MP Scott Reid's Speech at Press Conference for Shenli Lin's Release

(Clearwisdom.net) January 30, 2002 -- My name is Scott Reid. I'm the Member of Parliament for Lanark-Carleton and I'm a member of the Canadian Alliance. I make that point simply to reiterate that the support for practitioners of Falun Gong being persecuted is something that stretches across my party, the Liberal Party, and all the parties in the House of Commons. We have had support from Bloc, Tory, and New Democrat in the past, on this case and others.

You all know, of course, of the release of Shenli Lin. We're of course overjoyed at that. I want to take the opportunity this afternoon just to reiterate two facts. One is that Shenli Lin is only one of three Canadians of Chinese origin who had been arrested and imprisoned under really unacceptable circumstances in China in the past couple of years who have been released. The first was Professor Kunlun Zhang who was arrested about a year ago, and Ying Zhu more recently. And he is not the last, unfortunately, who remains in prison in China.

Lizhi He is still imprisoned in China, and I wanted to take a moment if I could to remind you of the circumstances of his custody. Lizhi He was arrested on July 21, 2000 by the Public Security Bureau and was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison at what can only be described as a show trial. He remains in custody at this time. His offence, if it can be called that, was that he mailed material about Falun Gong in response to official propaganda that demonized the movement and portrayed it as something it simply is not.

I should emphasize that both Lizhi He and his wife Li Zhang are permanent residents of Canada and therefore have some status here, and that his wife Li Zhang was one of the walkers in the SOS! Walk for Falun Gong last September.

Now I emphasize all of these factors because it is important, I think, for all of us here and particularly the Chinese authorities to realize that the negative publicity that is the fallout of the kinds of activities the Chinese government carries on in relation to Canadians and Canadian residents in China--the negative publicity is not going to go away.

There are dedicated people here in Canada, in Amnesty International, there are friends and relatives and fellow practitioners of Falun Gong who live here in Canada who are going to continue raising this issue, as well they ought.

Just in the last couple of months, two Canadian-born practitioners of Falun Gong, Zenon Dolnyckyj and Connie Chipkar, went to Tiananmen Square, and drew attention to the plight of imprisoned and tortured Falun Gong practitioners.

That kind of publicity simply is not going to go away unless China embraces the quality that Falun Gong speaks to of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance."

I strongly urge the Chinese authorities to think of that, particularly in the case of Lizhi He and to do the right thing and to release him, as was done finally with Shenli Lin.