Canada: Falun Gong Practitioners Urge Canadian Government to Condemn Jiang Regime's Human Rights Abuses

Since the middle of March, China's human rights have been again one of the focuses of the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights. On April 8, Ottawa Falun Gong practitioners held an appeal and candlelight vigil at Ottawa's Human Rights Monument and Chinese Embassy to Canada respectively to urge all Canadians and the federal government to pay closer attention to Jiang and his followers' brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Practising Falun Gong at Ottawa's Human Rights Monument	Protesting the Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong, practitioners meditating in Front of the Chinese Embassy

According to a report on Minghui.org, by April 8, nongovernmental sources in China have reported 89 new cases of Falun Gong practitioners being killed as a result of the persecution this year, and the confirmed death toll of Falun Gong practitioners has increased to 936.

During the Geneva meeting of UN Commission on Human Rights, the U.S. Government has proposed a resolution to condemn China's human rights record. According a report in "The Globe and Mail" on Monday (April 3), to answer the U.S. resolution, "the government of China issued a 40-page white paper arguing that 2003 was 'a year of great, landmark significance for progress in human rights in the country.'" The Globe and Mail pointed out, "... a government is best judged by what it does, not what it says. As long as the People's Republic treats people as admirable as Ding Zilin 1 like criminals, its human-rights laws will be so much meaningless paper." It was reported that some pro-Jiang regime Chinese officials are currently using commercial interests to buy votes from UN member states in order to table the U.S. resolution on China's human rights.

In an interview, Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Limin said that even though Canada can't vote in the 60th Meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights this year, the Canadian Falun Dafa Association still wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hoped that Canada will still undertake the responsibility of safeguarding justice and work together with U.S. to condemn Jiang and his followers' human rights abuses, and help China to abide by its promise of protecting and respecting Chinese people's fundamental rights and freedom.

1. Ding Zilin, a 67-year-old professor. Her 17-year-old son was shot dead in June 4, 1989 during the Tiananmen pro-democracy student movement. Professor Ding is known as the leader of Tiananmen Mothers Group.