_{UofT signing agreement with Toronto Tamil Chair Team}

The University of Toronto (UofT) has agreed to establish a ground breaking Tamil Chair, after signing an agreement with the Tamil Congress and Tamil Chair Inc. in 2018. The Chair  has received an outpour of community support and will be first of its kind in Canada.

A Tamil asylum-seeking family have been detained on Christmas Island for 1000 days and continue to face deportation to Sri Lanka. 

Tamils in Switzerland marked Maaveerar Naal on Firday, with a series of commemorations from across the country.

See photographs from various events below.

Zurich

A fire broke out on saturday at the Mahara Prison, after Sri Lankan officers opened fire in a reported attempt to control a riot in the prison. At least eight inmates have been killed and 52 injured. 

Tamils in Denmark commemorated Maaveerar Naal on November 27, paying homage to those who gave their lives in the struggle for liberation. 

The event took place in Herning where Tamils lit candles and laid flowers as they paid their respects to the fallen. The event also included a series of performances. 

Responding to a question on Maaveerar Naal, Jaffna MP C V Wigneswaran accused Sri Lanka of committing "state terrorism" and maintained that "our youth were compelled to take up arms for the self-defense of our people".

Reflecting on the question of terrorism, Wigneswaran said that Sri Lankan "state terrorism begot victim violence". "You cannot conduct continuous pogroms against a community and expect them to accept all humiliation and violence and go about their day to day chores as if nothing has happened," he added.

Sri Lankan police arrested a Jaffna University student for lighting a lamp for the Tamil Hindu festival of Karthika Vilakkeedu amidst a crackdown of the festival by police and the Sri Lankan military for its proximity to Maaveerar Naal.

Police said they arrested the student based on information they received that he was trying to pay tribute to fallen LTTE fighters, and had brought the student to the police station to obtain a confession.

Jaffna University students had gathered at around 6pm on Ramanathan Road, outside the campus’s Parameswarar temple to light lamps for the festival, as is customary each year.

Sri Lankan military and police have threatened a temple in Jaffna against marking the Tamil Hindu festival of lights, Karthikai Vilakkeedu today, due to the festival’s proximity in date to Maaveerar Naal, and the festival tradition of lighting lamps and tolling bells resemblance of Maaveerar Naal practices.

The Tamil vote in the North-East has fractured after the ‘slump’ of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), said The Economist this week, however noted that there were areas of unity and said Tamil parliamentarians will have more areas of co-operation to come as the Sri Lankan govenrment embraces Sinhala chauvinist policies.

“Tamil hopes for an independent homeland were dashed in 2009, when the government defeated the Tamil Tigers, a ruthless separatist insurgency,” it said. “But many in the north still hanker for autonomy, as promised by amendments to the constitution adopted in 1987 but never fully implemented.”