Vancouver Falun Gong practitioners are scrambling to save their protest site at the Chinese consulate on Granville Street after it was ordered dismantled within a week by a B.C. Supreme Court ruling last Thursday.
The court upheld the City of Vancouver’s application seeking an injunction to remove the hut and billboards which have been part of Falun Gong’s round-the-clock vigil at the consulate since 2001.
However, the group is appealing, and in an effort to keep the vigil going until the appeal is heard, their lawyer, Clive Ansley, says an application has been made to the court for a “stay of proceedings” to be decided Friday.
“The vigil should be removed on Thursday but the city solicitor has agreed that they won’t take any action until the court has had a chance to rule on our application for a stay. If we get our application then the vigil will remain until the appeal is heard. If we lose on the application on Friday then they will take it down,” Ansley says.
At a rally and press conference outside the consulate on Wednesday, Falun Gong practitioners called on Mayor Gregor Robertson to allow the structures to remain until the court hears their appeal. The group plans to gather at the site again on Thursday, day 2725 of the vigil.
The Falun Gong say the site helps raise awareness and bears witness to the tens of thousands who have been tortured and murdered since the Chinese regime outlawed the spiritual practice in July 1999.
