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"Belief should not be persecuted," said Antia Veilleux standing in front of the anti-torture exhibit. People stood in line waiting to sign the petition calling on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to stop the persecution of Falun Gong and stop torturing practitioners in China.
Many passersby heard about Falun Gong for the first time, while some already knew about it but not in detail. Practitioners explained that the CCP has been carrying out its persecution of Falun Gong for the past nine years and intensified the persecution during the Olympics, which ironically, symbolize peace and freedom. Over 8,000 practitioners were illegally arrested in the six months before the Olympics and the number of deaths of practitioners due to torture went up quickly during that time.
Passersby were shocked to learn about such brutal persecution and were angered that the CCP continues to lie to the world. Peter Zuhler and his wife stood in front of the anti-torture exhibit for a long time. Peter said they were from Israel and had been in Montreal for five months. They were glad to learn about what is happening in China and told the practitioners to continue with their good work.
In the anti-torture exhibition, Falun Gong practitioner Wang Xiaohua took the role of a practitioner who was being tortured. Wang was an engineer from Kunming, Yunnan Province. He was once arrested and put into the Yunnan Provincial 2nd Forced Labor Camp for practicing Falun Gong. According to Wang, in January 2002 while he was imprisoned, he was surprised when a hospital conducted a comprehensive health check, including ECG, x-rays, liver check and blood analysis on Falun Gong practitioners. Later when the news came out that the CCP illegally harvested Falun Gong practitioners' organs for profit, Wang realized that he was once part of a living organ bank.
When a young western man saw Wang's demonstration under the scorching sun, he was very moved and kindly offered Wang a bottle of water.