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Chinese Consulate Distributes Material Slandering Dafa at the Calgary City Hall by a Western Falun Dafa practitioner
A couple of weeks ago, my boss (a non-practitioner) tore out a newspaper
column and handed it to me, asking me if I had seen it. I said no, thanked him
and proceeded to read that the Chinese Consulate was planning to open a
photographic exhibition inside Calgary's City Hall called a "Review of
Chinese History in the Last Century." The article took the City to task for
it's pandering to Jiang's regime and as an example mentioned how "some
unnamed political figure in the city uses their might and muscle to make sure
[the Falun Gong] billboard telling the truth about the cruelty of the Chinese
government is never put up, for fear of offending the cranky comrades." The
article also spoke of an opening ceremony for the photo exhibition, so I made a
mental note to attend.
I arrived early to take a close look at the photographs. As one might expect,
the photos and their descriptions were one-sided and self-congratulatory, but
there was nothing attacking Falun Dafa. I felt somewhat relieved and made ready
to leave, when my eye caught a 10-foot long table with a box full of pamphlets
sitting on top of it. I could see that the pamphlets were from the Chinese
Consulate. I could see only a couple of non-offensive titles....yet clearly
there were other pamphlets buried deep in the box....so I decided to return a
little later when things were completely set up.
About an hour later, I arrived to a gathering throng of prominent local
Chinese, media and the full cadre of officials from Calgary's Chinese Consulate.
I met up with a Chinese practitioner and we agreed to hold righteous thoughts in
our minds as the event began to get underway. My fellow practitioner had also
taken a look at the photographs and found nothing there attacking Dafa. I asked
if he'd seen any anti-Falun Dafa propaganda and he replied that he hadn't and
didn't think the Consulate would dare to hand it out in City Hall.
I walked around the exhibit area and found the display table. Of about 20
books, pamphlets and leaflets available, no fewer than 6 directly slandered
Falun Dafa. There were two books and 2 leaflets in English and 2 leaflets in
Chinese, all of which had titles calling Falun Gong an XX.
I picked up one of each and took them back to show my fellow practitioner. He
was shocked, handing me a camera to go and get some photographic evidence of the
illegal display. I picked up a pile of each of the publications, leaving a
couple as evidence, and took pictures of the table's offerings. The speeches
began and I was careful to take a photo placing the Consul, the publications and
a sculpture proving the location to be Calgary's City Hall all in the same shot.
The photos will be given to the proper Canadian national authorities.
After the speeches, we immediately went to City Hall authorities to lodge a
complaint about the illegal distribution of the deceitful propaganda.
Authorities were shocked, having reviewed the photo exhibition for
appropriateness, yet unaware that the Consulate was also distributing it's
slanderous propaganda.
On the way back through the exhibit area the event was winding down. It was
not a coincidence that the Consul's wife was available so I walked right up,
introduced myself and told her that it was illegal to distribute such propaganda
here. She denied it, calling it a freedom of speech issue. I very calmly told
her again that we were in Calgary's City Hall and that it was illegal to hand
out such material. She loudly denied it and then told me that I had no right to
be there (perhaps forgetting that in Canada, public places are open to the
public and not under the control of Chinese government officials). She then went
on to question my sanity.... As a Canadian, what was I doing protesting in front
of her Consulate? What was wrong with me? Why don't I protest to my own
government? I calmly explained that it was because of the 278 Falun Gong
practitioners killed by China's government, to which she angrily retorted that
they weren't killed....they took their own lives.
The Vice-Consul then approached and started yelling at my fellow
practitioner, denouncing him by name, calling him a traitor, losing face for
China. I told the Consul's wife that I just wanted her to know that the
propaganda had to go and that I was on my way to report it to federal government
authorities. Since they were loudly over-reacting, attempting to create a
"scene" for which we would be blamed, we calmly walked outside. The
Consul's wife rushed to complain to a local police officer, who came to ask us
what had happened. We calmly explained the truth to him and he went on about his
business.
By this time, the consular authorities and their invited guests had all
departed to a nearby restaurant for a buffet-reception. We reported what we had
seen and gave the evidence to federal authorities.
I went back to the City Hall a couple of hours later, to find a city
authority finishing a conversation on his cell-phone that had something to do
with the Chinese exhibition. I introduced myself to him and apologized if I had
had anything to do with what clearly was a very stressful day for him. After a
brief discussion, he explained that the propaganda was removed within half an
hour of our bringing it to the City's attention and that the Consulate had been
told not to ever bring it back.
Our lesson was that by keeping calm, remaining rational, sending forth
righteous thoughts and not accepting any of the evil's arrangements, we were
successful in our ability to bring more awareness to the persecution of Dafa.
Posting date: 9/15/2001 |