China, Tibet, And The Canadian Blindfold.

This saw nearly unanimous support. The many political leaders met with the Lama regarding spiritual matters. The opposition was quick to condemn these sentiments, calling Beijing?s threats ?typically aggressive and provocative Chinese diplomacy.? This dispute has raised a number of questions in the minds of Canadians. Inevitably many want to know what this man has to say that is so dangerous or slanderous. The invasion of Tibet by the Peoples Liberation Army of China saw massive human rights abuses. Since the invasion, it has been made illegal to posses any picture of photo of the Dalai Lama. The cultural cleansing of Tibet has seen 6,000 of its roughly 6,200 monasteries destroyed. Tibetan has been replaced by Chinese as the official language of the nation, and Chinese remains the only language taught in schools. It has also been made illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to join the few remaining monasteries. These combined policies have left the nations ancient culture on the brink of extinction. The human toll of the occupation has also been tremendous. In the uprising of 1959, 87,000 Tibetans were killed by the PLA. The repots of exiles have challenged this number, with some claiming over 400,000 deaths. Between 1950 and 1984, some 260,000 Tibetans died in Chinese prisons or labor camps. The commonly accepted number of deaths of Tibetans since 1949 sits at 1.2 million. The uprising of 1959 followed an attempt by the Chinese government to kill the Dalai Lama on March 10th of that year. Communist containment policy in Canada fell apart as it did in much of the world nearing the close of the Cold War. Words like ?tolerance? were used to excuse the human rights abuses of nations like China, with many governments fighting to be the first to reap the benefits offered by the massive Chinese economic potential. This has silenced Canadian governments, as well as many around the world. Human rights are simply not a priority compared to the economic gains offered by submission to China. Hence, there has been only tentative efforts made to hear what Tibetan advocates have to say. Paul Martin has been continuing the tradition of placing trade over rights, as only ?spiritual matters? were discussed between him and the exiled peace advocate. The Dalai Lama appeared on the 25th in Toronto at the Sky Dome calling for peace and compassion between the many citizens of the world community.