| Protests in Canada against the Sri Lankan Civil War | |
|---|---|
| Part of Protests against the Sri Lankan Civil War | |
 Protesters at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | |
| Date | January 28, 2009 [1] — October 13, 2009 [2] |
| Location | |
| Goals | End the Sri Lankan Civil War, restore civil rights for Tamils in Sri Lanka, and investigate war crimes by Sri Lanka |
| Methods | Non violent protest, student protest, occupation, sit-in, demonstration, Internet activism, human chain, hunger strike |
Protests in Canada against the Sri Lankan Civil War, often referred to as the Tamil protests by the media, consisted of a series of demonstrations which took place in major Canadian cities with a significant Tamil diaspora population during the year 2009 protesting the alleged genocide of Sri Lankan Tamil people in the Northern Province and Eastern Province of the island nation Sri Lanka. It was part of a global outcry by the Tamil diaspora to end the Sri Lankan Civil War, investigate acts of war crimes by the Government of Sri Lanka, and restore civil rights for Tamils in Sri Lanka. The aim was also to create awareness and appeal to leaders, notably the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, the President of the United States, Barack Obama and the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Canada, Bandula Jayasekara, to take action in ending the conflict. Several Tamil Canadian citizens and business owners from different parts of Canada and the United States took part in major protests set up in Toronto and Ottawa, while smaller scale demonstrations took place in Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.
The first notable demonstration took place on 28 January 2009 in front of the Sri Lankan Consulate in Toronto involving a few hundred people. The following day, several thousands gathered in front of the Consulate of the United States in Toronto to appeal to the Government of the United States to take action on ending the civil war. A 5-kilometre (3.1-mile) human chain of several thousands of citizens took place the next day along major streets in Downtown Toronto. There after, demonstrations began to escalate in size and occurred on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for some
time, until returning to continue in Toronto. Other tactics by protesters included sit-ins, hunger strikes, Internet activism and occupation of major streets.