• Controversial & baffling incident in which 6 Lankan lives were taken by a teenage Lankan student in Canada
• Child protection & higher edu. State/Govt. authorities, academics, edu. migration agents & public air views
• Discuss aspects of  ‘ethical media reportage’, mental health, familial functioning & migration

The incident where a 19-year-old Sri Lankan student murdered six Sri Lankans, five of whom belonged to one family, in Ottawa, Canada, shocked many, both in Sri Lanka and in Canada. The incident also grabbed the international media’s attention as an unprecedented event in a country like Canada that is known for having low crime rates. 

While a plethora of theories as to what factors may have led to the incident have surfaced, the incident is still being investigated. Regardless of the findings of these investigations, many share the opinions that this incident shows how careful people should be when it comes to trusting people even if they were from the same country, and with regard to the suspect student, how being away from home could affect a person’s mental status, leading them to lose control of their feelings and actions.

What should Sri Lanka learn from the Ottawa incident is a question asked by many.

An incident to learn from?

Highlighting aspects pertaining to the media coverage of the incident and the various theories put forward regarding the possible motive behind the crimes, the National Child Protection Authority Chairman Udayakumara Amarasinghe, stated that the Ottawa Government and media were to be lauded for the respect with which they had handled the coverage of the victims of the crime, most of whom were extremely young children. It was his opinion that the relative privacy, which was afforded to the victims of the crime, were policies to be emulated in Sri Lanka, in contrast to what he deemed was the ‘crass and sensationalist nature’ of crime reporting in Sri Lanka.

On the motives of the alleged perpetrator, Amarasinghe, speaking further to The Daily Morning, this time in his capacity as a Senior Lecturer of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, commented that the crimes committed, according to his view, were premeditated and not a crime committed out of sudden provocation. He called for the Canadian authorities to investigate the perpetrator’s history of mental health and conduct, as it was his view that such a criminal act could not take place in a vacuum. 

According to the higher education authorities, the Ottawa incident also calls for more attention to not only students and student migration, but also the education system. Speaking to The Daily Morning, the State Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Suren Raghavan, said that while it would be irresponsible to make a generalised comment about the mental health of students going abroad, this incident should be used as an impetus to question the practice of sending students abroad when they have had no prior experience of independence. Further, when questioned about possible systemic changes to prevent such incidents from happening, he stated that plans are being made to overhaul the ‘antiquated’ system of public education in Sri Lanka, including legitimising and accrediting private universities, and expanding the State/Government university system already operating in the island.

Furthermore, citing Australia and Vietnam as success stories of using the industry of higher education to cement themselves as regional tentpoles, Dr. Raghavan stated that Sri Lanka should strive to be a hub of South Asian education.

Migrating and adapting to new environments

Students’ wellbeing is at the centre of this discussion, regarding which all those who commented on the matter said that children’s mental and physical wellbeing is a serious matter and that the deterioration of the same could lead to issues. The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Chairman, Prof. Barana Jayawardana, also spoke on the matter. 

He told The Daily Morning that the lack of individualised support structures in foreign environments and the difficulty Sri Lankan students faced in adjusting to completely alien environments and cultures had a part to play in pushing the suspect to a highly volatile and hostile state of mind. He also questioned the validity of the practice of shipping off extremely young students with little to no experience of maintaining autonomy and independence into environments drastically different to the ones in which they grew up in. It was his opinion that the stress of having to manage the responsibilities of higher education and adjusting to the culture shock of moving to a different country had a part to play in the altered mental state of the student. Further, Prof. Jayawardana claimed that the breakdown of familial relationships, and that the resulting lack of support structures had a part to play in making the suspect commit such an act. He stated that such cases were not unheard of in Sri Lanka, and that resources were available for students to address mental health concerns, pointing to the student counselling programmes available in all State-run universities in Sri Lanka, and questioned whether such resources were accessible to the suspect. Nevertheless, he went on record saying that further details needed to come to light, to come to firm conclusions about the case. Prof. Jayawardana maintained that despite the matter falling outside the jurisdiction of the FUTA, the larger issue of the mental health of international students was still a matter of serious concern for the organisation.

Meanwhile, expressing concerns about the challenges that students are likely to face once they leave the country and start living on their own, an official of an institution that facilitates student migration pointed out that with the Ottawa incident, more attention will have to be paid to students even after they leave the country. 

