Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  When it comes to the practices of any policies in Tibet by the Chinese government, this critical question remains: Are they transparent? What about the actual implementation of the policies that exist only in theory? This is where the idea of fact-finding, independent of them, unrestricted by them, is very important to Tibet and other autonomous parts of China.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for the question. The impact of forcibly putting Tibetan children into residential boarding schools has created an environment where Tibetan children are no longer able to communicate with their grandparents, because grandparents speak Tibetan and children are not able to speak Tibetan.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. I deeply appreciate this opportunity to speak with you on this important matter of Tibetan language and education. The Canada Tibet Committee is an independent, non-partisan association of Tibetans and non-Tibetans from across Canada.

Foreign Affairs committee  There's certainly a risk. However, as indicated in the testimony from Jigme Gyatso, who passed away last year, they are taking this position because they hope people will know about it. Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly, yes. The list we have is already public, but for those people who are detained and who do not want to be identified, sure. However, our list is already public.

Foreign Affairs committee  I agree. Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. The PRC repression of Tibetans certainly extends to Tibetans outside of Tibet, to Tibetans in India, Nepal, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. We have seen Tibetans.... One of the ways Tibetans in exile are targeted is whether or not they still have families in Tibet. That seems to make a difference in preventing them from participating in any political activities—something as simple as participating in our annual Tibetan Uprising Day, which happens to be on March 10.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's, I believe, a difficult choice, but it's a case that's quite common in Tibet. The list of people who are detained is not public. The number I mentioned earlier—2,000—is, I would say, a very small fraction of the overall number. I would guess there are thousands more Tibetans who are detained, yet we do not know their identities or the rationale behind their arrests.

Foreign Affairs committee  It would certainly be helpful, and I agree on the amendment of a human rights strategy in Bill C-281. I'm not very familiar with the technicalities, but I would certainly defer to Alex Neve, whom I have known for many years as a very well-respected human rights defender and supporter of all the victims of Chinese oppression, whether it's Tibetans, Uyghurs or Hong Kongers.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. In addition to visits to Tibet, which happened in 2020, I believe, with Ambassador Dominic Barton, I hope that something like the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, which was passed in the U.S. about two years ago, could really help here in Canada. The principle of reciprocity could be applied.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. It would certainly help. For us, the goal is to share information about prisoners of conscience. As I mentioned earlier, there are official records of over 2,000 Tibetan political prisoners. There are details about why they were detained, what the charges were in cases where there were charges, what the prison sentences were and details about, as Jigme Gyatso testified, the torture they went through.

Foreign Affairs committee  It would always help to make the challenges faced by Tibetans public because one of the challenges we deal with concerning Tibet is the lack of information coming out of Tibet. Tibet remains one of the most inaccessible regions in the entire world. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, Tibetans risk their lives passing their information to their families in exile so that it will reach the outside world, so that we can talk about it in platforms like this.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. The reason I chose to talk about this particular topic of arbitrary detention, torture and killing is that I find that this particular topic connects many other human rights violations, and Tibet issues are very complex, very multi-layered. We have a lack of religious freedom.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, honourable members of the committee, for inviting me to testify before this esteemed committee. I would like to use this opportunity to speak of the arbitrary detention, torture and killings in Tibet. I would like to start by sharing the stories of some Tibetans who were detained, tortured and killed in recent years.