Over 50 Canadian Lawmakers Condemn China's Persecution of Falun Gong, Extension of Repression Overseas

Epoch Times

3 days ago

More than 50 Canadian parliamentarians have condemned the Chinese regime's 26-year-long persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, calling for an end to the ongoing human rights abuses in China and to transnational repression targeting practitioners in Canada.
Fifty-two MPs and a senator with different party affiliations have signed a joint statement urging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to 'immediately' end its persecution of Falun Gong. The statement also condemns the regime's escalating transnational repression, which includes surveillance, harassment, intimidation, assault, disinformation, and cyberattacks against the meditation group on Canadian soil.
The statement comes as the persecution of the spiritual group entered its 26th year on July 20.
'We, the undersigned Parliamentarians, stand in solidarity with the Falun Gong community and strongly condemn the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) escalating transnational repression (TNR) and ongoing, 26-year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners,' reads the statement.
'Falun Gong—also known as Falun Dafa—is a peaceful spiritual practice based on the universal values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,' the statement adds. 'Since 1999, the CCP has attempted to eliminate this faith group through systematic and egregious human rights abuses.'
Although the discipline is currently practised in more than 100 countries worldwide, it is banned in communist China, where practitioners continue to face severe persecution, with reports of torture, forced labour, killings, and live forced organ harvesting.
Bomb and Mass Shooting Threats
The parliamentarians' joint statement cites Beijing's targeting in Canada of U.S. dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts—founded by Falun Gong practitioners—as an instance of transnational repression.
It notes that venues hosting Shen Yun in four Canadian cities this year received bomb or shooting threats—part of the more than 140 false threats that venues hosting the dance company received worldwide in the past year. Some of these threats have been traced to sources in China.
Shen Yun's stated aim, under the tagline 'China before communism,' is to portray traditional Chinese culture through dance and music. Shen Yun's artists find their inspiration in the practice of Falun Gong, according to the company's website, and among them are those who have escaped persecution in China.
The Epoch Times learned last year via two sources that Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in a 2022 secret meeting, instructed top state officials on a new strategy to target Falun Gong internationally, including through disinformation campaigns and by using Western media outlets and the local legal system to go after companies started by Falun Gong practitioners.
The regime's previous efforts to suppress Falun Gong overseas had essentially failed, according to the Chinese leader.
Parliamentarians said in their joint statement that the threats targeting the dance company 'are part of a broader, global CCP-led campaign of sabotage aimed at suppressing Falun Gong and Shen Yun.'
'These actions not only harm the Falun Gong community and disrupt Shen Yun, but also threatens the integrity of Canada's institutions, sovereignty, and core democratic values,' reads the statement.
Grace Wollensak, a spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, says she is grateful for the statement issued by the parliamentarians.
'We are glad that these over 50 MPs and senators are speaking out to condemn CCP's repression, not only in China, but also in Canada and around the world,' Wollensak said, noting that the MPs put out the statement in just over two weeks and despite many being on vacation during the summer break.
'We are encouraged that they understand this important issue and are expressing their support and standing in solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners.'
She adds that the Chinese regime's transnational repression and smear campaigns span the globe.
'Since 2022, at Xi Jinping's direction, the regime has been engaging in a more aggressive and sophisticated campaign to intimidate, threaten, and silence Falun Gong and entities like Shen Yun Performing Arts, especially in the United States, but also in Canada and other countries,' she said.
'Well-documented incidents include an attempt to bribe U.S. officials to turn against Shen Yun, manipulating the U.S. legal system, issuing over 100 anonymous bomb threats, and undertaking social media manipulation campaigns.'
Last year, a U.S. court sentenced a U.S.-based Chinese agent to 20 months in prison for attempting to bribe an Internal Revenue Service official with US$50,000 to revoke Shen Yun's non-profit status.
Wollensak says that in Canada, more people have become aware of the CCP's transnational repression efforts, and government officials are more alert to it.
'We are grateful for their understanding,' she said.
Harassment, Smear Campaigns, Intimidation
A 2024 report submitted to Canada's Foreign Interference Commission by the Falun Dafa Association of Canada outlines various forms of repression faced by practitioners within the country, including physical assault, verbal harassment, intimidation of relatives, and pressure on elected officials to stop supporting Falun Gong.
