If there is no direct response to end Beijing's transnational repression targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts in Canada, foreign regimes will be emboldened to suppress artistic and religious freedom to the detriment of all Canadians, representatives of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada told a parliamentary committee.
“What we’re talking about, as I see it, is the systematic targeting of a particular arts and culture presentation by a foreign state that doesn’t like it,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said during the committee meeting on May 28.
“We also know in Toronto that there were bomb threats, which resulted in the cancellation of performances, even though the police actually deemed it as uncredible in terms of those threats,” Thomas said.
Shen Yun was formed in 2006 by leading Chinese artists, whose stated mission is to revive China’s traditional culture that the group says has been much diminished under decades of communist rule. Many of Shen Yun’s artists are practitioners of Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
Falun Dafa was the fastest-growing spiritual group in China in the early 1990s, practised by between 70 million and 100 million people by government estimates. The Chinese regime began to view the growing popularity of the Buddhist-style practice as a threat to its one-party rule, and launched a persecution campaign against Falun Gong in 1999, vowing to eliminate it.
Falun Dafa Association spokesperson Joel Chipkar told MPs that Shen Yun has toured around the world and to theatres across Canada for 20 years, but the CCP, under Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s direct orders, has escalated a global campaign in recent years to stop the show through diplomatic pressure, 150 hoax bomb threats worldwide, and baseless lawsuits.
Leaked documents from the Chinese regime have also revealed a disinformation campaign using Western media and social media against Shen Yun and Falun Dafa, he added.
Chipkar said the CCP seeks to suppress Shen Yun because, through its shows, the performing arts company brings awareness to the “beauty of true, traditional Chinese culture before communism,” and sheds light on the human rights issues happening in China today under the CCP’s rule.
“They [the CCP] want to hide the crimes against humanity that they’ve been responsible for for the past 27 years,” he said, adding that there have been 20 hoax bomb and death threats in Canada alone over the past two years, targeting Shen Yun hosting theatres, Parliament Hill, and politicians.
Chipkar said that if democracy, free speech and belief, and artistic expression are put “on the back burner to please China for trade, we’re losing our country.”
'Unequivocal Condemnation'
Genuis introduced a motion calling on the committee to report to the House of Commons its “unequivocal condemnation” of interference by the CCP in Canada, citing the regime’s targeting of Falun Dafa practitioners and Shen Yun performances. The motion also reaffirmed “the importance of protecting Canadians from foreign intimidation and safeguarding fundamental freedoms.”
Genuis noted several occurrences of the CCP targeting Shen Yun performances in Canada this year.
The National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, which is a Crown corporation, had previously hosted Shen Yun for 18 years, but refused to host the show in 2026 and 2027, citing commercial reasons.
Access to Information records show that the Chinese embassy in Ottawa increased its engagement with NAC leadership starting in early 2023. Shortly after Beijing’s new envoy, Wang Di, took up his post in July, then-NAC CEO Christopher Deacon said in a July 12, 2024, internal email that he had been advised to meet the ambassador.
The NAC has not clarified who issued the “advice.” Deacon went on to meet with Wang in August 2024, and they met again in October 2024 at Wang’s official residence for dinner. The NAC refused to host Shen Yun for the 2026 season in scheduling inquiries by the presenter weeks later. The NAC’s new CEO, Annabelle Cloutier, has continued the refusal.
“A Crown corporation getting over $60 million a year in taxpayer funding should avoid decisions that serve China’s censorship goals,” Chipkar told MPs at the committee meeting.
Asked by MP Thomas what action the federal government should take to better protect Falun Dafa and Shen Yun, Joel Etienne, legal advisor for the Falun Dafa Association (FDAC), said the government should call on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP, and Global Affairs Canada to respond to the threats and intimidation campaigns by the Chinese regime.
“When diplomats are involved in engaging in criminal activity in Canada, as far as I’m concerned, they can be made persona non grata and asked for the behaviour to stop or to leave the country,” Etienne said.
Etienne listed several other recommendations by the FDAC, including for the Department of Canadian Heritage to establish federal guidance and response protocols for publicly funded cultural institutions facing foreign state intimidation. He said publicly funded venues and Crown corporations, such as the NAC, should also receive training on foreign interference, transnational repression, and diplomatic pressure tactics. He also said the NAC should be directed to offer Shen Yun dates to perform in Ottawa.
The Epoch Times contacted the NAC for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.
The FDAC is also calling for Canadian security agencies to investigate the broader pattern of foreign interference and transnational repression targeting the cultural sector and enforce relevant provisions of existing legislation, and for Global Affairs Canada to review whether consular pressure on Canadian venues violated the Vienna Convention.
Chipkar noted the FDAC supports Genuis's motion said that the issue of foreign interference by the CCP is a non-partisan issue that affects everyone, not just the Falun Dafa community or Shen Yun.
“When we allow a foreign dictatorship to silence our voices, our arts, then we lose everything in Canada. We have no sovereignty anymore. We’re at the behest of a foreign dictatorship,” he added.
Threats Linked to China
Toronto’s Four Seasons for the Performing Arts cancelled six scheduled Shen Yun performances from March 29 to April 5, despite a police investigation confirming the threats were unfounded. The theatre agreed earlier this month to host rescheduled shows following repeated requests from the show’s local presenter, the Falun Dafa Association of Canada.Conservative MP Kevin Waugh noted that just 13 months ago, Prime Minister Mark Carney referred to China as the biggest security threat to Canada, but now Ottawa is expanding trade with China and allowing Chinese electric vehicles into the country at base-level tariffs after signing several agreements with Beijing in January.