[BRIEF NOTE] On the recent Tamil protests in Toronto

[rfmcdonald]

The Tamil-Canadian protest that began Sunday night outside of the American Consulate in Toronto at Dundas and University has seen arrests and minor injuries.

[The protesters] have been there for three long days, amid complaints from drivers. But now Toronto Police have finally moved in on Tamil demonstrators who have been occupying the busy intersection of University and Dundas.

At least nine people have been taken into custody and there were reportedly some violent scuffles as the authorities tried to get them out of the street. One woman was said to have been injured in the melee when she was trampled by a police horse.

For days, cops have refused to take any action against the protestors, who are trying to get U.S. and Canadian governments to intervene in the genocide in their native Sri Lanka, because the standoff was peaceful and no laws were being broken.

But when some of the hundreds assembled learned that China had used its veto power at the United Nations to stop the world from intervening in the country, tempers flared. And when the multitude tried to move onto Dundas St., cops ordered them back.

Torontoist's Jerad Gallinger reports that the protesters, aimed at pressuring the United States into intervening in Sri Lanka, were starting some sort of internal dispute when the police intervened. The complications of this protest for traffic in the downtown core can only be imagined, while the links of the protest with the LTTE--reportedly some protesters were waving Tamil Tiger flags--likely has done even less to endear them to Torontonians in general.