Dalai Lama Presented with Honorary Canadian Citizenship
Published: Monday, 11 September, 2006
Vancouver, Canada 9 September 2006 (AP) The Dalai Lama has
been presented with honorary Canadian citizenship, joining only two other
people to have received the honour.
The decision by Canada's parliament to award
citizenship to the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader has drawn criticism
from China, which continues to rule Tibet.
"Welcome to our great country," Immigration Monte
Minister Solberg
told the Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Saturday in front of a crowd of
about 12,000. "We will welcome you each and every time you return to
Canada to share
your message of kindness and compassion."
The normally talkative Dalai Lama seemed at a loss for words.
"Now I am also a citizen of this country," he said. "I am
honored to receive this citizenship."
Canada has previously granted honorary citizenship
to South African leader Nelson Mandela and Swedish diplomat Raoul
Wallenberg, who saved Jews from extermination during World War II.
Solberg presented the Nobel Peace Prize laureate
with a framed copy of the parliamentary motion granting him
citizenship. Prior to his arrival, the crowd spontaneously burst into
the country's national anthem, "O
Canada."
Beijing has complained to the Canadian government
about its decision, saying the gesture could harm relations. Canada's
Department of Foreign Affairs says Canada recognizes China as the
legitimate government of China and Tibet, but has great respect for the
Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama has focused on education,
compassion and health during his visit to Vancouver, where he is
inaugurating The Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education. He said
Vancouver was chosen as the site of the center, the first to bear his
name, because of its diverse population.
"This is purely educational, not political," he said Thursday.
Among those on the center's advisory board are
former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Czech Republic president
Vaclav Havel and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Earlier Saturday, the Dalai Lama shared the stage
with author Deepak Chopra and others for a dialogue on happiness and
stress as determinants of mental health.
Compassion has been a theme to which the Buddhist
leader returned again and again in his Vancouver visit. He repeatedly
stressed the need for people to embrace the compassion a mother shows
her child.
Chopra also picked up on that theme.
"If we make motherhood the most scared profession on the planet, is there
a chance for world peace?" Chopra asked.
The Dalai Lama was to meet privately Sunday with
leaders from the social and corporate sectors, including senior
Massachusetts Institute of Technology lecturer Peter Senge, founding
chairman of the Society for Organizational
Learning.