Chinese diplomat's wife defects to Canada

The Epoch Times, the Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun front page have the best coverage on this news breaking story.

It is noteworthy the defector topic got the media's attention (National Post, Radio-Canada Canoe CBC, CTV , etc) although the fact that 20 million quit the CCP went unreported in some instances. The Globe and Mail’s story is here with a slew of comments—some of them are pretty annoying.

It is clear that Zhang is not an opportunist, as the Globe and Mail lets on, and that her life would be at risk if she was to go back to China given the fact that she is a Falun Gong practitioner. Let’s hope that the Feds can do the math and grant her refugee status.

Epoch Times: 'Not the Last to Part From CCP' Says Diplomat's Wife

Forty-eight-year-old Zhang Jiyan is the wife of a diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Canada. She is also a Falun Gong practitioner. Zhang attracted the attention of the embassy for privately speaking with other embassy staff about the true situation of the Falun Gong and its persecution in China. The embassy began to monitor her and planned to confiscate her passport. Because of this pressure and to escape from being returned to China to face persecution, she made a decision on March 5 to leave the Chinese embassy.

Zhang noted that the Chinese ambassador had mentioned at an embassy all-staff meeting that he has delivered materials defaming Falun Gong to Canadian Members of Parliament, Canadian government officials, and the former Governor General of Canada. In addition, Chinese diplomats control Chinese communities in Canada in order to influence the mainstream society.

Zhang gave the example that, in 2005 when New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) was applying for permission to broadcast in Canada, embassy officials mobilized the Chinese communities and overseas Chinese students to oppose it by writing to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the regulating agency in Canada.

NTDTV is known to be a voice that dares to report the truth about events in China, she said, including China's human rights violations. She noted that in actual fact, the writers were expressing the opinions of the Chinese embassy. Moreover, embassy officials made great effort to lobby Canada's Rogers Cable TV to prevent NTDTV from landing in Canada. (more)