Ottawa – Today, Monday December 3rd from 11:00am to 2:00pm, Tibetan-Canadians and their supporters from across Ontario will converge on Parliament Hill to protest the pending sale of Nexen, a Canadian oil company, to China. Member of Parliament Peggy Nash will address the rally and reiterate her opposition to this deal. Protesters waving colourful Tibetan flags and dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing will be covered in blood-stained oil spilling from a mock live-sized pipeline to demonstrate the destruction this deal will mean for Tibetans living in Chinese-occupied Tibet.
Chinese state-owned China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) is heavily funding the forced resettlement of Tibetan nomadic communities, one of the many policies that has led to a devastating wave of self-immolation protests in Tibet. In November alone, 28 Tibetans set fire to themselves to call for freedom in Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama, further reason why the Government of Canada should not approve this deal.
“Prime Minister Harper must reject this deal or he is approving the destruction of Tibetan lives. Right now is possibly the worst time to be selling Canada’s resources to the Chinese government, especially to a company that is directly involved in perpetrating human rights abuses against the Tibetan people, said Urgyen Badheytsang, National Director at Students for a Free Tibet Canada. “This deal should have been called off long ago; it is not in Canada’s best interest and will only make matters worse in Chinese-occupied Tibet where over 90 Tibetans have now set themselves on fire in a plea for help from the international community.”
Students for a Free Tibet Canada has escalated pressure on the Harper government to oppose the CNOOC-Nexen deal with weekly rallies in front of the Industry of Canada building in Toronto and Nexen’s headquarters in Calgary.
“Our question to Prime Minister Harper is, are you willing to stand up for what is right by rejecting this deal and helping to save Tibetan lives?” said Tsering Dolma, Toronto Coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet Canada. “China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) is complicit in human rights abuses in Tibet, funding China's efforts to force millions of Tibetan nomads off their land to make way for mining and oil extraction. This policy is driving Tibetans to self-immolate in protest, with more than 75 self-immolations in the past year alone. The Canadian government must not sell off our national resources to a company that destroys Tibetan lives.”
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