Falun Gong to appeal consulate protest ruling

Members of the group continue protest at Chinese consulate

Vancouver Sun: 2009 January 12

Falun Gong protesters will appeal a court ruling that forced them to remove permanent protest structures from the Chinese consulate, according to the group's lawyers.

On Jan. 29, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled the Falun Gong must remove the protest hut and permanent billboards it has maintained outside the Granville Street consulate for the last seven years.

The structures have been taken down since the ruling but Joe Arvay, one of the lawyers who represented Falun Gong in the case, said the group "will be pursuing their appeal and there may be other developments."

He declined to elaborate. Meanwhile, Falun Gong members continued their protests at the consulate.

Protesters first erected a hut, banners and billboards in July 2001 protesting what the Falun Gong says is China's consistent persecution and torture of members of the religious group.

Former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan first ordered the structure dismantled in 2006, saying it was built without permission and encroached on the city sidewalk.

While the group's lawyers claimed freedom of expression was being stifled, the city raised concerns about liability and insurance, and claimed the group had never sought permission to erect the structures.

Lawyer Clive Ansley said Stromberg-Stein's ruling may render the group's protest less effective and less visible. He said many of the group's members are seniors who are unable to hold large banners and need the warmth of a structure.

"If the city can reduce it to a few people on the street with placards, then the Chinese communist government got what it wanted," Ansley said.

Breaking News: Court rules in City's favour against Falun Gong

CityCaucus.com: 2009 January 29


An injuction has been issued by BC's Supreme Court requiring Falun Gong protestors to tear down the sign in front of the Chinese embassy on Granville Street. The decision by Madame Justice Stromberg-Stein has just been released.

The structure along Granville street has a long history and has been the bane of many City Councils since it was erected. The original protest vigil by the Falun Gong was conducted in August 2001, and signs and small hut became permanent fixtures in front of the embassy. Mayors Philip Owen, Larry Campbell, Sam Sullivan and now Gregor Robertson have been required to confront the question of what to do. Mayor Sullivan was the first mayor to openly suggest that the group had made their point by occupying the sidewalk on Granville Street just south of 16th Avenue for almost 5 years, and asked that it be taken down.

In November, Vancouver City Hall sent the decision to the courts. The Supreme Court decision, Vancouver (City) vs Zhang, handed down late yesterday. Madame Justice Stromberg-Stein provides some background to her 37-page decision:

"Over the years, the City attempted to reach a satisfactory solution with the respondents. Initially the respondents co-operated by reducing, and at one time removing, the structures. However, the respondents now take the position that they have a right to maintain the structures in place notwithstanding."

She effectively rules in favour of the bylaw, and the City's ability to enforce it. She looked as to whether there were any extraordinary circumstances that would require an exception and concluded there are none. She also points out that:

"This injunction order does not prohibit or limit the right of the respondents, or any other persons, to lawfully assemble on any street or any part thereof."

This was one of the most closely watched court cases for Canadian cities because it would have had huge implications for a city's ability to enforce the removal of structures on public property.

We remind our CityCaucus.com readers that the City recently passed an extraordinary sign bylaw preventing any protest signage in the presence of the 2010 Olympics. We expect that Mayor Robertson will do the right thing and be the first government in seven years to actually enforce the City's bylaw against the Falun Gong protest.

Newspaper accuses printer of censorship

Press refused to publish story seen as critical of Falun Gong, editor says

Vancouver Sun: 2009 January 12
Tracy Sherlock

A freedom-of-the-press battle is brewing as the managing editor of a Vancouver weekly newspaper accused his printer of censorship.

Burnaby-based Epoch Press initially balked at printing the Asian Pacific Post's Jan. 8 issue, because of a front-page article the printer's owner saw as critical of the Falun Gong.

Although the paper was eventually printed, the two sides disagree on whether it has been distributed.

"This is an unprecedented issue of press freedom," said Mike Roberts, managing editor of the Asian Pacific Post. "We feel completely betrayed. This is a matter of trust and integrity."

