REFUGEE

An early morning fire that damaged a Buddhist temple used by Toronto's Sri Lankan community for the second time in six months has been classified as an arson.

Toronto police have increased patrols in the area and are consulting with the hate crimes unit after flames engulfed part of the building at about 2 a.m. yesterday.

There were no injuries.

While police have not yet made any arrests, investigators are almost certainly examining whether the attack was connected to the Tamil nationalist conflict in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Tigers rebels fought a three-decade civil war for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority until May, when government forces wiped out the guerrillas.

Despite the end of the fighting, some expatriate Tamils have continued to agitate for independence. In Toronto on Wednesday, a Tamil activist gave a fiery speech that urged violence against the Sinhalese Buddhists who make up the majority in Sri Lanka. Following his talk, he was arrested and threatened with deportation unless he left Canada on his own.

The temple attack occurred on Tamil "heroes' day," the birthday of the deceased leader of the Tamil Tigers, when Tamil nationalists commemorate fallen rebels. The Maha Vihara Temple was founded in 1978 by Sri Lankans who practice the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. The same temple was torched in May but no arrests were made.

"The biggest question is the motive behind it," said Constable Tony Vella of the Toronto Police Service. "It's quite concerning that someone has committed an arson.

"Someone could have easily been killed or hurt as a result and we are taking it very seriously. This type of behavior will not be tolerated. We'll plug away until we find out who is responsible."

The Fire Marshall's office said in a news release that crews arrived to find heavy smoke conditions, but the flames were suppressed before the fire was able to penetrate into the interior of the temple.

A wooden porch was set alight at the rear of the structure with the aid of dozens of plastic bottles of flammable liquid. The bottles were spaced apart on the porch with the intention to accelerate the spread of the fire, the release said.