Conservative MPs are urging Liberal members of the House of Commons heritage committee to support a motion condemning Beijing’s interference targeting Shen Yun performances and Falun Dafa practitioners in Canada.
“Yet Liberal members went ahead and voted against this motion.”
The motion follows several incidents of China-linked interference and intimidation targeting Shen Yun performances in Canada this year, including hoax bomb threats and efforts to pressure theatres into cancelling performances.
When Genuis presented the motion on May 28, Liberal MPs on the heritage committee voted against having unanimous consent to pass it, saying it needed to be deliberated on and revisited at a future date.
Genuis told reporters on June 17, speaking alongside Thomas, that Liberal MPs “refused to support it and provided no explanation” when Conservatives brought the motion up again 12 days later.
“When we have what, very clearly, is this attempted interference, the response is a refusal by the Liberals to condemn it,” Genuis said. “We need to defend the integrity of our own deliberations and our own arts and culture sector here in Canada from foreign interference.”
Thomas said in a statement after speaking to reporters that the motion cited “serious and troubling incidents” in Canada, including reports that Chinese officials attempted to pressure venues to cancel Shen Yun performances, incidents of anonymous bomb threats targeting shows, and efforts to intimidate Falun Dafa practitioners and suppress artistic expression.
Genuis said Canadians should be able to express themselves freely and participate in artistic activities without fear of harassment, threats, or foreign pressure, and should not have to fear foreign governments attempting to control their speech or activities on Canadian soil.
He noted Conservatives have called for stronger action by the government against foreign interference and transnational repression, including measures to protect diaspora communities, strengthen national security, defend freedom of expression, and hold foreign actors accountable.
“Canada must remain a country where artistic expression is protected, where cultural communities can celebrate their traditions freely, and where foreign authoritarian regimes are met with firm resistance when they seek to undermine our sovereignty and fundamental freedoms,” he added.
Transnational Suppression
Genuis presented the motion the same day representatives of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada testified before the heritage committee and told MPs that if there is no direct response to end Beijing’s transnational repression targeting Shen Yun in Canada, foreign regimes will be emboldened to suppress artistic and religious freedom to the detriment of all Canadians.Falun Dafa Association spokesperson Joel Chipkar said Shen Yun has toured around the world and visited theatres across Canada for 20 years, but in recent years, under Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s direct orders, the CCP has escalated a global campaign to attempt to stop the show through diplomatic pressure, lawfare, and some 150 hoax bomb threats worldwide.
Based in New York, Shen Yun was formed in 2006 by leading Chinese artists whose stated mission is to revive China’s traditional culture, which the group says has been 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, when government estimates indicated between 70 million and 100 million people had taken up the practice. 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 Dafa in 1999, vowing to eradicate it.
Chipkar said the CCP seeks to suppress Shen Yun because the shows bring awareness to the “beauty of true, traditional Chinese culture before communism” and to the human rights abuses happening in China today under the CCP’s rule.
He noted 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.
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,” Chipkar said.