The owner of Epoch Press, Frank Cui, a Falun Gong practitioner, said in an e-mail he saw the article as an indirect attack on his faith because it repeated comments made by the Chinese government.

"The Chinese Communist Party's voice should not be allowed to poison innocent people to hate others," Cui said. "Articles like this one that gives voice to the Communist regime make people think that maybe the CCP is justified in their attack and that maybe Falun Gong [members] somehow deserve to be killed or tortured."

Cui said he was pressured not to print the newspaper, but after a delay of one day he printed and distributed all of the papers the next day. The paper was sent to the printers on Tuesday, Jan. 6, and usually is delivered to the paper's offices on Wednesday morning.

Roberts said some papers were delivered to the offices late on Friday, but that Cui had held the papers back from the newspaper's distribution team, ThinkBox National Marketing Inc. Cui said he distributed the newspapers on Friday, Jan. 9.

Roberts said the Asian Pacific Post's publisher, Harbinder Singh Sewak, had been through Vancouver and Richmond on Sunday checking the paper's drop boxes, but had seen no copies of the Jan. 8 edition. "[Cui] doesn't even have our distribution list," Roberts said.

The article is about a presentation by the Divine Performing Arts tour coming to Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre in April. The show tells the story of Chinese cultural history through music and dance. Despite the article's support of the Falun Gong, Cui said including the perspective of the Chinese government made the Falun Gong look "controversial."

Said Roberts: "The Falun Gong, which owns this printing press, vetted our article and finding it not to its taste, simply refused to let it see the light of day. This is a first in Canadian journalistic history and an outrage of the highest order."

Meanwhile, the Falun Dafa Association said in an e-mailed statement Sunday: "This act to hold the Asian Pacific Post does not represent the position of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, nor the Falun Gong community at large."

Many of the performers in the show are Falun Gong practitioners, and the show includes some scenes of torture, according to the Asian Pacific Post story. The story also says the Chinese government has persuaded some venues to cancel the show.

Cui defended his actions, saying he believes the Chinese Communist Party tries to make the public believe that the victim is wrong, which creates doubts in people's minds about Falun Gong.

Falun Gong has manned a protest in front of the Chinese consulate on Granville Street for seven years.

The Asia Pacific Post, an English language Asian newspaper established in 1993, has an agreement with Vancouver Sun subscribers, whereby they can request inclusion of the Post with their Thursday delivery.

tsherlock@vancouversun.com

Falun Gong quashes press

Province Editorial: 2009 January 11

The next time you pass the Falun Gong practitioners in front of the Chinese consulate on Granville Street, look beyond the meditative protesters to get a feel for their pain. They stand there day and night in rain, snow and sleet fighting for the freedoms we take for granted and which China has disallowed the Falun Gong.

For the Falun Gong, freedom of expression is central to their cause after China banned the movement, arrested its followers and labeled it a cult.

But don't tell that to Frank Cui, the owner of the Burnaby-based Epoch Press, which is affiliated with the Falun Gong movement that estimates it has over 100 million followers worldwide.

Cui, is a devout Falun Gong practitioner and has printed the Asian Pacific Post, an independent award-winning Vancouver weekly, for the past three years.

Last Thursday, Cui held the Asian Pacific Post hostage.

He and other senior members of the Falun Gong group in Vancouver felt that the newspaper's front page story was detrimental to their cause.

The story was about an elaborate dance production showcasing Chinese culture that is expected to perform in Vancouver this April. The story claims the group has been targeted by the Chinese government because the show's local presenters are the Falun Dafa Association of Vancouver and New Tang Dynasty TV, a North American broadcaster founded by and affiliated with Falun Gong practitioners.

Cui and his cabal did not like the story's "balanced" approach. They did not want readers to see the Chinese government's views of the Falun Gong. They wanted to control the content and said they had a "legal right" to do it.

When Harbinder Singh Sewak, the publisher of the Asian Pacific Post, said no, Cui refused to release last week's paper from the print shop.

"Outrageous . . . we have always been an independent paper with independent views . . . we don't allow anyone to control our content, let alone our printers," fumed Sewak, who stands to lose thousands of dollars.

