News
Dr. Hewage’s claims regarding Canadian court ruling on ‘Tamil genocide’ denied
Appropos front-page news item ‘Bid to include genocide allegation against Sri Lanka in Canada’s school curriculum thwarted’ in the March 31, 2025, edition of The Island, Viresh Fernando, CA, CPA, Barrister and Solicitor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has sent us the following statement:
In 2021, the Provincial Legislature of Ontario passed a Bill, titled Tamil Genocide Education Week Act. The legislation, popularly known as “Bill 104,” simply assumes that the Tamil people of Sri Lanka were subject to genocide. No evidence was provided or discussed during legislative debate.
The Government of Canada has repeatedly stated that it has no evidence of alleged “Tamil Genocide”
A very small group of relatively uneducated Sinhala Canadians reportedly paid as much as $350,000 (dollars three lakhs fifty thousand) to two white, Canadian, incompetent, and ignorant lawyers to challenge the validity of the legislation. These two incompetent and ignorant lawyers used both the wrong method of legislation nullification and the wrong legal premise.
After a two-day hearing, as most Canadian legal experts expected, a judge of the Superior Court of Justice rejected the challenge of the Sinhala Canadians on constitutional grounds. The substantive evidentiary issue was never dealt with. I personally agree with the judge’s constitutional and legal basis for rejecting the Sinhala Canadian challenge, though I vehemently disagree with the false premise of Bill 104. This is a stark example that bad cases lead to bad law.
The small group of Sinhala Canadians Applicants who did not know any better, asked their two incompetent and ignorant lawyers to launch an appeal to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. After an approximately five-hour hearing, the Court of Appeal clearly open to overturning the legislation, posed a final question. The two incompetent lawyers, who represented the Sinhala Canadians, did not understand the critical meaning of the Court of Appeal justice’s question and therefore did not respond. That was a monumental legal error.
The three-member panel of very senior justices were clearly puzzled by the lack of response from the lawyers for the Sinhala Canadians. The Court of Appeal was not given the legal grounds or the factual basis to overturn the lower court verdict. Therefore, the Court of Appeal for Ontario did the only thing they could do which was to dismiss the appeal. A lone Sinhala Canadian sought leave (permission) from the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal. The Supreme Court of Canada declined to grant leave.
Contrary to the news article in The Island newspaper, the Supreme Court of Canada did not make a finding that there was no “Tamil genocide”. This is an absolutely wrong assertion by this particular newspaper.”
The Island: The story was entirely based on Dr. Neville Hewage’s response to the queries posed to him. We sought Dr. Hewage’s response as he moved the Canadian court in this regard.
Latest News
Payment of Compensation to the people who have lost their cultivable lands in implementing the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project
Approval has been granted at the Cabinet meeting held on 27-06-2012 to provide cultivable agricultural lands from the lower Uma Oya valley to 276 farming families in Hali-Ela, Walimada, and Uva Paranagama Divisional Secretariat Divisions who have lost their cultivable lands due to the acquisition of lands for the
Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project.
However, the aforementioned proposal could not be implemented due to the encroachment of a large portion of the identified lands by unauthorized persons, heavy forest cover, the threats posed by wild elephants, remoteness from their original settlements, and difficulties in adapting to other environmental conditions and social anomalies.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation to pay an estimated compensation of Rs. 12 lakhs for each of these 276 farming families, based on the
recommendations submitted by the Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed to provide solutions for the issues arising in the implementation of the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project.
Policy approval was granted at the Cabinet meeting held on 07.04.2025 to prepare a draft bill to establish the Chartered Institute of Media Professionals of Sri Lanka in order to accomplish the requirement of a training institution to carry out studies in order to create chartered media professionals and mould intelligent media personalities with skills in order to enhance the quality and standard of the media society.
Clearance of the Attorney General has been received for the final draft prepared by the Legal Draftsman for the purpose.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Health and Mass Media to publish the draft bill of Chartered Institute of Media Professionals of Sri Lanka in the Government Gazette Notification and thereafter submit the same for the concurrence of the House.
The Telecommunication Levy Act No. 21 of 2011 has enabled provisions to impose telecommunication levy. The budget 2026 has proposed to introduce amendments for the act including changes imposed from time to time regarding the telecommunication levy.
Accordingly, the Legal Draftsman has formulated a draft bill for
amending the Telecommunication Levy Act No. 21 of 2011 including provisions to extend applicable to envisage all the tax amounts applicable from the year 2015 along with the telecommunication levy existing at present, applicable of taxes on unrecovered revenue (bad debts) and to extend the provisions of that act to cater the telecommunication suppliers.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to publish the said draft bill in the Government Gazette Notification and subsequently to submit the same for the concurrence of the House.
Payment of Compensation to the people who have lost their cultivable lands in implementing the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project
Draft Bill of the Chartered Institute of Media Professionals of Sri Lanka to be Gazzated
Telecommunication Levy Act No. 21 of 2011 to be amended
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