Archive for May, 2009
Making Protests Convenient For White People
I’m not sure how much coverage this is receiving outside of the Toronto, Ontario/Canada news media, so I’d like to call it to everyone’s attention.
The below-linked article is not meant to be representative of the final word on the Tamil protest; it’s just a short summary introduction to the issue.
Toronto highway reopens after Tamil protest disperses
One of Canada’s major expressways reopened early Monday after thousands of members of Toronto’s Tamil community ended a five-hour occupation of the roadway without incident.
The blockade of the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto ended shortly after midnight. It was part of the Tamil community’s continuing protest campaign to demand the Canadian government do more to help end the bloody 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka.
Read the rest of the article here.
I followed this protest as it unfolded on the TV news last night and was really dismayed by the reactions of the mostly-white commuters to the situation. They were very irritated at the inconvenience of being stuck on the highway and one man even suggested that the Tamil protesters should find a more “legal” way to protest (a sentiment echoed by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty here).
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