OTTAWA, June 15 -- Today, Falun Gong practitioners and supporters gathered at the Chinese Embassy and Consulates across Canada to unveil a new stage in the campaign to free Ms.Ying Zhu and Mr. Shenli Lin. Practitioners also demonstrated against the laws just passed by the Chinese government legalizing the execution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Ying Zhu, a Canadian landed immigrant and a student at Concordia University, was arrested by Chinese authorities on her way to visit her husband and ailing mother in China on May 10, 2001. Shenli Lin, husband of Canadian citizen Jinyu Li, has been suffering in a Chinese labour camp for the past 16 months for practicing Falun Gong.

The Canada-wide campaign to free Ms. Zhu and Mr. Lin has gained more support on several fronts:

On June 13, Concordia University Student Union (CSU) unanimously voted in favour of participating in the campaign to free Ying Zhu and has called on members of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) to join the campaign and to take action.

The Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University, Mr. Frederuc H. Lowy, sent a letter to Mr. Mei Ping, the Chinese Ambassador to Canada on May 31. "I am greatly disturbed to learn of the imprisonment of one of our students," said Mr. Lowy.

On June 14, 2001, 10 NGOs co-signed a letter to the Chinese Ambassador urging the release of Ying Zhu and Shenli Lin. "The people of Canada are ashamed of a country that jails, tortures and imprisons it's citizens for exercising their basic constitutional rights to freedom of belief, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly."

Professor Kunlun Zhang, a Canadian Falun Gong practitioner freed from a Chinese labour camp earlier this year, said "Public voices and pressure played an important role on my release. Let's work together again for Ying and Shenli."

In a recent letter to the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, the Foreign Affairs Department responded to our letter with: "She [Ying] has close ties to Canada and we will do whatever we can, on behalf of her family in Canada."

The people of Canada have shown tremendous support to Falun Gong. In the past year, some 80,000 people in Canada have signed petitions calling for an end to the persecution and the immediate release of all Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Falun Gong practitioners will continue to appeal every weekday in front of the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa and Consulates in Toronto and Vancouver until Ms. Zhu and Mr. Lin are released.

http://falundafa.ca/appeal

Sent by Free Ying Zhu and Shenli Lin Volunteer Team