Ethnic Terrorism Doesn't Stop At Our Borders

The feud and the firebomb
A deadly blaze caps a simmering conflict between two groups of Sri Lankan students: Newcomers and those in Canada longer
May 22, 2007
San Grewal
Staff Reporter

Pream Anandarajah, clean cut and Toronto born, slides down low in the passenger seat. He looks cautiously over his right shoulder at a group of students gathered near his high school.

"That's them," he says, referring to the FOBs.

It's a common insult directed at recent immigrants that means "fresh off the boat," in this case, from Sri Lanka.

Though he doesn't follow much of his parents' Sri Lankan culture, Anandarajah wears a white symbol of mourning streaked across the middle of his forehead for his mother, Jeyaluckshmi, who is in Sunnybrook hospital's burn unit.

A firebomb filled with gas crashed through the living room window of the family's uninsured Scarborough bungalow on April 25, gutting the home. Nine young men have since been arrested for their involvement in the attack, threats against Anandarajah and other recent assaults.

The attack marked the eruption of a simmering conflict between recently arrived youth from Sri Lanka and those of the same descent who have lived here longer.