It likely is not marked on your calendar, but today is Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day. It's observed by Sri Lankan Tamil people to remember those who died in the genocide seven years ago when between 40,000 to 100,000 Tamil people were trapped and killed by the Sri Lankan Government.
The civil war ended in 2009, and the remembrance is named after Mullivaikkal, a village on the north-east coast of Sri Lanka which was the scene of the final battle.
North Bay has a small Tamil community, although thousands now call Canada home.
Rajarajan Thangarasu lives in North Bay and is part of the Tamil ethnic group from India.
He and his friend Jennifer Inwood, also from North Bay, are holding a one day hunger protest to observe Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day.
"To respect the people who have been massacred during the war, I will be going without food for the day. I want to make other people aware of the significance of this date and educate society of how people's basic rights are denied in parts of the world," he told BayToday."
"In Sri Lanka, the Tamil people are still being tortured, kidnapped at random and never returned, and their land is being taken away from them. The government spread the Tamil population to dilute the resistance and the anger for their basic rights. Their places are changed to different names to represent the majoritie's religion. Any public commemorations of Mullivaikkal are dealt harshly by the Sri Lankan security forces and as such Tamil politicians have been arrested for commemorating the day. There have been reports of the military entering civilian homes to prevent commemoration even privately," he explained.
Inwood says she was unaware of the killings before, but now feels passionate about it.
"It only happened seven years ago and you'd think stuff like that wouldn't happen in these times."
Thangarasu, a self-employed website developer who came to the city four years ago, says he hopes to build some awareness of the huge amount of killing that took place in Sri Lanka.
"I want to tell people that people are being denied basic human rights.
In the 1970’s Tamils were minorities in Sri Lanka and the Singalese were ruling the government.
Tamils were discriminated against in politics and government jobs and their stores were taken over. On May 18th, 2009 almost 40,000 Tamil people were killed brutally in the no fire zone, including women and children.
For more inormation see: Protests against the Sri Lankan war in Canada.
Want to learn more? Plight of the Tamils