Former McMaster Confucius Institute Teacher Files Case with HR Tribunal

A former instructor at the McMaster University Confucius Institute has filed a complaint alleged discrimination.

Sonia Zhao gives a speech about the persecution of Falun Gong in China at a rally in Toronto in August 2011. Zhao, a former instructor at the Confucius Institute at McMaster University, had to sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong when she was in China before joining the Institute. McMaster has now decided to close the Institute over concerns about the Institute's "hiring practices." Gordon Yu/The Epoch Times

A former instructor at the China-linked Confucius Institute at McMaster University has filed a complaint with Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal for alleged discrimination in hiring practices at the institute.

Sonia Zhao, a Chinese woman who came to Canada in 2010 to teach Chinese at McMaster’s Confucius Institute (CI), says she was required to sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) in order to obtain her position.