Canada: Montreal Falun Gong Practitioners Call for an End to the Persecution in China at Women's Day Gathering

On March 7, 2004, from 12:30pm to 2pm, more than three thousand people, from all walks of life gathered at the National Park in downtown Montreal and marched to McGill University to mark the International Women's Day and call for government attention to women's rights. Falun Gong practitioners participated in this activity and called attention to female Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China for their spiritual belief.

Before the march, Falun Gong practitioners accepted an interview from Radio Canada International. Practitioner Maryse said: "Falun Gong is a high level cultivation system including slow and smooth exercises and meditation. Master Li Hongzhi started to teach Falun Gong in 1992, and the Chinese government encouraged people to practice Falun Gong until Chinese former president Jiang Zemin banned it in 1999 in the fear of its great popularity. Since July 20, 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have been brutally persecuted by the Jiang regime. Today we come here to commemorate those female Falun Gong practitioners who have been persecuted to death and to call on the Chinese government to end the persecution."

"Falun Gong is great!" Maryse told the reporter, "Falun Gong improves health and releases stress. Its principles are 'Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.' This was why I was immediately attracted by it as soon as I saw practitioners practicing Falun Gong. I was impatient with everyone because of pressure from work and home. As a Canadian, after practicing Falun Gong for only one year, I have benefited from it so much. It is just incredible."

A Reporter of Radio Canada International interviewing Falun Gong practitioners

The reporter signing a petition calling for an end of the persecution	Collecting signatures to call for end of the persecution.

"Falun Gong teaches me that the only way to achieve peace is to change oneself from one's own heart; peace is something to share with others, not to demand from others." Falun Gong practitioner Monique said, "I came here today because I notice that people want to live with more meaning in family, work and social life." Just before the march started, Monique saw a lady who had been watching Falun Gong practitioners the entire time. Monique then approached her and explained to her the effect of Falun Gong in purifying one's body and mind. The woman listened to her quietly for a while and then suddenly said: "I believe what you said because I now want to quit smoking and have my teeth cleaned after listening to you."

Falun Gong practitioner Pauline told the reporter her experience with a Chinese family, she said: "I met a Chinese family of 6, they quietly read a sign in my hand which read "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance." I greeted them in Chinese: 'Hello! How are you?' They smiled and replied in a long sentence in Chinese. However, I could not understand. I then gave them a copy of Falun Gong truth-clarifying material which tells about how the Chinese Deputy Consul in the Chinese consulate in Toronto was convicted for libelling Falun Gong and about forty-five Chinese officials including Jiang have been put on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police' watch. The family was very happy."

It is reported that Jiang Zemin, who launched and has been leading the persecution of Falun Gong, not only manipulates Chinese media to run lies to incite hatred against Falun Gong among Chinese people unfamiliar with the facts, but also strictly blocked the all information that tells the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong. All deaths from torture have been falsely categorized as suicide or natural death by the Jiang regime. To date (March 12, 2004), there are 901 Falun Gong practitioners who have been confirmed to have died of torture. Among them, at least 470 victims are women, comprising of 52.1% of the total death toll.

One of the most well-known cases was reported by Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal on April 20, 2000. Chen Zixiu, a fifty-nine-year-old retired worker in Weifang, Shandong Province, was arrested for being suspected of planning to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She died on February 21, 2000, after suffering three days of torture. The government officials falsely reported that she had died of a heart attack. This report won Pulitzer Award of the year 2000.

Sexual abuse is one of the most despicable tortures targeting female Falun Gong practitioners. Due to Jiang's policy of "no law applies to Falun Gong," the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp stripped eighteen female Falun Gong practitioners naked and threw them into cells with male criminals in October, 2000. Around 9 pm on May 14, 2001, a Beijing policeman beat up a woman Falun Gong practitioner until she lost consciousness, he then pulled her under a bridge over the city moat from Dabeiyao to Yonganli and raped her. Wei Xingyan is a twenty-eight-year-old Falun Gong practitioner and graduate student majoring in the High Voltage Continuous Current Transmission and Simulation Technology at Chongqing University. In the evening of May 13, a policeman raped her in front of witnesses at the Baihelin Detention Centre, Shapingba District, Chongqing City.