(Clearwisdom.net) July 20, 2011, was the 12^th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The verified death toll of has now reached 3428.

Despite of extreme heat warning in Toronto, more than one hundred Falun Gong practitioners held a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate to call for an end to the persecution at 11:55 a.m. on July 20, 2011. Several Falun Gong practitioners who had personally experienced the persecution gave speeches to expose the CCP's brutal crimes. Following the rally, practitioners held truth-clarification activities on the street. A solemn candlelight vigil was held in the evening to mourn the practitioners in China who have died in the persecution.

Mr. Zhang Zhaojin, the representative of the Falun Dafa Association in Canada, said the persecution not only targeted Falun Gong practitioners' beliefs, but also attempted to destroy the moral standards and spiritual values of all people. “The pretext for the persecution is completely based on lies and deceptive information. In the past twelve years, no matter if it was hot summer or snowy winter, we have been peacefully protesting against the CCP's brutality against Falun Gong practitioners.”

Ms. Dong Xin, a former professor at a Chinese university, had just broken free from monitoring and come to Canada. She experienced abduction, imprisonment, forced labor and torture in China. She said, “Just like thousands of other Falun Gong practitioners in China, I have been cruelly tortured. They ripped off our clothes, forced us to do intensive labor for 18 hours a day, deprived us of sleep, beat us and shocked us with electric batons. My body was swollen and my wounds festered. I was almost blind because they shocked me on my eyes. I almost lost my life.”

Ms. Chen came to Canada five months ago. The Chinese police once hung her up for more than ten hours. Her arm was broken, and her joints were dislocated. She was sent to a labor camp in Harbin for two years. She was forced to do hard labor for more than ten hours a day and wasn't allowed to turn off lights when sleeping. She and her sister, who was imprisoned together with her, started a hunger strike and were force-fed. All her teeth were pried loose, and her sister's lungs were injured.

Ms. Wang Jinxiang used to be a top-level volleyball coach in China. She was thrown into prison for practicing Falun Gong. She experienced many tortures, including electric shocking and force-feeding. The persecutors deprived her of sleep for days and put heavy objects on her back until her back was deformed. One winter, they turned a fan on her for a whole night. Ms. Wang was injected with some unknown drug in the forced labor camp. She said, “No words can describe how miserable I was after being injected with that drug. Many Falun Dafa practitioners lost their lives because of such injections. Although I survived, my hair turned white. My back is bent. I have to walk slowly and have a very poor memory.”

Ms. Zang, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Daqing, China, came to Canada a year ago. She testified how the CCP persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Xu Jishan, a fellow practitioner from her exercise site, was tortured to death in a Daqing Jail. Mr. Wang Bin, a computer engineer at Daqing City Oil Field Exploration and Development Institute, was brutally tortured on September 27, 2000. He sustained a ruptured carotid artery, ruptured blood vessels, and fractures. His tonsils and lymph nodes were ruptured as well. The backs of his hands showed infected cigarette burns. Cigarette butts were inserted into his nose. After he was beaten to death, his organs were removed.

Ms. Zang said, “History tells me the nature of the CCP has never changed. The lesson we learned is that we have to be alert for the CCP's lies at any time and have to be prepared to face the CCP's brutality any time. The CCP has never stopped trampling on human rights. We have to quit the CCP and disintegrate it. It is the only way the Chinese people can gain true human rights and freedom.”