I am Not Forgetting Ying Zhu

In case you have already forgotten, Ying Zhu is the young Chinese woman with a permanent resident status in Canada. She was arrested in China around May 10 of this year while going to visit her sick mother. Ying Zhu is a Falun Dafa practitioner, both for health reasons (she had severe asthma) and for peace of mind.

At first sight, Ying Zhu does not have much in common with me. I am a white French speaking Canadian citizen (Ying Zhu cannot speak French), and I have nothing to do with Falun Dafa. Why should I care? Ying Zhu is someone I personally know. I have met her a couple of times in social gatherings and have enjoyed a very nice, private evening along with my wife (also white, Catholic, and French speaking) and some of her Chinese friends when she invited us for dinner in Montreal Chinatown, just a few days before her departure to see her family in mainland China. Ying Zhu has a face that I know. I know about her gentleness and her natural shyness. I know about her kindness, about her permanent smile, about her fragility and about her innocence. I know that she cannot hurt anybody wishfully in any way. She is not a concept, she is a human being. I cannot rest comfortably until she is freed and back in Canada.

I will never forget Ying Zhu, nor will I forget the other innocent Chinese like her that suffer at the hands of Jiang Zemin's government.

I plead to all Canadians to not forget Ying Zhu. You are the ones that can save her from suffering these great injustices by helping her return to Canada, the land that gave her the right to be a permanent resident, my neighbor, and my friend. I cannot understand nor accept that you, President Jiang Zemin, the leader of the biggest nation in the world, will forget about Ying Zhu. I am not Chinese and I do not understand why I seem to care more than you for your little sister, a completely unthreatening woman, a drop of water in the ocean of your might. I do not know why your indifference will condemn your own innocent little sister to be forgotten. She is a harmless person. By forgetting about Ying Zhu, have you forgotten that your enormous power as the leader of China is to dignify your great nation, not to lose face in destroying shamefully our fragile little sister?

I am not forgetting Ying Zhu, not only because I know her, but also because she is a human being wrongfully suffering; this is unbearable to me as a fellow human being. Letting go of Ying Zhu is letting go of humanity. Forgetting about Ying Zhu is not less serious a crime than that of the Montrealers that lately did not assist a young woman found unconscious in a parking lot. Forgetting about Ying Zhu is not only a shame, it is a relinquishment of humanity.

Don't ever forget about Ying Zhu. Raise your voice, fellow Canadians, to demand her return to her new Canadian family. Raise your voice, President Jiang Zemin, to stop the absurd detention of this young woman that belongs rightfully with her Canadian family.

Do not forget about Ying Zhu!!