Sri Lanka and Canada: Expanding Friendships

Remarks by Hon. David Kilgour

MP for Edmonton Southeast and Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) to the

Inaugural meeting of the Canada-Sri-Lanka Parliamentary Friendship Group

Parliament Hill, Ottawa, April 30, 2003

Check Against Delivery

I first got involved in this issue in ‘79 when Edmonton’s Tamil community would give me presentations in church basements. As I know you have in your own ridings as well, over the past twenty odd years I’ve learned much through these friends about the almost unspeakable horrors of Sri Lanka’s civil war.

There’s no denying that neither side entered the current peace process with perfectly clean hands. Terrible acts were committed and as Sri Lanka’s Minister of Economic Reform noted recently, “Twenty years of conflict have wounded minds as well as bodies. Those wounds will take some time to heal.” I think it’s fair to say, however, that when our illustrious organizer, John McKay, and I visited Sri Lanka last March, the key message we got was clear: the Tamils, Hindus, Muslims, Singhalese, and Christians we spoke with were all of one voice: the war has gone on far too long and the current peace process is the last, best chance a peace for a long time to come.

In the Eastern Province, as we saw both the devastation brought about by the war, as well as the intense hope vested in this process, it could not have been more clear that we cannot allow this process to fail.

We all knew that the road to peace would be rocky - a point certainly highlighted by the LTTE’s recent decision to withdraw from upcoming rounds of negotiations. The issues they point to as a justification for their withdrawal are difficult ones - but they can only be addressed effectively from within the peace process -- not by withdrawing from it. We regret their decision to suspend participation; but are nevertheless encouraged that in announcing this, the LTTE emphasised they remained committed to the peace process, and that this was a temporary action. Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister issued a written response today, and so hopefully both parties can work these issues out together and get back to finding a permanent resolution as soon as possible.

I believe that Canada has a unique, and very important role to play. We’ve been a friend of partner of Sri Lanka’s for over fifty years. In that time we’ve contributed over $800 million in development assistance, and during the war itself, when there was very little outside aid was reaching the North and East, Canada was delivering about one-fifth of the humanitarian relief.

But most importantly - and likely the key reason we’re here today - we’re home to over 200,000 Canadians of Sri Lankan origin, giving us the largest Tamil diaspora in the world! As we all know, diaspora politics can be complex. As John described during our visit, misinformation can be death to a peace process, so I hope that this group can help all of Canada’s Sri Lankan communities to be positive forces in this process.

Part of this involves keeping the communities informed of Canada’s efforts to support the peace process. Through the Forum of Federations, for example, Canada has been giving advice on federal options to both sides.

Emphasizing messages is also key. We hope the LTTE returns to the table as soon as possible and participates fully in upcoming donor conferences. Tamil Canadians communicating that they too want this can only be helpful.

I hope this group can help in the creation of the ‘peace dividend’ that so desperately needs to be felt throughout the country by promoting trade and investment in Sri Lanka. Without economic growth and the prospect of a better future for all, the requisite political will to resolve the conflict will falter and the peace process could ultimately fail.

I also hope that in you’ll leverage your size and influence to keep all of our feet to the fire in making sure that Sri Lanka is not forgotten amid the incredibly busy international landscape. There is an urgent need for both humanitarian relief as well as for laying the foundation for overall economic recovery. Over one million land-mines remain scattered in unmarked areas, whole towns, including many schools, need to be re-built, the estimated one million internally displaced persons need shelter, and fishermen, farmers, small traders and others need to be able to resume their livelihoods.

Recent developments have not been encouraging, but we need to believe that the process will continue. It took off at a high speed and built momentum that surprised a lot of people, but it’s only natural that the pace of this progress will slow down as the parties start tackling more and more difficult issues. Norway’s State Secretary, Vidar Helgesen, was very careful to point out recently that seeing slower progress in the future will be a good thing, because it will mean that substantive issues are being discussed.

As we all know, peace underway is not the same as peace achieved. We all have a role to play in reaching this goal, and I look forward to working with you to do so. Please don’t ever hesitate to let me know how I and/or the Department of Foreign Affairs, can be helpful to you.

Thank you.