politicians by publicly singling the province out
CSIS documents suggest pressure to suppress Falun Gong protests
municipal politics, according to some espionage experts. Supreme Court judge to declare Vancouver’s bylaw unconstitutional for the second time in four years. The spiritual group wants to renew the round the clock vigil it started in 2001 in front of the grandiose Chinese Consulate on Granville Street, just south of 16th Avenue. The embarrassing canada goose outlet optics of the practitioners’ silent protest mostly elderly women meditating in front of banners proclaiming brutal persecution and bloody torture in China irked Beijing and reportedly became an irritant in relations with Vancouver and Victoria.
Canada Goose Jackets China has banned Falun Gong and calls it one of the “five poisons” that endanger the state. The regime’s foreign service targets Falun Gong in overt and covert operations, according to intelligence and court documents obtained by The Province. Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose clearance sale But the Granville Street case is not just about a foreign spiritual group’s freedom to protest under the laws that protect Canadian citizens. On one level, this case seems canadian goose jacket to highlight China’s growing economic might and potential impacts on Canadian governments. politics, while CSIS spies monitor local politicians for any signs of “foreign interference.” canada goose clearance sale
cheap canada goose uk Furthermore, it’s possible, several intelligence experts including Juneau Katsuya said, that the Granville Street case is the type of scenario that Canada’s former top spy, Richard Fadden, infamously referred to in 2010. Juneau Katsuya told The Province it is a certainty that Fadden was monitoring Vancouver politicians in connection to the Falun Gong protest and the spy agency will continue to watch local councillors under new director Michel Coulombe. cheap canada goose uk
A HISTORY OF PROTESTS
Former NPA mayor Sam Sullivan ordered Falun Gong to dismantle their protest hut on Granville in 2006, and the case went to court. Falun Gong argued that China had pressured Vancouver to enforce its bylaw in efforts to suppress the protest. Supreme Court judge in 2009 supported the city. But in 2010 Vancouver Island Canada Goose Jackets lawyer Clive Ansley who practised for years in China and speaks Mandarin won an appeal for Falun Gong. The judge ordered the city to rewrite its bylaw on constitutional grounds, giving council six months to draft rules that would allow for public protest huts on city streets. The judge said it was clear China used “its considerable resources” to oppose Falun Gong, but the group’s lawyers did not prove the city was politically or economically pressured to enforce its bylaw by China.
Questions about China’s influence didn’t end there, though. City staff admitted in a 2011 council meeting that the Chinese consulate was consulted as a “stakeholder” in the new bylaw’s drafting, in confidential canada goose discussions. Ansley recalls how he reacted to that stunning revelation.
cheap Canada Goose “I told Mayor Robertson this is about the degree of freedom Canadian citizens are to be allowed protesting in the streets, and the cheap Canada Goose Chinese government is not a stakeholder in that,” Ansely said. “I said it is absolutely indefensible and disgraceful.” cheap Canada Goose
uk canada goose Fast forward to September 2014. Vancouver’s rewritten protest bylaw with limits on the times and durations the Falun Gong protest hut can stand in front of the Chinese Consulate is “no better than the old one,” canada goose coats according to Ansley. uk canada goose
Canada Goose sale “Vancouver city council has tried to do an end run and evade the clear intent of the Court of Appeal,” Ansley said in an interview. “They have just imposed totally arbitrary conditions that they can’t defend.” Canada Goose sale
canada goose coats on sale “We think they deliberately disallowed our continued vigil,” said Vancouver Falun Gong canada goose clearance practitioner Sue Zhang, 68. “We do think that canada goose deals the city is being either pressured by the Chinese consulate, or is trying to please the Chinese regime.” canada goose coats on sale
canada goose Ansley said that for health reasons he is not arguing the current case, and Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward represented Falun Gong in court on Monday. Ward said he will not comment for this story. The city also would not comment on the court case. canada goose
