(Clearwisdom.net) On July 14, 2007, Falun Gong practitioners from Toronto held a rally and parade, with the theme, "Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong; Support the Withdrawals from the CCP" in Chinatown, Toronto. The activity was held to commemorate eight years of peaceful resistance to the persecution.

The rally

Practitioner Hong Min stated that Falun Gong practitioners have lived by the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" during the eight-year long persecution. The CCP claimed that it would eliminate Falun Gong in three months. Eight years have passed; the CCP failed.

Hong Min said: "One purpose of the rally is to support the 23 million withdrawals from the CCP."

Military officer: I will quit the party.

Ms. Jin, a volunteer from the Service Center for Quitting the Party in Toronto, noted that people have different attitudes toward practitioners. Some older Chinese immigrants support the CCP, but most of the people from Hong Kong are against it. Many Chinese tourists said that they knew about the brutality of the CCP, but they don't dare to quit the party, because they have to go back to China. Ms. Jin said: "However, the high-ranking officers among the Chinese tourists understand the evil nature of the CCP very clearly. The older Chinese immigrants don't know the CCP at all. They blindly hope that the CCP will change, and they equate the CCP with China."

Ms. Jin said: "Recently a military officer from China accepted materials related to quitting the party from us. We tried to convince him to quit the party and told him that many CCP officers have done it. He said: 'I am a high-ranking officer in the military. I will read your materials, and I know how to quit the party on the internet'."

New Immigrants: The persecution is very brutal

Ms. Mao and Ms. Zhang, who emigrated from China to Toronto not long ago, accepted an interview. Ms. Mao is from northeastern China. She said: "One of my neighbors who practices Falun Gong was arrested. The police put her in a bag, and hung her up and beat her badly. When I saw her, she had blood all over her body. Her face was badly damaged."

"In the labor camp, policemen forced practitioners who were having their period to stand on the ice for a whole day," Ms. Mao said "I know a Falun Gong practitioner who was sentenced to three years in 1999, but she is still in prison. She is forced to do heavy labor and her family is not allowed to visit her."

Ms. Mao cried. She said although the persecution is brutal, practitioners don't give up their belief and still keep clarifying the truth.

Ms. Zhang said that the book, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party has been widely spread in China. She said: "Once in a farmers' market, I saw two old farmers reading a book. I asked them what they were reading. They showed me. It was the Nine Commentaries. I asked them where they obtained it. They said that it is available everywhere."