By MICHAEL VALPY
A majority of members of Parliament — including seven cabinet ministers — have asked the Prime Minister to offer to mediate negotiations between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama on the future of Tibet, say the organizers for the exiled Tibetan leader’s visit to Ottawa this month.
The Montreal-based Canada Tibet Committee has been lobbying MPs for years to endorse its campaign to urge the Prime Minister to “convene face-to-face negotiations” between the Chinese and the Dalai Lama, who fled from his Himalayan domain 45 years ago as Chinese troops took control.
At last week’s end, the committee jubilantly announced it had passed the 50-per-cent mark, with the endorsement of 158 MPs.
It also acknowledged that seven ministers, who had given their support to the campaign before they joined the cabinet of Paul Martin’s new government, had asked that their names not appear on any formal letter. But neither did they ask that their names be removed from the list of supporting MPs posted on the committee’s website.
The Prime Minister’s Office has said no decision has been made on whether Mr. Martin will meet with the Dalai Lama, although the 68-year-old spiritual and former temporal leader of Tibet is to arrive in the capital on April 21, just over two weeks from now.
Tenzin Dargyal, spokesman for the Canada Tibet Committee, described the Ottawa segment as the “political” part of the Dalai Lama’s 18-day, three-city visit to Canada beginning in Vancouver on April 17 and ending in Toronto on May 5.
The Canadian government’s dealings with the Dalai Lama have been a ticklish issue for well over a decade. No prime minister has ever accepted an invitation to meet with him, although Jean Chrétien, when he was leader of the opposition, saw him. U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have both had recent meetings. However, Mr. Blair stressed he was seeing the Dalai Lama strictly as a “religious leader.”
The Canadian government’s position is that it acknowledged China’s sovereignty over Tibet when it extended diplomatic recognition to the Chinese government in 1973.
Mr. Dargyal pointed out that the Dalai Lama is not seeking Tibetan independence but a substantial measure of autonomy under Chinese sovereignty. He also made clear that it is the Canada Tibet Committee and those MPs who support its campaign who are asking the Prime Minister to broker negotiations — the request has not come from the Dalai Lama.
The seven cabinet members are Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, Immigration Minister Judy Sgro, Government House Leader Jacques Saada, Social Development Minister Liza Frulla, Public Works Minister Stephen Owen, Minister of State for Infrastructure Andy Scott and Joseph McGuire, minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
