Edmonton Journal: Falun Gong wants Beijing's envoys expelled Group's lawyer asks Ottawa to lay criminal charges

Don Thomas, Journal Staff Writer
Thursday 8 February 2001

Falun Gong followers are demanding the expulsion of consular officials of the Chinese government, alleging they have incited hatred against Canadian practitioners. Lawyer Rocco Galati, of Toronto, who represents the Falun Gong Association of Canada, said Wednesday that consular officials in several cities are trying to subvert the movement. In a Feb. 3 letter to Justice Minister Anne McLellan, Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley and other ministers, he urged that criminal charges be laid against the Chinese officials. Consular officers in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver and Windsor have made threatening phone calls, sabotaged Falun Gong Web sites and have pressured Chinese-Canadian groups, he said. They have placed ads in Chinese-Canadian newspapers "inciting hatred against Canadian Falun Gong practitioners and beliefs." Manley said Wednesday that he has referred the complaints to Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay for possible action. Manley said he has no evidence that China has carried its repressive war on the outlawed religious [group] to Canadian soil. Xinbao Zhou, head of the Toronto consulate, lashed out against Canadian practitioners at a public meeting Jan. 21 in Toronto's Chinatown, said Galati. "My clients find it completely unacceptable that their constitutionally entrenched rights to life, liberty and security of the person ... can be publicly, illegally and wantonly threatened by foreign agents of a foreign government on Canadian soil," he said. The Canadian Press news agency reported that Zhou was recalled to China last week. No reason was given. [...] Falun Gong was banned in China in July 1999. Thousands of practitioners have been arrested or sent to labour camps. [...] Edmonton Falun Gong practitioners blame their exclusion from the recent Chinese New Year Extravaganza at the Agricom on indirect pressure from consular officials in Calgary. Gu Huaming, the consul general, took part in the opening ceremonies and organizers didn't want to embarrass him, said local Falun Gong spokesperson Huishar Chen. Extravaganza chair Helen Cheung denied that. She says they had arranged that a group called Mahayana Zen would be the only such group there. A Mahayana official denied that.

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