OTTAWA—Falun Gong practitioners first rallied in front of the Chinese embassy ten years ago when the communist regime began its persecution against their spiritual practice on July 20, 1999.
Since then, they have held numerous protests and appeals at the embassy site, including a near-daily vigil that has become a familiar fixture on St. Patrick Street.
A decade has passed and the persecution remains relentless. Yet despite brutal oppression, peaceful resistance has continued inside and outside China, said Lucy Zhou, spokesperson of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (FDAC), at a ten-year commemoration rally on Monday.
Falun Gong practitioners have persevered in their efforts to inform fellow Chinese citizens about the injustice and cruelty of the persecution. The practice has not only survived in China, but it has thrived overseas, Ms. Zhou said.
Hon. David Kilgour, former Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, attended the rally and addressed the Ambassador of China in his speech.
“All of us here admire the people of China enormously. Our concern is how you treat your own people—not only Falun Gong practitioners, but many others in a long list of persecuted people of China,” he said.
He noted “the atrocities that continue to this day,” including torture, killing, deprivation of human dignity, and organ theft.
Along with international human rights lawyer David Matas, Mr. Kilgour is co-author of a 2006-2007 investigative report on the Chinese regime’s gruesome, large-scale practice of harvesting organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in a lucrative trade.
“The two of us found 52 kinds of evidentiary proof indicating that this crime against humanity is occurring,” he said, adding that the Chinese regime has yet to make any substantive response to the report.
Since then, they have held numerous protests and appeals at the embassy site, including a near-daily vigil that has become a familiar fixture on St. Patrick Street.
A decade has passed and the persecution remains relentless. Yet despite brutal oppression, peaceful resistance has continued inside and outside China, said Lucy Zhou, spokesperson of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (FDAC), at a ten-year commemoration rally on Monday.
Falun Gong practitioners have persevered in their efforts to inform fellow Chinese citizens about the injustice and cruelty of the persecution. The practice has not only survived in China, but it has thrived overseas, Ms. Zhou said.
Hon. David Kilgour, former Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, attended the rally and addressed the Ambassador of China in his speech.
“All of us here admire the people of China enormously. Our concern is how you treat your own people—not only Falun Gong practitioners, but many others in a long list of persecuted people of China,” he said.
He noted “the atrocities that continue to this day,” including torture, killing, deprivation of human dignity, and organ theft.
Along with international human rights lawyer David Matas, Mr. Kilgour is co-author of a 2006-2007 investigative report on the Chinese regime’s gruesome, large-scale practice of harvesting organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in a lucrative trade.
“The two of us found 52 kinds of evidentiary proof indicating that this crime against humanity is occurring,” he said, adding that the Chinese regime has yet to make any substantive response to the report.