AFP: Canada Pledges to Investigate Alleged China Threats Over Falun Gong

OTTAWA, Feb 8, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) With less than a week to go before Prime Minister Jean Chretien leads Canada's biggest ever trade mission to China, Canada has pledged to probe allegations that Chinese diplomats here have threatened followers of the controversial Falun Gong [group].

The accusations were made by a group of Canadian supporters of the Falun Gong movement -- which has been outlawed in China -- in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Quizzed by reporters later, Foreign Minister John Manley said he had no evidence that Chinese diplomats had been involved in threatening [group] members and supporters.

But Manley, talking outside the House of Commons, said Canadian authorities would investigate the allegations.

Until he received evidence that the allegations were accurate, Manley said he was not taking any action.

"We don't call in ambassadors because somebody writes a letter," he said. "We'll have to investigate."

The Canadian Falun Gong supporters distributed a letter they said they had sent to the Canadian Foreign Ministry claiming that they had been targeted by "direct interference, threat, intimidation, and assault by Chinese foreign officials right here in Canada."

They said Chinese consular officials in Toronto had been involved in inciting hatred against Falun Gong at a public rally in January.

A lawyer representing the group, Rocco Galati, told reporters: "It should distress any Canadian citizen that a foreign government would publicly rally Canadian citizens to condemn the spiritual or religious beliefs of other Canadian citizens."

Chretien leaves later this week for China, heading a mammoth Team Canada trade mission.

On Tuesday, senior Canadian officials said Chretien would not shy away from dealing with human rights topics while in Beijing and Shanghai.