(Minghui.org) The annual London Ribfest is traditionally held during the Civic Holiday weekend in Victoria Park, London, Ontario. It’s a popular festival that attracts residents from nearby towns. This year it was held from July 28 to August 1, 2022. Practitioners participated in the event, demonstrated the exercises, told people about the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and how the practice is brutally persecuted in China. 

Practitioners demonstrated the exercises during Ribfest in Victoria Park in London, Ontario. 

People learn about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China.

Several people were interested in learning about Falun Dafa and learned how to do the exercises. 

Practitioners put up banners and posters that had information about Falun Dafa, as well as the ongoing persecution in China. The handmade paper lotus flowers they handed out attracted the passersby. People stopped by at the booth to get a flower, read the fliers, and inquire about the benefits of the practice. Many learned how to say in Chinese, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” 

Mr. Brandon, a local resident, learned all five exercises. He said that he could feel positive changes in his body and all his muscle fibers were activated, which was a wonderful and comfortable feeling. He said that he will go to the Falun Dafa website to learn more about the practice. It was the first time he’s heard of “Forbearance” and he believed that, “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance could help people better themselves.” 

Andre, 60, has lived in London for ten years and speaks Spanish and basic English. He explained that practitioners meditating caught his attention. A practitioner invited him to learn the exercises. Afterward he talked about the amazing feeling he felt when he did the exercises. He said he’d make sure that he does them every day. 

One woman stopped and read the posters attentively, and a practitioner told her about Falun Dafa. After the practitioner told her that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is the only regime in the world that persecutes the popular practice, the woman said that she came from a former Eastern European communist country and knew that the communist party was evil. She signed the petition demanding that the CCP end the persecution. 

Two deaf men walked by the booth and a practitioner handed them information about Falun Dafa and fliers about how the CCP harvests organs from living practitioners incarcerated for refusing to quit Falun Dafa. They looked saddened after reading the information. When they saw the flier with “End the CCP” on it, they did a hand sign to show their support for the movement. 

The tortures the CCP uses on practitioners in China to coerce them to give up their faith shocked some passersby. Knowing that the CCP persecutes many religions in China, they offered to pray for the practitioners. Two people told practitioners that they read the Epoch Times. They learned how the CCP tortures practitioners and much of the CCP tyranny. They promised to tell people they knew about the regime's crimes and that they would pray that the CCP would end soon.

A young man and his girlfriend sat on a bench near the Falun Dafa booth. He told a practitioner that he immigrated to Canada when he was eight and did not know much about Falun Dafa. The practitioner told him about the practice and the urgency of stopping the persecution. He helped the practitioner translate the information into English so that his girlfriend could understand. In the end he agreed to quit the CCP Young Pioneers he joined when he was a child. He said he wanted to distance himself from the CCP and the crimes it committed. The couple both loved the paper lotus flowers that symbolize: “maintaining purity despite growing up from muddy waters.” 

During the five-day event many people learned about Falun Dafa and the persecution. They praised the universal values the practice stands for, and supported the practitioners’ efforts to stop the persecution.

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why Is the CCP Persecuting It?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 23 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.