Tragic murder of Sri Lankan family Canada to Strengthen Mental Health Safeguards

• No tightening of visa regulations for Sri Lankans
• Canada is unbelievably supportive to victims’ family 
• they will pay more attention to safeguards already in place on the mental health of students

By Kelum Bandara  
In the wake of a Sri Lankan family killed in Canada and a 19-year-old Sri Lankan national being charged for it, the Canadian authorities will pay more attention to safeguards already in place on the mental health of students, according to a diplomatic source.  
Febrio De-Zoysa, who is believed to be in Canada as a student, was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, Ottawa police said in a post on X. Six Sri Lankans were stabbed to death in the home they lived in together, including a 2 1/2-month-old girl and three other young children.  
The incident has triggered fears in the minds of Sri Lankans whether Canada will toughen visa regulations for them in the future following this incident. 

A diplomatic source, however, confirmed that Canada would not do so because this was just a one-off incident.  
“Canada looks at it as a tragic incident. They are supportive to an unbelievable level to the community. This is not even a topic. But they will pay more attention to safeguards already in place on the mental health of students. We as a community will also focus and have mechanisms to ensure our students have a support system. It’s not easy for students to survive in these countries,” the source said.  
Meanwhile, Canadian immigration and constitutional law lawyer Viresh Fernando said the murder of six Sri Lankan family members in Ottawa, Canada is a very unusual tragedy.   
He said Canada is a stable, rule of law based society where laws, policies and procedures are based on normal, everyday existence. While Canadian people from all walks of life have expressed shock and sadness at what happened in Ottawa, as a society will not react in knee jerk fashion by resorting to drastic measures such as tightening 
visa requirements.   
The fact that the victims of this horrific tragedy are newcomers to Canada will not impact on how we as a society respond to what is at essence a real human tragedy.  Canada is a rules based country. As long as a Sri Lankan applies for a visa to Canada in good faith, either as an immigrant, student or a visitor, he or she will not face any issues. If visa applicants are attempting to abuse the Canadian visa system by trying to claim refugee status or work illegally our system will deal with them very strictly deporting them after a full and fair hearing,” Fernando who is of Sri Lankan origin said.