(Clearwisdom.net) On May 15 and 16, Falun Dafa practitioners in Eastern Canada gathered in Montreal and Quebec City respectively to celebrate the World Falun Dafa Day. Earlier, on May 8, practitioners rallied in Ottawa and staged a grand parade in celebration of World Falun Dafa Day.

Waist drum dance

Fan dance

Spectators

Spectators

Parade

Lotus dance troupe in the parade

In Montreal, local major French newspaper, the Montreal Daily, posted the event information on May 14. Another French newspaper Les Devoir interviewed the event while famous broadcaster Ms. Francine Grimaldi reported the celebration event during a French broadcasti on the same day. In Quebec City, local newspaper The Sun, interviewed practitioners' celebration event and published a long article about the event.

A practitioner commented: "This is a special and sacred day for us. Twelve years ago, our revered Master introduced Falun Dafa to the public. The number of practitioners has been increasing daily, and Falun Dafa has helped numerous practitioners improved their morality and gained healthy bodies and spirit. In just 12 years, the splendor of Falun Dafa has reached more than 60 countries and regions, more than 100 million practitioners of different ethnic groups and ages are practicing it. We hope that all kind-hearted people will come to learn about Falun Dafa."

Qianqian participated in a Dai (a ethnic minority in China) dance to express the joyful spirit of people for obtaining Falun Dafa. She also shared her parents' plight with bystanders. Her parents are being persecuted for practicing Falun Dafa. Qianqian's husband Joel Chipkar is also a Falun Gong practitioner. He recently successfully sued Toronto Chinese Deputy Consulate General for Libel. The consulate general attacked Mr. Chipkar and other Falun Gong practitioners in a Toronto newspaper last year. In February 2004, the Ontario Supreme court ruled the consulate general guilty of libel.

Mr. Lin Shenli performed a flute solo to express his gratitude to the Canadian government and people. Mr. Lin was illegally detained in China for 2 and a half years for appealing to Chinese government for Falun Gong. He briefly shared his experience in China and sincerely told the audience: "Falun Dafa is Good!"

Ms. Jin Man is the director of Montreal's Lotus Art Troupe and author of the music of a Tang Dancing program. She told a reporter from Clearwisdom.net: "Falun Dafa healed my illnesses, so I want people know that Falun Dafa is good. I am a professional dancer, and I want to use my expertise to show the beauty of Falun Dafa. Dancing is also a language and it can make people open and communicate from the bottom of hearts."

She also told the reporter that she was detained and force-fed in China for practicing Falun Gong. She pointed out that there were still more than 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners who were being illegally detained in China and they were in a very dangerous situation. She hoped that all kind-hearted people could extend their support to end the persecution of Falun Gong.

Some spectators came especially for the event after they read the news about this celebration. A professional photographer watched all the performance and the parade. He commented that this was the best event during the summer in Montreal. He also asked many questions about how to practice Falun Gong. He asked one practitioner: "You practitioners are so good, can I join you guys?" He was very touched after he learned that practicing Falun Gong is absolutely free and voluntary. He said that he would practice soon. During the conversation, he was looking at practitioner's "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance (in French)" badge constantly. The practitioner then offered him the badge. He said: "It is very precious and I can't take it from you." However, he put it on right away after practitioner told him that he had one extra.

A lady from France said that she had been looking for something in her heart and she believed that nothing happened without a reason. She didn't plan to go to one street, which the parade procession was passing, however, she somehow went there. After she saw practitioners' parade, she called a practitioner the next morning. She said that she absolutely wanted to practice Falun Gong and decided to go with the practitioner to learn the exercises at a practice site starting the following Tuesday.

"I hate Jiang Zemin the most." One elderly overseas Chinese commented, "He spent most of Chinese tax payers money on persecuting Falun Gong while Falun Gong did nothing wrong. They just practice Qigong! You see, they are so good!"

