(Clearwisdom.net) On the eve of Hu Jintao's visit to the United States and Canada, several members of Canadian parliament wrote to the Prime Minister, asking him to bring up human right issues in China, especially the persecution of Falun Gong, during his meeting with Hu. Meanwhile, Falun Gong practitioners in all large Canadian cities have been holding Anti-Torture Exhibitions and signature collection activities to raise awareness of the persecution to politicians and the general public.
 Anti-Torture Exhibition in front of Citizenship & Immigration Canada |
 Anti-Torture Exhibition in front of Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
Members of Parliament Request Prime Minister to Urge Hu to End Persecution
Among those Members of Parliament who wrote the Prime Minister were Scott Reid, Libby Davies, Rob Anders and Peter Julian. They also asked the Prime Minister to urge Hu Jintao to release the 18 family members of Canadian Falun Gong practitioners.
  MP David Kilgour talked with Falun Gong practitioners |
MP Reid mentioned in his letter that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), utilizing its embassy, consulates and spies, infringed the human rights of Canadian Falun Gong practitioners by inciting hatred, threatening and harassing them. MP Reid urged the Prime Minister to protect the Canadian sovereign rights and Canadian citizen's human rights.
MP David Kilgour attended practitioners' press conference in person to support the effort to end the persecution and urged the Canadian government deny entry of CCP official Bo Xilai and Xia Deren who are both actively involved in and responsibility for persecution.
According to a report of Ottawa Citizen, Alexa McDonough, the New Democratic Party foreign affairs critic, said: "It's an important opportunity for him to put his money where his mouth is in making the argument that an enhanced trade relationship will push human rights."
Persecution Has Never Stopped
Since last week, practitioners' anti-torture exhibitions have been staged at Capitol Hill, Citizenship & Immigration and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Practitioners' truth-clarification efforts received widely support from the public including more than 1000 letters of support.
  Anti-torture exhibition at Capitol Hill |
At the exhibition site, the reporter interviewed Toronto practitioner Ms. Li. She said: "The persecution of Falun Gong in China has last 6 years. Since Hu Jintao assumed leadership of Chinese government last year, the persecution has become worse and worse instead of reaching an end. Though the regime no longer runs public propaganda as before, the persecution is still ongoing underground and even teenagers have been arrested for practicing Falun Gong.
"From the point of human rights, Hu should end this persecution against people's fundamental rights and human conscience. The persecution has last such a long time, any country and individual have to make their own choice of conscience. We hope Canadian government will continue to take the leadership in safeguarding human rights and publicly demand Hu to stop the persecution."
Ms. Tian, 69, just came from Beijing. Tian also participated in the anti-torture exhibition. Before she started to practice Falun Gong, Tian had severe tracheitis. She regained a healthy body and joyful mind from practicing Falun Dafa. However, she and her fellow practitioners have been subjected to persecution of different degree since the persecution started in 1999. Tian said: "The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established "610 Offices" at all levels of the government to persecute practitioners. We are subject to surveillance all the time. Upon holidays, police can arrest us without any documents. Some practitioners that I know are still being illegally detained.
Deny Entry of Human Rights Ruffians is a right choice of a civilized country
On August 29, practitioners held an anti-torture exhibition in front of Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, calling the authority to deny entry of Bo Xilai and Xia Deren. Ms. Li said: "No government should allow such human rights ruffians to enter their country, and this is the least thing a government should do to support justice. And this is a right choice for the Canadian government and civilians."
Between Commercial Interest and Justice
What will the Canadian Government choose between commercial interest and justice? In his letter to the Prime Minister, MP Davies wrote, "... This [persecution of Falun Gong practitioners] has been documented by the UN and many human rights organizations. The incarceration and torture of hundreds of thousands of people and the estimated death of 2780 Falun Gong practitioners are gravely concerning." "It is important that President Hu realizes that Canada genuinely respects justice, democracy and supports human rights and that this is the underpinning to sustain long-term stability and prosperity in our trade and economic partnership with China."
MP Reid wrote: "It will be Hu Jintao's wise action to stop the persecution of Falun Gong launched by his predecessor." [Paraphrasing].
A practitioner said, "If a person or a government has no sense of basic justice, trading with such individual or government is not safe at all. Therefore, to secure commercial interest, one must stand firm in justice. If a government bows to CCP today, no one knows what unreasonable requests the CCP will bring up tomorrow. I believe justice is the corner stone of prosperity of any society. US and Canadian governments should speak out to uphold justice accord with their founding principles."
Canadian practitioners believe what they are doing is to help Canadian government and civilians to choose a good future besides calling for an end to the persecution. Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance principles are good for all human beings and thus should not be tramped on and slandered. They stated: "Every Canadian including Chinese immigrants doesn't want to see Canada becomes an accomplice of CCP and a state with no guaranty of human rights. Canada was the first country which condemned the persecution publicly and we hope the new Canadian government will make the right choice again."
