Across Ontario in late April and early May, mayors and councillors raised Falun Dafa Day flags in front of city halls to mark World Falun Dafa Day, the annual commemoration of the day in 1992 when the spiritual practice was first introduced to the public in China. Banners reading “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance” and “Falun Dafa is good” went up in successive ceremonies. 2026 marks the 34th anniversary of the practice’s public introduction and the 27th year it has been celebrated worldwide.
A mayor on the Detroit River receives a letter from Beijing’s consulate
Amherstburg, a town of about 25,000 sitting on the Detroit River across from Michigan, became the first Canadian city to hold its 2026 Falun Dafa Day flag-raising. At around 11:30 a.m. on April 30, the blue-and-white Falun Dafa Day flag was raised in front of the town hall. Prue presided personally, speaking on behalf of the town council, and presented practitioners with a formal proclamation declaring May 13 Falun Dafa Day in Amherstburg.
In his remarks, Prue told the assembled practitioners that after he had presided over last year’s ceremony, he received a letter from China’s consulate in Toronto demanding that he stop supporting Falun Dafa.
It was, he said, the first time in his political career that he had been threatened by a foreign government. He told the crowd he was shocked and angered by the letter, and that he had turned it over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the record. He said he was standing in front of the town hall that morning specifically to send a message back to the consulate: that he would continue to support Falun Gong practitioners, and that another letter would not change his position. What mattered, he said, was that the practitioners’ voices were heard and that their cause was just.
Prue’s history with the issue runs back to the beginning. In 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party launched its nationwide campaign to eliminate Falun Gong, Prue was the mayor of the former East York, then a borough of Toronto. He learned about the persecution from local practitioners and became the first Canadian elected official to publicly support the group. He has spoken at the Ontario legislature about the torture of religious and spiritual practitioners under Party rule.
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“For 27 years, I have hoped that that government would wake up and realize what a great group this is,” Prue told the gathering. He said he was proud that the Amherstburg council had unanimously supported issuing the proclamation and holding the ceremony, and that for a town of 25,000 to be the first in Canada to raise the flag this year carried real meaning. He urged the practitioners present to spread the message across the country.
Prue then read out the formal proclamation declaring May 13, 2026 as Falun Dafa Day in Amherstburg.
In an interview with Vision Times following the ceremony, Prue said elected officials in other Canadian cities who receive similar threats from foreign agents should adopt a “zero tolerance” stance, file a report with the RCMP immediately, and turn over any evidence. He also said he was disappointed by the recent cancellation of Shen Yun performances at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts following bomb threats to the venue, and said he hoped next year’s performances would proceed without incident.
Cornwall mayor: truthfulness, compassion, tolerance are what the world needs
The next morning, May 1, the city of Cornwall, in eastern Ontario, held its own ceremony in front of city hall. Mayor Justin Towndale read out the city’s proclamation in both English and French before the flag was raised. The proclamation praised the practice’s contribution to mental, physical, and moral well-being. This year marks the 13th consecutive year Cornwall has issued such a proclamation.
Towndale said that in an era of conflict and tension, the core values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance were not only principles Canadians prized but offered the wider world a way to heal. If people would slow down, he said, and take a few minutes to practice Falun Dafa’s sitting meditation, they might come to think more clearly and more kindly.
Towndale also issued a sharp condemnation of the 27-year persecution campaign run by the Chinese Communist Party. He noted that the victims included not only Chinese citizens but Canadian citizens as well, and called the Party’s transnational reach into Canada a form of foreign repression that was wholly unacceptable and unlawful. He told the practitioners directly to remain strong and to hold to their faith. The world, he said, was watching, and the flag being raised that morning was meant to say so as clearly as possible.
Adrian Bugelli, a councillor from the township of North Stormont, also attended the Cornwall ceremony. He said the inclusiveness of the practice was what allowed its values to be shared and embraced by people across cultures and continents.
What the proclamations say
Both proclamations stress that Falun Dafa transcends cultural and ethnic lines.
The Amherstburg proclamation describes Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, as an ancient Chinese self-cultivation practice rooted in the Buddhist tradition, combining moral teachings, meditation, and gentle exercises that improve health and energy. It records that the practice was first introduced to the public in China by Mr. Li Hongzhi in 1992 and that it is now practiced by more than 100 million people across more than 100 countries. It identifies “truthfulness, compassion, tolerance” as the practice’s core principles and notes that practitioners cultivate selflessness, insight, and inner clarity through sustained practice. It acknowledges the brutal persecution practitioners face under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, and pays tribute to the compassion and resilience they have shown under it. On those grounds, Mayor Prue, on behalf of the town council, declared May 13, 2026 as Falun Dafa Day in Amherstburg.
The Cornwall proclamation, the city’s 13th, marked the fifth time the city has raised the flag at city hall. It recognizes May 13, 2026 as the 34th anniversary of the public introduction of the practice and notes its peaceful spread worldwide. It describes Falun Dafa as a mind-body cultivation practice grounded in truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, and notes that its teachings have been translated into more than 56 languages and offered free of charge, allowing people of different cultures to access and benefit from it. The proclamation explicitly recognizes the diversity of Canada’s Falun Dafa community, naming Chinese, Persian, Vietnamese, Korean, Ukrainian, and other Canadian practitioners, and frames the community as a reflection of Canadian multiculturalism. It notes that Canada has been a place of refuge for many who fled persecution, and that those refugees now contribute actively to peace, health, and community life across the country. On those grounds, Mayor Towndale declared May 13, 2026 as Falun Dafa Day in Cornwall.
As World Falun Dafa Day approaches, more cities in Ontario and British Columbia are expected to join the rolling sequence of flag-raising ceremonies in the days ahead.
