Canada: Toronto Practitioners Protest the Chinese Communist Party's Persecution on World Human Rights Day

On December 10th, 2006, World Human Rights Day, Amnesty International and nine other organisations held a peaceful protest entitled "We Remember" in front of the Chinese Consulate in Toronto. The protest aimed to commemorate the 80 million Chinese killed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and speak out for human rights for 1.3 billion Chinese. Falun Gong practitioners joined the protest.

Amnesty International and other organisations protest in front of the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on World Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2006.

Representative Mr. Zhang Zhaojin from the Canada Falun Dafa Association said that this day was meant to celebrate the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. However, since 1999, millions of Chinese have been tortured, detained and murdered because they will not give up practising Falun Gong.

"Today, let us remember that the Chinese Communist Party is still persecuting Falun Gong practitioners with inhuman methods," Zhang said. "We also must remember that the Communist Party spent a large amount of money collected from the Chinese people to defame Falun Gong in other countries, attempting to incite people to hate those that follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance."

He Zhili, former senior Engineer of the China National Ministry of Construction, and Gold Medal winner of the China National Outstanding Design Award, was jailed for three and a half years for practising Falun Gong. He said that many westerners discuss how to protect their privacy and quality of life, but in China, they talk about the question of life and death. Falun Gong has been persecuted for seven years and the CCP has even systematically harvested organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr. Mike Craig from Amnesty International hosted the event. Uygur Human Rights Leader Rebiya Kadeer, Member of Canadian Parliament Peggy Nash, David Cozac from the Canada Pen Association, and Sheng Xue, Vice-President of the Democratic League, gave speeches at the protest.

Rebiya said that she was once a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Political Alliance and actively promoted the CCP's Xinjiang Policy. However, she realised that she had become a liar; all the promises the CCP made to Xinjiang were lies. Rebiya became a Uygur human rights leader later.

Vice-President of the Democratic League Ms. Sheng Xue called on all Chinese to step forward and speak out. She said, "Maybe you think you are lucky because you are not one of the 80 million who died in the CCP's tyranny, but you are still one of those 1.3 billion Chinese persecuted by the CCP. Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was detained. His wife and child were humiliated. If you are a wife, a mother, a woman or a man, you ought to step up and speak out for lawyer Gao Zhisheng."