Costs of policing Tamil protests raises concerns

Costs of policing Tamil protests raises concerns

By Pauline Tam , Canwest News ServiceApril 19, 2009

Ottawa police move in to remove picket signs from protesting Sri Lankan Canadians in support of the Tamil Tigers as they continue the third day of protests in front of Parliament Hill on April 9.

Ottawa police move in to remove picket signs from protesting Sri Lankan Canadians in support of the Tamil Tigers as they continue the third day of protests in front of Parliament Hill on April 9.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — As the Tamil-Canadian vigil on Parliament Hill enters its third week, with a fresh wave of demonstrators expected on Tuesday, area politicians are calling on the federal government to cover the extra costs of patrolling the protest.

“As a clear and pragmatic point, the federal government should be paying for these services that are provided from the City of Ottawa,” Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar said Sunday.

The price tag for the Ottawa police’s involvement has not yet been tallied, but councillor Eli El-Chantiry, chairman of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said he has asked for a breakdown of expenses to be presented later this month.

“I have asked staff to get a detailed report for every dime and nickel spent from Day 1, and I can imagine the number is not going to be pretty,” said El-Chantiry. “But I can assure you I will be requesting assistance from the federal government whenever we have the number.”

Protest organizers have indicated that as many as 25,000 Tamil supporters are expected on the Hill Tuesday. While police say they are prepared to handle a large crowd, they don’t expect a repeat of what happened during the early days of the demonstration, when downtown traffic was ensnared and buses were rerouted, creating commuter havoc.

“The flavour of the protest has changed and it has been very co-operative in nature,” said Ottawa police Insp. Mark Ford. “The protesters are trying to minimize the impact and work with us in doing our job.”

For two weeks, Tamil supporters have gathered around Parliament Hill to protest the civil war in the South Asian country and urge the Canadian government to intervene.

Many say they fear for the safety of family members caught in the violence. The protesters are angry about what they view as hostilities by the Sri Lankan military, which has moved onto land historically held by the country’s Tamil minority.

For nearly four decades, the Tamils have been fighting for an independent homeland. Over the weekend, nearly 3,000 civilians were reported to have escaped from Sri Lanka’s northeast war zone and sought shelter with government forces. The United Nations estimates up to 100,000 civilians are trapped in the area in “dire humanitarian conditions.”

The developments have reverberated in this country, which is home to an estimated 140,000 Tamil Canadians.

In addition to calling for a ceasefire, Tamil Canadians have asked the federal government to impose political sanctions as well as trade and arms embargoes.

Yet federal politicians — nervous about the optics of being associated with protesters waving a flag identified with the Tamil Tigers, labelled a terrorist group in Canada — have so far kept their distance.

The protest could become harder to ignore as MPs return to Parliament Monday after a two-week break.

Over the weekend, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae joined a growing chorus of world leaders in urging the Sri Lankan government to allow humanitarian aid for civilians caught in the war zone.

The Tamil protesters, who had been starving themselves to pressure the Canadian government to call for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, temporarily suspended their hunger strike Saturday evening amid calls from the Tamil community that they nourish themselves before doing permanent damage to their health. But three of the original six hunger strikers say they may resume their strike Tuesday.

Ottawa Citizen