Pro LTTE candidate loses Ontario polls

by Manjula Fernando

The pro LTTE candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River, Neethan Shan despite his alliance with the Tiger rump failed to win at the recently concluded Ontario provincial election, diplomatic sources said.

Bas Balkissoon, a senior politician who hails from Trinidad and Tobago was re-elected with 16,000 votes defeating Neethan Shan who contested from the New Democratic Party (NDP). The sources said that Shan was a staunch LTTE supporter who had taken part in all LTTE heroes day celebrations in Canada.

Shan had publicly criticised the Canadian government for banning the LTTE front, World Tamil Movement.

He had also participated in TV talk shows during the last phase of the humanitarian operation in 2009 which wiped out the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

He spoke on behalf of terrorist leaders, and maintained that they were fighting for the liberation of Tamils.

Scarborough-Rouge River is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons.

It has the highest percentage of minorities (89.7 percent) of all electoral districts. Tamil is the mother tongue of 13.2 percent of the population.