{"id":11150,"date":"2023-02-07T15:28:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yogajournal.com\/?p=108950"},"modified":"2023-02-07T15:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:28:03","slug":"online-protestors-express-outrage-in-response-to-bikram-choudhurys-scheduled-classes-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/07\/online-protestors-express-outrage-in-response-to-bikram-choudhurys-scheduled-classes-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Protestors Express Outrage in Response to Bikram Choudhury\u2019s Scheduled Classes in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On February 20, Bikram Choudhury\u2014the founder of hot yoga and the defendant in seven civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault, rape, discrimination, harassment, or wrongful termination\u2014is scheduled to headline a week-long series of classes in Vancouver, British Columbia. The event is being promoted as \u201cBoss is back!\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cBoss\u201d of who, exactly?<\/p>\n

Not Canadians. As word of Choudhury\u2019s return to Vancouver<\/a> makes its way throughout the yoga community and beyond, people are taking part in an online uprising. Many of the responses express dismay that Choudhury\u2014who left the United States, failed to pay a jury-mandated judgment of more than $7.4 million, and had a warrant issued for his arrest in 2017\u2014could be allowed to enter the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have felt a number of times that we have a tendency in yoga circles to let people get away with things and try to avoid conflict for fear of appearing judgmental or mean,\u201d says Colin Hall, the owner of Bodhi Tree Yoga<\/a> in Regina, Saskatchewan. Hall, who has taught yoga for more than 20 years, shared an open letter to the organizers of the event calling for it to be shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not stay silent,\u201d said Hall. \u201cI just won\u2019t.\u201d That sentiment has been voiced by others in recent days. The following is a look at what is taking place.<\/p>\n


January 18<\/strong>
A post titled \u201cBikram Choudhury (Rapist and predator) coming to Vancouver\u201d<\/a> appeared in the \u201cVancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Earth\u201d group on the social platform Reddit. It features the \u201cBoss is back!\u201d poster that Canada Yoga Sports Federation (CYSF) is using to promote the upcoming event.<\/p>\n

So far, the thread has drawn 1500 votes and more than 200 comments, including questions\u2014rhetorical and otherwise\u2014as well as suggestions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are not let into Canada for way lesser offenses. I wonder how one would flag this for the Border Services Agency?\u201d asked one commenter. Someone else answered with a link to the Canada Border Services Agency watch line.<\/a><\/p>\n

Another commenter encouraged others to direct concerns to the Marriott Parq Vancouver<\/a>, which is the site for the week-long series of classes and lectures with Choudhury. \u201cHi folks, commenting on this post isn\u2019t enough. Info@ParqVancouver.com is their email and it is 100% worth sending an email.\u201d<\/p>\n

January 21<\/strong>
The Vancouver Sun published the article<\/a> \u201cControversial Bikram yoga founder\u2019s planned Vancouver workshops raising flags.\u201d The article outlines allegations against Choudhury, including those of a Vancouver woman.<\/p>\n


February 1<\/strong>
On Change.org, someone launched a petition titled \u201cStop Bikram Choudhury from hosting Yoga Seminar at the Parq Marriott, Vancouver.\u201d<\/a> It\u2019s drawn more than 2000 signatures and elicited dozens of comments.<\/p>\n

One commenter posted \u201cDon\u2019t we pride ourselves on keeping women safe?\u201d Another stated, \u201cThis has to stop. I stand with the survivors.\u201d Someone else offered a call to action referring to the Marriott: \u201cMaybe warn them that this P.O.S. wouldn\u2019t pass their own Patron Code Of Conduct<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition has also been shared on Twitter.<\/p>\n

February 4
<\/strong>On Instagram, Hall dedicated an episode of \u201cThe Yoga News,\u201d an occasional video series, to the Vancouver situation. In the three-minute reel, he recaps the allegations against Choudhury and then deadpans, \u201cAnd apparently now we\u2019re going to welcome him into Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

After inquiring, \u201cWho do we have to thank for this lovely thing?\u201d Hall answers his own question, citing the CYSF. The reel then shares a screenshot of the CYSF \u201cContact\u201d<\/a> page showing its email address. \u201cOn their website, they say \u2018Let\u2019s connect.\u2019<\/a>\u201d says Hall. \u201cSo I encourage you to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reel ends with Hall saying, \u201cWe\u2019re not putting up with this. This is not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

February 5
<\/strong>Less than 24 hours after sharing \u201cThe Yoga News\u201d video, Hall posted an open letter to the organizers of the event on Instagram requesting that they cancel the event. The letter asserts \u201cBikram Choudhury should never teach yoga again.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

If you are a victim of sexual assault, there are resources that can provide support at any time of day or night. In Canada, you can call the Women Against Violence Against Women Crisis and Information Line<\/a> at 877-392-7583. In the United States, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or reach out via confidential online chat at online.rainn.org.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

About Our Contributors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sarah Herrington<\/a> is a writer and educator who has been teaching for more than a decade. Her work has appeared in the <\/em>New York Times, <\/em>Los Angeles Times, and <\/em>Yoga Journal and she\u2019s passionate about safety in yoga and meditation spaces. For years she taught yoga in NYC public schools and out of that experience founded the OM Schooled teacher training. She now runs Mindful Writing Workshops combining writing and meditation and loves holding space for other writers to speak from the heart. She holds MFAs from NYU and Lesley University and has more than 500 hours of yoga training. She is grateful for both the paths of writing and yoga. <\/em><\/p>\n

Renee Marie Schettler<\/a> is a senior editor at <\/em>Yoga Journal and has worked on staff as an editor at <\/em>The Washington Post,<\/em> Real Simple, and various online media platforms. She started studying yoga nearly 20 years ago with teachers in New York City who emphasized the challenging of finding precise alignment in a posture. Her understanding of yoga changed when she began studying with teachers who believe the practice is less about how we execute the posture and more about whether we can surrender into the experience of it. Renee finds that editing, writing, and practicing yoga are each about becoming more aware of truth. She has been teaching yoga since 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Online<\/figure>\n

A petition, an open letter, and posts on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter call for organizers to cancel the event.<\/p>\n

The post Online Protestors Express Outrage in Response to Bikram Choudhury’s Scheduled Classes in Canada<\/a> appeared first on Yoga Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37,35,36],"class_list":["post-11150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ayurveda","tag-blogs","tag-yoga","tag-yogacourseware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}