Washington, D.C. — October 20, 2026
On the morning of September 22, 2026, outside the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Toronto, a man wearing a jacket bearing a PRC flag emblem tore down the information display of Falun Gong practitioners who have maintained a peaceful presence at that site for some 27 years. On video recorded at the scene, he shoved a 62-year-old practitioner, Na Li, leaving her bleeding from a cut to the chin, told her he would have her shot, and declared the public sidewalk at 240 St. George Street to be Chinese territory, invoking the PRC’s Anti-Secession Law against the demonstrators. He then left in a waiting car before police arrived. Toronto Police confirmed a disturbance call at the address at approximately 9:35 a.m. and an investigation under occurrence number 26-1996235; as of October 6, no suspect had been publicly identified and no charges announced. The consulate has stated the man has no connection to the mission. No evidence in the public record yet establishes who he is or whether anyone directed him.
The Free China Movement states the following:
- We condemn this attack without qualification. Whatever the attacker’s identity or motive, violence and death threats against a peaceful demonstrator exercising her rights on a Canadian sidewalk are an assault on the freedoms Canada guarantees to everyone on its soil — including the diaspora communities who fled the PRC (Mainland) precisely to escape intimidation.
- The open questions must be answered by a prompt and thorough investigation. We call on the Toronto Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to complete their investigation without further delay, publicly establish the man’s identity, and determine whether he acted alone or at the direction of, for the benefit of, or in association with a foreign entity — the standard Canada’s own Countering Foreign Interference Act sets.
- We support the remedy Members of Parliament have put to the government. Conservative MP Jacob Mantle (York-Durham), the associate shadow minister for foreign affairs, wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand on October 13 asking her to promptly investigate and, if the individual is confirmed to be a Chinese diplomat or other foreign state actor, to remove him from Canada. His premise is correct: foreign agents have no right or immunity to threaten or intimidate any person in Canada. Members of Parliament from across the parties — Conservative, Liberal, Bloc Québécois, and New Democratic — have called for investigation and stronger measures against transnational repression. Nearly four weeks after the attack the man remains unidentified and uncharged, and the Minister has made no public response to that letter. Global Affairs Canada should answer it publicly, and act on what the investigation finds.
The practitioners outside the Toronto consulate were joined on October 1 by Hong Kong, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Chinese democracy advocates — communities that know this pattern of pressure well. None of them should have to weigh their safety before standing on a public sidewalk. Canada’s streets are governed by Canadian law, and by nothing else.
The Free China Movement (FCM) is a coalition of Chinese democracy and human rights advocates founded in 1998, working for a free, democratic, and constitutional China.
This statement is also being prepared in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, German, and Spanish editions.