Toronto Practitioners Clarify the Truth During Visit from Xiao Yang, Chief Justice of China's Supreme Court

When Falun Gong practitioners heard the news that Xiao Yang, Chief Justice of China's Supreme Court and his staff were going to visit Toronto on January 11 and 12, 2003, they realised that this would be an opportunity to expose the evil of the persecution, clarify the truth and peacefully appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.

Early on the morning of January 11, Chinese and Western practitioners drove several hours and arrived at Niagara Falls with banners and informational materials. The western practitioners came across Xiao Yang's group at a local hotel. Upon seeing the practitioners, the group became hurried and confused, and went to find more people from the consulate to join them. Practitioners displayed banners outside the hotel saying, "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Stop Persecuting Falun Gong." Others entered the hotel. The Chinese group encircled one practitioner. A female practitioner told them sternly: "This is Canada. I will call the police right away if you keep behaving like this!" The Chinese group had to restrain themselves. Another practitioner broke out of the tight encirclement and approached Xiao Yang and his group. The practitioner asked, "Who is the Chief?" A thin old man became very perturbed. The practitioner added, "I hope you stop persecuting Falun Gong immediately!" Nobody answered from the entire group. Several people from the Chinese consulate asked the hotel to make the practitioners leave, but since Canada is a country that values freedom and respects human rights, the hotel refused their unreasonable request. The group hastily left the hotel, got into their van and prepared to leave. However, outside the hotel, the people from the consulate tried to separate practitioners from each other and block the banners. Several consulate officials even pulled the banners away from practitioners in order to keep people in the van from seeing them. Practitioners asked them why they were so afraid of the banners, and where their consciences and sense of justice had gone, and told them that each person should be responsible for his or her own conduct.

When Xiao Yang and his group went to a restaurant in the city for dinner after returning from the Falls, they were "welcomed" by a Falun Gong practitioner who handed them truth-clarifying materials. The Chinese officials asked the practitioner, "How did you know we were going to be here?" The practitioner answered, "I am here everyday. As soon as I see a Chinese delegation, I clarify the truth to them." Before long more than ten practitioners arrived. In spite of the harshness of the winter weather, the practitioners stood on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant and held banners and posters saying, "Falun Dafa is good!" and "Stop the Persecution!" Some Western practitioners handed out truth-clarification materials to curious people passing by, answered their questions, and explained to them why they were there protesting despite the bitter cold. Upon hearing about the persecution of Falun Gong and that a high-ranking Chinese official was sitting inside, many people were shocked and expressed their support for Falun Gong. Some people even waved and talked to Xiao Yang and his group through the window, calling on them to stop the persecution and to lift the ban on Falun Gong in China. Some practitioners had brought the big-screen TV that is usually used in Chinatown to play truth-clarifying videos. They played the "Doubts about the Self-immolation" video for Xiao Yang and his group, hoping that those who had been deceived and had blindly executed orders would have one more chance to know the truth. Indeed, some members of the group and some consulate officials continued to watch through the window.

With practitioners standing quietly outside, Xiao Yang and his group did not dare to leave and delayed their departure time and again. They stayed at dinner for more than two hours. The practitioners didn't eat anything but stood quietly in the cold wind, holding banners and posters in their hands. In the end, the Chief and his crew couldn't delay any longer. Afraid of passing the banners if they exited through the front door, the group left the restaurant through the rear door of the kitchen to try to catch the van that had quietly arrived. However, they did not know that some practitioners had been waiting out back for a long time. Finally, in front of Dafa's banners and truth-clarifying posters, amidst cries from the bottom of the practitioners' hearts of "Falun Dafa is good" and "Stop persecuting Falun Gong," Xiao Yang and his group hastily jumped into their vehicle without daring to face the Falun Gong practitioners and their peaceful appeal; they left immediately. How lamentable that, under Jiang's despotic power, the supposedly dignified Chief of China's Supreme Court had no courage to face up to the people who are appealing or to speak a few words with them, or to listen to the truth.

Jan. 26, 2003