Dear The Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, Honorable Minister Melanie Joly:
We, Ottawa Tamil Association (OTA), appreciate your solidarity with getting justice for Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils. Recently, the United States of America’s state department made a public tweet about a meeting with a delegation of Tamil Diaspora. We are aware that the delegation met with Canadian parliamentarians on Nov 23, 2021. Since the efforts to bring a political solution in 2015 didn’t succeed and ended up with a regime change that eventually escalated the ongoing Tamil genocide, the Tamil diaspora community wants to be more vigilant in this second attempt.
https://twitter.com/StateDept_GCJ/status/1461015856582995969
We would like to bring to your attention that the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) mentioned by the State Department does not have any merit to represent the Tamil diaspora. Similarly, their associate, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), also lost their credibility, and Tamil Canadians no longer see them as their representative on Eelam Tamil issues.
Following are the reasons Tamil diaspora do not trust these non-transparent organizations. Of the original 14 Tamil organizations which formed GTF in September 2009 in Paris, France, all the ten organizations from Europe left GTF soon after 2012. In 2014, the British Tamil Forum left GTF. After the Australian Tamil Congress left GTF in 2020, the United States Tamil Action Group (USTAG), formerly known as USTPAC, also left GTF.
The GTF account reported to the UK government below clearly showed that their last reporting of the balance was 2011; after that, there was no financial activity.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07078855/filing-history
As one of the Tamil Canadian and Tamil Diaspora organizations, OTA raises awareness for justice for Tamil Genocide and self-determination-based political solution to protect the Eelam Tamils from further genocide. We have sent several requests to our Canadian government to take steps to recognize the genocide.
https://www.change.org/tamilgenocide.
As a responsible community organization, we raise this issue in an early phase so that you can be aware of it. Further, the Tamil diaspora is in the process of making consensus among several organizations based on common principles. Once a worldwide coalition is formed, we will inform you to include delegates from the coalition. We strongly feel that a transparent and democratic coalition should represent the Tamil diaspora organization.
Thank You
Ottawa Tamil Association
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