Letters to the editor
June 13, 2006 Tuesday
Thank you, Jonathan Fowlie, for your insightful coverage of Mayor Sam Sullivan's plans to remove the Falun Gong protest site.
Ironically, I think that two recent articles appearing in The Sun are related to the mayor's "personal decision" to disband the site. The first article said that Beijing has been holding off on granting Canada "approved destination status," which would effectively double the number of Chinese tourists visiting Vancouver. The second article said that British Columbia has signed an agreement with Beijing to facilitate trade missions.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that closing the Falun Gong site would be one of the hoops the city has to jump through to be granted approved destination status. And last week Sullivan leapt through this hoop.
The Chinese Communist Party is scared to death that the genocide being committed against the Falun Gong will be fully revealed. Part of the propaganda passed off as news in China is that the Falun Gong is banned all over the world. It is troublesome for the communist government when mainland Chinese come here and see that not only is Falun Gong legal, but that our governments actually allow peaceful appeals -- even in front of Chinese consulates. What a loss of face for the regime.
The truth is that Sullivan has simply fallen into the same pit that most politicians and businessmen fall into when they do business with the leaders of this brutal dictatorship. The communists are only too aware of the weaknesses of mankind. Our desire for power and financial gain creates a propensity to sell our souls for profit. In this case, we are complicit with a genocide of a group of gentle and innocent people. I hope Sullivan will wake up soon to the need to protect our Canadian values, and will stand up to an oppressive regime issuing orders to our free country.
Why not ask the Chinese communist regime to stop persecuting the Falun Gong and respect life in order to do business with us?
Re: Mayor orders Falun Gong hut removed, June 9th
Let the Falun Gong stay. The blue banners outside the Chinese consulate symbolise what Canadians stand for: freedom of belief and giving a hand to those in need. Our great country was founded on these principles and it is a dark day when they take a backseat to enforcement of a bylaw. Every time I drive by Granville and 16th and see that Canadians can speak out for justice around the world, it fills me with pride. This is an inspiration, not a bylaw infraction.
I feel ashamed that Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan has chosen to close this window of hope to end the persecution of innocent people, who only want the basic right to believe what they choose. This site is a visible symbol of our great Canadian principles.
Ryan Moffatt
Burnaby
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