Telecommunications Workers Union of Canada Urges Prime Minister to Initiate a Resolution to Censure China's Human Rights Record in Geneva

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing on behalf of 17,000 Telecommunication Workers across British Columbia and Alberta, and we are deeply concerned with the severe persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners in China.

We encourage you to take an important step forward for fundamental human rights at this year's United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The systematic persecution of Falun Gong is a well documented example of the severity that this repression of fundamental freedoms can reach under the current regime in China.

We as Canadians cannot condone such human rights violations. Many of the Falun Gong practitioners have undergone arrests, confinements, torture, unlawful processes, no process of law, and many have died in prison. In the beginning of 2001, 124 were dead, and now there are more than 350 dead. Falun Gong practitioners have only used peaceful means of appeal, often at great risk to their personal safety, in order to inform people of the current crisis and to let people know the true nature of their practice.

In the near future, March 2002, the UNCHR will meet in Geneva. We strongly appeal to the Canadian Government to step forward and play a leading role to initiate this year's resolution to censure China's reprehensible human rights record. With your voice and our voices of Canada, we can stop the human rights abuses in China.

Sincerely

June Lewis

Human Rights Officer

Telecommunications Workers Union