A Falun Gong practitioner protesting outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto was attacked on Sept. 22 by a man with a Chinese flag on his jacket.

Lina Li, a Toronto-area resident and Falun Gong practitioner, was standing outside the consulate on a public sidewalk with banners calling for an end to the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline.

Li says she sustained some injuries during the commotion, including bleeding from her chin.

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) says it is investigating the incident, which occurred at around 9:35 a.m. on Sept. 22.

“It was reported that the victim was participating in a meditation group which was advertised with signs and banners on the property,” TPS spokesperson Shannon Eames said in an email.

A man attacks a Falun Gong practitioner filming him as he forcefully removes their banners on a public sidewalk outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on Sept. 22, 2026. (Screenshot/Handout)

“When they were about to begin, an unknown male approached the address and began damaging the signs and banners. The victim jumped in and tried to stop the suspect. The suspect then threatened the victim and fled the scene prior to police arrival.”

A video recording of the incident shows the man, who has a Chinese flag on his jacket and speaks Chinese, dragging away one of Li’s banners, and as she tries to take it back, he pushes her. He is then seen kicking the cameraperson.

Another video shows him dismantling another banner while uttering threats in Chinese to Li, saying, “I'll shoot you dead, believe it or not.” He also claims the public sidewalk Li is standing on is “Chinese territory” and cites China’s “Anti-Secession Law,” threatening, “I’ll throw you to your death.”

Nora Geng, a fellow Falun Gong practitioner who was kicked while recording the videos, said that she didn’t see where the man came from but that a vehicle came to pick him up and he left the scene. She added that another man who isn’t known to the Falun Gong practitioners was filming the entire interaction.

Geng said the Falun Gong practitioners had three large banners and a smaller one, mounted on poles, and the man forcefully dismantled all four.

“He went for the small one first and broke it, and then he went after the three other banners one by one,” Geng said.

Geng said this is part of a pattern and that it comes as Chinese leader Xi Jinping is visiting the United States from Sept. 23 to 25. But she said this time the attack was particularly brazen.

“It’s a very unusual period,” she said, adding that usually in these times, Chinese consulates receive special instructions to curb any unfavourable display of the regime overseas.

Toronto Police Service officers investigate the site outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto where Falun Gong practitioners were attacked and their banners were forcefully removed by a man wearing a jacket with a Chinese flag, on Sept. 22, 2026. (Handout)

She added that the words the man used are similar to what Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials say.

“He also said we were engaging in separatism. Without some kind of training, ordinary people wouldn’t talk like that,“ she said, adding that he didn’t seem afraid of consequences and being filmed, saying, “Go ahead and film me, call 911.”

Geng said that the police officer who came to the site to investigate said the incident is “very serious.”

The Epoch Times contacted Global Affairs Canada for comment, which referred the issue to Public Safety Canada. The department said the Canadian government takes foreign interference and transnational repression very seriously. It added that the Office of the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator spearheads efforts to build “societal resilience through ongoing engagement with domestic and international partners,” while security agencies monitor for acts of foreign interference and transnational repression.

“In particular, the RCMP investigates reports of foreign interference, regardless of country of origin, including election interference, transnational repression, malicious cyber activities, and information manipulation,” spokesperson Tim Warmington, whose department also oversees the RCMP, said in an email. “The RCMP takes threats to the security of individuals living in Canada very seriously and wants to reassure everyone that our primary focus is always the safety and protection of the public.”

Last year, a group of 65 Canadian lawmakers signed a petition condemning Beijing’s transnational repression of Falun Gong practitioners.

A man attacks a Falun Gong practitioner on a public sidewalk outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on Sept. 22, 2026. (Screenshot/Handout)

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It has been persecuted by the CCP in China since July 1999, with CCP officials seeing the peaceful practice’s massive popularity as a threat to the regime’s totalitarian control, according to the Washington-based Falun Dafa Infocenter.

The Falun Dafa Association of Canada released a report in 2025 that documents numerous instances of physical and verbal assault, intimidation, harassment, and social exclusion of Falun Gong practitioners in Canada linked to the Chinese communist regime.

“Of particular note concerning the CCP’s transnational repression …in Canada is that it continues to persist through surveillance, intimidation, and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners by the CCP and its proxies, occurring in cities such as Toronto and Montreal at sites … where practitioners regularly visit to raise awareness about the persecution of their practice in China,” the report says.

It adds that there are many cases of practitioners being attacked at these sites.

“This interference and repression are an extension of the CCPʼs campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in China, which began in July 1999 and continues today,” the report says.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 24, 2026, with a response from Public Safety Canada.