(TibetanReview.net, Apr25’19) – A letter purported to have been issued by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and circulating on social media, supposedly showing his support for a new and controversial non-profit promoting Tibetan reunification with China, has turned out to be fake, reported thestar.com Apr 23.
The report said the non-profit, calling itself the Tibetan Association of Canada, held a large inauguration celebration in Toronto on Apr 20, attended by a number of local politicians. A Chinese-language media report was stated to have claimed that Trudeau and Minister of Immigration Ahmed Hussen had sent letters of support to the association.
However, both offices have said those reports were incorrect and were looking into the matter.
“A letter of greeting was not sent by the prime minister to the Tibetan Association of Canada. Our office is looking into this matter further,” the report quoted Amreet Kaur, press secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, as saying.
The report said it was unclear who had created the letters, “which contain grammatical and spelling mistakes” and were shared on Facebook and Twitter. The association did not appear to have a website and therefore could not be reached for comment. A politician who attended the inauguration was reported to have declined to share the contact information of the people who invited him.
The report noted that six Tibetan organizations in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and BC had released a joint letter on Apr 23 to “strongly object” to the formation of the new group, which they have said did not reflect the views of many Tibetan-Canadians.
“We are appalled that a fake letter of support from the Prime Minister of Canada is being used to mislead Canadians,” the letter was quoted as saying. “As well, it is misleading senior Canadian officials into thinking that this new group actually represents Tibetans in Canada.”
The fake letter attributed to Trudeau suggests that the aim of the association, “established by a group of Tibetans”, was to “united Tibetans living in Canada” and “to unite the ethnic communities of Chinese community”.