On the condition of anonymity, he told The Daily Morning: “Thus far, our role was limited to finding suitable universities, collecting data on the courses and scholarships available for Sri Lankans, providing information to the parents and students about their options, and facilitating the registration and coordination aspects of enrollments. However, we are now concerned about how students adapt to their new environments. We don’t know what led to the incident in Canada. It may or may not have something to do with the suspect student’s living or mental conditions. At the same time, what we can do to improve or monitor a student’s living conditions from here (in Sri Lanka) is quite limited. However, as a precaution, we think that we will pay more attention to foreign education institutes that support children to assimilate into those countries and provide easily accessible mental health services.”

The official pointed out that the role of parents in supporting students following migration is crucial. He added that his institute will pay more attention to educating parents about being in contact with their children and paying attention to any warning signs of unmanageable stress, adding that this is something that the authorities should also pay attention to.

What is more, he explained how the current economic climate in Sri Lanka calls for more attention from the authorities regarding migrating students’ wellbeing: “I think that in the current context, a considerable share of students that migrate are under stress. Many of their families send them to foreign countries not because they can afford it, but because of the country’s economic situation and the uncertainty surrounding the future. Some parents take massive loans or sell their properties to fund their children’s education in a foreign country, and some students leave the country with the bare minimum amount of money needed to cover their costs. In my opinion, this situation is likely to cause constant stress. At the same time, many of these students have never been to a foreign country, lived in an English-speaking environment although they may have paper qualifications in the English language, or dealt with people outside their usual social circles. Therefore, the challenges relating to adapting to a life in a foreign country are very real for these students.”

Voice of the people

As the matter became a topic of discussion in all spheres, The Daily Morning also spoke to several citizens in the Pettah area to discuss their opinions. Although most of them shared the idea that the Ottawa incident is indeed tragic, they had diverse opinions about what could be learnt from the incident.

During the discussion, 58-year-old clothes seller Anton Gunasekara said that the Ottawa incident has created a situation where Sri Lankans will not be trusted by Canadians again, and that Sri Lankans would not be welcome in Canada in the future.

In this regard, 47-year-old three-wheeler operator Chandana Pushpakumara said: “This is a concerning situation and we should pay serious attention to such incidents. We don’t know whether the suspect (student) was on some type of drugs, as you can find any type of drug in countries like Canada. We also don’t know about the nature of the relationship that the suspect had with the family. I think that families should be more careful when sending children abroad for education. However, in my opinion, there is no need to send children abroad to study, because if you have money, there are plenty of options for quality education. However, the authorities should improve the country’s education sector. We should also keep in mind that education is not everything. A person’s behaviour is also important.”

Meanwhile, 56-year-old tourism sector services provider Saman Palitha said that murders have become so prevalent in Sri Lanka that such incidents do not attract the people’s attention: “Killings are now a normal thing. How many people in Sri Lanka are killed in a day? People’s minds are corrupted. I think that it is important to focus on the issues faced by the living rather than talking about the dead.”

Sharing a similar opinion, 26-year-old student of a private education institute R. Tharushan Ratnayake said that while the Ottawa incident should be carefully investigated to find out the reasons behind the incident, which he said would provide a lesson as to what matters require attention in the long run, murders have become prevalent albeit not receiving adequate attention. He added: “The Ottawa incident attracted widespread attention because of the number of deaths and the suspect’s age. More murders take place in Sri Lanka which we don’t care enough about and which go unresolved. If we care about lives, we should start it from our own country.”

In addition, several persons noted that parents should pay more attention to children’s wellbeing even after migration, and that Sri Lankans should not harbour the flawed idea that living in a developed country is equal to living a comfortable life.

When it comes to online platforms, there has been a plethora of viewpoints expressed across the social media landscape regarding the incident.

In a post that has since been taken down, the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Toronto urged parents of international students to “pay more attention” to their children. While the general public has condemned the crime in no uncertain terms, there have been concerns expressed by several online watchdogs over a rise in xenophobia towards those of South Asian descent, Sri Lankans living in Canada specifically. There have been reports of an increase in hate speech towards South Asians living in Canada, as a heightened response to the Ottawa stabbings.