By Bob Harvey
George W. Bush has met him. So has Tony Blair. And so have the prime ministers, presidents and chancellors of many other leading Western nations. But Canada’s prime ministers shy away from meeting the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The Dalai Lama will be in Ottawa April 21 to 24. A majority of the House of Commons, 159 MPs, have signed an appeal to Prime Minister Paul Martin asking him to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader. The Prime Minister’s Office says only that Martin is considering a meeting.
“I cannot see how the meeting cannot take place when you have more than half the elected representatives of Canada requesting the prime minister to meet the Dalai Lama,” said Thubten Samdup, the president of the Canada-Tibet Committee. “Unless you’re really arrogant, you cannot brush aside the wishes of the parliamentarians.”
Jean Chretien met the Dalai Lama as Opposition leader, but refused in 1993, as prime minister.
Critics say Canada is afraid of of hurting trade with China.
Samdup said Denmark suffered no trade retaliations when it put forward a resolution in the United Nations in 1997 that called on China to end the executions and long prison terms for political prisoners.
He said two recent meetings between Tibetan and Chinese officials in Beijing also went well, and a third meeting has been scheduled.
“China is trying desperately to project its image in the world as an open society. They are hosting the Olympics in 2008, and there is a lot of opposition to that. But I believe the big reason (for the change in China) is that information somehow gets into China through radio, print and travellers, and they can’t always keep their people in the dark,” said Samdup.
China invaded Tibet in 1949, and the Dalai Lama and 80,000 other Tibetans fled the country after a popular uprising was put down. Amnesty International and other organizations have since repeatedly criticized China for its repression of political dissent and religious freedom in Tibet. Many Buddhist monks and nuns remain in prison as prisoners of conscience.
Tibetans believe that after the Dalai Lama, 68, dies, he will be reincarnated and the Dalai Lama himself has said the reincarnation would “definitely” be born outside Tibet, in the free world, if the dispute with China continues.
“The Dalai Lama is all we’ve got,” said Samdup. “Without him, the world community couldn’t care less about Tibet. This is why we are working so hard, and sometimes pleading and begging that people help us.”
The Dalai Lama visits Vancouver from April 19 to 21 and Toronto from April 24 to May 5.
