By DAVID PADDON
TORONTO – A group of Tibetans opposed to a Beijing-backed railway in their homeland is planning to protest against Nortel Networks’ involvement in the project at the company’s shareholder meeting Wednesday.
The same group staged a protest June 7 at the annual meeting of Bombardier Inc., which is in a joint venture along with Power Corp. of Canada to build 361 rail coaches for the high-altitude train.
Nortel was selected by China’s Ministry of Railways to provide a digital wireless communications network for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
A spokesman for the Canada Tibet Committee said Tuesday said that the group opposes the railway because the project is being imposed on the Tibetan people by China’s government.
“In the absence of genuine participation of the Tibetan people in this project on Tibetan lands, the project should not go forward and definitely should not have the participation of companies and governments that are in democratic societies,” said Tenzin Durgyal, executive director of the group.
“Beijing is trying to impose development solutions onto the Tibetan people without their consultation. And the railway is just one example of that.”
A Nortel spokeswoman said the company recognizes the protesters’ right to express their views but “we reject in the strongest possible terms that we would participate in repressing human rights or democratic rights of any individuals.”
Nortel’s Ann Fuller added: “As a company policy, we do not do business in countries with a record of persistent human rights violations or where the UN or multinational agreements have implemented export controls or sanctions.”
While there have been allegations that China’s communist regime violated human rights, the country is a major market for Nortel and other international companies.
The Nortel meeting will be the first gathering of its shareholders in more than two years. Last year’s meeting was cancelled after the Brampton, Ont.-based company discovered accounting errors, spanning several years, that took months to correct.
Nortel stock (TSX:NT) closed Tuesday at $3.32 Cdn, up 11 cents, on the Toronto Stock Exchange, where the shares have a 52-week high and low of $6.88 and $2.85.
