Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
It's such an honour to be with you today. Thank you for joining us.
When I'd been a member of Parliament for only a few months, I had the opportunity to meet with His Holiness in Dharamshala. I didn't know very much about the Tibetan struggle at that time, but that meeting and subsequent conversations have been an inspiration to me, in particular the way in which Tibetan people who have been the victims of such extraordinary injustice respond with love, goodwill and a desire for peace and reconciliation. I find that personally inspirational, and it's I think a key feature of what has sustained such support for the Tibetan cause.
Be assured of my continuing support. We take note of the important points and suggestions made with respect to the Panchen Lama, and I assure you that I will continue to advocate for his release and for the Government of Canada to be actively engaged. We'll review the specific suggestions that you made.
I want to share that our party has advocated on a number of points that are of particular importance around religious freedom. One is that we've consistently advocated for the reopening of the office of religious freedom as a real centre of excellence and a focal point for advocating for religious freedom around the world. We see various ways in which the Chinese government is attacking the religious freedom of Tibetans and of other communities in China.
We also proposed in the last election to have a publicly published list of prisoners of conscience of particular concern as a way of highlighting some of these ongoing cases.
It's great to hear the Tibetan language being spoken. One key feature of the repression that we see is the attack on language and the fact that young people in Tibet now are forced into schools where the language of instruction is not their own language.
To start off my questions, I wonder if you could speak specifically to the issue of language and education in Tibet and concerns about the attacks on the Tibetan language.