FDI: Falun Gong Practitioners Win Court Appeal; Contempt of Court Charges against the Chinese Press in Quebec Reinstated

Montreal -- Last Friday, a Quebec Court of Appeal overturned a decision of the lower court and reinstated the Falun Gong practitioner's prosecution for Contempt of Court Charges.

The Montreal Chinese Newspaper Les Presses Chinoises and the author Bing He now face two lawsuits for ignoring a safeguard order of the Quebec Superior Court and for their hate propaganda against Falun Gong.

Since November 2001, Les Presses Chinoises has continuously published articles inciting hate against Falun Gong. To stop this defamation, Falun Gong practitioners from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto filed a lawsuit against the paper, its publisher and the author Bing He. On December 10, 2001, the Quebec Superior Court issued the first safeguard order to prohibit the paper from publishing articles of a similar nature. The safeguard order had been reiterated 3 times, each time with stricter restrictions. In January 2003, the Superior Court of Quebec has completed the investigation and all the preparations, and set the full trial for November 10-25, 2003.

However, Les Presses Chinoises and Bing He ignored these orders and continued to publish hate propaganda. On February 2, 2002, it published a 12-page insert specially designed to incite hatred against Falun Gong, with 2 full pages of identical content published previously.

Falun Gong practitioners believed that the paper had violated the safeguard order, and then commenced a civil prosecution for contempt of court.

In April 2002, however, the lower court dismissed the case based on the belief that the restraining order was vague and ambiguous. Practitioners of Falun Gong then appealed this decision in May of 2002 to the Quebec Court of Appeal.

On June 30, 2003, The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the decision and found that the original restraining order is clear and that the "Contempt of Court" charges have sufficient merit to continue.

Justice Beaudoin wrote in the factual text of his judgment: "... It appears that most, if not all of these texts, were taken from quasi official statements made by the Chinese government which apparently have attempted by various means to prevent the spreading of the Falun Gong doctrine and to discredit its members in certain expatriate Chinese communities...". he ruled: "I am of the opinion that the appeal should be allowed, the judgment of the Superior Court quashed and the contempt proceeding returned to the Superior Court for jurisdiction."

Mr. Michael Bergman, legal counsel for Falun Gong practitioners, applauded the appeal court's decision: "It is an important step to completely halt the incitement of hate by Les Presses Chinoises, and the hate from the Chinese government here in Canada."

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