Cui in an e-mailed press statement said: "Unfortunately, news reporters feel that they must 'balance' stories about Falun Gong or events they are involved in by adding the bad words or opinions from the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], but in my feeling, between victim and perpetrator there can never be any neutrality or balance."

Cui has apologized but not before saying "Articles like this one that gives voice to the communist regime make people think that maybe the CCP is justified in their attack and that maybe Falun Gong somehow deserve to be killed or tortured."

The Asian Pacific Post article, entitled "Dancing to their own tune," is a far cry from what Cui says it is. You may think that this is an isolated incident involving one member of the Falun Gong movement who went a little too far. But the e-mails and conversations between the Asian Pacific Post, Cui and other Falun Gong followers involved in this case show a disturbing side to the Falun Gong.

The control they say China exerts on them is the same control they want to exert on others. The freedom they say China denies them is the same freedom they have denied the Asian Pacific Post.

Local Falun Gong printer refuses to produce the Asian Pacific Post this week...

The Real Scoop: 2009 January 11
Kim Bolan

I got a copy of this new release from Gurpreet Singh, a journalist and friend, who writes for this excellent weekly newspaper. Bizarre that a religious group that is also protesting against the repression its says it faces would decide to silence a newspaper with which it has a contract.

NEWS RELEASE - FALUN GONG MEMBERS HOLD CANADIAN FREE SPEECH HOSTAGE

- Falun Gong gag order shuts down independent Metro Vancouver newspaper-

In an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech in Canada, some members of the Falun Gong movement this week forced a local printer to block production and distribution of an award-winning independent newspaper.

Readers of the Asian Pacific Post, published by Post Group Multimedia Inc. in Vancouver, British Columbia, were surprised to find their local news boxes empty Thursday after Burnaby-based Epoch Press blocked delivery of the weekly newspaper.

"This is an act of political vandalism," said Asian Pacific Post Managing Editor, Michael Roberts. "The economic impact to our business aside, which is considerable, this an assault on press freedom and an insult to all Canadians who enjoy rights and privileges enshrined in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

"This is bullying pure and simple by a group which the Post has, ironically, long supported in its fight against similar oppression by the Chinese government."

Printer Frank Ciu – in consultation with some senior Falun Gong members in Canada – hijacked the Asian Pacific Post print run claiming a January 8, 2009 front page article on a Falun Gong travelling arts show was offensive to his beliefs, and to the beliefs of his fellow Falun Gong practitioners.

"The Falun Gong, which owns this printing press, vetted our article and finding it not to its taste, simply refused to let it see the light of day," said Roberts. "This is a first in Canadian journalistic history and an outrage of the highest order."

"Incidentally," added Roberts. "The article in question supported the Falun Gong and its right to stage the Divine Performing Arts show without interference from China."

Dr. Dianna Wang, director of the DPA's organizing committee in Vancouver, said she was shown the front page article in advance of its print run and in consultation with Falun Gong "HQ" and the vice-president of the Divine Performing Group, decided they could not allow the story to be distributed.

The Asian Pacific Post is currently looking for a new printer.

"We feel completely betrayed," said Roberts. "This is a matter of trust and integrity."

Critics and followers of Falun Gong

San Francisco Chronicle: 2005 December 18

Adherents find fulfillment, but detractors call movement a cult

Jason Wu greets every day in San Francisco's Civic Center with meditation and the slow, graceful exercises of Falun Gong, the spiritual movement banned in China and considered dangerous by some expatriates.

Since he began practicing Falun Gong in 1996, the 70-year-old said, he has felt more energetic and healthy and has had no need to see a doctor.

A belief system that incorporates the breathing and exercises of qigong, which has been practiced for millennia, Falun Gong gained the sympathy of elected officials across the United States after the Chinese government moved to silence it in 1999.

But many American counselors, qigong teachers and lay people liken the movement to a cult. They say it can endanger adherents and that it actually benefits from the controversy surrounding it.

