Canada: Practitioners Display the Beauty of Falun Gong at the Montreal St Patrick's Day Parade

On March 13, 2005, the annual grand St Patrick's Day parade was held in Montreal. Falun Gong practitioners were one of the 100 entrants.

Falun Gong practitioners participate in St. Patrick's Day parade	Falun Gong practitioners' waist drummers' group

People who have gone through severe cold weather yearn for the arrival of Spring. Though the ice and snow were still not completely melted, people's hearts were filled with festive joy. The colour green set the tone of parade, which brought the message of spring to the whole city.

The Falun Gong practitioners' waist-drum performance, accompanied by the singing of "Falun Dafa is good," was well received. Some spectators enthusiastically ran up to the waist drum troupe to have photos taken with the Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioners also displayed the beautiful and graceful exercises accompanied by a special piece of music entitled "Pu Du." At intervals during the exercises, some spectators ran towards practitioners to shake hands and have photos taken with them. Practitioners who distributed leaflets allowed tens of thousands of people to learn the facts about Falun Gong.

Enthusiastic spectators

It was reported that about 300,000 people watched the parade. Wherever Falun Gong practitioners went, the spectators gave them warm applause. Mr. Sun, who was watching the parade for the first time, said to the reporter that he felt good seeing Falun Gong practitioners walk in the parade as representatives of Chinese culture. A Chinese woman who watched at the roadside walked up to the practitioners' group and applauded excitedly. Her pride could be seen clearly on her face.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin participates in St. Patrick's Day parade

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin also came to participate in the parade. After the prime minister came back from his visit to China in February, he sent a letter to the president of the Falun Dafa Association, Mr. Li Xun, stating that during his visit to China, he had raised the issue of China's human rights on various occasions. He urged the Chinese authorities to face their responsibilities related to human rights.

A Mr. Wang, who had just immigrated to Canada from China, came to watch the parade with his wife and daughter. He said that he had been arrested and sentenced to one year of forced labour in China for practising Falun Gong, and he suffered 280 more days in the forced labour camp after his one-year term expired. In order to try to force him to give up practising Falun Gong, the authorities who attempted to "reform" him brought his two-year old daughter to the labour camp and asked the child to kneel down in front of him and cry "Daddy." The girl, who is five years old now, said sadly, "My grandma also practises Falun Gong, but she is in China."

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xin, who came early that morning from Ottawa to participate in the parade, said, "I came from so far just to show people that Falun Gong benefits people's health both physically and mentally. At the same time, I want to expose the Chinese Communist Party's lies, such as the staged self-immolation, that were fabricated to slander Falun Gong."