By Kelum Bandara   

Sri Lanka registered its strong protest with Canada yesterday after summoning Acting Canadian High Commissioner Daniel Bood over issuing targetted sanctions on four Sri Lankans and called it an act that violated the diplomatic protocol and done without any investigation into allegations, a top source said. 

The minister has said no consultation process took place ahead of the move.   

The meeting took place yesterday morning, the day following the announcement by the Canadian Foreign Ministry about targeted sanctions against former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake and Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi.   According to the source, Sabry has said the Canadian action will polarize the Sri Lankan community and harm the reconciliation process. He is reported to have said that action has been taken at the behest of the extremist elements of the Tamil Diaspora in Canada.   The Canadian envoy reportedly said sanctions were issues since Sri Lanka has not made any progress on investigations into accountability issues during the war time.    Two military officers were sanctioned by the United States earlier. Sergeant Ratnayake, who was sentenced to death in 2015 over the killing of eight civilians, was pardoned by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2020.   

“The Special Economic Measures (Sri Lanka) Regulations impose on listed persons a prohibition on any transaction (effectively, an asset freeze) by prohibiting persons in Canada and Canadians outside Canada from engaging in any activity related to any property of these listed persons or providing financial or related services to them,” the Canadian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.   

Canada is a country that cosponsored the UNHRC resolutions on Sri Lanka calling for investigations in human rights and accountability issues.