Canada:Courage, Determination and Peaceful Resistance -A Report on July 20th Activities in Toronto

July 20, 2004 marked the beginning of the Jiang's group's persecution of Falun Gong five years ago. More than 200 Falun Gong practitioners held a large rally in front of the Ontario Parliament Building to call for an end to the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China and the Jiang group's exporting state terrorism.

A Falun Gong practitioner reads a letter to Procurator General of Ontario, whilst a renowned human rights activist, Ms. Sheng Xue gives a speech

Vice-chairman of the Student Union at the University of Toronto gives a speech at the press conference to express support, whilst Falun Gong practitioner Zeng Xiaonan calls for help rescuing his mother

Stop the Jiang Group's Exporting State Terrorism and Hate Propaganda

At the rally, Toronto Falun Gong practitioner Joel Chipkar read a letter to the Procurator General of Ontario. The letter officially requests Ontario to comprehensively investigate the Chinese Consulate General's hate propaganda against Falun Gong practitioners in Ontario, especially the entire wall of hate propaganda exhibition in its Visa Application Office that is known as the "Wall of Hatred." Over the past two years, this hate propaganda has been spreading daily to hundreds of Canada's people and people from different countries who have been to the Chinese Consulate to apply for visas and to deal with other matters.

The letter emphasised that the recent malignant incident in South Africa in which Jiang's follower Zeng Qinghong hired gunmen to shoot Falun Gong practitioners, fully exposed how the Jiang group has exported its genocidal suppression of Falun Gong outside of China. If we ignore such a malignant incident and such state terrorist act, they may not only occur in South Africa, they may also occur in other countries.

Jiang's group has based its five-year persecution of Falun Gong on lies, or what Amnesty International has called a "Massive Propaganda Campaign."

The letter pointed out that Chinese Consulate officials cannot enjoy immunity for spreading their hate propaganda. Their behaviour has violated the No.319 Criminal Law of Canada, No. 12 and 13 of Canadian Human Rights Bill, No. 126 of the Chinese Constitution, No.17 and 20 of Vienna Treaty concerning Consul Relationship and International Civil and Political Rights Act. The hate propaganda inside the consulate especially violates Article No. 20 of the International Civil and Political Rights Act (ICCPR).

Joel Chipkar said, "Our activity has gained support from people of different social strata, including people in the Chinese community. As of today, we have collected over ten supporting letters."

Falun Gong Has Changed China's History

Several people from different social strata specially came to attend the rally to express their support, including the Vice-chairman of the Democratic Front and Human Rights Activist Ms. Sheng Xue. Since the beginning of the Jiang group's brutal persecution of Falun Gong five years ago, she has been showing great sympathy and support to Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Sheng Xue expressed that Falun Gong practitioners' uncompromising perseverance and peaceful resistance have changed China's history. She called upon everyone to work together to end the Jiang group's state terrorism.

Vice-chairman of the Student Union at the University of Toronto also specially attended today's activity and gave a speech at the press conference. He expressed that he represented the student union of the University of Toronto and more than 30 thousand students to express their support for Falun Gong. They would continue supporting Falun Gong's peaceful resistance, and help stop the persecution. The University of Toronto Student Union has passed three resolutions over the past five years to support Falun Gong and condemn the Jiang group's persecution of Falun Gong, and they sent letters on numerous occasions to the UN and the Canadian Government, requesting them to stand up to openly condemn the brutal persecution and work together to help end the persecution.

Another social activist, Ms. Sara who was just passing by the Ontario Parliament, saw the Falun Gong practitioners' rally and joined them. She said to reporters that she thought the Canadian Government should take more forceful measures to support Falun Gong, and help stop the persecution of innocent people in China. They should not place trade before human rights. She expressed that she would like to write a supporting letter and expressed her respect for everyone's efforts.

Immediately Release All Illegally Detained and Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

Zeng Xiaonan and Liang Biao from Toronto read their appeal letters at the press conference.

Zeng Xiaonan's mother Huang Xin was illegally sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in Liaoning Province, China and was forced to take psychotropic drugs that caused her lower limbs to be partially paralysed, and partial loss of her memory. Mr. Zeng is preparing to call upon groups that monitor the abuse of psychiatry and related organisations to show concern over this matter, and further investigate this case. Huang Xin has been listed as a typical case of psychological persecution by UN Human Rights Organisations.

Liang Biao's mother, Huang Xiuchao, is nearly 70 years old. She was sentenced to four years in prison simply for distributing Falun Gong truth clarification materials. She is still being held in Guangzhou City.

Zeng Xiaonan and Liang Biao told reporters that they are consulting human rights lawyers and preparing to sue those people who bear direct responsibility for their mothers' persecution through legal channels.

On July 20 two years ago, Toronto launched an activity of rescuing our loved ones. Since then, with efforts of the Canadian Government and people from all walks of life, more than a dozen Falun Gong practitioners' relatives have been successfully rescued. One of the practitioners who initiated the activity, Mr. Xiao Jin, also attended the rally. His mother was arrested once again four months ago for distributing Falun Gong truth clarification materials. With the appeal of the international community, his mother was unconditionally released not long ago. Mr. Xiao Jin told reporters, "Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been illegally detained. Our rescue efforts are far from drawing a conclusion. We will continue rescuing them, until the day the persecution stops."

Today's activities attracted many media outlets to come to conduct interviews, including VOA, the Epoch Times, and the two largest Chinese TV stations in Toronto. Two TV stations made positive reports that day. The report mentioned that at least 1009 Falun Gong practitioners are verified to have died as a result of persecution in the past five years, and persecution and hatred have also been extended to Canada. Toronto practitioners and ten other groups have jointly delivered an appeal letter to provincial government to request the government to take measures to stop the spreading of hatred in Canada.

One TV station also sent reporters to Chinatown afterwards to cover the afternoon live torture-exhibit. The report also showed the scenes of torture reenactment. Another TV station, OMNI, also organised a telephone hotline investigation that night until the next day. The content of the investigation was "Do you think the Canadian Government should exert pressure on the Chinese Government to request them to stop the persecution of Falun Gong?"

Toronto practitioners' series of truth clarification activities and the media's report on the activities have drawn the attention of the media and the public to the Jiang group's persecution of Falun Gong. More and more people have learned the truth and openly stood up to stop the genocide taking place in China.