'Racist and inflammatory': Some Canadians upset by the Epoch Times Report that China behind a virus, made as a bioweapon
The Epoch Times, is coming under fire for outlining the conspiracy about the origin of the coronavirus — and delivering it to Canadian people.
Some Canadians who received it by mail a special eight-page edition of the paper exploring the conspiracy the virus that causes COVID-19 was purposely created as a biological weapon and arguing it should be called "the CCP virus.
People in Oakville, Etobicoke, Markham, and Toronto, Ont. all reported getting copies of a special edition of The Epoch Times, as did residents in North Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C., and Winnipeg. It's not clear that all those papers were delivered by Canada Post.
Lisa Armstrong in Kelowna found a copy in her rural mailbox.
"It did describe a conspiracy, you know, maybe it was manufactured, this virus was manufactured in the lab. Well, no. We think scientifically that's just not true."
Some scientists have said the evidence points to the coronavirus having a natural origin.
Jason Kindrachuk, a Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, says that through studying the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, scientists can see it is similar to other bat coronaviruses and that it evolved naturally.
"There is a consensus within the scientific community at this point that there is a very close to zero, if not zero, chance that the virus was ever engineered," Kindrachuk said.
Armstrong was also worried the issue's anti-Communist Party messaging could inflame racial tensions in Canada during the pandemic.
"It really feels racist and inflammatory," Armstrong said. "And right now, we're all scared. We're all vulnerable. We don't know what's going to happen next. Then somebody that starts playing on those fears, [it's] a very dangerous thing to do at this time."
Issue sent to 'specific neighbourhoods'
It's not clear how many households in Canada received the paper.
Cindy Gu, the publisher of The Epoch Times, declined to say how many copies of that issue were distributed. In an email to CBC News, Gu said the publication had been delivering copies to "specific neighbourhoods."
"The Epoch Times has recently been 'sampling' copies of a special edition on Beijing's coverup that led to a global pandemic in select areas because we consider that information to be important to Canadians. We regard this sampling as an act of good citizenship," she wrote.
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Gu disagrees that the paper will fuel racism against people of Chinese descent.
"Some people may have erroneously conflated criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with criticism of the Chinese people," she wrote.
"Understanding the difference is vital and will eliminate racial tension, as people come to understand that the criticism of the handling of the virus is of the CCP, not the Chinese people."
Who's behind The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times, headquartered in New York, is part of a group of organizations under the Epoch Media Group umbrella, which also includes the Shen Yun dance troupe and the New Tang Dynasty TV channel. It says it operates in 23 languages in 35 countries.
A sociology professor says the Epoch Media Group is affiliated with the Falun Gong movement, a religious group that began in China and was declared illegal and a "cult" by the Chinese government in 1999. Its followers say the Chinese government persecutes them and oppresses their religious rights.
"Falun Gong followers started to organize large-scale protest[s] against the Chinese government's attempts to suppress the practice. So it evolved into a struggle between the Communist Chinese government and this religious group," said Xiaoping Li, a professor at Okanagan College who studies media outlets that serve the Chinese-Canadian diaspora.
"There are many stories about how group members were persecuted in China. There is definitely persecution and horrific violations of human rights."
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As for The Epoch Times, Li says it's not clear where the group gets its funding, but it can afford to employ reporters who speak English and Chinese in the many countries where it operates.
"Typically it's funded principally by donations, in a Chinese dissident community, in a given local context," said Stephen Noakes, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland who studies Chinese culture. "The people who staff the paper itself are normally also drawn from that context or are third-party acquaintances of the local Falun Gong community."
Noakes said that Falun Gong has been "enormously adept" at using its various media platforms "to its advantage to call attention to its own plight as a major human rights issue the world needs to know about."
"I think the local reporting is generally trustworthy. It does report what's happening in, for example, in Vancouver, in Toronto or New York," said Li.
Li says its reporting on China is their main purpose. The Epoch Times is "an anti-Chinese government media outlet."
'Kernel of truth'
"The most effective information is that which has a kernel of truth to it, is that which kind of flies under the radar, doesn't really break any guidelines," said Claire Wardle of First Draft, which educates journalists and others about what misinformation is and how to spot it. "It's much more hyper-partisan. It's much more misleading than completely outright-false falsehoods."
The Epoch Times has shared conspiracies in the past, and was banned from advertising on Facebook for trying to bypass political spending rules — though it is not alone in accusing China of the coronavirus coverup.
Wardle says people who read the special edition of The Epoch Times may not be completely convinced about its findings, and are left with questions about what their governments are telling them.
Carrier objects to delivering the paper
It was an article about a bioweapons link to coronavirus that set off alarm bells for a Toronto mail carrier when he saw the special edition appear in his mail station on Friday.
CBC News is not naming the carrier because he is concerned he could lose his job with Canada Post.
"They're saying the coronavirus is part of a bio-warfare agenda by the Chinese. That's over the line for me," he said.
"I saw the headlines on the thing and my heart sank because I thought the world right now is full of fear and confusion and the last thing that people need is, is this kind of this kind of reporting."
The carrier told CBC News that his supervisors decided that carriers wouldn't have to deliver it, and that the station superintendent supported the decision. But then, according to the carrier, the superintendent was told Canada Post Communications had deemed the paper a political mailing and that carriers who didn't deliver it would be disciplined.
"To be honest, it makes me feel like ... humanity is facing an existential crisis. And I'm being forced to hand out weapons in a cage fight," said the carrier.
Canada Post said in an email to CBC News, "We understand the reaction to this publication. However, as Canada's postal system, we are legally required to deliver it. The content is the sole responsibility of the publisher."
"Anyone concerned with its contents should contact the publisher, file a complaint against the publication through the appropriate institutions or place the item in the recycling box."
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