An Ontario NDP MPP has joined calls for the Toronto Transit Commission to remove advertisements by Tourism China that promote Tibet as a vacation destination.

“These are racist ads, with not a lot of bearing in any historical reality and they’re deeply offensive to a group of folks who suffered a great deal,” said Cheri DiNovo Thursday afternoon.

The ad features two photos: a black and white depicting old Tibet and a colour photo showing modern buildings among the mountains.

“Basically this before and after image is supposed to depict a modernized version of Tibet as a result of China’s occupation,” said Sonam Chokey, the national director of Students for a Free Tibet, calling it “Chinese propaganda.”

“These ads are misleading. (They don’t) show what’s really going on inside Tibet. Tibet isn’t now a modernized, happy country where people are able to enjoy their lives freely. People in Tibet are oppressed every single day,” she said.

Her organization complained about the ads to the TTC requesting they be removed and started a Facebook campaign urging others to do the same.

After the TTC received at least five complaints it reviewed the ads in question but determined they don’t break any Canadian laws or violate any Advertising Standards Canada codes, said Brad Ross, the TTC’s executive director of communications, in an email.

“Not liking an ad’s message or being offended by an ad is not enough for the TTC to reject an ad,” he said. “The Supreme Court of Canada, in fact, has ruled that transit systems must accept controversial advertising in an open and democratic society.”

The ads, which cost $21,950, are scheduled to be removed in the next week to 10 days when the ad buy expires.

Students for a Free Tibet Canada held a protest outside the TTCs office Wednesday that drew about 20 people. Now they’ve shifted the target of their campaign to City Hall – specifically, Josh Colle, a Toronto city councillor and the chair of the TTC.

On Wednesday DiNovo, who founded the Ontario Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, sent a letter to Colle urging him to remove the ads.

“I’m quite shocked and I’m hopeful that the TTC will take them down,” she said.

“One has to understand the situation in Tibet. First of all they’ve had about 140 now self-immolations, the picture of the Dalai Lama’s not allowed to be on the walls, there are language laws, jailings and beatings of the people. This is a true occupation with the lack of civil liberties that goes along with it. So to depict the old Tibet when Tibet was independent versus the new Tibet, which is now under Chinese occupation, as being a good thing, one can imagine how that feels if you are Tibetan having to take the subway or the TTC,” said DiNovo.

Chokey doesn’t have to imagine – “It’s hurtful,” she said.