Canada ignores Dalai Lama's visit fearing Chinese backlash

Vancouver, Sep 28(ANI): Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has reached Canada on a week-long visit, but unlike his previous visits, this time members of the Conservative Government are not to keen to meet the revered monk.

Authorities have not announced any meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper or any other cabinet members, who had met the Dalai Lama during his visit in 2006 and made him an honorary citizen of Canada.

Harper had also held a 45-minute private meeting with the Dalai Lama.

"Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has no plans to meet the Dalai Lama during his visit," The Globe and Mail quoted Rodney Moore, a ministry spokesman, as saying.

The Dalai Lama will participate in a Vancouver Peace Summit and will also take part in a series of panel discussions with several other Nobel Prize laureates and prominent innovators in Calgary and Montreal.

The Canadian Government's apparent decision to shun the Dalai Lama reflects the recent fence-mending efforts by Tories to restore relations with China, ahead of Harper's visit to the country.

On Sunday, Governor-General Michaelle Jean was scheduled to meet the Dalai Lama, but abruptly cancelled it last week.

Her spokeswoman Marthe Blouin said the decision was prompted by family reasons and had nothing to do with politics. (ANI)