COLOMBO: Canadian immigration officials on Thursday arrested and deported Tamil film director, Sebastian Seeman, after he made an inflammatory speech in Toronto in which he said that no member of the majority Sinhalese community had the right to live, and that the war in Sri Lanka, which ended in May with the defeat of the LTTE, should be resumed.
According to eyewitnesses quoted by the Canadian daily, National Post, Seeman said the war would have ended differently had the rebels bombed 100 Sinhala schools for every Tamil school bombed by the Sri Lankan forces. He talked about restarting the civil war to avenge the defeat of the Tamils.
“No Sinhala can live,” the film director thundered.
The Sinhalese are the majority community in Sri Lanka. It has been in conflict with the minority Tamils seeking provincial autonomy, or, as the Tamil Tigers had demanded, an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east of the island country.
Director Seeman, who was in Canada on a speaking tour, was taken into custody by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and questioned, before he agreed to leave the country immediately. He left Canada on Thursday night.
Seeman was scheduled to speak at a Tamil community function on Thursday night but was forced to cancel due to his arrest. He was to speak in Montreal on Sunday. Canada is home to 250,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
In the video of his speech, a flag bearing the emblem of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), could be seen, though the Tigers are a banned terrorist organization in Canada.
Seeman has been an active campaigner for the LTTE in Tamil Nadu, and had also clandestinely visited its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the jungles of the Wanni, and taken pictures with him.
CANADA CRACKDOWN
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Toronto and Peel police were involved in Seeman's arrest, which came as police were cracking down on the pro-LTTE events that were once common in Toronto, National Post said.
Seeman's speaking programme coincided with "Heroes' Day," also known as "Martyrs’ Day," an event held each year to commemorate Tamil rebels who died during the fight for an independent Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka.
Police had been investigating Tamil Tiger activities in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver since 2002. The investigation concluded that pro-rebel groups in Canada had funneled millions of dollars to the Tigers.
CANADA SEES THREAT
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said in a speech last month that while the Sri Lankan insurgency had ended, the Tamil Tigers remained a terrorist group that could have a significant impact on Canada.
"There are an estimated 250,000 Tamils in this country, more than anywhere else in the world outside of Sri Lanka. Canada is one of the few places in the world where LTTE terrorists and supporters might seek to hide in plain sight, and potentially launch terrorist activities," Elliot said.
Seeman entered Canada on Monday. He was traveling on a visa issued last month by the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi. He had visited Canada in 2007 without incident.