By Ian Bailey
CanWest News Service
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Paul Martin is being urged to meet with the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, during a visit to Canada this spring even as a representative of the Chinese government in Canada says such a meeting would be inappropriate.
“The prime minister says he wants to make sure we play an important role in the world and here is someone who is considered a world leader,” says Liberal MP Herb Dhaliwal, former natural resources minister, who is on a parliamentary committee organizing aspects of the Dalai Lama’s visit.
The committee, headed by Senator Consiglio Di Nino, will formally request Martin meet with the Dalai Lama.
But an official with China’s embassy in Canada, speaking on condition he not be named, said the Canadian government should snub the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan leader will be in Canada in April on a cross-country tour that will take him to Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto.
“We are opposed to his visit, and any official contacts between him and the Canadian officials,” said the official, wondering how Canada would like it if foreign governments embraced a touring Quebec sovereigntist.
“If somebody from Quebec went to China or (the) United States, asking the U.S. government to support Quebec independence from Canada, what would (be) your response?” said the official.
The Dalai Lama won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve the thorny relationship between Tibet and the People’s Republic of China,
However, the Chinese official described the 68-year-old Dalai Lama as a “politician in exile” who has angered the Chinese government by pushing for Tibetan independence.
Tenzin Dargyal, a spokesman for the Canada-Tibet Committee, described the embassy’s criticism as “predictable.”
The Montreal-based committee says Martin should agree to broker a peace between the Dalai Lama and China, which has occupied Tibet since 1949. The Dalai Lama and 80,000 other Tibetans have been living in exile since 1959.
The committee says that 126 MPs have, over the years, signed a letter encouraging high-level contact with the Dalai Lama, including several Liberal MPs who have become cabinet ministers.
They include current Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. However, a spokesman for the minister said Friday Cotler has no plans to meet with the Dalai Lama.
