Michelle Cyca
The Georgia Straight
March 10th, 2024
On a rainy January Saturday, my daughter and I rode the Canada Line to Waterfront Station. We were on our way to an art exhibition, but even the journey itself was a treat for her. Children love transit: tapping the card, riding the escalator, sitting at the front of the train as if they’re aboard the world’s least thrilling roller coaster.
In an attempt to model healthy screen time boundaries, I kept my phone in my bag and encouraged my kid to engage with the world around us. “Look,” my daughter said, pointing at the phone screen of the passenger in front of us, which was open to TikTok, “That lady is dancing. Can they turn up the music so we can listen?” I looked around for something other than a stranger to entertain us, and that’s when my eye landed on the bizarre ad over our heads.
Featuring a hazy background of white clouds and blue sky, it suggested—in large green-and-blue font—that we all “Be Vegan, Make Peace”. Below it, in slightly smaller text, was an even more cryptic message: “Do Good Deeds = Heaven Godspeed”. There was also a URL for a website called Supreme Master TV.
Supreme Master TV is the platform for Ching Hai, a Vietnamese-born spiritual leader described in a 1997 TIME magazine profile as a combination of Martha Stewart and the Dalai Lama. She founded the Quan Yin method, which requires adherents to maintain a vegan diet and rigorous meditation practice and which some have described as a cult.
Hai is also the founder of Celestial Shop, an apparel and accessories company, and a chain of vegan restaurants called Loving Hut. According to their website, Loving Hut has more than 200 locations around the world, from New Zealand to Paraguay to Cameroon. An unusual feature of the chain is that each restaurant operates independently, with no consistent menu items or unifying aesthetic. The only requirement is that they broadcast Supreme Master TV to their patrons.
If the name “Loving Hut” sounds familiar, it might be because until 2020, the chain had an outpost in Vancouver: a bright yellow food truck on the seawall called Loving Hut Express. And before that, there was a brick-and-mortar location near Broadway and Cambie, which burned down in 2010. By all accounts, the vegan burgers were excellent. In the words of one Google reviewer: “Kinda creepy to have a TV streaming propaganda while you eat. Still, worth it for the food.”
For the past several years, local fans of Loving Hut’s combination of delicious vegan fare and dubious proselytizing have been out of luck. Presently, there are no Loving Hut locations in Canada; for Lower Mainlanders, the nearest outpost is in Seattle. By email, in which they kindly referred to me as a “noble saint,” Loving Hut headquarters confirmed that the TransLink ad was placed to promote Supreme Master TV, not a new Vancouver location.
According to TransLink’s corporate policy, any advertisements that “promote or oppose a specific theology or religious ethic” must be printed with a disclaimer. An anti-abortion ad by a Catholic organization that ran on buses in 2021, for example, included the required text: “This is a paid advertisement. The views expressed are not necessarily the views of TransLink or its subsidiaries.”
The same rule applies to ads for political parties or candidates. A 2009 Supreme Court ruling confirmed that TransLink, as a public agency, must uphold freedom-of-expression rights by accepting advertisements—excluding those that contravene laws or ad standards. So while hate speech is not permitted, alleged cults are okay, as long as they have the disclaimer. Which this ad did not.
TransLink confirmed by email that this was an oversight—one they are remedying after I contacted them with questions. By email, they wrote, “TransLink is aware that Canada Line’s advertising licensee is temporarily removing these specific advertisements and reprinting them with a disclaimer.” TransLink also mentioned to me that a third-party company, Lamar, is contracted to review ads and ensure their compliance with laws. (Lamar did not respond to my emails.)
Even more surprising than encountering unmarked religious messaging on public transit is that Supreme Master TV is not the only purported cult operating out of a restaurant chain with ties to the Lower Mainland. Sitting humbly in Chilliwack is the Yellow Deli, which is the third-ranked restaurant on TripAdvisor and boasts 4.5 stars on Yelp. What most hobby reviewers likely don’t know is that it’s run by the a religious sect Twelve Tribes, which has been investigated for allegations of child abuse and exploitation of members.
Twelve Tribes members live in communal compounds and operate businesses owned by the sect, including the Yellow Deli (which also has BC outposts in Nelson and Courtenay, as well as international locations). In 2022, the Denver Post interviewed ex-members who reported being made to work at the Yellow Deli in Boulder, Colorado without pay. Despite this disturbing (and easy to Google) reputation, the Chilliwack restaurant remains enduringly popular. In Maclean’s, a 2022 student guide to the University of the Fraser Valley called it “the best hangover breakfast”—though dining among savvy cult recruiters in a pliant state seems rather unwise.
Could there be other food hubs run by cults in the Lower Mainland? It’s possible. In January, Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions reported that their building’s exterior sign reading “THIS IS NOT A CULT” had been stolen, which is exactly what I would do if I were a cult leader looking to furnish my new restaurant venture with soothing decor on the cheap.
https://www.straight.com/city-culture/was-your-last-sandwich-made-by-a-cult
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