canadian goose jacket Although Ansley says he strongly believes in Falun Gong’s evidence of Chinese influence on Vancouver council, it is not clear if Ward canada goose black friday sale will renew those arguments, or present new evidence. In the first court battle with Vancouver, Falun Gong’s legal team presented a timeline of former mayor Sam Sullivan’s meeting with Chinese consulate staff and trips to China, and alleged that his position on the Falun canada goose clearance sale Gong protest was related to his visits with regime officials. Ansley’s co counsel Joseph Arvay spoke of the relationship between Sullivan who is reportedly a fluent Mandarin speaker and the former Chinese Consular General Yang Qiang. In cross examination, Sullivan reportedly said he and his parents were guests for a private dinner at Yang’s residence in which the protest was discussed. Sullivan has maintained he was not politically influenced. canadian goose jacket
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buy canada goose jacket But an affidavit from Chen Yonglin a diplomat who in 2005 defected from the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, Australia said it would be impossible that any Vancouver mayor would not be pressured by China in this case. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose clearance Chinese embassies around the world were aware of Falun Gong’s seven year buy canada goose www.goosesea.com jacket vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate on Granville, and it was a “major embarrassment to the Chinese government,” Chen’s 2008 sworn statement says. Chen’s affidavit includes documents outlining overt and covert operations that he was involved in against Falun Gong in Sydney. Such actions are common around the world, wherever the Chinese government confronts Falun Gong and the “five poisons” Chen stated. He added that in performing his duties he learned the most effective way “to develop influence over Australian political leaders is to provide them with all expenses paid travel to China, and with lavish entertainment while they are there. This method is common to all Chinese foreign missions in the west.” canada goose clearance
Canada Goose Outlet The Sydney consulate regularly promoted the private business ties of Australian leaders, and members of local councils, and regularly hosted dinners for them, “in the name of bilateral cultural exchange,” Chen’s 2008 sworn statement says. Canada Goose Outlet
“It would be absolutely impossible that in (the Granville Falun Gong protest case) the mayor of the city in which the Consulate General and the vigil are located would receive no pressure from the Consulate General,” Chen concluded. politics, whether Sullivan and Robertson had been offered or accepted paid trips on their travels in China, and whether CSIS is known to have monitored or questioned Vancouver mayors in connection to the Falun Gong protest case. politicians by publicly singling the province out. in a speech to the Royal Canadian Military Institute in March 2010. Confucius Institutes continue to be investigated by CSIS, but directors have always denied they are run as spy outlets through Chinese consulates. and at least two provinces, buy canada goose jacket cheap there are ministers of the Crown, whom we think are under at least the general influence of a foreign government. They have no idea. It’s just a long standing relationship.”
canada goose uk black friday In a June 2010 CBC interview canada goose coats on sale Fadden clarified his comments about Canadian politicians under suspicion, saying: “We can monitor anyone. In the case of Canada Goose online these individuals. they haven’t really hidden their association, but what surprised us is that it’s been so extensive over the years, and we’re now seeing in a couple of cases indications that they are, in fact, shifting their public policies as a reflection of that involvement with that particular country.”The mystery Canada Goose Parka as to what politicians Fadden was Canada Goose sale referring has never been revealed. One former Canadian diplomat with knowledge of Chinese espionage told The Province, CSIS apparently ditched Fadden’s strategy of warning the public about foreign spies because the political heat was too great. politicians including then premier Gordon Campbell bristled at Fadden’s unproven allegations. canada goose uk black friday
canada goose store In response to the backlash, in heavily redacted “Top Secret” documents obtained by The Province, Fadden explained his controversial claims to Canada’s former public safety minister, Vic Toews. canada goose store
In documents Fadden says ‘foreign interference’ is an effort to influence the political process and public policy in another country, and to control and monitor diaspora communities abroad. In Canada ethnic communities are manipulated to gain information on dissidents and solicit community support, Fadden writes, which can be used to promote targeted politicians or electoral candidates.
“Politicians are targeted to solicit support for policies and positions that favour the interests of the foreign state interference and influence involving politicians and public servants are, in some cases, conducted subtly and involve a long period of cultivation,” Fadden writes, adding that targets can become subject to threats, coercion and blackmail.
