Urban Vancouver

Don't be evil

By Jonathon Narvey on July 6, 2006 - 8:37pm

A damning report by a human rights lawyer and former Canadian cabinet member says Muslims are being rounded up by Canadian authorities for practicing their religion.

The innocent are silenced, tortured and sent to secret prisons where doctors extract their organs for sale on the black market. The Canadian government cremates the remains to
hide their terrible secret.

This would be shocking if it were true.

Replace "Muslims" with "Falun Gong" and "Canadian" with "Chinese" and it would be (as reported by Reuters and Canadian Press reporter Jim Bronskill, among others).

And then, it's still not all that shocking. Falun Gong's protesters in Vancouver and elsewhere have been making these allegations about horrifying treatment by the Chinese regime for years. Over five years ago, I wrote in the Vancouver Courier about Falun Gong's persecution and allegations that the Chinese government was spying on Canadian Falun Gong practitioners in this city and their families back home. It's only now that the mainstream media and prominent Canadian officials are picking up on the story.

Mayor Sam Sullivan's efforts to force the Falun Gong protesters outside the Chinese Consulate on Granville Street to bring down their display(previously blogged about here)
may be inspired by reasonable policy (ie. not allowing organizations to hunker down on city property indefinitely without a permit) but his timing couldn't be worse. This is one case where an exception can be made to the rule.