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Toronto is ground zero for Beijing’s transnational repression in Canada. On March 14, 2026, the world premiere of Japanese director Hideto Sonoda’s LOVE SUPREME: Dialogue with Xi Jinping at University of Toronto’s Innis Town Hall became a clear target.

The film follows an animator pressured to produce Xi propaganda and is dragged into a raw philosophical battle with a fictional “Emperor” Xi. It confronts the Cultural Revolution, TiananmenI Uyghur camps, and Hong Kong’s destruction. This makes it deeply unacceptable to the CCP.

Roughly one week before the screening, a Texas law firm sent a legal threat letter to the Japanese studio on behalf of an anonymous “John Doe,” demanding that they "cease publishing or repeating generalized, dehumanizing, or hateful statements" and provide "written assurance" that the screening would not promote hostility.

Then the University of Toronto moved in. Despite organizers already having their own professional security in place, U of T first raised concerns about possible security threats and offered its own security. This soon became a non-negotiable demand with a deadline: over $2,200 for nine of its special constables in a 199-seat theater. With the director already flying in from Japan, organizers paid the charge to avoid a last minute cancellation.

That night, two pro-CCP counter-protesters stormed in, chanting and disrupting the screening. These were identical tactics that have been used against Shen Yun. Just two weeks later, all six scheduled Shen Yun performances in Toronto were cancelled amid bomb threats and similar pressure. Both LOVE SUPREME and Shen Yun are cultural works exposing CCP atrocities.

I reached out to U of T for comment. Their response heavily emphasized the university’s commitment to free speech cited Ontario’s free speech policy, while casually brushing off the $2,200 security demand as “usual practice” after “some members of the university community voiced concerns.” They provided no details on specific threats or intelligence.

At a press conference before the screening, a reporter from a pro-regime outlet revealed that international students at U of T were concerned and that the matter had sparked many discussions on WeChat. This exposed the source of the complaints as private Chinese-language student networks.

Mimi Li, who helped organize the screening, says this fits a dangerous pattern. She helped push Bill C-70, Canada’s foreign agent registry, through Parliament two years ago. It passed, yet Ottawa has done nothing to enforce it.

Canadian institutions are folding to backroom CCP-linked pressure instead of defending free expression on their own soil. Canadians need to demand real enforcement of foreign agent laws. The CCP’s infiltration doesn’t stop at China’s borders. It’s already inside our campuses and theaters.