Canadian-Tamils have been occupying the sidewalk outside of the Prime Minister's Office for ten days. Politicians won’t be photographed with them. This is the largest and longest protest on Parliament Hill to have no champions inside the building.

Annually, Liberal and Conservative MPs line up to address anti-abortion protesters, Falun-Gong has parliamentary supporters and even marijuana activists have had MPs speak to their crowds.

Canadians are standing in their capital’s streets day and night, hunger strikers proclaiming a genocide in their country and still no one is listening or speaking. So, why is there no political support for Canadian-Tamils?

The invasive influence of the Liberation Tigers Tamil of Ealam (LTTE) within the protest has kept the politicians and supporters away. The yellow tiger and Kalashnikov flag was created in 1977 as the flag of the LTTE, adopted in 1991 as the “national flag” of the “Tamil Ealam” (roughly translated Ealam means “homeland”) the organization that created this symbol is on Canada’s terrorism list.

Symbols matter in politics. Clearly, no one wants to be seen supporting one of the world’s most reviled terrorist organizations: the LTTE. And, it seems the protesters are beginning to understand this. The Ottawa Citizen is reporting this morning:

Here is an audio introduction I recorded yesterday:

Four video interviews I recorded from the street:

And, an audio interview with two protesters.