During Canada Tibet Lobby Days 2021, Tibetans and Tibet supporters in Canada met with MPs to advocate for the passage of a motion on Sino-Tibetan dialogue. This motion was first introduced in the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations in August 2020 by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis where it passed with unanimous consent. It was introduced in the House on June 22nd, 2021 by Bloc Québécois MP Stéphane Bergeron with the support of the office of MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe.
The lobbying coalition was composed of members of Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario (CTAO), Tibetan Women’s Association of Ontario (TWAO), Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Toronto (RTYC), Students for a Free Tibet Canada (SFT), Ottawa Tibetan Community Association (OTCA), and CTC. We met with members from the Liberal, Conservative, NDP and Bloc Québécois parties and received overwhelmingly positive responses. The responses are detailed below.
The motion failed to be passed by unanimous consent having been voted against by Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen.
Following the failure of the motion, CTC Executive Director Sherap Therchin released a statement expressing disappointment and calling on Canada to break its silence on Tibet. Therchin and CTC’s Anvesh Jain released an Op Ed in the Hill Times on July 7th titled “Has the Canadian government forgotten about the Tibetan cause?” We wrote an open letter which was signed by prominent civil society organizations and parliamentarians calling on PM Trudeau to make a statement in support of Sino-Tibetan dialogue which was sent on July 30th, 2021. We also released a letter template for Tibetans and Tibet supporters to write to their MPs demanding action on the Tibetan cause.
The Canada Tibet Lobby Days Coalition
The Coalition of Tibet Groups in Canada is made up of Tibetan community associations and support groups from across the country. Canada Tibet Lobby Days 2021 is supported by the Canadian Parliamentary Friends of Tibet.