Toronto: Hundred of Burmese in Canada joined a demonstration in
Toronto on Saturday, protesting against the use of false information by
some Canadian media on the recent sectarian violence in Burma.
The demonstration was held in front of two prominent buildings in
Toronto – the Star Newspaper offices and the State Governor’s building
at 2pm on Saturday.
In the protest, the Burmese demonstrators urged Canadian media to
double check facts whenever they write about the current conflict
between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma.
“In the last couple of weeks, there were two demonstrations staged by
a so called Rohingya group, a Burmese Muslim community in Canada. The
Toronto star wrote two stories after the demonstrations. But in the
stories, some facts and photos are wrong and fabricated,” said Ko Aung
Moe, who is from Dawei, a leader in the demonstration.
The Toronto Star wrote two stories about genocide in Burma carried
against Muslims with many counterfeit photos, allegedly given by Muslim
demonstrators, he said.
“The fabricated stories damaged our country image and affected the
Burmese community here. After publishing the stories, there were some
problems which took place between the Burmese and Canadian communities
here. So we demanded that the Star stop writing biased stories without
double checking,” Ko Aung Moe said.
The demonstrators had a chance to meet with an authorized person from
the newspaper during the demonstration and explained to him what they
faced after the two news stories were published by the newspaper.
“We pointed out to him some facts in the stories were wrong. After
that he understood and promised to contact us in the future for such
news story before writing. He told us to collect information from both
sides, not one side, in order to allow for accurate news stories” Ko
Aung Moe said.
The demonstrators afterwards marched to Queen’s Park where the
government building is. One member of the Canadian parliament joined the
demonstration and gave appreciation for the Burmese community.
The demonstration was concluded at Queen’s Park around 4 PM.
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