Angry in the Great White North

I found a thirty minute video of the March 5 rally by Tamils on Parliament Hill.  If you recall, Liberal MP Gurbax Singh Malhi made an appearance that was captured on YouTube. Here is the extended video of the March 5 Tamil rally in Ottawa.

The crowd and the rally was a wall-to-wall LTTE/Tamil Tiger love-in.  Besides the LTTE-designed flag for the Tamil homeland (known as "Tamil Eelam"), the crowd was led by the rally leaders in a number of chants:

Tamil Tigers!  Freedom Fighters!

LTTE!  Freedom Fighters!

Our leader! Prabhakaran!

Velupillai Prabhakaran is the founder and leader of the Tamil Tigers, and is wanted by Interpol on charges related to terrorism, murder, and conspiracy.

The crowd was provided with posters of Prabhakaran, as well as multiple variations of posters in support of the LTTE:

Other professionally prepared posters included some very harsh criticism of Canadian foreign policy:

Nowhere in the video did I get a sense that there was a second rally, one that was promoting Tamil issues but critical of the Tamil Tigers.  This is significant, because apparently the Liberals were led to believe that this was a Tiger-free Tamil rally, as reported by Ezra Levant:

As an aside the organizers of this rally have, in a large part, been known to [Liberal MP Derek Lee] for a number of years. The group's object is to have Tamils come together, not under the alleged auspices of LTTE affiliates. Nor are they aligned with the LTTE and its affiliates. The group have concerns about the LTTE and primarily wish to highlight their identity as Tamil Canadians.

I think the focus on Gurbax Singh Malhi is a bit misplaced.  When I watch the video of Malhi's appearance, I wonder if maybe Malhi was confused.  I still think his suggestion that he did not recognize the presence of Tamil Tigers borders on disingenuous.  But for a while, Malhi babbles on about visitors visas. 

The crowd wasn't demanding more visas.

My focus is shifting to Derek Lee.  Who are these organizers that told Lee that the people at this rally had "concerns" about the Tamil Tigers?  Were these organizers are the rally?  Were they the ones leading the chants praising the Tamil Tigers?

Did someone lie to Derek Lee?  Just why did Derek Lee believe these people?  And what is Derek Lee going to do about this?  It might be that Gurbax Singh Malhi's trouble (leading to an apology) was really the fault of a naive Derek Lee.

If so, maybe Michael Ignatieff could explain to Canadians just how everyone seemed to get the true nature of this rally so badly wrong.