In a recent case, on Jan. 23, 2024, a Chinese man wielded a metal bar and uttered death threats against Falun Gong practitioners who were raising awareness of the persecution outside the Chinese Consulate's visa office in Toronto. He repeatedly struck one of the banners until it was torn, took pictures of practitioners, and threatened to kill them, according to the report. He was arrested by police.
Meanwhile, interference attempt stargeting practitioners has also reached government officials, with several politicians at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels having received false emails impersonating Falun Gong practitioners in recent years. These emails used irrational language, according to the Falun Dafa Association of Canada.
'As the West grew more adept at identifying and countering direct CCP propaganda against Falun Gong and it became increasingly clear that Chinese officials involved in the dissemination of such propaganda could be held accountable, the regime resorted to a new tactic: impersonating Falun Gong practitioners and sending elected officials bizarre or aggravating emails designed to discredit the group,' reads the 2024 report.
It adds that, over the years, the Falun Dafa Association of Canada has received more than a dozen variations of such false emails forwarded by Canadian elected officials.
Intimidation of practitioners' relatives in China has also been a common tactic of transnational repression.
In one case, a practitioner in Canada who spoke at a 2010 press conference outside the Chinese Consulate in her city about the persecution she experienced in China reported that local police contacted her husband in China shortly after the press conference to discuss her 'anti-CCP' activities. He was visited again later, prompting him to urge her to stop speaking out in Canada, she said.
Ending Transnational Repression
A number of Canadian officials have repeatedly called for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong and expressed support for practitioners' efforts to raise awareness. One of them is Conservative MP James Bezan, one of the statement's signatories, who participated in this year's commemoration of World Falun Dafa Day.
'We acknowledged the resilience, strength, and perseverance of the millions of Falun Gong practitioners [who are being] persecuted by Beijing's communist regime in China and those who have escaped to Canada [who] are targeted by their operatives of the Chinese government,' he said in a May 29 social media post.
Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, a Canadian NGO, also called for an end to the 26-year persecution of Falun Gong, noting that millions of practitioners of this 'peaceful spiritual community' have been imprisoned, tortured, or killed, including through forced organ harvesting.
'What began as a brutal domestic crackdown has evolved into a wide-reaching, systematic effort to suppress Falun Gong practitioners both inside China and abroad, including here in Canada,' the organization said in a July 21 statement.
'We stand in solidarity with the Falun Gong community in Canada and around the world, who continue to endure surveillance, harassment, disinformation, and repression simply for exercising their fundamental rights.'
At this year's G7 leaders' summit in Canada, world leaders issued a joint statement condemning the rise of transnational repression, saying they are 'deeply concerned' about foreign governments targeting dissidents abroad. They vowed to counter this threat, saying it 'often impacts dissidents, journalists, human rights defenders, religious minorities, and those identified as part of diaspora communities.'
The persecution of Falun Gong and its expansion abroad is an example of the need to counter this form of repression, the joint statement from the parliamentarians said.
'The CCP's campaign against Falun Gong clearly exemplifies the very dangers the G7 has called on the world to resist together,' it says.
Joint Statement
The following is the joint statement signed by 53 Canadian parliamentarians.
Condemning the CCP's Escalating Transnational Repression Against Falun Gong
We, the undersigned Parliamentarians, stand in solidarity with the Falun Gong community and strongly condemn the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) escalating transnational repression (TNR) and ongoing, 26-year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong—also known as Falun Dafa—is a peaceful spiritual practice based on the universal values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Since 1999, the CCP has attempted to eliminate this faith group through systematic and egregious human rights abuses.
In 2025, bomb and mass shooting threats were sent to venues hosting Shen Yun—a classical Chinese dance company founded by Falun Gong practitioners—in four Canadian cities, among over 140 such incidents reported globally. Some of these threats have been traced to sources in China. These acts are part of a broader, global CCP-led campaign of sabotage aimed at suppressing Falun Gong and Shen Yun.
Over the past 26 years, Falun Gong practitioners in Canada have endured surveillance, harassment, intimidation, assault, disinformation, cyberattacks, and other forms of CCP repression. These actions not only harm the Falun Gong community and disrupt Shen Yun, but also threatens the integrity of Canada's institutions, sovereignty, and core democratic values.
In the statement issued on June 17, 2025, the G7 Leaders affirmed their commitment to protect communities and condemned transnational repression as a serious threat to rights and freedoms, national security, and state sovereignty. The CCP's campaign against Falun Gong clearly exemplifies the very dangers the G7 has called on the world to resist together.