The Narrative of Cultural Identity: An Opening for Collective Action among the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Toronto

Abstract

Since January 2009, the members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora have staged several protests around the world, in a concentrated effort to bring attention to the ethnic conflict that has been ravaging the island of Sri Lanka for over two decades. Although the members of this diaspora are dispersed around the globe, Canada, particularly Toronto, is believed to be the home of the largest Sri Lankan Tamil population outside of Sri Lanka—a diaspora that is estimated to have a population of over 200,000 people. The participation of this diaspora in the multiple protests that have been held in Toronto has ranged from hundreds to tens of thousands. One source estimated that over 100,000 members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community participated in the March 16, 2009 protest in downtown Toronto (Ferenc, March 17, 2009). The sheer number of participants from within the Sri Lankan Tamil community in Toronto would suggest that there is cohesion within this diaspora, and an ability to be united for a common goal. All reports made by both the participants and the organizations that were involved in mobilizing support for this protest focused on the ethnic war in Sri Lanka, and the plight of the Tamil population. The most prevalent frame that was used to mobilize resources and garner support for these protests focused on the concept of “genocide”, proclaiming that the current situation in Sri Lanka is an example of genocide against the Tamil population. Several organizations used this frame to mobilize the members of the diaspora. The organizations that utilized this frame emphasized the plight of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, without drawing attention to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which, according to the Canadian government, is a terrorist organization. Despite the lack of mention of the LTTE, the Toronto protests found participants carrying flags that were associated with the Tamil Tigers, posters of the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Pirapaharan, and protesters demanding that the Canadian government remove the LTTE from its list of officially recognized terrorist groups. How did a protest that was organized around the frame of genocide and that was focused on demanding that the Canadian government step in and help rescue the civilians caught in the midst of the ethnic conflict, turn into a protest that was also in favour of the Tamil Tigers? This paper will examine how the concept of frames is insufficient in explaining the extent of mobilization and participation in collective action by a diaspora, and that instead, one must examine the cultural identity of the people. This paper argues that the frame of genocide was a hook, triggering participants into a collective recall of the narrative of their Sri Lankan Tamil cultural identity, and that it was this narrative that provided the opening for collective action. The protest became a platform for remembering their shared history, and the narrative of their collective identity became a unifying force among the members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Toronto, mobilizing them to act. The paper will focus on the three protests that occurred in Toronto (January 30, 2009, March 16, 2009, and April 27, 2009). It will draw support from the campaigns used by three of the main organizers of these protests, as well as various newspaper articles. The paper will also examine the effectiveness of a cultural identity narrative in gaining support from those who are not members of the diaspora, and will discuss some possible future directions of the research.