Falun Gong, city of Vancouver take protest squabble to court
VANCOUVER - If the Falun Gong supporters are correct that their signs of protest erected outside the Chinese consulate in 2001 cannot be regulated by the City of Vancouver, then no structures could be regulated on city streets, the city's lawyer told a judge today.
"If the respondents are correct, the city is powerless to regulate," city lawyer Tom Zworksi told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein.
The lawyer said the city has met with local Falun Gong representatives and tried to seek a compromise, but the 20-metre-long plywood signs and a hut placed on city property outside the consulate have not be removed as requested by the city.
"This is not a case of the city using its powers in some draconian way," Zworksi explained. "The city attempted to reach a compromise to the satisfaction of everyone."
The city is not trying to limit the right to protest or freedom of expression, he added.
"What this petition is about is the structures - not the protests or the signs."
The protest signs were first erected in July 2001 in front of the Chinese consulate in Vancouver, located at 3380 Granville.
Mayor Sam Sullivan first ordered the structure dismantled in 2006, saying it was built without permission from the city and encroaches on the city sidewalk.
The city is seeking an injunction to remove the signs and protest hut, which is occupied 24 hours a day, after receiving complaints about the structures, Zworksi said.
Zworski said city officials have met several times with Falun Gong supporters to discuss the issue of the permanent structures on city property violating the city's bylaws and policies.
"The respondents take the view that they have the right to be there indefinitely," he said.
After a meeting in 2003, the size of the billboard-sized signs were reduced, but they still violated the city's bylaw, the lawyer said.
The street and traffic bylaw generally prohibits structures on city streets and boulevards that may impede the flow of vehicles or pedestrian traffic, Zworksi said.
The city allows certain things with permission: newspaper boxes, bus shelters, street furniture such as garbage cans and benches, bicycle racks, sidewalk cafes, utility poles, public art and even hot dog stands.
"The city regulates the use of the streets to balance various conflicting interests," Zworksi told the court. "The city has an obligation to manage this finite resource."
He said the Falun Gong supporters who erected the signs outside the consulate have never sought the city's permission.
But local Falun Gong spokeswoman Sue Zhang, one of the respondents in the city's legal action to seek an injunction, said after meeting with city officials and reducing the size of the signs, Falun Gong supporters thought they had reached an acceptable compromise.
"We got a phone call from the city thanking us for our cooperation," Zhang said outside court, adding city officials never stressed the need for permission.
She said the protest hut has been occupied full-time, often by elderly people, for the last seven years.
Zhang believes the city is responding to complaints made by Chinese government officials, who persecute and kill Falun Gong practicioners in China, where Falun Gong is illegal.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that involves five exercises.
Vancouver lawyer Joe Arvay, a constitutional specialist, is expected to make his legal arguments against the city injunction on Tuesday.
The case is scheduled for five days at the Vancouver Law Courts.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...b-16edace9e6b7
Linear Mode
