Tamil-Canadian rally condemns destruction of Mullivaikal memorial in Sri Lanka

One of the structures that form part of the Mullivaikal memorial on the University of Jaffna campus in Sri Lanka. FACEBOOK/vijaythaniofficial

Tamil-Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area organized a car rally Sunday, to condemn the destruction of the Mullivaikal memorial in Sri Lanka.

The Mullivaikal memorial is a series of stone sculptures commemorating the thousands of civilian Sri Lankan Tamils killed during the last phase of the country’s civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lankan government forces. The facade portrays events across the decades-long conflict from the burning of the Jaffna Library in 1983 to children killed in the 2009 civil war.

The memorial was unveiled in 2019 at the University of Jaffna and reportedly bulldozed by Sri Lankan authorities on Friday night.

The rally commenced at Brampton City Hall and drove down to Toronto City Hall and Queen’s Park.

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Brampton mayor Patrick Brown called the move a form of “structural genocide” and condemned the move.

On Sunday, Brampton councillor Gurpreet Singh Dhillon also expressed his solidarity with the cause.

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https://twitter.com/gurpreetdhillon/status/1348328068411232264

The GTA is home to over 120,000 Tamil-Canadians.

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