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Letters of congratulations the group has touted from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen are not authentic, officials in the prime minister’s office and Hussen’s office told the National Post.

People are not able to distinguish between which is a genuine community-based organization, and which is a foreign-government-funded organization who’s lobbying on behalf of another government

But a representative of Liberal MP Shaun Chen was at the Tibetan Association’s launch event, according to Chinese-language reports, and both Vincent Ke, a Conservative member of the Ontario legislature, and Jim Karygiannis, a Toronto city councillor and ex-Liberal MP made personal appearances.

The association is a threat, as it will now muddy the water for politicians and others who do not look closely at what it really represents, says Tsering Shakya, a University of British Columbia professor and expert on Tibet.

“It’s very disruptive,” said Shakya. “People are not able to distinguish between which is a genuine community-based organization, and which is a foreign-government-funded organization who’s lobbying on behalf of another government.”

The new group emerged just two months after Tibetan Chemi Lhamo faced an organized campaign of opposition from thousands of Chinese students at the University of Toronto, where she was elected president of the Scarborough campus’s students union.

Photo by yesmyradio.com

Toronto police are investigating the deluge of abusive texts she received, some of which threatened violence against Lhamo.

“This is definitely another propaganda tool by the Chinese state,” she said in an interview about the new association. “I see it as a threat to me personally. I will not know about my Tibetan history if these entities gain power and start to influence our academic institutions and other cultural spaces.”