Critical actions you can do to help Tibet…

I received an email today from the Canada Tibet Committee listing several things you can do to help support Tibet during this upheaval.

1. Events planned in your local community

Please join the numerous vigils and rallies being planned across Canada. These events are posted at www.tibet.ca as soon as we learn of them from organizers.

2. Call your MP and the Prime Minister

Please ask your MP and the government to support the following two actions:

a. The Canada Tibet Committee is asking that the Canadian government to support the Dalai Lama’s call for a United Nation’s team of investigators to visit Tibet as soon as possible.

b. All political leaders and other prominent persons who have accepted an invitation to attend the Olympic Games should withdraw their acceptance.

You can write, fax or email the Prime Minister at:

Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
pm@pm.gc.ca

For the coordinates of your local MP, consult this list:

3. Call, fax or email the Chinese embassy in Ottawa

Please express your concerns directly to the Chinese embassy and please raise the following two issues:

a. With a media black-out in Lhasa, verifiable information will become even harder to come by. Two Canadian journalists have been detained in Xiahe, and others turned away from areas outside the ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’, despite China having issued new regulations that were intended to allow free movement by foreign journalists in this Olympics year.

Demand that China must allow foreign journalists back into all Tibetan areas (TAR and Tibetan areas of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan).

b. Express your support of the Dalai Lama’s request for an independent U.N. team to investigate the situation in Tibet.

Chinese embassy coordinates

Tel: +1-613-7893434, 7910511
Fax: +1-613-7891911, 7891414
Office Hours: 09:00-12:00, 14:00-17:30, Monday-Friday (except Chinese holidays)
Email: chinaemb_ca@mfa.gov.cn

4. Fax Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee

The International Tibet Support Network is speaking with a united voice, calling on the IOC to block China’s plans to carry the Olympic Torch through Tibet prior to the Games. Please add your voice to the thousands who already have by faxing or phoning Mr. Rogge at:

International Olympic Committee
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland
Tel: (41.21) 621 61 11
Fax: (41.21) 621 62 16

5. Visit the CTC website regularly for updates and please consider joining, donating or volunteering to help Tibet

Finally, we cannot respond and support the Tibetan people without your help. Please take a moment to visit www.tibet.ca and either join or donate to the CTC. And if you have time, please consider volunteering as well by sending an email to ctcoffice@tibet.ca