York sought legal counsel before approving flag

The York University Tamil Students’ Association (YUTSA) has passed a motion to use the Tamil Eelam flag to represent the organization in the future and during the university’s Multicultural Week.
Despite the flag’s close affiliation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), YUTSA, as well as representatives of the York administration, have ruled against the notion that it is associated with the nationally recognized terrorist group.
This has not stopped it from being noted as controversial during Multicultural Week, causing the university to take precautions.
Marty Williams, assistant director for the Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development (SC&LD), admitted the school sought legal counsel.
“We have checked with our legal advisors and security services and found that the flag is not illegal to fly [ . . . ] You can even fly a Tamil Tigers flag and it [would] not be illegal.”
Williams insisted the distinction between the LTTE flag and the one used by YUTSA is the inclusion of the letters “LTTE,” which are not present on the group’s Tamil Eelam flag.
“The flag does not have the LTTE initials on it. They have firmly asserted that they fly the flag to represent the Tamil people,” Williams said in an email.
 “There is nothing wrong in the Tamil nation raising its national flag. The Tamil nation is not the Tigers’ flag, but it is the Tamil people’s flag. Hoisting it is not against peace,” Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar, declared three years ago.
“The Tamil students at York University will use the flag of Tamil Eelam to represent the organization. This in turn will represent all the Tamil people who join the Tamil students at York University,” stated the YUTSA club minutes regarding the motion.
 According to Sahabthan Jesuthasan, president of YUTSA, many of the Tamil students at York do not feel a kinship with Sri Lanka. They relate more to their Tamil roots and feel it is necessary to choose the flag because it represents their homeland. 
“The reason we came up with that nation is that complaints were lodged against us during last year’s Multicultural Week, so we believed it was in our best interest to get all our members collectively to pass the motion to say ‘this flag represents us.’”
The club realized the potential for controversy once a connection between their flag and the LTTE’s was paralleled, but the club felt it was more important to represent themselves through the Tamil Eelam flag.
“It’s not a banned flag in Canada,” said Jesuthasan.
“It is the flag that represents our land.”
“Waving a flag [. . .] is not an offence in a technical sense,” said Keith Marnoch, associate director of media relations at York University.
Marnoch emphasized the need for students to understand the reasons why the flag is allowed to fly on campus.

-With files from TamilNet.