Jim Byers
CITY HALL BUREAU
Mayor David Miller should postpone his planned trip to China next month, a pair of pro-Tibet activists said today.
Speaking at a city hall news conference attended by several of Miller’s political opponents – but without anyone from the mayor’s office on hand – the activists said Miller should delay his business/trade mission “until a more appropriate time when China has ceased in its offensive against the people of Tibet.”
They also want Miller to wait until an impartial third party has gone to Tibetan regions to investigate the treatment of Tibetan political prisoners, and until independent foreign media are allowed free access to Tibetan areas.
Tsering Lama, national director of Students for a Free Tibet (Canada), said it would be wrong for Miller to go on the trade mission, slated for mid-April, unless he’s going to raise human rights issues.
Miller has said that academics on the trip will talk about human rights. But Lama said Miller should use his position to help change the political situation in Tibet.
“The mayor is a major political figure, and it’s his responsibility to voice our concerns” and concerns of thousands of Tibetan-Canadians in Toronto, she said.
Cheuk Kwan, chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, suggested the Chinese government would use Miller’s visit as a propaganda tool to show that many people in the west support the Chinese regime.
Kwan said he and Lama have asked for a meeting with Miller, but were refused with what he called a “very dismissive” letter.
Miller’s opponents on city council are expected to seek a postponement of the trip, which carries an estimated cost of $70,000, at today’s city council budget meeting.
A rally of Tibetan activists was scheduled to take place at Nathan Phillips Square later this morning.