Followers say such criticism originates in Chinese government propaganda. The Chinese government allegedly put Falun Gong followers in prisons and labor camps in 1999, and founder Li Hongzhi fled to the United States.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors considered a resolution admonishing the Chinese government in 2001 for repressing the movement. Congress passed just such a resolution last year. And in July representatives of new Chinese-oriented media outlets with financial ties to Falun Gong testified on Capitol Hill about the influence of China's government overseas.

Falun Gong does not maintain a membership list, but it claims 100 million practitioners worldwide, with the bulk in China. The Chinese government says the movement has only 2 million followers in China.

For people in China, where religious activity is strictly controlled, Falun Gong seemed to fill a spiritual void when it was founded in 1992. Its core texts, Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong, teach people to be truthful, compassionate and tolerant.

Adherents in the Bay Area, who are estimated in the thousands, practice the exercises at more than two dozen public sites every day. They are mostly Chinese American and have a range of professional backgrounds.

Wu, a retired electronics technician, bent and glided beneath a double row of trees as traditional Chinese music and instructions in Chinese tinkled from his portable stereo. He handed out flyers detailing Falun Gong's teachings and five main exercises and denouncing China's government.

"The number of Falun Gong practitioners simply grew too large for the Communist leadership's liking," Wu's flyer reads. "The persecution was ordered by Communist leader Jiang Zemin, who feared losing control over people's minds."

Cult or not?

Critics say that even though the movement doesn't keep formal membership lists, its demand for loyalty makes it a cult.

"They're told not to think negative thoughts, and are given fears if they consider any other reality," said Steven Alan Hassan, a Somerville, Mass., cult counselor. Founder Li Hongzhi "comes very much out of the cult extreme, the authoritarian stereotype."

David Clark, a Pennsylvania cult counselor, said Falun Gong's fight against the Chinese government is a "clever marketing mechanism." He and others dismiss Falun Gong's assertion that the Chinese government is the force behind criticism of the movement.

"It is a way of gaining access to get people to join the cause," Clark said. "There's a certain level of nobility wanting to defend the rights of people who are hurting."

Qigong teachers and even those who do not consider Falun Gong a cult are concerned about followers' belief that their faith will help cure illness.

"The main risk associated is the medical neglect potential. That reflects in part the idiosyncrasies of the individual practitioners,'' said Michael Langone, executive director of the International Cultic Studies Association in Florida. He said Falun Gong is not strictly a cult because members are "free to come and go as they please."

Many followers believe that retribution for past deeds is the root of sickness. They believe Western medicine treats symptoms and does not address the root causes of illness -- for which some practitioners believe they should rely on the healing powers of Falun Gong.

"Average qigong treatments and hospital treatments only defer to the remaining half of life or later those tribulations that are the fundamental cause of illnesses," according to Zhuan Falun. "The karma is not removed at all."
Illness and karma

Samuel Luo, 34, launched Falungonginfo.org, which denounces the movement, based on his mother's and stepfather's experience.

"I consider myself a victim of the Falun Gong because my parents were hurt by it, and the harmony of our family has been seriously damaged," said Luo, a San Francisco massage therapist who practices tui na, traditional Chinese bodywork.

Peiling Cao, 64, Luo's stepfather, is often bedridden for days with gout, but it took years of pleading from his children before he recently agreed to see a doctor.

"If you do bad, then it generates karma that will make you become sick," said Demi Chou, 59, Cao's wife and Luo's mother. "Whenever I run into a health problem, I look inside to see which way I'm not doing well. If you really go with the principles as the master teaches, you will resolve it."

In an interview attended by Falun Gong leaders, Chou said she fervently believed in communism for decades. Her life was lacking something until she found Falun Gong. She credits the movement with helping her become an energetic, kind and patient person and said she has not seen a doctor since she began practicing in 1998.

Her son speaks at conferences, writes newspaper editorials in Chinese-language newspapers and reaches out to others concerned about the influence of Falun Gong. He was scheduled to speak in July on a Falun Gong panel at the International Cultic Studies Association's conference in Spain, but organizers canceled the panel after a representative of the Falun Dafa Association of Spain threatened to sue for defamation. Criticism of Falun Gong could be used by the Chinese government to persecute followers, the lawyer said.

