The head of one of Canada’s largest police forces met with a Sri Lankan inspector general of police who two weeks earlier had been found by the South Asian country’s highest court to have “participated in the torture” of an arrested man.
Photos published by Sri Lankan media, including the Ceylon Today, an English-language daily newspaper, show Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah in uniform posing alongside senior Sri Lankan officers on Dec. 29, 2023 at police headquarters in the capital Colombo – a visit a Peel police spokesperson says Global Affairs Canada and the RCMP had been made aware of ahead of time.
One of the law enforcement officials in the photos was the inspector-general of Sri Lankan police, Deshabandu Tennakoon, who earlier that month was ordered to pay compensation for taking part in “mercilessly” beating a man.
Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah signs a guestbook at Sri Lankan police headquarters in Colombo, as the country’s inspector general Deshabandu Tennakoon stands behind him. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court found he took part in the torture of an arrested man. (Credit: Ceylon Today).
Ceylon Today
On Dec. 14, 2023, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled Tennakoon was involved in the brutal arrest of a man suspected of theft, holding him in what the court called the “torture chamber” of the police station for more than 24 hours, striking and suffocating him, and rubbing chili powder on his genitals.
Dr. Thusiyan Nandakumar, a physician who also runs the London, U.K.-based outlet the Tamil Guardian, called it a “stain on Canada’s reputation.”
“To see someone of (Duraiappah’s) stature receive a guard of honour from that very same institution that’s responsible for so many abuses was shocking, to say the least,” Nandakumar said.
Duraiappah declined Global News’ request for an interview. In a statement, a Peel Regional Police spokesperson called his trip to Sri Lanka “personal” and said there is “no ongoing initiative or collaboration between Peel Regional Police and any organization in Sri Lanka.”
Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah wears his uniform and walks by Sri Lankan soldiers in a visit Peel police describe as a “personal” trip. (Credit: Ceylon Today).
Ceylon Today
Duraippah was photographed multiple times during his visit wearing his Peel police uniform.
Rathika Sitsabaiesan – a former NDP MP and Canada’s first Tamil member of Parliament – says when someone wears a uniform, “you’re representing the organization for which you are the chief.”
Duraippah is the only police chief of Sri Lankan descent outside the South Asian nation, according to Peel police, which operates in Mississauga and Brampton, Ont.
“(It’s) very harmful to me as a Canadian, as someone who grew up in the region of Peel, and all the people who continue to live in Peel and who identify as Tamil, in my opinion,” Sitsabaiesan said.
The Peel spokesperson said Duraiappah accepted an invitation from Sri Lankan police officers while he was on a family vacation to the country of his birth.
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The spokesperson would not confirm when asked if Duraiappah had met directly with Tennakoon beyond the photos, which show them holding a plaque together and Tennakoon standing behind Duraiappah while he signed a guestbook.
It’s not clear whether the event photographed was the only meeting or whether any additional ones were held, including whether Duraiappah and Tennakoon met outside of the moment they were photographed together.
Another Peel spokesperson added that “the Chief discussed the requests for meetings received with Global Affairs Canada and the RCMP.”
The RCMP says the force provided information to Duraiappah about Tennakoon, including about the recent court ruling, ahead of time.
“The Government of Canada did not organize the visit, which was considered a personal visit. However, given the RCMP’s close working relationship with Peel Regional Police, the RCMP Liaison Officer for Sri Lanka offered to facilitate Chief Duraiappah with arrangements involving police agencies in Sri Lanka,” an RCMP spokesperson said in response to questions from Global News.
“Information was provided to Chief Duraiappah for his situational awareness about recent developments in Sri Lanka, including the Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s ruling on Chief Tennakoon.”
Global Affairs Canada also said the visit was “personal.”
“The Government of Canada did not organize the visit” and “as is customary for meetings with high-level officials, staff from the High Commission of Canada to Sri Lanka accompanied the Chief as a courtesy,” Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Marilyn Guèvremont said.
Sitsabaiesan says “alarm bells should have gone off” given the country’s human rights record.
In October 2022, Canada adopted a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution calling on Sri Lanka to address the “human rights, economic and political crises” in the country.
The following year it sanctioned four government officials for “human rights violations on the island” and commemorated the Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day for the first time – marking the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamils during the country’s 26-year civil war.
“Canada is well-versed in the crimes that took place. It’s not something that Ottawa is blind to,” Nandakumar said.
While it’s not unusual for western officers to visit, collaborate or train police forces in developing countries, some have recently distanced themselves from Sri Lankan authorities.
In 2021, Scotland ended its training program for officers in the country over allegations of human rights abuses.
In January of this year, the United Nations criticized Sri Lankan police for their “heavy handed” anti-drug crackdown, with reports of arbitrary arrests, torture and public strip searches.
Tennakoon’s recent appointment as police chief shows “much about how law enforcement authorities in the island operate with impunity,” Neil DeVotta, an expert on South Asia and politics professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, said in an e-mail to Global News.
Nandakumar says the Peel chief’s visit to the Sri Lankan police headquarters raises questions about judgement.
“When a senior Canadian official goes to meet with forces accused of such egregious crimes … to see something like that take place, it was very disconcerting.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
