Remembering Black July – Tamils hold vigil at Centrepointe to commemorate 1983 riots

A single candle was lit amid a bed of roses on July 23 in the Chamber room at Centrepointe Theatre to commemorate Black July 1983.  “The black colour marks our pain, sorrow and fear,” said Ruban Santhiralingam, the master of ceremonies.

Black July refers to the massacre of 3,000 Tamil people and the destruction of 250,000 businesses and homes owned by Tamils that took place in Columbo, Sri Lanka between July 23 and July 26, 1983.

Every year, Tamils from across Ottawa gather to hold a vigil remembering the family and friends they lost and those that are still there.

“I’m thinking of my brothers and sisters back in my homeland who did not get the chance to come to Canada,” said David Poopalapillai, the keynote speaker at the vigil.

“When we fled, this great nation accepted us with motherly feeling and gave us great hope,” he said. “For that we are eternally grateful.”

Prem Sivasamy, who now lives in Barrhaven, was in Sri Lanka in 1983, but luckily not in Columbo. His uncle was.

“My aunt lost her husband in the riots,” said Sivasamy. “He was burned alive when he was travelling with his family. People escaped but he wasn’t able to, so they burned him alive.”

Sivasamy was only 12-years-old when the riots took place and 26 years later, he is still dealing with his family’s loss.

“It’s continuing suffering,” he said. “But you feel a kind of relief gathering with people who have lost the same things as you have.”

Sivasamy was not able to leave Sri Lanka until 1989 when he went to the UK. He moved to Barrhaven in 2000.

Samuel Lawrence, the spokesperson for the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Tamil Congress, said there are about 4,000 Tamils living in Nepean and Kanata, many of which came as refugees after the violence in 1983.

“Most of the Tamil people are in high tech,” he said.

Lawrence left Sri Lanka before the 1983 riots after being fired from his government job because he didn’t speak the majority language of Sinhala.

In 1975 he left for England and later found a job in Edmonton in 1997 working for Alberta News Magazine. He lived in Edmonton for almost 23 years, until he moved to Nepean in 2001.

The events of Black July may seem like the distant past, but for the Tamil population in Ottawa it is still very real.

Lawrence said there are 300,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians kept in internment camps throughout Sri Lanka. They live in horrible conditions without access to medical care, food supplies, and without the freedom to move.

Most recently, on July 21, the Canadian Tamil Congress plead with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to deny the $2.5-billion loan being given to Sri Lanka. Citing extensive human rights violations, the Canadian Tamil Congress said the IMF has a responsibility to ensure they are not sustaining a country which runs modern day internment camps.

Lawrence, now 65 years old and retired, is working at the College Square Loblaws to keep in shape and stay busy while training to become an English as a second language teacher. Despite the current political unrest, he wants to go back to Sri Lanka to do his part in helping his people.

“I have to go and contribute to the people I left behind,” he said. “They are desperate.”