Canada/Sri Lanka (Commonwealth Union)_His story is gut-wrenching, distressing, and awe-inspiring. Roy Ratnavel was just 18 when he fled to Canada in search of a new future, having spent months in prison undergoing unimaginable brutality that most humans may not have been able to endure physically.
Sri Lankan-born Canadian Roy Ratnavel launched his memoir Prisoner #1056 in Canada three weeks ago. His story became world famous making him the darling of the Western media because here was a story that the world needed to hear; it resonated with some, held others in awe, and had an air of esoteric mystery that only an immigrant can experience. The book shot to No 1 in Canada’s Bestseller list two weeks after its launch.
Rounded up by the Sri Lankan Army for being the wrong race at the wrong time during Operation Liberation in 1987 in Vadamaarachchi in the north of Sri Lanka, Ratnavel at just 17, was pulled away from his father who tried to protect him. He was shackled, shoved onto a scorching ferry for six days with no food or water, and imprisoned for months. He was among 2,700 other young Tamil men who were taken to the notorious Boossa camp, for simply being a young Tamil man.
His time in prison, (though short in comparison to his fellow prisoners with some never making it), echoed inhuman brutality from beatings with sand-filled pipes on ankles and calves, electric prods on private parts, sleep and food deprivation, and being forced to sleep in your own filth. All this was to force the young men to confess to being a member of one of the world’s most dreaded terrorist organizations, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Unbearable pain made most confess – but not Ratnavel.
He endured it all – losing hope sometimes but holding on hard to an underlying optimism that showed him the way out of prison, in the form of the wife of the then Minister of Defence and his ‘uncle’ Col. Dudley Fernando, who was his father’s best friend.
Watching the country crumbling around him, Ratnavel’s father packed the eighteen-year-old off to Canada, with nothing but USD 100 in his pocket and an entire anthology of words of wisdom – “I don’t want you to survive; I want you to live” was one, which Ratnavel took to heart and worked some hard days nights to get to where he is today – Executive Vice President of CI Financial, one of Canada’s largest investments companies. He was also named among the ’50 Best Canadian Executives’ in 2020.
“Whatever you do, do it to perfection,” was another of his father’s axioms, which made Roy work doubly hard in his time at a factory, gluing boxes, as a security guard, and in the mailroom of the very offices he now is Executive VP. But while he kept his father’s words alive – he was also forced to realize that he would never see his father again and had to keep his father’s dream alive. His father was shot dead by the Indian Peacekeeping Force two days after Ratnavel landed in Canada.
When writing the book, Ratnavel says, “I broke down a few times as I was writing some of the darker parts, but when I emerged from the whole thing, it was really a book about success more than suffering. It really tells you how resilient the human spirit can be. I feel a lot better after writing the book and telling the stories because I’ve been carrying this with me for 35 years. Letting it go and letting the world know gives me peace of mind.”
Ratnavel’s memoir is riveting; it’s not just a story of prison, it’s a story of hope and freedom, juxtaposed as that may be. He pays homage to his new home country of Canada for celebrating the diversity of its people and bringing out the best in individuals who contribute to the success of one of the world’s most developed countries.
He explains the three reasons he had for writing the book: “First, to tell a story to the world of a tortured teenager who fled war and oppression from his former birth-land; the second is to give a voice to the next generation of Tamil men and women who are coming of age in Canada and in other Western nations to tell their stories of war and their parents’ stories of fleeing Sri Lanka; and the third is to celebrate freedom and democracy. When people are given freedom and democracy, society thrives and functions, becoming successful and being at peace at the same time. This is also my homage to Canada for appreciating differences while existing as a peaceful society.”
