Acting Regional Director Says Universal Values are 'the dream of most people'

EDMONTON—Suzanne Lacroix, acting regional director for Statistics Canada, has always liked Chinese things, and the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular did not disappoint.

"I very much enjoyed it. I enjoy Chinese culture very much because my son is half Chinese and I try on occasion, if I can, to take him to Chinese things... And I now hired two young women from China to work with the federal government—so this was their gift for Chinese New Year—to take them to this show because I know they are homesick for China," she said.

Ms. Lacroix said her deepest impressions of the show related to the commonalities we all share.

"...how much even China is a long, long place away. How much there are so many common things amongst all the cultures. You know, like even the music, sound or the dancing, how much more similar we all are than different. And I like they had Falun [Gong] in there with the message of compassion, and I really like that."

"I took my friend, my colleague, who said it's very traditional Chinese culture—and I was really happy to be able to see that. I'm not that familiar. I had not seen a real traditional music and opera so that was really wonderful for me. I really enjoyed it."

"The Falun [Gong] message about Compassion and Truth and Forbearance—those are values that I think in our society are really important. So particularly in a show like that, that reaches a really broad audience, I find that to be able to convey a universal message... because I believe every culture believes in that. I think it's really important and I really did appreciate that this message came through art—which is always a good way to have these kinds of messages translated."

"Compassion and truth and those kind of things are good messages, especially at a time when our world has so many conflicts."

Ms. Lacroix added: "I think it doesn't matter were it comes from… certainly I think the government of Canada would say it supports peace and supports compassion and it supports truth and I think those are universal values that I think most people value, not to say we all have, you know, achieved them but certainly are actively pursuing, I think that is the dream of most people."

For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit: www.DivinePerformingArts.org.