Another elderly overseas Chinese who had avoided practitioners before also came to the event. The elder with the help of a crutch, walked onto the stage to see a beautifully decorated banner which had a poem by the Founder of Falun Gong printed on it. With the help from a practitioner, he read the entire poem character by character. He then went back to the audience, sat down to watch the performance.

A middle-aged gentleman who has been Canada for many years commented that this was the best performance he ever seen in past years. He hoped that he could watch performances of this quality every year from now on.

A Buddhist said: "Falun Gong is the best Qigong practice, I can see that everyone of you have practiced well and you can reach deep tranquility in meditation. I myself haven't achieved that state after more than 10 years' practice in Buddhism."

Ms. Sun was a university lecturer when she was in China, she told the reporter: "I was undergraduate students' mentor, there was one student in my class who practiced Falun Gong. She was excellent in all aspects. However, such a good student was detained by my university's security department for explaining the facts of Falun Gong during a meeting. I was afraid that she could be abused and so I stayed with her for one night in the security department. At that time, the security department already reported her case to police. I didn't know about Falun Gong, however, the student was really good. I persuaded the university authorities to send her home before the police come to arrest her. When I came back from railway station, policemen had already come." Apparently, she was very proud for having protected a practitioner and a good student of hers.

Ms. Li came from Beijing and was in her 50s, she said: "The programs are very good, Falun Gong practitioners are good people; the persecution is absolutely wrong. Any Chinese who know about Falun Gong will be against the persecution. It doesn't make any sense to persecute innocent people. We don't know what is wrong with them [Jiang's political group]. I think any sensible person won't do this. Many overseas Chinese still don't dare to speak out against the persecution because of the pressure from Chinese authorities. Otherwise, I think everyone will speak out on this."

The celebration received a lot of support from people from all circles. During the preparation, a number of provincial and city councilors as well as MPs wrote congratulatory letters to practitioners.

When practitioners were applying for a permit to use Zhongshan Park inside Chinatown, they faced a problem. The Montreal government had leased the Park to a Chinese group and the city could not issue a permit to another group even if the park was not in use. After negotiating with the group, police and city government, the celebration was staged as schedule. However, some people from the group requested police to cancel this event with the excuse that practitioners didn't have a permit and the celebration obstructed business.

Police then told them, the city had negotiated with the Chinese group and reached a consensus to allow practitioners to hold this event. The purpose of the agreement and permit was to boost Montreals economy and promote peace. The Falun Gong performance was so peaceful and beautiful, and it would attract more tourists and thus benefit local businesses. The police concluded that the cancellation request was motivated by political reasons and he wouldn't accept it. A city councilman told practitioners: "Such a peaceful and beautiful event doesn't need permit. Do they have permit to persecute Falun Gong in China? He purposefully attended the event to support this event.

According to a practitioner who organized this event, during the process of obtaining consensus and a permit from the local group controlling the park, police and city government, the city government didn't deny that they had received pressure from Chinese embassy. When the practitioner was contacting the Chinese group, officials of the Canadian Chinese embassy came to the group and even took pictures of the practitioner. In fact, this kind of direct interference from the Chinese embassy has been non-stoip for several years since the persecution began in 1999. However, as people have gradually learned the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong, all righteous people have been resisting embassy's vicious interference and thus the embassy agenda to harass overseas Falun Gong practitioners never gained much ground.

Iin 2002, Quebec National Assembly, Quebec's provincial government, unanimously passed a motion supporting Falun Dafa practitioners' right to practice Falun Gong in a free and dignified manner. The Canadian Parliament also passed a resolution condemning Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong and helped rescued many detained Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Lin Shenli, Professor Zhang Kunlun and Ms. Zhu Ying were detained or illegally sent to labor camps for practicing Falun Gong, they were all rescued to Canada by Canadians. Professor Zhang now is petitioning to Canadian Minister of Justice to allow him to sue Chinese police, 610 officials and Jiang Zemin who had tortured or given orders to torture him.