Canada: Falun Dafa Practitioners in Calgary Commemorate the 27th Anniversary of the April 25 Peaceful Appeal

(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners stood quietly, displaying their banners in front of the Consulate-general of China on April 24, 2026, to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the April 25 Appeal, when about 10,000 practitioners in China peacefully appealed in Beijing for the right to practice their faith. The rally was held during rush hour, and many people driving by gave them a thumbs-ups or honked their honks.

Some of their banners read: “Uphold Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, Build a Moral Monument,” Commemorating the 27th Anniversary of Falun Dafa Practitioners’ April 25 Appeal,” “Falun Dafa is Good,” and “Stop the Chinese Communist Party’s Transnational Repression of Falun Dafa.” As several Chinese students passed by and looked at the banners, one shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!”

In front of the Chinese consulate on April 24, practitioners in Calgary commemorated the 27th anniversary of the April 25 Peaceful Appeal.

The April 25 Appeal: The Model of a Peaceful Gathering

At the rally, a practitioner read the statement from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada:

“Twenty-seven years ago, on April 25, 1999, ten thousand Falun Dafa practitioners stood together in Beijing, quiet and peaceful, calling for the protection of their fundamental right to freedom of belief. With no anger and no slogans, they only demanded justice, dignity, and the right to live by their conscience. Their courage remains a model of peaceful petitioning. However, this simple and legitimate appeal was met with a comprehensive crackdown by the CCP in the following months. What began as hopeful citizen participation ultimately resulted in nearly three decades of persecution.

“For 27 years, practitioners in China have been demonized, discriminated against, unlawfully arrested, tortured, murdered, and even had their organs harvested while they were alive. For 27 years, the CCP has carried out a comprehensive, transnational repression against the Falun Dafa community in Canada, including [using] hate propaganda, surveillance, intimidation, harassment, [physical] attacks, cyberattacks, and threats against practitioners’ families in China. The transnational repression has escalated drastically in the past two years, combining disinformation, legal warfare, and bogus bomb threats.

“This anniversary is not only the time to reflect, but also a call to action … freedom of belief is a universal human right that transcends national borders, politics, and ideology.”

The Falun Dafa Association of Canada urged the Canadian government to “stop all transnational repression activities carried out by the CCP on Canadian soil.”

“The Spirit of April 25 Has Never Faded”

Mr. Zhou, a practitioner who came to Canada from China a year ago, recalled how, shortly after April 25, 1999, the CCP began its brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. “From 1999 to 2009, I only spent a little over two years at home. I spent the other eight years in police stations, detention centers, prisons, or moving from place to place to avoid the persecution,” he said.

“When practitioners appealed on April 25th, many people didn’t take it seriously. When practitioners exposed the CCP’s atrocities of harvesting organs from living practitioners, many people didn’t believe it, but now they are realizing it’s true,” Mr. Zhou said.

Ms. Luo, who moved to Canada in 2025, said that, when 10,000 practitioners peacefully appealed to the CCP 27 years ago, they trusted the government officials and hoped to end the false reports, harassment, suppression, and violence against practitioners that had been carried out by some CCP government and propaganda agencies since 1996. They called for a legal environment to practice. In response, the CCP launched the persecution on July 20, 1999, targeting people who practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. That campaign has never stopped and has escalated into transnational repression.

Ms. Luo was taken to a brainwashing center in May 2002 and held for five months. After that, she was regularly intimidated, threatened, and harassed. “The CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Dafa has been going on for 27 years, but the spirit of April 25 has never faded. Practitioners continue to expose the persecution in a peaceful and rational manner,” she said.

“We sincerely hope that people with a sense of justice in the Chinese consulate will uphold their inner goodness, refuse to participate in the CCP’s crimes, not harbor any illusions about the CCP, sever ties with it, and create a great future for yourselves and your family.”