By Jack Aubry,
OTTAWA – When the Dalai Lama meets Stephen Harper in Ottawa next week, it will be the first time a Canadian prime minister has agreed to meet the exiled Tibetan leader in public.
Conservative Senator Consiglio Di Nino said that, unlike former prime minister Paul Martin, who would only meet the exiled Tibetan leader privately to avoid angering the Chinese government, Mr. Harper will allow cameras to record the moment.
“The Prime Minister has already agreed to meet with him; will be receiving him. The details haven’t yet been concluded but I suspect there will be some media in attendance,” said Mr. Di Nino, a member of an all-party group of parliamentarians who support Tibet’s aspirations for independence from China. In 2004, Mr. Martin met the Dalai Lama at the home of Ottawa Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Gervais in what was billed as a historic meeting after Jean Chrétien, his predecessor, refused such a meeting.
Mr. Harper will be the fourth Western leader to meet the Dalai Lama in recent weeks, after U.S. President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the 72-year-old Buddhist leader is attempting to raise the profile of Tibet’s struggle for autonomy.
He is an honourary Canadian citizen, recipient of the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been living in exile in India since 1959.
At a press conference Monday, Mr. Di Nino said Tibetan flags, which were banned in China after its invasion of Tibet in 1950, will be flown by town halls in Thunder Bay, Ont., St. John’s, N.L., and Blainville, Que., in support of the Dalai Lama during his three-day visit to Canada. The visit begins Sunday in Ottawa.
Apart from his meeting with Mr. Harper, the charismatic leader is scheduled to speak at stadiums in Ottawa and Toronto.
The Conservative government, which has angered China on several fronts, sent two senior government representatives to Vancouver in September 2006 to honour the Dalai Lama’s visit to Canada. Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, who was Mr. Harper’s parliamentary secretary at the time, and Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg, who was immigration minister at the time, travelled to British Columbia to see the leader.
The Chinese government was, as expected, critical of the visit.
“The fact of the matter is the Dalai Lama is by no means a purely religious figure, but a political exile who has long been engaged in activities aimed at splitting China under the camouflage of religion,” the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement. “His activities, in whatever names or whatever places, are neither a purely religious issue nor a private act. He represents a political force advocating for “Tibet Independence,” which we firmly oppose.
“We are against the provision of venues by foreign countries to the Dalai Lama’s secessionist activities and also against foreign dignitaries meeting with him.”
Last week, Mr. Bush’s meeting with the Dalai Lama infuriated China’s Communist leaders, who said they were insulted by American “interference.”
Mr. Di Nino said he expects a similar reaction from China over the leader’s visit to Ottawa.
