In January 2026, the Falun Gong Human Rights Group and Human Rights Action Group submitted a request to the Sanctions Bureau of Global Affairs Canada recommending that Canada designate two former senior officials of the Government of the PRC responsible for gross and systematic human rights violations in China, namely violations targeting Falun Gong practitioners, as reported by the Epoch Times on June 20, 2026.

The specific human rights violations detailed in the submission include arbitrary detention, forced organ harvesting, torture, and mass surveillance. The submission links these violations committed abroad to acts of transnational repression in Canada; at the time, Sarah Teich told the Epoch Times that these sanctions would allow Canada to “demonstrate for the first time that acts of transnational repression can fall under our sanctions laws when linked to gross human rights violations occurring in a foreign state.”

In the months since the submission, Canada has set such a precedent. In February, Canada sanctioned 7 individuals “linked to Iranian state bodies responsible for intimidation, violence and transnational repression targeting Iranian dissidents and human rights defenders.”

The sanctions announcement asserted that these measures “send[] a clear message that Canada will not tolerate the Iranian regime’s attempts to intimidate, harm or silence voices inside or outside Iran—including its own people, who were killed, injured and arbitrarily detained during recent protests— and individuals who deserve to live peacefully in Canada, without fear of reprisal.”

The designation of the individuals recommended by the Falun Gong Human Rights Group and Human Rights Action Group would strengthen this early precedent, demonstrating that Canada’s sanctions regime can, and will, be used to address acts of transnational repression linked to gross human rights violations abroad.