(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the 15th Victoriaville Peace Festival in Quebec, Canada on September 21 and 22, 2024. The festival aims to promote peace within oneself, the family, and society through a variety of artistic and educational activities.
This is the fifth year that practitioners took part in this festival. They introduced Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises. Many people stopped at the Falun Dafa booth and signed the petition to support efforts to end the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa in China. Some people learned the exercises during the event.
Many people learned about Falun Dafa during the Victoriaville Peace Festival.
Practitioners demonstrated the exercises and exhibited three paintings from the Art of Zhen Shan Ren Exhibit (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance). They also collected signatures on a petition to call on the Quebec government to pass a version of the federal government’s law enacting penalties on those who travel to China to receive organs. This piece of legislature will prevent Canadians from being complicit in the CCP’s forced organ harvesting operations, which have targeted Falun Dafa practitioners as the main source of organs.
Practitioners demonstrate Falun Dafa’s fifth exercise.
People were deeply disturbed by the CCP’s harvesting of organs from people while they are alive. Many signed the petition to call for an end to the persecution of Falun Dafa.
People Learn the Exercises
A local couple said they agreed with the universal values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance taught by Falun Dafa, and they were interested in taking up the practice. They were happy to hear there was a practice site in their area. Another woman who was interested in Falun Dafa’s introductory book, The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection, also signed the petition.
A woman signs the petition.
Two women said they were drawn to the practitioners’ booth by the positive energy they felt. They were also moved by the paintings. They asked about Falun Dafa and learned the second exercise. Then they wanted to know where the nearest practice site was.
Two visitors were touched by the painting “Gift,” in which a young Asian girl offers an elderly woman an informational brochure and an origami lotus flower.
Two women learn the second exercise.
Sharing the Benefits of Falun Dafa
Tommy from Windsor has practiced Falun Dafa for seven years and has benefited so much. He said the festival was an opportunity to tell more people about Falun Dafa.
Tommy said he was depressed before he began practicing Falun Dafa, and turned to drugs to escape the emotional pain. He became addicted and couldn’t stop. “I knew I had to stop, so I searched harder (for a solution),” he said.
He talked with practitioners when he was visiting Montreal’s Chinatown. He soon began practicing, and said his life became positive. “I now understand the purpose of life. My two herniated discs no longer trouble me, and I stopped using drugs,” he said. “It’s important to tell people about Falun Dafa and the CCP’s persecution.”
Festival Organizer Praises Practitioners for Bringing Peace and Serenity
Anne Beaumier, one of the organizers of the festival, was delighted that practitioners were there. She said it was important that the Falun Dafa booth was located at the entrance to the festival, as their presence “brought peace and serenity.”
She also mentioned that before the festival began, there were a few incidents in downtown Victoriaville where people on drugs caused trouble, but no incidents happened after the festival began. She smiled and said to the practitioners, “You are the guardians of the festival.”
Festival organizer Anne Beaumier praised practitioners for their peace and serenity.
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