The unsolved murder of an employee of a giant spiritual health organization — which a Mountie ranked as one of the most “strange” cases he’s ever seen — is back in the spotlight after a B.C. judge ruled the matter of significant public interest.

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The killing of Bo Fan, an employee of Create Abundance, has drawn international media attention over the past six years, including from Canadian news outlets, Le Monde in France, the South China Morning Post in East Asia, Newsweek in the U.S., and The Sunday Guardian in India.

Fan, a 41-year-old Chinese national, was found brutally beaten to death in Surrey on June 17, 2020, a few blocks from where Create Abundance had just hosted an event.

At the time, Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesman Sgt. Frank Jang said Fan’s connections to Create Abundance were “huge for us,” as he urged witnesses to come forward. Jang later referred to the Fan case as “bizarre,” “strange” and “shrouded in mystery,” while acknowledging no direct evidence had linked the organization to her attack.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Layton ruled in February in favour of the reporting on the case by independent B.C. filmmaker and journalist Ina Mitchell.

In addition to asking questions about who killed Fan, Mitchell’s article in India’s Sunday Guardian newspaper examined Create Abundance’s global operations, as well as its links with China, where a court had referred to it as a “pyramid scheme” and a “cult.”

The judge upheld Mitchell’s argument that Create Abundance’s lawsuit against her was a form of “lawfare,” a legal attempt to silence critical coverage of a matter of “considerable public importance.”

Beginning in 2014, Create Abundance, under its charismatic leader Zhang Xinyue, began moving much of the base of its organization out of China to B.C., including to a villa at 6682-27th Ave. in Surrey, and a resort on Salt Spring Island, called Mineral Springs.

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Since the murder of Fan, according to Le Monde, Create Abundance, also known as Golden Touch and by other names, has been putting much of its efforts into France, where it charges clients large fees, has tens of millions of dollars in property and is “aggressively trying to penetrate the worlds of culture, education and fashion.”

Create Abundance’s programs mostly attract women, who are drawn to the message of combining personal health with wealth creation. Media reports have shown some clients have been taught wilderness survival skills, including on Salt Spring Island, where dozens of clients have been photographed wearing military camouflage gear and often carrying pistols.

In the B.C. court case, Create Abundance officials had argued Mitchell was biased against them in part because of her previous work on Chinese interference in Canada, including in a documentary about Vancouver housing costs titled Millionaire City, and her co-authored book, The Mosaic Effect.

The judge, however, said Mitchell’s reporting displayed no malice toward Create Abundance.

“I reject any suggestion that being passionate about a subject or even devoting one’s professional life to it,” leads to irresponsible reporting, Layton said.

The judge expressed concern that the lawsuit against Mitchell “might have had a potential chilling effect on future expression by her or other journalists who are interested in reporting on this and related topics.”

Layton ruled that Mitchell, who is also a licensed private investigator, is entitled to “full immunity costs,” which means Create Abundance must pay all her legal fees. Most often a successful party in a lawsuit only gets partial fees covered.

Layton’s ruling on journalistic freedom echoes another one this month in Ontario. That’s where a judge threw out a $10-million defamation suit brought by Ontario politician Michael Chan against Globe and Mail reporter Robert Fife and Sam Cooper, then with Global News. The libel case centred on 2023 articles linking Chan to foreign interference.

In the complex B.C. lawsuit against Mitchell, Create Abundance and its representatives denied being involved in the murder of Fan, denied being members of a cult and denied being spies for the Chinese Communist Party.

Mitchell’s lawyer, Mikhael Magaril, said the judge’s decision in his client’s favour “is a powerful vindication for those involved in journalistic reporting.”

The case shows, said Magaril, that the value of so-called SLAPP legislation, which aims to protect critics from “strategic lawsuits against public participation.”

Such lawsuits, often meritless, can be launched by corporations and others simply to silence critics, forcing them into expensive legal battles. Independent journalists, Magaril said, are especially vulnerable to being “crushed” by such court costs.

Mitchell is the only Canadian journalist sued in regard to coverage of Create Abundance. That’s despite Mitchell co-writing the article with Bob Mackin, another independent journalist from B.C., and Scott McGregor, a former military and police intelligence analyst.

Create Abundance hasn’t launched lawsuits against any other major media outlets, even while the judge said the highly read articles about the leaders’ troubles in China and elsewhere “had likely already blemished their reputations.”

Le Monde published an investigative piece in 2024 saying the “Chinese esoteric movement” markets a “benevolent discourse (that) conceals an organization with cultlike leanings, which has been accused of defrauding thousands of people in China and is suspected of being linked to a murder in Canada.”

Magaril, one of two lawyers who defended Mitchell, said the public has a right to know as much as possible about Create Abundance and the murder of Bo Fan.

“The fact that we do not know who did it should not prevent journalists from asking the very important questions associated with such a case,” Magaril said. “The ability to raise those questions to the public … advances freedom of speech and is protected by the PPPA (Protection of Public Participation Act).”

IHIT said the murder case remains unsolved.

“I can confirm that the homicide of Bo Fan continues to be an open investigation with IHIT. To date, there have been no arrests or charges,” said Sgt. Freda Fong. “Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any further details so as not to compromise the ongoing investigation. IHIT is committed to exhausting all investigative leads to hold those accountable for the murder.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact the IHIT information line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448), or by email to ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

dtodd@postmedia.com