Practitioners and supporters of Falun Gong say Canada needs to do more to stop the abuse of their fellow-believers by the Chinese government.
A group of Falun Gong practitioners held a demonstration at Victoria Park on Tuesday. They're on a cross-country tour to raise awareness and gather support for justice of practitioners of the belief. Citing reports conducted by international human rights organizations, the volunteers hope to inform the public about the many injustices heaped on those who follow the Falun Gong creed in China, specifically claims of forced live-organ harvesting. The group held up banners, handed out informational material, and sought signatures of passersby. The group is calling for the arrest of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin who, in 1999, led a campaign to exterminate Falun Gong.
Cain Dheng, a Falun Gong Practitioner and tour volunteer, hopes their message will be well-received.
"We're here to raise awareness about the persecution to Falun Gong practitioners, and we're just mainly about the forced live-organ harvesting in China,” Dheng says. “Since 2006, over 1.5-million people were secretly slaughtered by the Chinese Communist Party. We're also here to collect the signatures for the petition; we're going to send this petition to the mayor’s office and the MPs office.”
This isn’t the first tour Falun Gong followers have done in Canada. This time, with even more evidence from external reports, the group feels like it has more credibility.
"We already did one ten years ago, and we hope to update people on this information about the organ harvesting,” says Dheng. “It covers more areas that we didn't cover 10 years ago, and we hope to let more and more people know about this monster's crime."
According to Dheng, Londoners have shown a lot of support.
"They ask about the details for the organ harvesting,” says Dheng. “There's also a lot of people who have heard about the persecution, they have heard about the organ harvesting, they think it's so evil, and they help us to sign the petition online and tell their friends and colleagues."
There has been so much support, in fact, that Dheng isn’t quite sure of the exact amount of signatures their petition has garnered.
"In general, I don't know for sure, but at least over 500,000 signatures for the petition in Canada,” Dheng says.
Before 1999, Dheng claims Falun Gong was widely followed by many in China, icluding those in military and governmental positions. However, after Jiang Zemin’s launch of the assault, that number has greatly decreased.
"Before the persecution started, we had 100,000,000 practicing Falun Gong. But just because of the jealousy and atheism, they are against our principles,” says Dheng.
Dheng is happy that awareness is being raised, but wishes more could be done. The volunteers have reached out to the Trudeau government about the issue, but have not received much feedback.
"Hopefully [Trudeau] can mention these issues when he visits China next month. We've already sent a lot of mail,” Dheng says.
However, Dheng is very thankful for the support the group has received so far, and encourages Canadians to continue to take a stand.
"Thank you for everybody's support, and hopefully we can get more and more people informed on this monster's crime, and I hope everyone can defend those who suffer a lack of human rights,” says Dheng. “This is definitely wrong, and this crime must be stopped."
**This story was written by Samuel Gallant. Samuel is a student in the Fanshawe College broadcast journalism program. He is performing a summer internship with Blackburn News.**
