VANCOUVER, B.C. -- A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered Falun Gong protesters to remove their billboards and protest hut from the front of the Chinese consulate in Vancouver.
The religious group had been holding a round-the-clock vigil since 2001, protesting persecution of the religious group in China.
The City of Vancouver went to court claiming the group was breaking a bylaw with the structures encroaching on the sidewalk, while members of the Falun Gong argued the bylaw stifled their freedom of expression rights.
But B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled there were no exceptional circumstances and that erecting permanent structures goes against the fundamental purpose of the street.
The judge ordered the group take down its wooden billboards and protest hut within a week.
Stromberg-Stien emphasized she was referring only to the permanent structures on the sidewalk, and not other methods used in the group's protest vigil.
