OTTAWA-The Dalai Lama’s late April visit to Ottawa was a carefully choreographed mixture of politics, religion and diplomacy.

The revered and often controversial leader of Tibetan Buddhism spoke to 9,000 in a Saturday morning rally in the Civic Centre arena. It was a smaller version of mass meetings he addressed in Vancouver and Toronto. On the West Coast, 14,000 turned out to see him at the Pacific Coliseum. In Canada’s largest city, he drew 29,000 to the SkyDome.

The rest of his national capital visit was a complex network of meetings, many of them facilitated by David Kilgour, a Liberal MP and former cabinet minister responsible for foreign affairs in Asia and the Pacific. For his efforts, the devout Presbyterian was awarded a white silk Buddhist friendship scarf known as a kata.

Meeting planners had to contend with a host of religious and political sensitivities affecting Canadian politicians and religious leaders, Canadians of Tibetan background and the Chinese government, which opposed any meeting between Prime Minister Paul Martin and the long-exiled leader of Tibet.

China considers the Dalai Lama to be “splittist,” and its Canadian embassy equated Tibetan Buddhism to Quebec separatism. Canada officially endorses the “one China” policy, which opposes separate political status for Tibet, Taiwan or any other region traditionally considered part of China.

But the meeting went ahead through an arrangement whereby the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa, Marcel Gervais, hosted a “spiritual” meeting at his home, which is very close to Parliament. Political and diplomatic agendas were officially off limits at the closed-door event. Nevertheless, Martin, a practicing Catholic, told reporters he had raised Tibetan human rights issues at the session.

To reinforce the event’s spiritual flavour, 19 religious leaders (Christian, First Nations, Jewish, Sikh, Bahai, Muslim) selected by the archbishop and Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli were invited to the meeting. Protestant ministers on hand were Lutherans Joel Crouse and Barton Baglo, Presbyterian Andrew Johnston, Steve Lawson of the United Church and Anglican Archdeacon Patricia Johnston.

None of the three major Christian umbrella groups-the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Canadian Council of Churches or the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada-had status at the meeting.

But one evangelical concern was cautiously explored during a Thursday afternoon joint session of the Commons and Senate foreign relations committee. Conservative foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day asked the Dalai Lama about “freedom of religion,” a term the Buddhist leader had not used in public during his visit.

Day, a charismatic evangelical, watches religious freedom issues closely, partly because he maintains links with Watchmen for the Nations whose leader, David Demian, periodically urges Christian politicians to speak out for Taiwan’s autonomy. A major Taiwanese-Chinese tension

surrounds the perceived lack of religious freedom in China-also an issue of contention for Tibetan Buddhists.

The Dalai Lama responded by emphasizing “harmony among religions,” a staple in most of his Canadian speeches. Johnston,

minister of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, says the “harmony” theme was also emphasized at the archbishop’s session.

At least one Christian group maintains that the Tibetan leader’s presence and teaching sessions (Kalachakra) could release unspecified harmful spiritual forces in Canada. Canada in Prayer was calling on Christians to “pray that the occult ritual (Kalachakra) will not take place, and that dominion of the land will not be given over to demonic powers but restored to Jesus Christ.”