Why all the fuss over Tamil street protests? ⇒
21 May 2009, mid-morning
'We want Tamil Canadians, and other minorities, to "be Canadian." Yet when they act Canadian and exercise their Charter right to peaceful protest, we call them "Tamils," the very identity we do not want them to revert to exclusively.'
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
Kate sent me a copy of the same article this morning, and I loved the intro you’ve quoted above. I couldn’t imagine a way to say it more succinctly than that.
by Matt on May 21 2009, 12:37 pm #
Dick moves by any protesters are dick moves regardless of how just their cause is or their rights as Canadian citizens to pull them. TTC suddenly striking at midnight on a Friday? Dick move. Farmers driving tractors on the Yonge Street of Ottawa during rush hour? Dick move. Tamils marching onto the Gardner? Dick move. Of course they’re going to get called out for these by people and of course people are going to blame “the TTC,” “the farmers,” “the Tamils.” They should expect this.
It is crazy, though, how people are calling them terrorists and demanding to know if they’re here legally. I was honestly surprised that people are saying these things in this day and age. Having said that, though, this part was a total lame-duck attempt:
Odd, given that we are inconvenienced all the time – by hockey, baseball, basketball and soccer games, every week; marathons, walkathons and street festivals, in the summer; the Santa Claus, Caribana and Pride parades, plus the CNE and the Royal Winter Fair, once a year.
Last time I checked, the Santa Claus parade gets permits approved by the city months in advance, it doesn’t spontaneously appear in the middle of the road without warning. At the end of the day, regardless of their right to protest, this was a dick move by the Tamil protesters and they shouldn’t be so surprised to get called on it.
by Dave on May 23 2009, 8:34 am #
I think you’d have more of a point if all the vitriol was saved for the protest on the Gardiner. I think that was the only ‘dick move’ that the protesters got up to. That was the only event where the protesters hadn’t given fair warning about their intentions. And that sounded like a spur of the moment thing, much like what happened when Critical Mass rode on to the Gardiner. All the other protests were announced well in advance — the protests infront of the US consulate, the human chain protests around the city, etc. They weren’t spontaneous in the least. Everyone I know working downtown got emails from their office buildings letting them now that protests were going to be taking place.
Also, I think Siddiqui’s main point was that in referring to these protesters as “the Tamils” as opposed to the “Sri Lankan War Protesters” the media marginalizes the group. Ethnic identity is only ever covered in the news when the group is a minority. (I know that Critical Mass is predominently White, since the Globe and mail didn’t waste my time letting me know what the group’s ethnic make up was.)
by ramanan on May 25 2009, 9:58 am #
I think protesting overnight in front of the Consulate was a dick move (I’ve already covered in another comment why exactly I thought they might have been being dicks). Protesting there during the day or disrupting traffic on University Ave. I thought were more reasonable (the Gardiner thing I thought was unreasonable).
I definitely never received notice that they’d be protesting overnight, or else I’d‘ve booked a hotel. Later that week Adam Vaughan’s office even sent around a thing to local residents before the Sporting Life 10k saying that there might be cheering, and that they’d asked the spectators to use non-amplified noise before 9am.
by Weiguo on May 26 2009, 3:03 pm #