‘Stop Transnational Repression’: Community Leaders Condemn Attack on Falun Gong Practitioner Outside Chinese Consulate in Toronto

After a Falun Gong practitioner was attacked outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto this week, supporters and community leaders gathered at the site on Sept. 24 to condemn the violence and to call on authorities to investigate what they described as transnational repression.

“Transnational repression is by no means a distant international issue, but a real problem that is threatening Canadian society, Canadian residents, and their fundamental freedoms,” said Jeff Li, a Falun Gong practitioner who helps organize campaigns to raise awareness about the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of the spiritual discipline.

“This incident reminds us once again that any attempt to extend foreign political persecution into Canadian territory must be taken seriously.”

On the morning of Sept. 22, as Falun Gong practitioners Lina Li and Nora Geng were standing on a public sidewalk outside the consulate with banners about the regime’s persecution campaign, a man wearing a jacket with a patch of a Chinese flag on the front came from across the street and pulled down the banners.

“I ran over to protect the banners. During the struggle, my chin was scratched and injured,” Li said at the press conference on Sept. 24.

Videos of the attack taken by Geng show the Chinese man pushing Li and uttering death threats as she tries to protect the banners, telling Li that he will “shoot you dead.” He also claims the public sidewalk Li was on is “Chinese territory” and, citing China’s Anti-Secession Law, threatens that he’ll “throw you to your death.” He is later seen attempting to kick Geng while she is filming him.

“Throughout the attack, he acted as though he had every right to do what he was doing. He was extremely aggressive and intimidating, and there was no way for us to stop him. So I called 911 and reported the attack,” Li said.

She noted that two passersby spoke out against the man’s behaviour. A video recording shows a bystander telling the attacker that “this is Canada,” to which the attacker responds with an expletive about the country.

“By then, he had already destroyed all of our banners. He grabbed one of the banners and walked away. A few minutes later, the police arrived and investigated the entire incident.”

“This is public property on Canadian soil. Therefore, anybody that is here should not only feel safe, but should be protected in case someone is using … illegal actions against peaceful people,” Lizon said at the press conference.

“Not only Falun Gong practitioners, but we all as Canadians, …we have to ask the proper agencies to act swiftly and decisively, to make sure that Canadians are safe in their own country.”

Former MP Kevin Vuong also commented on the incident, saying on a social media post that if the attacker is a diplomat, he should be declared a persona non grata and sent back “to the communist regime where they suppress speech and anti-Chinese Communist Party voices.”

He added that if the attacker is not a diplomat, “that sounds like a death threat to me, which the last time I checked was a criminal offence per Section 264.1(1)(a).”

Josh Dehaas, interim litigation director with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, also said that if the man is a “Chinese diplomat or state employee, he needs to be removed from Canada immediately.”

“China has no right to censor people on Canadian streets,” he said in a social media post.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a China expert and senior fellow at the University of Ottawa, noted that a similar incident happened across from the Chinese Embassy in Washington on the same day. Ethnic groups, including Tibetans and other groups persecuted by the Chinese regime, have been protesting outside the embassy as Chinese leader Xi Jinping visits Washington this week, with pro-regime forces out to welcome him.

“It seems the new Ethnic Law has emboldened Chinese staff to attack peaceful protesters,” McCuaig-Johnston said in a social media post. The extraterritorial Chinese law says that organizations and individuals beyond China’s borders can be prosecuted for “undermining ethnic unity and progress” or “inciting ethnic separatism.”

“What he tried to do was to apply a 2005 Chinese law called ‘anti-secession,’ which is the separatist law against Taiwan that has nothing to do with Falun Gong, but he tries to apply this law and justify his death threats. Isn’t that foreign interference?” she said at the press conference.

“We need to stop transnational repression, and we need to stop someone from other foreign countries coming to our Canadian soil to try to apply whatever law they have to penalize or utter threats to Canadians.”

Houqiang Yu, president of the China Democratic Party of Canada, also at the press conference, said the attacker was engaging in transnational repression.

“I urge police in Canada to investigate and stop such actions,” he said in Chinese.

He also called on Ottawa to tell Beijing that Canada won’t tolerate “any intimidation, harassment, or transnational repression targeting people in Canada.”

“Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have persisted in peaceful protest for 27 years,” he said, referring to the Chinese regime’s launch of the persecution in July 1999 after seeing the spiritual practice surge in popularity to as many as 70-100 million practitioners nationwide, according to state statistics.

“In the face of long-term intimidation, harassment, and threats, we have never backed down. We have always adhered to peaceful and rational means to uphold freedom of belief, expose the persecution, and appeal to conscience,” Li said.

A spokesperson with Public Safety Canada, which oversees Canada’s national security and intelligence agencies, said the government takes threats to the safety and security of people in Canada seriously, including when issues of foreign interference and transnational repression are involved.

“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,” spokesperson Tim Warmington told The Epoch Times in an email.

He added that security and law enforcement agencies monitor acts of foreign interference and transnational repression and respond according to their mandate.

“In particular, the RCMP investigates reports of foreign interference, regardless of country of origin, including election interference, transnational repression, malicious cyber activities, and information manipulation,” Warmington said.

A 2025 report by the Falun Dafa Association of Canada says the Chinese regime has been conducting a “multifaceted campaign of foreign interference” against Falun Gong in Canada.

“The bomb and mass shooting threats in 2025 are an indication of aggravated violence that warrants greater protection of Falun Gong and its affiliated organizations by the Canadian government and the whole of society in Canada,” the report said.