Foreign Minister Urged to Demand Answers From Beijing After Falun Gong Practitioners Attacked Outside Toronto Consulate

Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters are calling on Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand to condemn the recent attack against practitioners of their spiritual faith outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto and to raise the issue with Beijing.

“This attack is not an isolated event,” said Falun Gong practitioner Kathy Gillis at a rally outside the Global Affairs Canada building in Ottawa on Sept. 28, reading from a statement issued by the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (FDAC).

“For more than two decades, Falun Gong practitioners in Canada have reported harassment, surveillance, intimidation, threats, and assaults linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against their faith.”

The request from the association comes in the aftermath of a Sept. 22 attack on two Falun Gong practitioners by a man who spoke Chinese and was wearing a jacket bearing the flag of the People’s Republic of China.

The two female practitioners were standing on a public sidewalk outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto next to several banners supported on poles, as part of practitioners’ daily efforts to raise awareness of the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, at that location.

Videos of the attack show the man dismantling and tearing up the practitioners’ banners and pushing against one of the practitioners, Lina Li, as she tried to protect the banners. He also attempted to kick another, Nora Geng, as she filmed the attack.

In addition, he uttered death threats against Li. He told her he will “shoot you dead” while charging that the public sidewalk she was on is “Chinese territory” and that she is subject to Chinese laws including the Anti-Secession Law, a Chinese law enacted in 2005 that relates to Taiwan, authorizing the use of force to prevent the self-governing democracy from declaring independence.

Li sustained a bloody chin as a result of the incident.

The Toronto Police Service, which responded to the incident by sending officers to the scene, told The Epoch Times it is investigating the issue. The attacker left the scene of the incident before police arrived.

Seeking ‘Concrete Protections’ From Transnational Repression

“That such an attack took place in front of a Chinese diplomatic mission is particularly alarming. It suggests that individuals feel emboldened to suppress lawful expression in Canada on behalf of a foreign regime,” the FDAC statement said.

“If such acts go unanswered, they will invite further intimidation and erode the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in this country.”

We brought our truck to the Chinese consulate in Toronto, the site of an assault on Falun Gong practitioner Lina Li.

Help us identify her attacker! pic.twitter.com/wZBAcAZ4Ia

— Scarlett Grace (@ScarlettGrace92) September 28, 2026

The association is requesting that Anand publicly condemn the attack and raise the issue with the Chinese regime, “conveying that any attempt to intimidate, threaten, or suppress people in Canada for their beliefs or lawful expression is unacceptable.”

The association is also asking Anand to seek clarification from the Chinese Embassy as to whether any of its diplomats or affiliated personnel were involved in the attack in any capacity. If so, the association requested that Anand respond with appropriate diplomatic measures.

The FDAC is also urging the minister to work with the minister of public safety and with law enforcement agencies to investigate any foreign-state connection, and to continue to strengthen Canada’s response to transnational repression, “including concrete protections for communities that are routinely targeted by authoritarian regimes, among them Falun Gong practitioners.”

According to a statement on transnational repression (TNR) issued by the leaders of the G7 countries in June 2025,  “TNR is an aggressive form of foreign interference whereby states or their proxies attempt to intimidate, harass, harm or coerce individuals or communities outside their borders.”

TNR “often impacts dissidents, journalists, human rights defenders, religious minorities, and those identified as part of diaspora communities,” said the statement, which was issued at the conclusion of the G7 summit in Canada last year.

‘CCP’s Claws’

Geng, the Falun Gong practitioner who filmed the attack on Sept. 22, also spoke at the rally. She said that she decided to take out her phone and record as soon as she realized “how serious the situation is.”

Geng described the moment he tried to attack her.

“He lunged at me and kicked me. I stepped back in time and dodged him, protecting the camera in my hand,” she said. “Passerby could not tolerate the man’s behaviour and reminded him that ‘this is Canada.’ He not only ignored them, but also swore at them.”

In the video, the man can be heard saying an obscenity against Canada in Chinese.

Geng noted that similar attacks on Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents also occurred in Washington, D.C., last week during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit there. She suggested that these incidents appear to be “organized, pre-mediated” crime.

“This incident fully exposes that the CCP’s claws have reached into the free world, and show a further escalation of the CCP’s transnational repression,” she said.

“This is not only about protecting Falun Gong practitioners; this is also about protecting Canada as a free and democratic country.”

Falun Gong practitioner Pam McLennan said in an interview with NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media, that she is very concerned about the attack on Canadian soil against peaceful Falun Gong practitioners.

“I feel terrible about that. It shouldn’t be allowed for one nanosecond,” she said. “We are asking our government to speak up and do something about it.”

Fellow Falun Gong practitioner Yareli Alfonseca said she’s very concerned that the attacker felt emboldened to act that way in Canada, adding that she’s worried about the safety of her family members all of whom practise Falun Gong.

“I am worried because my family, my husband, and my two kids, they practise [Falun Gong]. So I’m worried that one day they could do that to my kids,” she said in an interview.

The Epoch Times contacted Global Affairs Canada for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.

In a previous response when the incident first occurred, the department referred the issue to Public Safety Canada.

A spokesperson with Public Safety Canada said the government takes threats to the safety and security of Canadians seriously and has taken action to respond to acts of foreign interference and transnational repression.

“The Office of the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator (ONCFIC) continues to provide leadership across government efforts while building societal resilience through ongoing engagement with domestic and international partners,” a spokesperson said last week.

A spokesperson with the RCMP said the federal police force doesn’t publicly comment on potential or ongoing investigations, adding that if it determines any criminal or illegal activity that is backed by a foreign state, it will investigate.

“Generally, the RCMP is aware of foreign actor interference activity in Canada, from a number of countries. Various methods and techniques are in place to combat foreign actor interference within the RCMP’s mandate,” the RCMP told The Epoch Times.

“However, there are important limits to what can be publicly discussed on matters of foreign interference given the need to protect the RCMP’s sensitive activities, techniques and sources of information.”