatists—with attendant violence including everything from temple brawls to the assassination of journalists and the bombing of Air India Flight 182—than there is in India itself, Mr. Harris says.
The ability of extremists to keep warm here old squabbles from abroad “is another one of Canada’s gifts to the world,” he says. And the government, he believes, is not fully prepared for the kind of underground organizing a sophisticated operation like LTTE is capable of which, he suggests, could well include infiltrating political and judicial institutions.
Overseas, he says, politicians in affected countries affected have occasionally expressed anger at the inability of governments here to tamp out Canadian sponsorship of terror movements abroad. “To the extent that this develops here, from whatever origins, we have to ask ourselves at what point a reasonable foreign entity that’s being targeted by some of our citizens and their affiliates, is entitled, as a matter of self-defense, to regard Canada as some kind of adversary,” he says. “That’s a big issue and it could be a growing one. You cannot wash your hands of these things, if you have … what seem to be shadow armies, formed on our own soil, and launching hostilities against other powers.”
National Post
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medicineman
Army.ca Legend
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T6 - she actually was delivered about 0630 yesterday morning...my present work spot is actually spitting distance from the jetty they berthed at.
MM
MM
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tomahawk6 said:
Now that they are landed the whole, cumbersome, ill-conceived refugee determination and admissibility process must be followed. They, almost all of them, anyway, will stay - some, probably most, will endure the whole, lengthy process, others will just, quietly, disappear into the Tamil diaspora.
There are many, many Tamils in Canada - some, maybe a lot, sympathize, at least, with the Tamil Tigers' aims; most, whatever their "old country' political beliefs are productive Canadians who integrate with, seemingly, less difficulty than is experienced by, say, Arabs, Africans and even Latin Americans.
There were a lot of Tamil kids at a Toronto high school at which my wife taught in the mid-nineties. They were the most polite and hard-working students, as a group, that she'd ever had. They were a much more cohesive group than any other at the school as well, and frequently had evening ceremonies at the school to mark religious occasions and other such events. We went to most, if not all, of these events, as they had stage performances and, most appreciated by me, interesting food. I remain quite prejudiced in favour of Tamils. From what I saw, they have made a better than average contribution to this country.
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A post at Unambiguously Ambidextrous:
Tamils and MV Sun Sea: Mickey I. gets it right
http://unambig.com/tamils-and-mv-sun-sea-mickey-i-gets-it-right/
Mark
Ottawa
Tamils and MV Sun Sea: Mickey I. gets it right
http://unambig.com/tamils-and-mv-sun-sea-mickey-i-gets-it-right/
Mark
Ottawa
- Reaction score
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The fact that Tamils, for example, make excellent immigrants does not, in any way, mean that our refugee system is anything but a load of codswallop. We need a government that will take immigration and, completely separately, refugee policies seriously and get us adequate numbers of suitable immigrants and, separately, deal with the sad, global problems of refugees.
One problem, refugees, we need to handle at and near the source - by helping to remove the root causes that drive innocent people to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere and to help provide support for them, near to their homes.
The second problem, immigration, is something akin to a military recruiting exercise: we need to go out and find the people we want and convince them to come here and join us, we must not just settle for accepting those who want to come here.
One problem, refugees, we need to handle at and near the source - by helping to remove the root causes that drive innocent people to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere and to help provide support for them, near to their homes.
The second problem, immigration, is something akin to a military recruiting exercise: we need to go out and find the people we want and convince them to come here and join us, we must not just settle for accepting those who want to come here.
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