President of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Calls on Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs to Help End the Persecution of Falun Gong

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President of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Calls on Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs to Help End the Persecution of Falun Gong

March 20, 2002

BRIAN PAYNE
PRESIDENT

February 14, 2002

Honourable Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister
Langevin Block
Ottawa, ON Kl A OA2

Honourable Prime Minister:

On behalf of our 150,000 members, I am writing to express the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada deep concerns about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Government.

The Falun Gong is a peaceful, non-political spiritual movement, based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Over 100 million people around the world practice it.

Threatened by its rapid growth of popularity in China, the government has cracked down on Falun Gong since 1999, resulting in thousands of members being arbitrarily detained and put under pressure to renounce their beliefs. Amnesty International outlined in its recent annual report that hundreds of practitioners were sent to forced labour camps for re-education without charges or trials and some were detained in psychiatric hospitals. Torture and ill treatments were used to intimidate and silence them, leading to close to a hundred deaths.

This situation is totally unacceptable. In spite of the fact that China signed key international human right Conventions, human rights are rapidly deteriorating in China. It calls for strong action from friendly countries to remind China that respect for human rights is as important as negotiating and endorsing trade deals.

It is why I urge you to pressure the Chinese Government to release all Falun Gong practitioners and to stop any further persecution. Furthermore, I request that you openly condemn the severe human rights violation of Falun Gong practitioners in China and that you place this issue as a first priority of the bilateral human rights dialogue between Canada and China.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Payne
President
DG/nb - opeiu 343

CC. Joseph Gargiso

1. Letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien