In practical terms the hostile environment requires all Canadians of Vietnamese origin to identify as nationals of the Saigon regime by displaying its yellow flag at public events and community programs.
Community event organizers universally refuse to display the flag because they do not want to turn their cultural events and community activities into political events that they see as raising a middle finger to Vietnam and to the former boat people.
The government policy effectively empowers conservative groups in Canada to "police" the pro-Saigon requirement and encourage people to conform to it. Some do it in subtle ways by promoting Harper's revised history, but one group that takes up this role enthusiastically and in a very organized manner is the ARVN-affiliated political faction in Canada.
The ARVN people "police" events on behalf of government to detect problems (i.e. absence of the yellow flag), and arrange for public demonstrations against people that refuse to comply with their requirements, denigrating the organizers and participants as "communists" who are "staging an attack on an ethnic community"[3] They associate the event organizers with every atrocity ever committed by communist regimes (as well as many invented by the ARVN). Such attacks continue indefinitely within the community (see VietFest and Surrey Fusion Festival below for examples), effectively ostracizing the target group.
In case the local government who support community activities have not heard about the federal government's commitment to them, ARVN people are ever-present to explain it by referring to the bill that was passed by the federal government and to politicians' habit of wearing the yellow flag into parliament.
Following are a few examples of how the requirement to identify as nationals of the Saigon regime is enforced to effectively shut down non-conforming events and programs. This is by no means a complete inventory.
Two articles following illustrated how recurring events are attacked year-after-year until they either collapse or give in.
Organizer: Broadway Youth Resource Centre and an unorganized group of youth leaders.
2019
The original youth leaders were no longer so youthful and no longer had the time to deal with all political frustrations of keeping the event going, so it did not happen in 2019. Some of them were putting their efforts into more professionally organized, one-time cultural events.
2018
The ARVN tried a different tactic this year, asking VietFest to lend its name to another (anti-Vietnam) event bring put on by the ARVN. Considerable pressure was exerted, but the organizers refused. After the VietFest was over, the lead organizers expressed extreme frustration with all the harassment they had to endure during the lead-up to the festival.
The organizers refused to let the Canada-Vietnam Society participate in the event because the ARVN deems that group to be a "communist" group. Even if the ARVN can't get the yellow flag up an event they can still control the content of an event. This demonstrates the effectiveness of their "Communist" labelling as a means to control the community, even among people who otherwise resist the ARVN.
(Canada-Vietnam Society has been a target of the ARVN ever since it was formed because it refuses to join ARVN's political agenda or to identify as part of ARVN's community. It is a cultural and business organization that is adamantly non-partisan. In AVRN's world, that makes it a "communist" organization and ARVN is going after it aggressively.) VietFest is doing ARVN's work to divide the community, even if they don't display the yellow flag.
2017
ARVN continued the efforts to get an official entry into the event and VietFest continued to resist them. VietFest tried to arrange a compromise, but ARVN does not accept compromises. Events must be held in their name.
2016
The ''yellow-flaggers' informed the organizers ahead of time that they would be coming to 'scrutinize' the displays at the event to make sure that there was nothing unacceptable to them. The organizers were intimidated by the tone of the note and arranged for security.
Organizer: Private Entrepreneur -- a woman who is well-known in the community as an apolitical figure, so she probably used to getting attention from the ARVN.
The Saigon people tried to convince the organizer to include, as an "opening ceremony", a tribute to the Saigon regime with its national flags and national anthem. The organizer refused to turn her event into a political event. The response of the Saigon people follows.
Poster advertising the event (jpg)
Call for boycott (jpg)
Call for demonstration (jpg)
Rough translation of the above ads (pdf)
Photograph of protest 
Note that the organizer has no connection with the Vietnam government. The problem is that she refused to identify the event with the Saigon regime because she wished to make the event an inclusive cultural event (only a small minority of Vietnamese-Canadians have any historical connection with the former Saigon regime).
Note that all of organizations named as sponsors of the ads are aligned with the former Saigon military government -- they are political organizations and not all are open to general community membership.
The "Resolution 36" referred to in one of the ads is a Vietnam government initiative that welcomes ALL overseas Vietnamese to return to Vietnam and provides with them assistance to visit, invest, or settle in Vietnam. It does not sponsor cultural events in Canada.
A perfect example of how public organizations that attempt to be non-political are taken over. Not only that, post-takeover efforts were made to marginalize the deposed leaders in the community. Senator Ngo was involved, quoting Kenney's 2008 declarations and sent a copy along. This was not a unique event -- it is just the best example we have on hand at the moment.
Letter from Senator Ngo (pdf)
There was apparently a long controversy over the issue and the entire board of directors, who were opposed to flying the flag for good reasons, resigned over it. Among their reasons were that some members of the community might not want to attend a community service organization that is flying this political symbol.
There were many posts on their web site about the issue, but they have been removed. We have copies: VWAT2, VWAT3, VWAT4
Apparently a year later VWAT was still unable to hire a new director.
These items illustrate how the ARVN people refer to bill S-219 and other government actions as legitimizing or requiring the display of the flag.