(Minghui.org) On  July 20, 2012, practitioners held a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to protest the CCP’s 13-year-long persecution of Falun Gong. They called for more people to step forward to stop the persecution.

For the past 13 years, countless Falun Gong practitioners have suffered persecution in brainwashing classes and torture in prisons. More than three thousand practitioners have been tortured to death.  

A report of a special rapporteur of the United Nations estimated that 66% of tortures in China were applied to Falun Gong practitioners. The brutality is beyond description.

Spokesperson Joel Chipkar of the Toronto Falun Dafa Association said that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were still imprisoned in China. He said, “Today we are here to commemorate the Falun Gong practitioners who have been tortured to death in China. We call on our government to condemn the ongoing persecution and request an end to the persecution.”

Ms. Gao at the rally said she suffered from inhuman torture in Wuhan, Hubei, China. She said the CCP used all means to force practitioners to renounce their belief. In 2004, Ms. Gao was abducted to a brainwashing facility. She said, “I was tied to a form of cross and hung up for several days. I could not sleep or squat down.”

After the torture was unable to force her to give up, Ms. Gao was injected with a toxic drug, which made her lose her memory.

Later she was transferred to a labor camp, where her body became swollen and she felt cold because of the drug. She felt her heart would stop anytime. She could not walk and her teeth became loose. “They dispatched people to watch me and did not allow me to leave my cell.”

One year later, Ms. Gao was released. She said, “After returning home from the labor camp, I could not recognize my son.” She shared the experience with other practitioners and found similar experiences by others. She said the head of the brainwashing center disclosed that many practitioners were injected with the drug and that some of them developed mental disorders, were paralyzed, or died later.

Through practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Gao recovered, but the damage to her brain has not gone away completely. She said occasionally she cannot remember things.

But the CCP did not let her go but kept monitoring her. She said, “On sensitive days, such as April 25 or July 20, they would take me away and detain me for several days to two months.” Such harassment did not stop until she left China.