Follower Eric Huang, 55, a computer hardware engineer who lives in Sunnyvale, said the faith doesn't prohibit seeking medical treatment.

"In Falun Gong, we feel sickness is related to karma and is a form of retribution," Huang said. "This is a matter of faith. It cannot be explained by science, until science reaches a certain state."

Falun Gong teachings

-- On people who are sick: The root cause of their problem and all their misfortune is karma, that black-matter karmic field. ...Those bad beings are also yin in nature, they're all black, and that's why they can come onto the body -- the environment suits them. That's the root cause of people's health problems, it's the chief source of them. Of course, there are two other forms. One of them is really, really small, high-density tiny beings. They're something like a cluster of karma. The other is as if it's transported through a conduit, but it's pretty rare, and all of it is accumulated through the generations.

-- On hospitals: If hospitals couldn't heal, why would people believe in them and go there for treatments? ... It's just that their treatment methods are at ordinary people's level while illness is beyond the ordinary, and some diseases are pretty serious.

-- On ancient Chinese medicine: It was ahead of today's medical sciences. Some people think, "Modern medicine is so advanced -- CT scans can examine the inside of the body, and we can do ultrasound, imaging and X-rays." Sure, modern equipment is pretty advanced, but I'd say it's still not as good as ancient Chinese medical science. ... It'll be years before today's Western medicine catches up.

Source: Zhuan Falun, by Li Hongzhi, translated at www.falundafa.org
E-mail Vanessa Hua at vahua@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/18/MNGGAG8MO31.DTL

Falun Gong continues to coordinate its members in staged parades and protests

CultNews: 2003 April 28

It looks like Falun Gong networks its members for managed media events. The group, which has often been called a "cult," staged such demonstrations recently in New York City.

One march took place in Flushing, NY and included group members that flew in from around the US and internationally, from as far away as Taiwan and Australia. They all pay their own expenses.

The same Falun Gong faithful often travel from protest to protest, which hardly seems spontaneous.

Instead, this appears to be orchestrated and carefully coordinated by a well-organized network of Falun Gong devotees, that have become very media savvy. And some must work closely with their leader Li Hongzhi, who lives in exile within the United States.

One demonstrator claimed, "We feel as though Chinese people in America have been subjected to propaganda of the Chinese government, saying Falun Gong is evil and practitioners of Falun Gong are crazy," reports Fresh Meadows Times.
Hongzhi's disciples handed out tracts while marching through Flushing and also while demonstrating at Times Square in Manhattan.

"We're clarifying truth by just walking around," one Falun Gong follower said.
That "truth" includes the claim made by Li Hongzhi, that there is a conspiracy concocted by alien beings from outer space for "embedding technology in human minds…[to] control thoughts."

Don't worry though, Hongzhi will supposedly save humanity. That is, those who listen to him and follow instructions.

One Falun Gong follower in Times Square said, "We build tolerance for our fellow man," reported Newsday.

However, such "tolerance" should not include everyone, according to Hongzhi.
The Falun Gong leader preaches that "mixed-race people [are]…instruments of an alien plot to destroy humanity's link to heaven."

His view of homosexuals is even harsher. Hongzhi once stated publicly that gay people will be ''eliminated'' by ''the gods.''

The Falun Gong founder, like most "cult" leaders, appears to cynically manipulate his followers.

He uses them to promote his own agenda, which ultimately includes recruitment and personal aggrandizement. And while his disciples may suffer and/or struggle, Hongzhi lives in relative comfort.

Devout Falun Gong's believers have refused medical care due to their leader's controversial teachings. This has resulted in suffering and death.

Some Falun Gong fanatics have chosen suicide by self-immolation, as a form of protest. A mother even set fire to her child. Falun Gong later claimed it had no responsibility in the tragedy.

These facts might prompt many Chinese and non-Chinese alike to say, "Falun Gong is evil and practitioners of Falun Gong are crazy."

http://www.cultnews.com/archives/000514.html