Whose truth? > A call to conscience > David Jeyaraj

Many Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto keep strong ties to their homeland, ties that include support for the Tamil Tigers - a terrorist group that is fighting for an independent state.

It's a complicated connection. In the Tamil-controlled territories of Sri Lanka, the Tigers also deliver social services and control the distribution of tsunami relief. Many Tamils even condone the movement's use of child soldiers.

In Toronto, Tamils have raised millions of dollars for the Tigers' humanitarian wing, and very few will publicly criticize the movement.

One of the few who does is Tamil journalist David Jeyaraj.

AUDIO: Mary Wiens' profile of David Jeyaraj. Listen . (runs 6:55)

He lives in a small townhouse in Scarborough, where many of Toronto's Tamils live, but he doesn't advertise his address. "Generally, I keep a low profile," he says.

"I don't drive but I will never go to a Tamil function by TTC because I don't want to get caught in a bus stand."

To the Tamil Tigers, criticism amounts to betrayal, and Jeyaraj has often been accused of betraying the cause because of his journalism. Jeyaraj reports critically on both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers.

He was forced to stop publishing his newspaper after he wrote an editorial calling on the Tamil Tigers to participate more fully in the peace process with the Sri Lankan government. Tamil shopkeepers who carried the paper told him they were being threatened and intimidated, and Jeyaraj himself was badly beaten. Twelve years later, it still hurts where his leg was broken.

"We were treading a fine line and, in the early 1990s, I was a supporter of the struggle. I was not a critic. We basically reported the facts."

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