The Mayor of Brampton intends to sign a Sister City agreement in the coming weeks, that will see the Canadian city twin with Vavuniya in the North-East.

“Brampton is one of Canada’s most culturally and linguistically diverse municipalities, and is home to a growing and dynamic Tamil community of approximately 20,000 residents who are actively engaged in commerce, politics and charitable activities,” said Mayor Linda Jeffrey in a statement released last week. 

“This agreement would strengthen existing economic and cultural ties while encouraging commerce and the exchange of goods and services between Brampton, the Greater Toronto Area and Vavuniya,” she added.

The home of a journalist attached to the Theepam newspaper was reportedly attacked in the early hours of Monday.

The Island reports that the home of the paper’s Vavuniya provincial correspondent Kumarasingham Gokulan was damaged in the incident, but there were no injuries.

Sri Lankan police are reportedly launching investigations.
 

A group of Sinhala Buddhist monks and Sri Lankan soldiers from the 66 Division distributed school supplies to Tamil children in Ponnakari on Boxing Day, reports an official army website.

The Sri Lankan army has held employment awareness workshops for the unemployed youth of Jaffna, "with the sheer intention of exploring possibilities of getting employment openings for the unemployed in the Jaffna Peninsula" according to the official army website.

The Sri Lankan military's 66 Division this week gave handouts to pregnant Tamil women in Poonakary, Kilinochchi. 

The army's website described it as "another step forward to provide community assistance and reconciliation among the nations and in order to expect wealthy child birth from rural and low income families pregnant mothers". 

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) on Monday urged the Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to reveal what promises he had made to the Tamil National Alliance and western forces, the Daily Mirror reported. 

A group of Sri Lankan soldiers met with Maithripala Sirisena last week to warn him that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would fill the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) with those who “couldn’t stomach Sri Lanka’s victory over LTTE terrorism”.

Photograph: The Island

Senior Buddhist monks met with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday, to urge him not to remove Buddhist shrines from the Tamil North-East and ensure that Buddhism continues to receive the foremost place in the island’s constitution.

The Sri Lankan army arranged Christmas Carol services in Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi this week in order to "promote the relationship between military personnel and civilians", the army's website stated.

The Tamil National Alliance will appeal the aquittal of all suspects in the case of the assassinated former Tamil politician, N Raviraj this week. 

“The judgment is indicative of the people’s distrust in the country’s Judiciary. It is in this scenario that we demand an international panel of judges to probe the alleged war crimes. A lawyer who watched the interests of the aggrieved party, I will file an appeal,” Mr Sumanthiran was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.