The Epoch Times

Jun 30, 2005

Mr. Joel Chipkar, with his legal council Mr. Peter Downard and Ms. Nicole Samson, after winning a libel suit against the Chinese Deputy Consul General.

Mr. Joel Chipkar, with his legal council Mr. Peter Downard and Ms. Nicole Samson, after winning a libel suit against the Chinese Deputy Consul General.

CALGARY, Alberta - The Edmonton police wrapped up a year-long investigation this week, concluding that staff of the Chinese consulate in Calgary have contravened Canada's hate crime laws in their attacks on the spiritual practice Falun Gong. The case will now proceed to the Alberta Justice to determine if there is a possibility of conviction.

This comes just weeks after two defecting Chinese officials made claims of a Chinese spy ring operating in Canada informing on followers of Falun Gong. The first Canadian defector also stepped forward this week to tell his story of how Falun Gong practitioners are tortured in China and how the Chinese government engages in espionage in Canada.

The Chinese consulates and embassy in Canada have routinely displayed hate propaganda about the spiritual practice inside their buildings, where Canadian law is powerless to touch them. In June, 2004, however, staff of the Chinese consulate in Calgary brought their booklets on Falun Gong to Edmonton and into public view.

Constable Stephen Camp of the Edmonton police hate crimes unit began an investigation.

"It is the first time that law enforcement has taken this type of complaint with Falun Gong and consulate officials and took it this far. It's uncharted territory for us, that's for sure," he said.

Canada's hate laws make it illegal to publicly incite hatred against an identifiable group. Possible defenses for statements that incite hate is that the statements are or were believed on reasonable grounds to be true. But Joel Chipkar, a volunteer spokesperson for Falun Gong, says that the Chinese government's allegations against Falun Gong "have already been proven to be lies."

"They lie about what we believe in, they fabricate stories about us, saying that we murder people, that we're suicide prone, that we commit self-immolation, that we're crazy... and none of this has ever been backed up by independent sources. In none of the 60 other countries where Falun Gong is practiced have similar claims ever been made."

China banned Falun Gong in 1999 after the number of practitioners in China outgrew membership in the communist party. The practice- which involves meditation and adherence to a moral code based on truthfulness, compassion and tolerance- has similar underlying themes and beliefs as Buddhism, Taoism, and even Christianity but without the religious structure.

[...]

Sources inside China have documented over 2,600 deaths of Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of Chinese authorities.

"I haven't seen any security publications from any intelligence or law enforcement agency- besides the PRC [People's Republic of China]- that says Falun Gong is a security threat to our society," says Camp.

Chi Yeh, a Falun Gong practitioner in Edmonton who helped file the complaint against the consulate, says the purpose of the propaganda is to provide grounds to justify China's persecution of the group.

"When they want to attack a peaceful group it's very difficult to do so without any real cause or reason. Falun Gong is peaceful, so the only way they can incite people to be against Falun Gong is by fabricating all these lies to make it seem like we should be persecuted."

Within the first six months of China's official ban on Falun Gong, the state-run media published an estimated 300,000 reports vilifying the practice and its followers. Chipkar says this eventually turned public opinion against the practice in China, making citizens complacent accomplices in the persecution.

"The hate propaganda has basically brainwashed Chinese citizens to aid in the persecution. It has made them willing to turn in family members, neighbors, people who they once respected, to the police. It has indirectly led to the incarceration, arrest, torture, even murder of thousands and thousands of innocent people."

"If you look at every genocide in history, the number one weapon has been hate propaganda- from Hitler's regime, to Rwanda, to Bosnia, to Falun Gong persecution."

The Chinese consulate in Calgary was unavailable for comment.

Alberta Justice will proceed with the case if they find that there is a likelihood of conviction.

Source: http://theepochtimes.com/news/5-6-30/29962.html