By Stephanie Harrington
A bylaw exemption felt like a human rights victory for Falun Gong protesters last week, when they were permitted to hang banners on a fence across the street from the Chinese Embassy.
A city bylaw prevented protesters from hanging banners and affixing posters on De La Salle high school’s wire fence – a fence that faces the Chinese Embassy on St. Patrick Street. The high school gave Falun Gong permission to use the fence, but the group needed a bylaw exemption to legalize the change.
Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) is based on the three principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance, and involves slow and meditative exercises. Its practitioners claim to have improved health, mental and spiritual well-being. There are 100 million Falun Gong practitioners spanning 45 countries worldwide.
It’s difficult to gage how many Falun Gong followers live in Ottawa because it is not a structured organization. There are six places where people practice, including the Chinese Community Centre on Florence Street.
Seventy million practitioners lived in China before the government banned it in 1999, despite previously endorsing Falun Gong’s health benefits.
The government felt the religion’s growing popularity threatened its leadership and declared it a “cult”.
Ottawa’s Falun Gong practitioners have demonstrated outside the embassy since last May, protesting the Chinese government’s torture, persecution and killing of Falun Gong followers.
Last year, Ottawa resident Gerry Smith protested against the murder of 15 women practitioners for 330 consecutive hours outside the embassy. Members speak to Chinese tourists on Parliament Hill to proveFalun Gong is accepted outside of China.
Pamela McLennan was the Falun Gong spokesperson at the transportation committee meeting. She said the bylaw requiring protesters to hold signs along the busy road outside the embassy “greatly reduced the visibility of our message and diminished our voice calling for justice.”
Albert Tang, a representative from the Federation of Ottawa-Carleton Chinese Organizations, opposed the exemption for safety reasons and preferred if protesters were banned altogether. Tang said some people attending receptions at the embassy don’t use traffic lights to cross the street from the parking lot because they have to pass protesters, which is “embarrassing” .
Councilors didn’t buy it.
“It’s very, very important to not allow those who disagree with this group to allow our bylaw to be used to harass this group and reduce freedom of expression,” said Kanata Coun. Alex Munter. “No one has ever died of embarrassment.”
Exemption from the bylaw was based on whether or not the protesters endangered public safety. Rideau-Vanier Coun. Madeleine Meilleur, said the protesters were always peaceful and law-abiding.
Somerset Coun. Elisabeth Arnold said her decision was based entirely on safety, despite receiving a “handful” of letters regarding the situation, including one from Tang.
“We’re not talking about Falun Gong here, we’re talking about a sign bylaw,” said Arnold.
But Falun Gong practitioners believe councillors made the decision in favour of freedom of expression. For them, the exemption was a small victory over China’s persecution of the Falun Gong.
“We thank the committee for their clear thinking,” says McLennan.
“We don’t want the Chinese government telling us what to do.”
Practitioners say the Chinese government spreads propaganda about the Falun Gong and shouldn’t have the power to suppress the campaign in Canada.
The protesters vow to stop demonstrating only when the persecution in China ends.