Last week's panel discussion

The panel discussion at UTSC last week had great attendance, and generated some very interesting questions. I just want to mention something that stuck with me personally because it bothered me quite a bit.

Prof. Daniel Drache described immigrant activism as an uphill struggle, and he gave some important examples from recent Canadian history (the Italian and Japanese communities). He stressed the importance of educating the rest of the population, that this was the responsibility of the immigrant community if they wanted their struggles to be heard and understood; you can't expect things to be handed to you on a silver platter.

These are fair points, although I was irked by his tone – the commonly used "you (the Tamils)" and "us (the Canadians)."

He went on to say that in ten years the Tamil community would no longer need to demonstrate in the streets in order to be heard, instead it would be lobbying from within the halls of the government. By strategically building up towards positions of economic and political power a stronger and more influential voice could be achieved (a thought also echoed by Elango Cheran). In this future, if the concerns of the Tamil community are not addressed, they will be able to apply more acute pressure on the government through the weight of their vote. (Drache's words were more along the lines of "we will get you where it hurts...")

I find it insidious to treat this as a partisan issue. Worse is the way possession of political and economic power continue to be privileged; the way expression on the street is placed at the lower end of a hierarchy that wears as its crown action from within the government. As if you work your way up from one to the other, as if the two don't exist simultaneously, as if you only need one.