As an outsider, but having been in the area of the 1958 Colombo riots in which the Sinhala majority took advantage and massaced Tamil minority, I think otherwise. A cargo ship owned by the Hain-Nourse shipping line of London, England actually saved a lost of the Tamils in Colombo, by allowinf Tamils to come aboard and carry them as far as Trincomalee. So, this is the part of the story that was left out. Whether that was done deliberately or not, does not hade certain facts of the problems noe facing the island nation of Sri Lanka. Personally, I feel the partition is the only solution to the issue of Sri Lanka, because it will save a lot of lives.

Former British Merchant Navy Officer, who spent a lot of time in Ceylon and later Sri Lanka.

As long as someone is tied to either community, the truth will become a victim.

1.When compared with the French/English conflict Sri Lanka has a long histry of conflict between the two group Sinhalese and tamils in the form of conflict between Sri lanka and South Indian kingdoms.

2. Conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese has always been influence by the political ambitions of UK as a ruler (who used devide and rule tactice for over hundred years) in the past and currently by India as a regional super power cum bully (as evident by training and arming of LTTE by Indira Ghandi’s time to destablize the “west leaning government of J.R. Jayawardhane”.

3. Any conflict has to be analysysed in the context of its historical background. Even though the author tries to give an analysis and a comparision of the two we can’t isolate it just for the sake of analysis.

The insight written by Kail. T. Rajah was also very informative. I wish more readers in Canada will respond by describing their experiences and opinions

But in Sri Lanka violence was practised on Tamils for decades. No political concessions were made. Only hardline policies were used against Tamils for decades. Canada airforce did not bomb Quebec cities; Canada navy did not destroy Quebec fishing boats. Canada army did not declare 25% of Quebec as high security zone and drive people away.

Comparing both countrys like comparing palmyrah and maple

It is true that the Tamil leaders believed Sinhala leadership foolishly as others commented here. Unfortunately the Sinhala majority community and its leadership nowadays are more racist than that of independence day era. Does it mean that there is no viable negotiated political settlement in sight?

I would like read the accounts from other participants as well, especially the ones by the respected journalist Victor Ivan. could anyone of you post the URLs of publications if you come across. Though they may fail to educate the incorrigibles, still there are rational people in all sides.

The soverignist movement headed by the FLQ was because the French speaking Canadians were being percieved as the ‘Under-Class ‘ of the Canadian Society.

Most unilingual French speakers, upto about 1971 were either Priests, Teachers or factory workers and labourers. Very few if any , were in Management, either in industry or government. Where as most Bi-Lingual French held top posts in Commerce and Government. All Prime Ministers and the OppositionLeaders had to be fluently bi-lingual, irrespective of whether they hail from the English or French stream.

Lester Pearson, John Turner, Joe Clark Brian Mulrooney, Kim Campbel, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper from the English stream and Piere Elliot Trudeau and Jean Cretian from the French side were well supported by both the French and English electrate.

Where as most unilingual English speaking population held top positions in both Industry and government. The bottom rung were mostly determined by their level of education. This appeared patently unfair, hense the French frustration.

The FLQ tapped this frustration of the ‘ Unilingual ‘ French speaking population – just as SWRD tapped the ‘ Unilingual ‘ Singhalese mass in 1956, to come to power.

The FLQ kinapped the British Trade Commissioner, Mr. Cross, I believe and murdered the Quebec Labour Minister triggering Trudeau to invoke the War Measures Act to supress the uprising. To win the release of Mr. Cross, Trudeau had to let a few FLQ members leave for Cuba on excile.

A few years later Official Bilingual was given Actual Teeth, largly satisfying the hunger of the Unilingual French, pulling the carpet as it were from under the Soverignist movement.
Many of the present generation, including DBSJ who might not have been born then, Mr. Bandaranaike, the Leader of the Opposition, did originally propose Singhalese and Tamil as Official Languages in Ceylon. The ruling UNP government also proposed to make both Singhalese and Tamil language official. To this SWRD countered with Singhalese Only which the UNP also followed. Cornered, the demogogue SWRD promised Singhalese Language within 24 hrs of forming the government and was swept into power with a huge majority.

In Canada, the language laws were given teeth, unilingual government workers were given incentives to study the other language and most schools started the other language classes from a very early age.

Civilised behaviour.

Ofcourse there were pockets of unrest in Quebec with French Only marches taking place during weekends.

My family with two very small children and an Ontario licence plate got stuck in front of a Soverignist procession. One person kicked in my front lights and when the crowd saw my brown face – I was not obviously English – they profusely apologised.

So DBSJ and readers, had Ceylon/Sri Lanka not discriminated, played fair to all the communities, the Tamils would never have resorted to violence.

The Tamil community, atleast up to my generation were very docile and if truth may be said, we were cowards. The 1956 riots were an eye opener, the 1958 confirmed our unstable position and made my father to seriously uproot and invest in a safety nest in Jaffna.

SJV did not realize till 1977 that Gandhian Tactics worked only with civilised people. India succeeded only because Britain was a civilised country.

As one of the above commentators observed, our leaders at independance trusted the Singhalese leadership foolishly, quite unlike Jinnah of Pakistan.

Finally as Arend Liphart argued – The best way to avoid partition is not to resist it.
Civilised Canada succeeded, Sri Lanka Failed and will continue to fail until the Majority realises to have peace one has to be fair.

Consciousness of one is an incorrigibly self mutilating and the governance without a firm rule of law or independent judiciary, commencing with abrogation of minority rights that was incorporated in the constitution of the newly independent nation,

The other is an unabashedly an open minded nation with determination to enshrine and strengthen rule of law.

One is coiled in the mythical stories and other is a forward looking liberal-minded nation harnessing the strength of all the people.

Canada is structurally a confederal (not a federal) nation, highly devolved with her blessed leaders shaping the future of the country to the betterment of every citizen. It could hardly be said of same of Sri Lanka.

But one beautiful aspect however is that PEOPLE in both lands are fundamentally good people. Solution will be found therein.