CCP’s Repression of Shen Yun in Canada Becomes a National Problem When Not Spurned, Association Tells MPs

‘[The issue] is the systematic targeting of a particular arts and culture presentation by a foreign state that doesn’t like it,’ said Tory MP Garnett Genuis.

Joel Chipkar (R), spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (FDAC), and Joel Etienne, legal adviser for the FDAC, testify before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on May 28, 2026. House of Commons/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

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.

The representatives made the remarks in response to questions from MPs on the House of Commons heritage committee, who raised concerns about the Chinese communist regime’s suppression tactics in Canada.

“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.

Conservative MP Rachael Thomas said there is evidence that Chinese Consulate officials in Vancouver met with Vancouver City Hall and tried to pressure the city to cancel Shen Yun’s April performances. She also noted that the National Arts Centre in Ottawa refused to enter into an agreement with Shen Yun to hold their performances at the theatre in 2026 and 2027, even though the show has performed there for nearly two decades.

“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.

New York-based 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 based on 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 eradicate it.

The performers of Shen Yun Performing Arts during a curtain call at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver in April 2026. The Epoch Times

Falun Dafa Association spokesperson Joel Chipkar told the MPs that Shen Yun has toured around the world including visits to theatres across Canada for 20 years, but that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), under Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s direct orders, has escalated a global campaign in recent years to stop the show through diplomatic pressure, baseless lawsuits, and some 150 hoax bomb threats worldwide.

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, freedom of belief, and artistic expression are put “on the back burner to please China for trade, we’re losing our country.”

He added that while Shen Yun may be the current target, other Canadian artists could face similar interference in the future if the CCP’s efforts are left unchecked—including musicians, writers, or performers who express support for democracy in China or criticize communism.

‘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.”

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis celebrates the World Falun Dafa Day on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 5, 2026. Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times

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 federal Crown corporation, had previously hosted Shen Yun for 18 years but made a decision not to host the show in 2026 and 2027, citing commercial reasons.

Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) records encompassing NAC emails between February 2023 and April 2025 show the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa reaching out to NAC leadership with invitations to events and requests to meet, with these efforts increased after arrival of China’s new ambassador to Ottawa in mid-2024. Shortly after the new envoy, Wang Di, took up his post, then-NAC CEO Christopher Deacon said in a July 12, 2024, internal email that he had been advised to meet the ambassador.

The ATIP records do not contain clarification as to who issued the “advice.” Deacon went on to meet with Wang at the NAC in August 2024, and they met again in October 2024, this time for dinner at Wang’s official residence.

The NAC in subsequent months continued to delay confirmation of 2026 show dates for hosting Shen Yun, until June 2025, when the theatre informed the local presenter that it had decided not to rent to Shen Yun for the 2026 season. The NAC’s new CEO, Annabelle Cloutier, has continued the refusal.

Fans of Shen Yun Canada, a community of audience members and supporters, has launched a public awareness campaign and petition at LetShenYunPerform.ca documenting the NAC’s relationship with the Chinese Embassy.

“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 adviser for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (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.

Falun Gong practitioners gather in front of the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to commemorate the 27th anniversary of their fellow practitioners' April 25, 1999, appeal in Beijing calling for freedom of belief. Evan Ning/The Epoch Times

Chipkar noted that the FDAC supports Genuis’s motion and said 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.

Liberal MPs on the heritage committee voted down having unanimous consent to pass Genuis’s motion, saying it needs to be deliberated on and revisited at a future date.

Threats Linked to China

Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts cancelled the last six of eight scheduled Shen Yun performances from March 29 to April 5, despite a police investigation confirming the threats were unfounded. The theatre agreed a few weeks later to host rescheduled shows following repeated requests from the show’s local presenter, the Falun Dafa Association of Toronto.

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver was also a target of hoax bomb threats prior to Shen Yun’s April performances at the venue, but the theatre permitted the shows to proceed after the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) confirmed the threats were not credible. The VPD’s Cybercrime Unit determined that the phone number associated with the email account from which the threats were sent is based in China, and that the same email account also sent the threats to the Toronto theatre.

Meanwhile, officials from the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver met with a city hall official in April to pressure the city not to allow Shen Yun to perform at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which is owned by the City of Vancouver, according to a May 4 Global News report.

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.

The committee meeting came on the same day Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi is set to meet with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.