Canada-wide Campaign to Free Ying Zhu and Shengli Lin Gains Support

The Canada-wide campaign to free Ying Zhu and Shengli Lin has gained support on several fronts:

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

• A coalition of MPs from all five major political parties has been actively working on obtaining the immediate release of Ying and Shengli. (Contacts: Mr. Irwin Cotler, Mr. Scott Reid, Ms. Francine Lalonde, Ms. Libby Davies, Mr. Bill Casey)

• Amnesty International has repeatedly made public statements condemning the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and has called on the Canadian government to do more to assist Ying and Shengli to regain freedom and to help bring an end to the repressive crackdown against Falun Gong in China. Amnesty International of Canada launched a letter writing campaign four months ago to free Shengli Lin.

• More than 10 NGOs have cosigned a letter to Mei Ping, the Chinese Ambassador in Ottawa, urging the release of Ying Zhu and Shengli Lin. More NGOs are joining the campaign on daily basis.

• Falun Gong practitioners in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver continue to demonstrate in front of the Chinese Embassy and Chinese Consulates every working day until Ying and Shengli are released.

• Department of Foreign Affairs has responded that "She [Ying] has close ties to Canada and we will do whatever we can, on behalf of her family in Canada."

• A Web Page dedicated to the campaign to Free Ying and Shengli has been set up: http://falundafa.ca/appeal

• 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.