UTSU executive director Angela Regnier was among three people arrested at a Tamil protest that shut down the Gardiner Expressway for six hours, on charges of mischief and “interference with property.”
About 5,000 protesters marched onto the Gardiner on May 10, demanding that Canada take immediate action against the Sri Lankan government for an ongoing offensive that killed 8,000 Tamils in the Northern regions of the country. The protesters also urged Canada to retract its designation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist organization.
While protesters claimed that the occupation of the downtown highway had been peaceful, police termed it “unsafe” and “unlawful.” At least one protester was severely injured in a struggle with police, shown with bloody wounds to the head in video footage posted on York University student paper Excalibur’s website.
Days after the Gardiner protest, Sri Lanka pronounced the Tigers defeated and LTTE head Velupillai Prabakharan dead, but the onslaught has left 200,000 stranded in displacement camps, with restricted access to journalists and humanitarian organizations.
York University student Terrance Luscombe was also among the three arrested.
Regnier was released on bail on May 11, and is expected to appear in court on June 11 at Old City Hall. Officer-in-charge of the case Detective Frank Giancola was unavailable for comment.
