Beijing's Long Arm in Small-Town Canada: A Mayor Fights Back

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A Letter That Crossed a Line

Michael Prue has held elected office in Ontario for the better part of three decades. As a city councillor in Toronto, as an MPP at Queen's Park for thirteen years, and now as mayor of Amherstburg — a small town of roughly 23,000 people along the Detroit River — he has never once, he says, been told by a foreign government to change what he says publicly.

That changed last year.

Shortly after Amherstburg held its annual Falun Dafa flag-raising ceremony in 2025, the Chinese Consulate in Toronto sent Mayor Prue a formal letter. The message was clear: stop supporting Falun Dafa.

"I have never been told by a foreign authority or anyone in Canada to stop saying what I believe is true," Prue said at this year's flag-raising event, held on April 30 outside the Amherstburg municipal building. He described his reaction as being "taken aback" — and more than a little angry.

He did not comply. Instead, he picked up the phone and called the RCMP.

The national police force took the letter and acknowledged there was little they could immediately do, Prue said — but thanked him for reporting it. He then informed the consulate that he would continue his support for the spiritual practice regardless.

On April 30, 2026, the Falun Dafa flag went up in Amherstburg for the fifth consecutive year. The town council voted unanimously in favor.

Who Is Michael Prue — and Why Does Beijing Care?

Prue is not a fringe figure. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Carleton University, he served as mayor of East York before becoming a New Democratic Party MPP representing Beaches-East York from 2001 to 2014. He was elected to Amherstburg town council in 2018 and became mayor in 2022.

His connection to Falun Dafa goes back to 1999, when practitioners first visited his office at Toronto City Hall, shortly after Beijing launched its persecution campaign against the group. He has spoken out on the issue consistently ever since — a span he now counts at 27 years.

"For 27 years, I have stated my hope that one day the Chinese government will come to its senses and recognize what a wonderful organization Falun Dafa is," Prue told the crowd at the April ceremony. "For 27 years, I guess they haven't heard me — or maybe they've heard me only too well."

That last remark may be closer to the truth than it sounds.

What Is Falun Dafa?

Falun Dafa — also known as Falun Gong — is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline combining slow meditative exercises with moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It was first introduced to the public in China on May 13, 1992, and grew rapidly; by the late 1990s it counted tens of millions of practitioners.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) viewed that popularity as a political threat. In July 1999, it launched a sweeping persecution campaign against practitioners — one that continues to this day and has been documented by human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to involve mass detention, torture, and forced organ harvesting.

The practice is now active in more than 100 countries. Each year around May 13 — World Falun Dafa Day — municipalities across Canada hold flag-raising ceremonies and issue official proclamations in recognition of the group's contributions to local communities.

A Pattern, Not an Isolated Incident

The letter sent to Mayor Prue was not an aberration. It reflects a documented, systematic effort by Beijing to pressure Canadian public officials into distancing themselves from Falun Dafa.

Canada's Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, led by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, released its final report in January 2025. It concluded that China is "the most active perpetrator of state-based foreign interference targeting Canada's democratic institutions" — acting through diplomatic missions, proxies, and the CCP's United Front Work Department to suppress dissent and influence political outcomes.

The Falun Dafa Association of Canada presented evidence to that commission documenting a wide range of tactics used against practitioners on Canadian soil. These included formal letters to elected officials discouraging support for the group, physical and verbal harassment of practitioners, cyberattacks, and intimidation of practitioners' relatives still living in China.

More recently, on April 20, 2026, representatives of the Falun Dafa Association testified before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights. According to their testimony, two leaked CCP documents reveal that in 2022, Xi Jinping personally ordered a new coordinated global campaign against Falun Gong — including disinformation operations, legal pressure tactics (so-called "lawfare"), and the orchestration of hoax bomb threats targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts venues in multiple countries.

The national coordinator of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, Grace Wollensak, told MPs that Xi reportedly acknowledged to his officials that the regime's earlier global efforts to suppress Falun Gong had been a "failure" — and demanded an escalated strategy.

Parliament Is Paying Attention

The broader Canadian political establishment has taken notice. In December 2025, sixty-five federal senators and members of parliament signed a joint statement condemning the CCP's twenty-six-year persecution of Falun Gong and its escalating campaign of transnational repression. Canada's Minister of Public Safety separately wrote to the Falun Dafa Association to express concern about the severity of the situation.

In June 2024, Ottawa passed Bill C-70 — the Countering Foreign Interference Act — establishing a foreign-agent registry and strengthened criminal penalties for transnational repression. The legislation was described by security analysts as among the most significant updates to Canada's national security framework in decades.

Maria Cheung, a professor emerita at the University of Manitoba and senior researcher with the Falun Dafa Association, told MPs on April 20 that the CCP's campaign is not a series of isolated incidents. "What is happening on Canadian soil," she said, "is a direct encroachment on sovereignty, democratic values, and fundamental freedoms."

The Mayor's Answer

Back in Amherstburg, Mayor Prue read a formal proclamation in support of Falun Dafa at the April 30 ceremony — with unanimous backing from his council. He noted that the flag-raising might earn him another letter from the consulate.

He did not seem troubled by the prospect.

"Maybe I'll get another letter, but it doesn't matter," he told those gathered. "What matters is that you are here. What matters is that you are listened to. What matters is that your cause is just — and we will continue to support you going forward."

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Sources

1. Wikipedia – Michael Prue (biography and political career): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Prue
2. River Town Times – Falun Dafa Day flag raised in Amherstburg (May 2024): https://www.rivertowntimes.com/post/falun-dafa-day-coming-may-13-flag-raised-by-town
3. Canada's Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference – Final Report (January 2025), via foreigninterferencecommission.ca: https://foreigninterferencecommission.ca/
4. Wikipedia – Chinese government interference in Canada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_government_interference_in_Canada
5. Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada – Analysis of Foreign Interference Commission findings: https://www.asiapacific.ca/asia-watch/china-india-most-active-perpetrators-foreign-interference
6. Macdonald-Laurier Institute – "Canada Under Pressure" report on foreign interference (January 2026): https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/canada-under-pressure-how-the-gap-in-foreign-interference-response-is-eroding-democracy-stephen-nagy/
7. Falun Dafa Association of Canada – 2025 Report on Foreign Interference and Repression in Canada: https://library.faluninfo.net/canada-2023-report-foreign-interference-transnational-repression-of-falun-gong/
8. Vision Times – Canadian Parliament Hearing Exposes Beijing's Global Repression Tactics (April 2026): https://www.visiontimes.com/2026/04/23/canadian-parliament-hearing-exposes-beijings-global-repression-tactics.html
9. Public Safety Canada – Parliamentary Committee Notes on Bill C-70 and foreign interference: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/trnsprnc/brfng-mtrls/prlmntry-bndrs/20250226-1/17-en.aspx
10. ICIJ / CBC News – Canada names first foreign interference watchdog (February 2026): https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-targets/canada-names-first-foreign-interference-watchdog/

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