Toronto Star,  Sat Mar 18 21:25:51 EST 2006

    First came the Human Rights Watch report this week claiming Toronto's Tamil community was being intimidated and extorted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a group fighting for independence in Sri Lanka and designated as terrorists by the United Nations.

Then came the outrage by prominent local Tamils, denying such accusations.

Yesterday came the denial of the denials by a new advocacy group called the Canadian Democratic League, an organization that says it has roughly 100 members and wants to speak out against the Tamil Tigers, as the LTTE is known.

The Canadian Democratic League says the LTTE does not speak for all Tamils and they're tired of being silenced in their support for a peaceful means for Tamil independence.

The Human Rights Watch report "is accurate, and its findings resonate with the ground realities of Tamils in Toronto, whose fundamental rights of free expression and association are daily suppressed through the intimidation, violence, and climate of fear instigated by the LTTE and its front organizations," the group stated in a press release yesterday.
Full Story


_________________
- The Academic