It's foreign interference, but it really has a true Canadian dimension. Including the organizers and the performers, the entire Shen Yun community is a very Canadian community. You have 18- and 19-year-old kids, Canadian-born kids, who are on stage with years of training. They're facing bomb threats, criminal harassment and the fear of cancellation. I'm a father of a 19-year-old. My children are not talented enough to be Shen Yun performers, but as a parent, I think it's a horrible situation to have to live with, not knowing if these bomb threats will manifest themselves.
As far as I'm concerned, it's really a situation of transnational crime that has an impact on Canadians—what Canadians get to see and what Canadians get to experience culturally speaking—and on Canadian artists and Canadian performers. With anything that's transnational crime, sure the origins.... Take as an analogy criminal drug cartels. Cocaine is harvested outside the country and imported from outside the country, but the dealers are here. The crime has an immediate criminal impact in the country.
As an analogy, it's the same situation here. The difference is that the scheme is very intelligent, because the Criminal Code infractions originate from outside the country. Under diplomatic cover, the work is then finished by consular officials. Under the veil of diplomatic immunity, they go about trying to seal the deal and convince venues to disenfranchise Shen Yun, which is, as I've said, a Canadian institution with Canadian artists and performers.