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On September 26, 2006, Falun Gong supporters and several Members of Parliament gathered in front of Parliament, Canada and called on the Canadian government and people to help stop the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) atrocities of live organ harvesting. Rabbi Reuven Bulka, Ph.D, Chairman, Organ Donation Committee of the Kidney Foundation for Eastern Ontario gave an impromptu speech at the rally. His speech won much applause. The following is his speech:
Rabbi Reuven Bulka gives an impromptu speech at a rally on September 26
It is a great honour to be here in your presence, and especially in the presence of an authentic human rights hero living here in Canada, David Kilgour, and to be with him on the side of issues that
I have been privileged to be over the years.
I would like to just share with you two very important points based on a life and a heritage of persecution that gives me a strong sense of empathy for what you are going through.
I want to take you back to the 1930s and the 1940s when people around the world refused to believe what was going on in Nazi Germany, and they said that human beings are not capable of this evil. We learned then that human beings are capable of the most gross evil, that is impossible for us as human beings to fathom, to think that people would stoop so low as to take organs out of a human being who is very much alive just for the purpose of making money is something that defies our logic, and there are many people around that say that this is so inhuman that it is impossible that it should be happening. Don't fall into that trap! We have learned too many times to our peril in human history that there are barbarians around who are capable of the worst evil. And it is happening right now before our eyes. That is message number one.
Message number two is a question of what are we up against? We are up against what is arguably the burgeoning superpower in this world next to the United States, namely China. In the 1980s, the man standing behind me, David Kilgour, was up against another superpower, that was the Soviet Union then. Where is the Soviet Union now, it doesn't exist anymore?
At that point in time we were fighting another battle. This was a battle against religious persecution in the Soviet Union. I must admit to you that the barbarism that's going on today is 100 times worse than what we were fighting against then, even though we were not fighting what you would call niceness. But then, we were fighting against the denial of the rights of the Jewish people in the Soviet Union, and it included also other religious groups that were persecuted against.
This man, and I know it because I traveled with him. We went all across Canada, and we actually went into nine cities, major cities, and we confronted what was happening then even though it was a forbidden country then in the same way as China is now, you could not get in to find directly the evidence. But we knew what was happening because of reports from reliable sources.
And we fought against them, and people were saying you are knocking your heads against a brick wall, this is the major power together with the United States, and we said at the very least if we don't protest what is happening, how can we look at ourselves in the mirror; how can we speak to our children and say we did what had to be done to stop this evil?
And so we fought and we fought and we fought. The Parliament of Canada had the largest mailing list. The stationery of the Parliamentarians who were representing the fight against the persecution of Soviet jewery was so large it didn't fit on the paper.
Every single member of Parliamnet who was in the House or the Senate wanted to be on this. And we mobilized quickly, effectively together with other countries so that eventually the Soviet Union had to relent, and eventually the Soviet Union crumbled. And why did it crumble? Because we outside the Soviet Union who saw this injustice said we were not going to remain silent.
So today we say to you do not be deterred by the fact that you are confronting a dangerous superpower, because you have the power of the truth behind you, and that's much more powerful.
When just a few weeks ago after the Op Ed piece and the editorial and the headline in the Ottawa Citizen spoke about what is happening in China, there was a strange silence coming out of the Chinese Embassy here until one member of the embassy staff wrote a letter to the Citizen in which he refuted what we were saying; and he had no evidence to refute except to say that everyone knows that China is an open society. And that is all we had to hear: China is an open society. If this is what you are saying, then you are corroborating the truth of all of our accusations. David Kilgour and David Matas were denied entry into this open society. If they are so open how come they don't let them in to check the facts? This is not an open society. That is a lie, and everything else is a lie.
And the task before us, as David said a few moments ago, do not be deterred, do not be lazy. This is a issue that cannot wait until tomorrow. This is an issue that cannot wait until after the Olympics. This is an issue as we are speaking, their people are being murdered. This is a human rights issue probably of the highest import in the entire world right now as we speak. I cannot think of any other issue that gets to the basic core of human rights more so than this issue.
And we need to mobilize every single resource that we have at our disposal to make sure that you get every single MP signed on to a petition of protest. And this means work; this means hard work, this means sleepless nights. Because the only way you are going to get things done is if you are relentless. You'll need to be relentless. David is with you, I am with you, there are so many others who are with you.
But, if you are not relentless it will not get done. You know what
they say,
"they will bother met today but they will leave me alone tomorrow."
The message has to be clear you're not leaving anyone alone until this
issue
gets addressed, and until it gets solved. And with your passion, with
your zeal,
with your commitment that we'll be unequivocating, and uncompromising,
we'll get
the job done so that the Falun Gong can live in peace, not in pieces.
Thank you.
Vancouver Falun Gong practitioners attended the weekly city council meeting of Burnaby in British Columbia, Canada on September 11, 2006. They exposed to the city councilors and mayor the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The city councilors and the mayor expressed their support for Falun Gong practitioners, and passed a resolution on September 18, in hopes that the Canadian federal government will continue an in-depth investigation into the CCP's crimes of live organ harvesting.
Video on the truth about Falun Gong played at Burnaby City Council
Falun Gong practitioner's speech touched city councilors. Some councilors asked on the spot whether or not people from Canada or British Columbia have been to China for organ transplants. The practitioners answered, "According to the reports on the National Post and Toronto Sun, there are people from Canada and Vancouver who have been to China for organ transplants." After the meeting, Falun Gong practitioners delivered to the city government related reports on Canadians traveling to China for organ transplants.
City councilor Jordan proposed a resolution regarding an investigation into the CCP's live organ harvesting to be discussed in the following week's city council meeting. The resolution says that the Burnaby city council urges the federal government to investigate these issues, and if the results prove that the allegation is true, the Canadian government should make sure citizens do not participate in these organ transplants, and the Canadian government should support the international community to take action to stop this behavior.
On September 18, Burnaby city government held a city council meeting once again, and unanimously passed the above-mentioned resolution.
The city council meeting conducted a live TV broadcasting to
millions of
residents in the greater Vancouver area, which helped more people learn
the
truth about Falun Gong and the CCP's crimes.
While people across the world pay attention to human rights violations, there are worrying cases occurring in Russia. Russia customs denied entry to seven Falun Gong practitioners on September 26, 2006, who took a train from Kiev to Moscow.
Victoria has practiced Falun Gong for about two years. She said that the customs officials told them they were denied entry. From the officials, the practitioners did not get any concrete reasons for the denied entry. It was the third similar case of Russia customs denying entry of Ukraine Falun Gong practitioners.
Someone told the practitioners that the order was from the Russian Border Administration Bureau, which received a telegram with "confidential" notice from higher level administration. Thus the Border Administration Bureau had no power to give out any information or explain the reasons.
The custom officials said, "You are denied entry to Russia. Check with the prosecutor to get the reasons for the denial order." There was a confidential list, on which are names and information of those who are not allowed to enter Russia. Passport information of almost all Ukraine Falun Gong practitioners was recorded on the list.
Similar cases carry a system infringement of human rights. Ukraine Falun Gong practitioners expressed they would investigate and provide a more detailed report.