The distant civil war that influenced politics in Canada and caused civil disorder in Toronto is before the United Nations human rights commission this week. Judges have concluded that both Sri Lankan state forces and Tamil Tiger rebels “most likely” committed war crimes including mass killings of civilians during their quarter-century war. At the height of the conflict, Tamil Tiger organizers were accused of extortion on the many Tamil families living in Scarborough. Money was extracted to support the uprising. Tamil Tigers supporters marched daily in Toronto and on one occasion in 2009 blocked the Gardiner Expressway in an attempt to get the Canadian government to somehow intervene in the civil war.
