Sri Lankan by Birth, Tamil by Heritage, Canadian by Choice

Quillette Podcast

Quillette

Politics, Science, Society & Culture, News, News Commentary

4.4 • 929 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

⁠Prisoner #1056⁠ author Roy Ratnavel discusses his journey from a prison cell in war-torn Sri Lanka to the heights of Canada’s financial industry—and the (sometimes politically incorrect) lessons about race, immigration, and multiculturalism he’s learned along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you know what you want for Christmas?
0:02.8	A cute toy.
0:04.1	No, I just want my family back.
0:06.2	That's what I want for Christmas.
0:08.2	We'll see what I can do, okay?
0:10.3	It's Christmas, so dear, good share.
0:12.7	Merry Christmas.
0:14.0	Tis the season to watch Tully on Channel 4.
0:16.5	Stream now.
0:28.6	Welcome to the Quillette podcast, hosted on alternate weeks by me, Jonathan Kay, and by Iona Italia.
0:29.9	Quillette is where Freethought lives.
0:31.9	We are an independent grassroots platform for heterodox ideas and fearless commentary.
0:37.0	You are about to hear a free preview of this week's episode.
0:40.7	To hear the full episode and to get access to all our podcasts and articles, visit us at
0:47.0	quillette.com and click the subscribe button.
0:50.6	On today's episode, I'm going to be talking about a wide range of controversial issues
0:55.2	with a guest who's learned his life lessons the hard way.
0:59.2	Tamil Canadian business executive, philanthropist, author, community leader,
1:04.3	and proud Canadian patriot, Roy Ratnaville.
1:07.5	In his new book, Prisoner 1056, How I Survived War and Found Peace, Roy writes about his
1:14.4	1980s era childhood in Sri Lanka, which was then in the midst of a long and bloody civil war
1:20.6	that pitted the country's Sinhalese majority against an insurgency led by the Tamil Tigers,
	...

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