VANCOUVER — Members of Parliament from around Vancouver have been offered invitations to a Falun Dafa cultural show at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre — but Canada's conflict of interest and ethics commissioner has said accepting freebies to the show is a conflict of interest.
Staffs at offices of MPs including Libby Davies, Alice Wong, and Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Minister James Moore, say they received invitations to attend Shen Yun Performing Arts, which runs Feb. 3 through Feb. 5.
Tickets for the show, which is presented by the Falun Dafa Association of Vancouver, are on sale now for between $60 and $170.
None of the MPs contacted by The Vancouver Sun planned to attend the show, according to their constituency staffs.
The Vancouver show comes two months after MPs were warned by ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson, not to accept free tickets for the same show in Ottawa, which ran in mid December.
She said the tickets were being offered by the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, which has been seeking support from Canadian politicians.
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is an international spiritual organization that teaches and practises concepts of Buddhist self-cultivation. It's been banned and called a "cult" by the Chinese government.
(Vancouver Sun, February 3, 2012)
Original text from: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Ethics+watchdog+tells+accept+Falun+Gong+tickets/6100284/story.html
