Thank you.
Tashi Delek, Anee, hello, I'm Chemi Lhamo.
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to the original caretakers of this land, the elders of the past and present, and to any who should have been here, or may be here physically, mentally and spiritually.
My immigrant parents came from the land of snow—Tibet—which, according to Freedom House, is the least free country alongside Syria. A recent Human Rights Watch report stated that children as young as three years old are having their cultural identity stripped away, which to me is another repeat of the horrors of Canada's and Australia's residential schools where indigenous children were killed or forcibly assimilated into the settler society.
Time and time again, we’ve seen the Chinese government silence voices of Tibetans, Uighurs, Hong Kongers and southern Mongolians. There's no doubt that Chinese government intimidation and geopolitical bullying through aggression and expansion across borders from the South China Sea to the India-Tibet border presents a clear threat to both regional and global security.
However, today, let me share with you my experiences of the CCP attempting to silence and infringe upon my right to freedom of speech and expression, even in an open and democratic society like Canada.
In 2019, I became the target of wrath, most likely crafted by the Chinese Communist Party, when I ran for student elections at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Before the election had even begun, or results had even come out, my phone had started going off with notifications. There were over 10,000 comments on my social media posts and then an online petition against me for simply being a candidate because of my Tibetan identity—not because of my work or my capabilities.
The comments were harsh. They included rape and death threats targeting not just me, but my family. There were comments saying that the bullet that would go through me was made in China, or things like if they saw me, they would punch me. There was even one that I still recall to this day that said that my mom was dead. I kid you not. I recall having to call my mother to check in on her without frightening her.
Throughout my presidential term, although things slowed down on social media because of the international support I received, I continued to receive occasional threats and dehumanizing and degrading comments until this day. Additionally, prior to COVID-19, students on my campus who threatened to kill and rape me roamed freely around my campus and pointed, stared, followed and took photos of people whom I communicated with. This resulted in friends actually escorting me to the washrooms.
Community members of the allied nations who are subjected to the CCP’s colonial violence aren’t alien to these tactics. We have witnessed China’s interference and influence not just on our university campuses, but also in our communities.
The long-arm tactics of the CCP is also affecting Chinese international students who are paying four to five times more for an education, but are having to become incognito spies for the embassy or who get bullied to follow party lines and protest initiatives that are deemed threatening, instead of focusing on their education. Anonymous Chinese students have written to their student unions saying they're terrified by the presence of organizations like Canadian CSSAs, which are reporting campus activities to the Chinese government.
We’ve seen this overt influence in our academic institutions, but the threat is widespread. The CCP propaganda is infiltrating our communities and insidiously placing itself in progressive spaces, conflating anti-CCP sentiments to be part of the rise of anti-Asian hatred.
To this day my mother worries way more than required for my well-being because of these threats.
No Canadian on Canadian soil who wishes to serve their community should have to check if they're being followed. No student leader should have to see active groups on their campus self-censoring themselves because of the fear of going through what I had to go through. No mother should have to worry about their child being punched, raped or killed for standing up for something they care about.
Many Canadians, including my parents, were stateless refugees because of the illegal occupation of their countries and they had to move several times to find a safe home for their kids. Eventually, after long years of being transnational families and being displaced, they found a home in Canada, only to be intimidated and subjected to the long-arm tactics of the CCP. Canada is meant to empower youth, not embolden and support, through their silence, the ones who kidnap children and strip them away from their parents.
There's no doubt that the Chinese government ruthlessly tries to crush all dissent. I’d like to encourage the honourable members here today and our government to please listen to your Canadians and follow up with concrete actions.
I can tell you more through a report.
Thank you.