By Xiao Ran
Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners from across eastern Canada gathered at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 5 to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day, marking 34 years since the traditional Chinese practice was first taught publicly in China. Against a backdrop of escalating CCP-directed harassment of the community in Canada, 19 cross-party MPs attended in person to offer their support. Several additional federal politicians sent written tributes.
Rooted in ancient Chinese heritage of spiritual cultivation, Falun Dafa was founded by Master Li Hongzhi and gained great popularity across the country in the 1990s. In 1999, it was banned and subject to brutal nationwide persecution by the communist authorities in a campaign that is still ongoing to this day.
The practice of Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong includes meditation exercises and self-improvement in accordance with traditional faith and moral values.
Since the beginning of the persecution in 1999, Falun Gong adherents in China and overseas have engaged in various efforts to clarify the truth about their faith and raise awareness of the Chinese Communist Party’s tyrannical rule.
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Among these efforts is the critically acclaimed Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based company that uses classical Chinese dance to present a vision of “China before communism.”
Beijing sees Shen Yun as a direct challenge to its control over the narrative of Chinese culture and identity, and has in recent years attempted to extend its anti-Falun Gong campaign abroad.
Praise for Falun Gong’s core principles
The Parliament Hill event drew speakers from the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, and the Green Party. Repeatedly, MPs cited Falun Gong’s three foundational principles, Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, as values that resonate far beyond the practice itself.
Judy Sgro, a Liberal MP who co-chairs the Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong caucus, told the crowd she had been attending the annual ceremony for many years. “The values of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance are the three values that the world needs to live up and to celebrate,” she said.
“These are universal values and values that resonate deeply in Canada and reflect who we aspire to be as a society.” She also recognized that many in Canada had come seeking safety from persecution abroad, and said events like this one served as a reminder that freedom could never be taken for granted.
Scott Reid, a veteran Conservative MP who said he has attended the Parliament Hill ceremony on and off for 25 years since first being elected, praised practitioners for maintaining their faith through nearly three decades of violent persecution.
“To stay true to the goals of truth, compassion, and forbearance in the face of persecution is absolutely extraordinary,” he said. “To see it done by so many people is a testament to the power of those beliefs.” Reid credited practitioners with spreading the fundamental values of Chinese civilization to the rest of the world at a moment when the CCP showed contempt for its own cultural heritage. “You are guiding us all with principles that are the foundation stone of all civilizations.”
Melissa Lantsman, the Conservative deputy leader, has supported Falun Gong groups for some 20 years. She told practitioners they had a voice in her in Parliament, in action, and in standing up to those who tried to shut down events like Shen Yun. “It has been 25 years since the communist regime in Beijing has tried to erase Falun Dafa,” she said, “and we will never stand for that.” She added that she looked forward to attending Shen Yun’s rescheduled Toronto performances.
Transnational repression
Beijing’s campaign against Shen Yun has intensified sharply over the past two years. Several MPs addressed the most recent incident directly: a false bomb threat that forced the cancellation of several Shen Yun performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.
Roman Baber, a Conservative MP from North Toronto who was in the building when the evacuation took place, described stepping off the elevator from the parking lot to find the venue already cleared out.
Born to a Jewish family in the Soviet Union, living in constant fear of harassment and surveillance by the communist authorities, Baber saw the Toronto incident as the same logic of repression, but transplanted to Canadian soil:
“What is it that the regime in Beijing is scared of so much? It’s scared of our unity. It’s scared of our moral clarity. It’s scared of the fact that we can organize,” he said.
The response, he argued, must be unequivocal. “We have to be very clear morally about which side of humanity we stand on.”
James Bezan, a Conservative MP and defense affairs specialist, placed the Toronto bomb threat within a broader pattern of CCP-directed intimidation, classifying it alongside documented cases of organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience and the operation of informal CCP “police stations” on Canadian soil as transnational repression.
“These types of threats can never be taken lightly,” he said, “but at the same time, we should not just bow down to these individuals who have direct ties back to the communist regime in Beijing and allow them to suppress our freedoms.”
He called on the government to pass his private member’s bill, Bill C-219, the Sergei Magnitsky International Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Act, which he said would “put an end to Chinese police stations in Canada once and for all” and ensure that foreign officials perpetrating transnational repression on Canadian soil were held to account.
“It is inherent upon us as Canadians, it’s inherent upon us as parliamentarians, and it is the responsibility of the government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and the government in Toronto to ensure that people aren’t being subjected to these attacks,” Bezan said.
