Angry in the Great White North

Jonathan Kay at the National Post gave what seemed to be well-deserved praise for how Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff handled the delicate subject of meeting with Tamil leaders in the wake of the recent protests:

On Tuesday, the Liberal party allowed a few leaders from the Tamil community to meet with Mr. Ignatieff after he refused to address the larger Parliament Hill protest. According to a report from a Liberal insider, there were about nine Tamils at the meeting with Mr. Ignatieff, all known as moderates who do not support the Tigers' military and terrorist agenda. Nevertheless, some of the Tamils begged Mr. Ignatieff to come out and address the protest (with one of the visitors apparently breaking down in tears) - or at least accept a petition from the protestors. Not only did Mr. Ignatieff stand his ground and refuse to do either, he also reportedly declared that no other Liberal MP would do so.

That meeting took place on April 21.  And it wasn't just Michael Ignatieff who impressed Jonathan Kay.  Bob Rae was praised as well:

And it is not just Mr. Ignatieff who is leading the charge for a more principled foreign policy. Even before Mr. Ignatieff took control of this issue, Bob Rae was appearing at Toronto-area Tamil-Canadian discussion forums, telling the community - in blunt terms - that the Tamil Tigers' militancy was part of the problem in Sri Lanka. It was a message that Liberal MPs with strong Tamil constituencies - Jim Karygiannis of Scarborough-Agincourt fame, most notably - would never dare deliver.

Between the two of them, says Jonathan Kay, the Liberal Party is reinventing itself:

Between Messrs. Rae and Ignatieff, the Liberal Party of Canada has reinvented itself on this issue - and on other broad questions of foreign policy.

But here's the thing.  Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae are hardly long-time Liberals.  How is the old guard handling these sorts of contacts?

Apparently those harsh words regarding the Tamil Tigers are not brought up.  On March 22, Brian Senewiratne met with Liberal MPs Judy Sgro and Kirsty Duncan, and an assistant to Liberal MP Mark Holland.  Senewiratne was in town to receive an award from the Canadian Centre for Genocide Education:

I went to meet the Canadian MPs in Ottawa to apprise them of the humanitarian disaster with some 300,000 Tamil civilians facing death or life in detention centres. Hon Judy Sgro, one of Canada's finest MPs, and one of the finest I have ever met anywhere in the world (and I've met a fair few MPs), was there, as was Dr Kirsty Duncan another fine MP. Judy was once the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister. I have not the slightest doubt that when the Government changes, as sure as day follows night, this outstanding lady will be a senior Minister. She is heading for bigger and better things, and is certainly 'Prime Ministerial material'.

An early arrival was the charming Mark Meretic, who stayed till the bitter end! He was from the office of Mark Holland MP, Liberal critic for Public Safety and National Security. I was delighted to see him. Just the person I wanted to see, in the circumstances. He expressed deep concern at what I was put through at the airport and wanted details. He also told me that some 50 buses carrying Tamil Canadians, returning to Canada from Washington after protesting outside the Whitehouse, had been held up at the Canadian border for some 5 hours. Does Canada really have to do this to its citizens, some of them quite elderly?

The MPs listened spellbound to my presentation on the human disaster in Sri Lanka, with Hon Judy Sgro saying, "Where are the others? This is a presentation that must be made to the whole parliament". I noted that after a while, Dr Duncan turned her face away from my presentation, unable to cope with the terrible killings which I projected.

After my presentation, throwing protocol to the winds, Judy gave me a huge hug (I had met her some two years ago in Toronto).

When they heard of what I was put through at the airport, they were shocked. Mark Holland's Assistant assured me that he will take this further. Had Judy been what she was, she would have blown a fuse at the way I was treated by Immigration at the airport. Heads would surely have rolled.

Canada has some fine, very fine, MPs who will always have a place in my heart. It was worth coming halfway round the globe to meet them. When I said that if I was subjected to what I had been on arrival in Toronto, this might be my last trip, Hon Sgro said, "That will be disaster for Canada, since this is one of the most lucid and balanced presentations I have heard on this confusing problem". I will come back to Canada, just to meet her.

The airport incident?  It was a four-hour delay, not a one-way ticket to Gitmo.  Immigration officials checked his suitcase while trying to establish the facts regarding the award presentation at a conference that they were unable to identify online.  No invasive search was performed.  Senewiratne missed a radio interview as a result.

Sounds like officials doing their jobs protecting our borders, but Judy Sgro allegedly called it a disaster that Senewiratne might not return as a result of this incident, and Mark Holland's assistant allegedly promised to bring the issue up with people in charge at immigration.

So somehow we went from Judy Sgro's big hug and a promise that all of parliament ought to hear Senewiratne's presentation on the potential for death on a massive scale because of the fighitng, to Michael Ignatieff's refusal to even privately accept a mere petition from Tamil demonstrators.

Maybe it's just me, but this reinvention of the Liberal Party that Jonathan Kay is describing happened at light speed.  I mean, in just four weeks?

Or maybe Senewiratne is telling a whopper of a tale.  Well, I suppose we can ask the people who were at the meeting.

But let's assume for a moment that Senewiratne's recollection is accurate.  We have three mid-level Liberal MPs saying the immigration officials would be punished for delaying entry for a pro-Tamil speaker and that his presentation ought to be required reading for all MPs on the one hand, and on the other hand, two of the most senior Liberals in the party refusing even the simplest exchange of documents while strongly criticizing Tamil Tiger tactics.

Those mid-level MPs?  Two of them are long time Liberal MPs.  Those high-level MPs?  Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae are both relatively recent additions to the party.

Has the Liberal Party really reinvented itself?  Or is it just as likely that the recently transplanted Liberal Party leadership is going in one direction in distancing themselves from the Tamil agitators while long-time Liberal MPs are continuing to shamelessly court Tamil votes by appearing uncritical of Tamil Tiger aspirations in Sri Lanka?

And I wonder just what Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae know about the meeting with Senewiratne.  Are they willing to state that regardless of what Judy Sgro and Kirsty Duncan and Mark Holland (through Mark Meretic) might have said, the Liberal policy towards the Tamils is far less chummy than it has been in the past?