Canada: Toronto Practitioners Launch Petition Drive to Commemorate April 25 Appeal

On Friday, April 25, Toronto practitioners displayed a golden cloth at City Hall for passersby to sign and help free Toronto residents' family members who are being tortured in labour camps in China for practising Falun Gong. Practitioners also called on all levels of the government to publicly condemn the Jiang regime for the lies it has told that have affected Canadians.

On April 25, 1999, in order to strive for a just and free environment to practise Falun Gong, approximately 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners exercised their basic civil rights: they went to Beijing to peacefully appeal, and their demeanour embodied the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Unfortunately, the Jiang regime used this peaceful appeal as an excuse to launch an inhuman persecution against one hundred million Falun Gong practitioners. In order to justify the persecution, the Jiang regime has used its power to fabricate numerous lies to slander Falun Gong, and used all kinds of media to spread these lies throughout the world. Nearly four years have passed, and Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international organisations have cited hundreds of death cases and thousands of torture cases due to the persecution.

On this occasion, several witnesses to the April 25 grand peaceful appeal and the persecuted practitioners' family members accepted interviews with the media. Practitioners also practised in front of the city hall. The golden cloth was filled with signatures from passersby.

China Lies, People Die

The well-known outbreak of SARS was provided an environment to rapidly spread due to the Jiang regime's lies and cover-ups. In the beginning, the regime used the excuse of "internal problems" to hide the epidemic's outbreak. As a result, the epidemic spread to many other parts of the world, including Toronto, where 15 people have died.

Over the past four years, Falun Gong practitioners have battled the lies and propaganda created by the Jiang regime regarding Falun Gong. We have also witnessed the great price Falun Gong practitioners have paid for speaking the truth. In Toronto alone, 13 family members of local practitioners have suffered persecution in China's labour camps or prisons for practising Falun Gong. Two were tortured to death. To protect the Chinese people and Canadian people, we have the responsibility to call for the Chinese leaders to stop telling lies.