Ilamaran Nagarasa, known as Maran, is a freelance journalist, human rights activist, and refugee advocate who lives with his family in Toronto. Originally from Sri Lanka, Maran arrived in Canada in 2009 after travelling with seventy-five other refugees on the boat Ocean Lady. He, along with many others, was arrested on suspicion of being a Tamil terrorist and was imprisoned for months without charges before his release. After seven years of struggle with immigration bureaucracy, he was finally allowed
to bring his young family to Canada. Over the past twenty years, Maran has been active in reporting human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, including providing testimony at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2015. He currently works for a Toronto-based multicultural radio and television company as a news editor.
