Vancouver City Hall bans Falun Gong protest

By Chris Wiebe

VANCOUVER City Hall has ordered the dismantling of a protest structure erected by Falun Gong followers in front of the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver five years ago. Mayor Sam Sullivan, a Christian who is well versed in Cantonese, said the structure must come down because it violates city bylaws.

An enforcement order calls for the removal of the structure and the hut connected to it. The structure is a wall of photographs of Falun Gong members from China, whom protesters claim have been tortured and executed by the Chinese government.

The structure is roughly seven feet tall and 120 feet wide. It is made of blue foam board, covered with photos and text describing the Chinese government's alleged abuses against Falun Gong practitioners. The protesters claim they erected the structure to protect them from the rain and winter weather, so that they could protest around the clock, without interruption.

However, because the structure was built on public property, Sullivan said it is in violation of Vancouver bylaws, and he ordered that it be dismantled by June 19. If the protesters did not comply, the city would move in to dismantle the structure. At press time, no action had been taken.

"The Falun Gong has been violating the city bylaw restricting the building of structures on public property for five years," Sullivan told CC.com, "and it is my opinion that we can't apply our laws unevenly."

While he opposes keeping the structure in place, Sullivan said he fully supports the Falun Gong's right to protest in front of the Chinese consulate.

He stated that freedom to protest is an "essential right to our democracy. People should have the right to do it."

He added, "The rights to express themselves and their beliefs [should] be supported by the government. But I also believe that they should do it in the established roles that every other association has to adhere to. I also believe that there are cases where we should make exceptions, where there are highly emotional circumstance -- and in this case we have given them five years, and we should now go to traditional forms of protest and expression."

Sophia Bronwen, spokesperson for the Falun Gong Association, said she believes Sullivan "is selling out on the principles of freedom and democracy that Canadians love. [Former mayor] Larry Campbell has stated that bylaws are being broken all across the city, and wonders why Sullivan is focusing just on this one."

She argued that Sullivan was selling out freedom of speech for economic growth. "Making money in China is important. In the Chinese sister city to Vancouver, the persecution has gone underground. My feeling is that Beijing has been stalling on Vancouver's 'approved destination' status, [which] would give twice the amount of Chinese tourists we usually get."

Further, she claimed the Chinese government is subjecting Falun Gong to extreme atrocities. "They are murdering practitioners for their organs," she asserted. "We know the names of almost 3,000 people who have been tortured. Once you renounce [Falun Gong], you must torture a friend to show that you have changed. It's like the Christian martyrs who have been boiled in oil to renounce Jesus."

A meeting between the mayor and demonstrators prompted a demonstration by a group of Falun Gong practitioners at City Hall June 15.

Bronwen claimed Sullivan deceived her group as to the nature of their meeting. "When we talked to the mayor about the organ harvesting, he changed the subject entirely to the protest structure. We were surprised that he wanted to talk in the first place, because Larry Campbell never wanted to talk to us; and when he went to the media, he turned everything into a disagreement about the protest structure instead of what we thought we were there to discuss. Then the next thing we knew he was making the protest structure a big issue in the Vancouver Courier. He deceived us as to what the meeting was about."

Sullivan countered these accusations, stating that he "invited them to the meeting. Our staff felt that I shouldn't meet with them, and that it wasn't necessary or advisable -- and I felt that I needed to give them the respect they deserved. I wanted them to know that it wasn't about the protest, and that they would continue to be given special status to protest -- and they might have known that it was about time. Anyway, my secretary invited them to the meeting.

"On the other issue, with tourism and China, that has nothing to do with adhering to the city bylaw. I think it's important to say that, since I've become mayor, I have not had any discussion with the Chinese government about this. They have made appeals to the city to get rid of the protesters, and we've denied that to them. This doesn't have anything to do with [Chinese tourism]."

Bronwen said that dismantling the structure in front of the Chinese consulate would send a bad message to Falun Gong followers in China, and to the Chinese government.

"What we think is that the news will [portray] the dismantling of the structure as Canada being against the Falun Gong, and that will be distorted by the Chinese media."

Falun Gong maintains a constant vigil in the small booth built on the sidewalk as part of the protest. They claim that removing the structure will interfere with their ability to protest around the clock, seven days a week.

Sullivan insists that he has received no political pressure from anyone to enforce the bylaws, and that he sympathizes with the Falun Gong cause. He also insisted they would be allowed to continue protesting -- but the structure must come down.

Micheal Vonn of the BC Civil Liberties Association told the CBC her group disagrees with Sullivan's decision. "The mayor doesn't get to say when citizens have finished expressing themselves," she said, adding, "The position of the Falun Gong would be that the human rights issue hasn't gone away -- and why should we?"

Bronwen contended that Falun Gong became persecuted in China because they were beginning to outnumber loyal Party members, and were resistant to corruption.

"In 1999, [Premier] Jiang Zamin did a survey, and found out that more people practiced Falun Gong than belonged to the Communist party. He decided that he was threatened, and they were practicing true principles -- while China was very corrupt. This was hard on people, as they were trying to be principled. In spite of all the people that have been tortured to death, they have not been able to take this from the hearts of the people."

She said the government started persecuting Falun Gong followers through a harsh media campaign --which turned to arrests, torture and executions.

"The Falun Gong movement has gone through similar things that the underground Church has. It's like if you're Catholic in China, and you believe that the Pope is above the party -- you are persecuted."

As far as the Vancouver structure is concerned, Bronwen said the Falun Gong protesters had verbal permission from the start -- and in her opinion, the Canadian constitution overrides municipal bylaws. Should Sullivan insist on dismantling the structure, she said Falun Gong would file an appeal.

Bronwen said the site of the protest has made a huge difference to people in China -- and has become a regular spot for Chinese sightseeing.

"We have people in Vancouver who were tortured in China, and people who know those who have been tortured in China," she said. "Our friends in China have let us know that [the structure] has made a difference in China."

The Falun Gong spiritual movement was first introduced to the public in 1992, and now has an estimated 70 million practitioners in China. Bronwen said Falun Gong was an ancient system of meditation and Tai Chi exercises, which help the practitioner to discover a universal principle combining truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. While they are not Buddhists, they believe in the teachings of Buddha and Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi.

The Chinese Consulate in Vancouver could not be reached for comment.

Related stories:

Protesters defy order to tear down 5-year vigil site
'This is a matter of freedom of expression,' Falun Gong group's lawyer says
Vancouver Sun, June 16

Democracy sometimes isn't pretty, Mr. Mayor
Sullivan has heightened vantage of mayor's chair but can't see beyond the limit of his little laws
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun, June 16

Falun Gong hut must go: mayor
Group's lawyer says Vancouver was muscled by China
Brian Hutchinson, National Post, June 16

June 22/2006