Yvan Baker, the Liberal MP for Etobicoke Centre, said the threats against Shen Yun audiences were unacceptable and criminal.
“It’s a crime in Canada, and it has to stop,” he said. He thanked practitioners for the contributions they make every day in communities across the country, and for bringing a positive message to all Canadians.
Calls to counter Beijing’s reach into Canada
Garnett Genuis, the Conservative co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong, noted that after 15 years of advocacy, Parliament had finally criminalized involvement in forced organ harvesting and trafficking.
He warned, though, that the executive branch had reverted to complacency about Beijing’s actions. “I am concerned that we now have an approach at the executive level in this country that is again naive about the threats posed by the CCP,” he said, citing the regime’s efforts to suppress Shen Yun as a clear example of foreign state-backed censorship that had drawn an inadequate response from Canadian elites.
“People here in Canada must be free to express themselves, to share their opinions, to make beautiful art and present it without foreign state backed interference,”
Closing with a direct message to Falun Gong practitioners, he added: “I want to thank you for your leadership, being here and fighting for the freedoms that matter to all Canadians.”
Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader, paid tribute to the late David Kilgour, a former Liberal MP who spent years investigating the CCP’s forced organ harvesting program before his death.
“Human rights, the human spirit, the message of peace and love that Falun Dafa and Falun Gong brings to the world will never be squashed by Beijing,” she said. “Falun Dafa and Falun Gong practitioners will be free to practice this practice of love and compassion and be respected, protected and free.”
Sameer Zuberi, a Liberal MP, told practitioners he was aware of what the community had been through over many years. “We are standing up here today calling for respect, respect of everyone, respect of humanity, regardless of faith tradition perspectives,” he said. “You will find somebody who will speak this truth all the time.”
Other voices of support
Larry Brock, the Conservative shadow attorney general, said human rights was a matter he took very seriously. “Your values of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance ring true here in Canada as well,” he said. “These are not only values that you share in your faith. These are purely Canadian values.” He added that he had never seen Shen Yun and was looking forward to attending when it returned to Toronto.
Sandra Cobena told the crowd that many practitioners carried powerful stories of fleeing persecution and finding refuge in Canada. “Your presence here today sends a powerful message that dignity cannot be suppressed, that peaceful expression cannot be erased, and that the pursuit of spiritual freedom is a right that belongs to every human being,” she said.
Costas Menegakis welcomed practitioners back to Parliament Hill and pointed to Shen Yun’s return to Toronto as proof that democratic pressure works. “The people’s voice was heard, and it is coming back,” he said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
Connie Cody highlighted practitioners’ contributions to their local communities through volunteer work and charitable activity, describing their persistence in the face of transnational repression as an inspiration.
Fred Davies said the scene at the Peace Tower represented the freedoms Canadians were proudest of, and expressed hope that the same freedoms would one day reach every part of the world.
Michael Guglielmin called truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance important principles for shaping any country’s future and praised practitioners for sharing them.
Dan Muys condemned the CCP’s attempts to suppress traditional Chinese culture and called Shen Yun’s return to Toronto a victory for justice.
John Brassard, speaking on behalf of his constituents in Barrie–South Innisfil, Ontario, praised practitioners’ courage. “I admire your tenacity. I admire your faith, and I admire your resilience in ensuring that the Falun Dafa movement continues to grow, not just here in Canada, but around the world,” he said. “Thank you for practicing what you believe in without fear.”
Several prominent federal politicians sent written tributes that were read aloud at the ceremony.
Andrew Scheer, the Conservative House leader, wrote: “For thirty years, even in the face of hatred and brutality, you have chosen peace and compassion. That is an example for all of humanity.”
Liberal MP Amandeep Sodhi praised the event for giving the community space to express its culture and encouraged reflection on the meaning of honesty and kindness amid the pressures of modern life.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper wrote: “I stand proudly with you. Justice and goodness will ultimately prevail over oppression. The resilience of Falun Dafa proves the power of truth.”
Conservative MPs Ziad Aboultaif and Ted Falk, along with Corey Hogan, sent written messages praising practitioners’ contributions to Canada’s social fabric and to the country’s tradition of pluralism and freedom.
The ceremony closed with group exercises and musical and dance performances. The Band of the Heavenly Kingdom, a Falun Gong musical ensemble, played beneath the Peace Tower as the event drew to an end.
Shen Yun Performing Arts will return to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto for four performances from June 26 to 28, following sustained advocacy and significant mainstream media attention after the bomb threat forced the original run’s cancellation.
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