Mr. Speaker, today in Parliament we welcome a Nobel Peace Prize winner, respected spiritual leader and figurehead of the pacifist movement, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. The Bloc Quebecois welcomes him with pride and great joy.
As head of the government in exile of Tibet, a territory invaded and annexed by the People's Republic of China in 1950, the Dalai Lama is seeking a negotiated solution with Beijing. This is no easy task, since the Chinese authorities have been engaged, since the invasion of Tibet, in heavy-handed repression coupled with an active policy of colonization or Chinafication of the territory.
Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama constitutes the very incarnation of Buddha for his people and thousands of the faithful throughout the world.
My colleagues of the Bloc Quebecois join with me in greeting him and thanking him for his smiles, and the hope and serenity he exudes everywhere he goes. Our thoughts go with him in his quest for the independence of his people and his country.