Ontario Mayor Decries Chinese Consulate Interference After Pressure to Not Raise Falun Dafa Flag

Michael Prue, mayor of Amherstburg, Ont., attends a Falun Dafa flag-raising ceremony outside the Amherstburg municipal building on April 30, 2026. Evan Ning/The Epoch Times

Amherstburg, Ont., Mayor Michael Prue says the Chinese Consulate has interfered with his town supporting Falun Dafa, saying it’s the first instance of a foreign power attempting to stop him from saying “what I believe is true.”

The town held a flag-raising ceremony outside its municipal building on April 30 to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the introduction of the Chinese spiritual practice to the public.

Prue previously served as a member of provincial parliament in Ontario for 13 years and has spoken out on several occasions against the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.

Michael Prue, mayor of Amherstburg, Ont., speaks at a Falun Dafa flag-raising ceremony outside the Amherstburg municipal building on April 30, 2026. Evan Ning/The Epoch Times

“For 27 years, I have stated my hope that one day the Chinese government will come to its senses and recognize what a wonderful organization Falun Dafa is and will stop the persecution,” Prue said during a speech at the flag-raising event.

“For 27 years, I guess they haven’t heard me, or maybe they’ve heard me only too well.”

Prue said that about a month after last year’s flag-raising ceremony in Amherstburg, he received a letter from the Chinese Consulate in Toronto warning him to stop supporting Falun Dafa.

“I have never been told by a foreign authority or anyone in Canada to stop saying what I believe is true,” Prue said, adding that he was “taken aback” and “a little angry.”

He said he phoned the RCMP, and the national police service took the letter and said they “didn’t know whether they could do much with it” but thanked him for reporting it.

“I informed them that I would continue to support [Falun Dafa] and the freedom that Falun Dafa brings to many people around the world,” Prue said.

Falun Gong practitioners demonstrate the practice's sitting meditation exercise during an event held at Queen's Park in Toronto on July 13, 2025, to commemorate the 26th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong. Jerry Zhang/The Epoch Times

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a traditional Chinese discipline that combines meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The discipline, which is currently practised in more than 100 countries worldwide, was introduced in China on May 13, 1992, and became the fastest-growing spiritual group in China at the time.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) saw the growing popularity of the practice as a threat to its own power and launched a persecution campaign against Falun Dafa in 1999, vowing to eliminate it.

Prue said he was “delighted” that Falun Dafa practitioners came back to Amherstburg again this year to celebrate the spiritual practice by holding a flag-raising ceremony.

“Maybe I’ll get another letter, but it doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is that you are here. What matters is that you are listened to. What matters is that your cause is just, and we will continue to support you going forward.”

Prue read a proclamation letter in support of Falun Dafa at the event and said that the Amherstburg town council unanimously supported reading the proclamation and raising the Falun Dafa flag.

The Town of Amherstburg raised the Falun Dafa Day flag to commemorate Falun Dafa's 34th anniversary at a flag-raising ceremony on April 30, 2026. Evan Ning/The Epoch Times

Municipalities across Canada issue proclamations each year around May 13 to mark the anniversary of World Falun Dafa Day and to acknowledge Falun Dafa’s contribution to local communities, with many municipalities also holding flag-raising events and parades.

Overseas Suppression by Beijing

MPs recently heard testimony in the House of Commons from representatives of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada at a parliamentary committee meeting on April 20, saying two leaked CCP documents reveal Chinese leader Xi Jinping directly ordered a new coordinated campaign against Falun Gong.

A political insider revealed in 2024 that Xi issued a directive in 2022 to his top officials ordering them to attack Falun Gong globally by spreading disinformation and using lawfare.

Xi had reportedly lamented at the meeting that the regime’s previous efforts to suppress Falun Gong activities abroad had essentially failed, and he required a new strategy to be carried out to target the spiritual group internationally.

Last year, Canada’s foreign interference commission identified China as “the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions.”

Representatives of Falun Dafa detailed instances of “harassment, surveillance, and sabotage” by pro-Beijing individuals and entities in a report presented to the commission last summer.

These activities included letters to Canadian officials to discourage them from supporting the spiritual practice and to exclude practitioners from civic activities, physical and verbal abuse against practitioners in Canada, and intimidation of practitioners’ relatives in China.

Carolina Avendano and NTD contributed to this report.