The B.C. Liberals are asking for a review of foreign interference at the legislature after the Chinese consulate complained about the visit of a high-profile Tibetan independence official, Postmedia News has learned.
The Liberals are asking whether the consulate’s concerns may have influenced a later decision by the Speaker’s office to not allow a delegation of Buddhist monks, including ones from Tibet, to return to the legislature for a cultural event.
That decision was reversed after Postmedia started making inquiries.
“We are deeply troubled that past concerns expressed by the Chinese government, and apparent fear of further concerns being raised by foreign governments, seem to be influencing discussions concerning who can and cannot attend events at the legislative assembly,” Todd Stone, the Liberal house leader, wrote in a letter to Speaker Raj Chouhan on Wednesday.
The letter was provided to Postmedia News.
The B.C. Liberals want the issue to be studied by the all-party committee that oversees business at the legislature.
The Speaker’s office confirmed to Postmedia News it received “correspondence from the Chinese Consulate” about a Feb. 15 tour attended by Tibetan visitors.
“No response was provided,” the office said.
The Chinese consulate opposed the visit by Penpa Tsering, the Tibetan president-elect in exile. Tsering, known as the Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration, visited the legislature during his trip to Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Tsering, who was accompanied by more than a dozen people, including members of the Tibetan Cultural Society of Victoria, posted photos of the visit to the legislature on his Instagram page on Feb. 16.
The consulate said in an email to Postmedia News that “we were concerned about Tibetan separatist Penpa Tsering’s recent visit” to the legislature on Feb. 15. “His website boasted he was greeted by MLA(s) and for the first time visited the local assembly, to which China is firmly opposed.”
The consulate said the “so-called ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ is a separatist political organization with the agenda of pursuing ‘Tibetan independence’. It is completely in violation of China’s constitution and laws, and is not recognized by any country in the world.”
The Chinese government on Wednesday scolded the U.S. Congress for interfering in its internal affairs by allowing Tsering to speak by video at a hearing this week.
Stone worries the correspondence from the Chinese government could explain the Speaker’s office’s response to another event at the legislature on Feb. 27 in which two staff members asked whether Tibetan monks would be in attendance.
Teresa Wat, B.C. Liberal MLA for Richmond Centre, had invited a delegation of Buddhist Masters and followers to the legislature on Feb. 27 to celebrate her private member’s bill calling on the province to establish a Buddhist Culture Day in B.C.
An hour and a half before the event, Karen Armstrong, an executive assistant in the Speaker’s office, wrote to a Liberal staffer asking: “Are you able to tell me if the Buddhist Masters are from Tibet?”
Wat, who is also the opposition critic for multiculturalism, asked Premier David Eby to commit to establishing an official day to recognize Buddhist culture. Eby told the crowd he would do that.
The B.C. Liberals followed up with the legislature’s education office to ask when they could host a follow up event to make the proclamation official.
A B.C. Liberal staffer told Postmedia after some email correspondence with Cai Dong, manager of the education office, Dong asked for a phone call. Dong, according to the staffer, asked on the March 15 call if it were possible to exclude the Tibetan monks from the subsequent event. The staffer said the issue was above his pay grade and he’d have to contact Stone, the party’s house leader.
Postmedia News has agreed not to name the staffer because he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the party.
The staffer sent a list of proposed attendees to Dong. On March 24, Dong wrote back that his office is “unable to approve the event request in the Hall of Honour,” but he said Wat is welcome to have the delegation in the official Opposition caucus space.
Dong told Postmedia Wednesday he could not comment on the matter and referred questions to the clerk’s office.
Postmedia News contacted the Speaker’s office for comment Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday morning, the Speaker’s office told the B.C. Liberals a date had now been set for Wat’s followup event, a Buddhism Blessing Ceremony, on May 3.
The Speaker’s office told the Liberals and Postmedia News that the request was initially declined “due to a misunderstanding by an internal event management group, which operates in accordance with the legislative assembly’s public use of grounds policy.”
Stone, however, was skeptical of that explanation. He wrote in his letter that while the Speaker’s office arrived at the correct outcome, “I have found the path to this point deeply troubling.”
“If the Chinese Consulate, through phone calls and emails or written confirmation, was expressing an opinion that in any way shape or form has resulted in a decision being made to not allow certain people to come into this building, that just needs to be called out,” Stone told Postmedia. “It’s totally unacceptable.”
According to Stone’s letter, Speaker Raj Chouhan told B.C. Liberal caucus whip Doug Clovechok on Feb. 27: “If there’s Tibetan Monks in this group, I’ll be blamed for it,” in reference to the Chinese government. Postmedia contacted Chouhan’s office for comment but did not hear back by deadline.
Stone, in his letter, said he asked for a meeting with the sergeant-at-arms Wednesday to share his concerns “regarding how the legislature’s internal processes regarding an event with Tibetans appeared to be taking into consideration and weighing the opinions and stated desires of the Chinese government.”
Stone will ask that the information be passed on to relevant Canadian security and law enforcement agencies.
Postmedia has asked the Chinese consulate whether it requested that Tibetan monks not participate in any future events at the legislature, but it did not respond.
The consulate did say Tsering is the “head of the illegal organization” and is an “anti-China separatist” who makes state visits “with the purpose of peddling the proposition of ‘Tibetan independence’ and attacking the policies of the Chinese government, which in essence are anti-China separatist activities.”
The issue of Chinese interference in Canadian politics has reached a boiling point in recent months amid leaked documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to the Globe and Mail and Global News detailing China’s strategy to influence the federal 2021 election.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed former governor general David Johnston as independent special rapporteur to determine whether a full public inquiry is needed into the issue of Chinese political interference.
— With files from Reuters
