Canada: Practitioners Deliver Letter to Royal Thai Consulate in Toronto to Protest the Thai Police Assisting the Chinese Communist Regime to Persecute Falun Gong

On the morning of December 23rd, 2005, more than ten practitioners from Toronto, Canada displayed banners and distributed fliers in front of the Royal Thai Consulate building, located in the busy downtown area of Toronto. Practitioners called on the Thai government to resist the pressure from the Chinese Communist regime, and urged them not to assist them in extending the persecution of Falun Gong overseas. Practitioners also delivered a letter requesting the Thai government to release the unlawfully arrested practitioners immediately.

Practitioners holding banners, drew attention from people passing by

The practitioners' peaceful protest was in response to the events of December 10th, 2005, when Falun Gong practitioners sat across the street from the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand to protest Chinese policeman He Xuejian's assault and rape of two Falun Gong practitioners during a so-called "official interrogation" in China. Dozens of uniformed and plainclothes police officers crossed the street to approach the practitioners. The police forcibly searched practitioners' bags, manhandled and dragged practitioners away, grabbed their banners, and took down their ID information, causing injury to practitioners and their personal property. On December 15th, Thai police, under the direction of the Chinese Embassy, arrested eight Falun Gong practitioners who gathered outside the Chinese Embassy to protest the Chinese policeman's act of violence. Six practitioners who have been illegally detained at the Bangkok Immigration Detention Centre, with the exception of one young child, are staging a hunger strike in protest, without taking food and water.

In the letter of appeal, practitioners from Toronto stated, "Under the pressure and instigation from the Chinese Communist regime, the Thai government irrationally arrested the practitioners who were peacefully protesting the Chinese Communist regime, even including children. These acts damaged the dignified Thailand as a country, and undermined human morality there.

"So far, the arrested practitioners are still being held after seven days of hunger strike protest. We strongly protest the inhumane behaviour of the Thai government, and request the practitioners' immediate release, as well as a public apology."

The practitioners also stated in the letter, "In the face of perceived benefits, if a country casts aside morality and traditional belief and gives in to evil, it is in fact betraying the fundamental human rights of the country. We hope that the Thai government can truly think of the fundamental interests of the whole nation, and will end this farce and scandal for the sake of human morality."

The protest took place in a chill wind. Practitioners distributed a lot of truth clarification materials to the people passing by on the street.