The International Festival for Humanity (IFH) was launched this week with a few guest speakers at an opening ceremony at McGill University. Following a brief introduction of Falun Dafa and the current situation in China by one of our practitioners, Member of Parliament Francine Lalonde gave a bilingual speech about her understanding of the situation and once again voiced her support. She also reminded us that she had been one of the first MPs to respond and offer support for Prof. KunLun Zhang. The Professor then presented his experiences in the detention center and labor camp in China. After revealing the serious mental and physical tortures he suffered, he appealed on behalf of all the practitioners who were still imprisoned in China. Fellow practitioner Jinyu Li spoke about her husband's ongoing detention in China, and about four other of her family members' mistreatment as Falun Gong practitioners as well. Our hosts from Amnesty International McGill and the IFH organizers warmly welcomed us and the public to the week's activities. Afterwards, some practitioners demonstrated the exercises and the whole audience was riveted by the tranquil scene. Many people asked questions and wanted to find out more.

Since we have newly started a Falun Dafa Club with the students' society, and have had support from the students working with the Amnesty club, after a set of Falun Dafa exercise demonstrations at a related event (which were a success, with many people wanting to learn, and great support from the Students' society), Culture Fest, they suggested that we set up a booth the next day at the IFH Marketplace, an activity with many diverse participants, including various ethnic and religious student groups, environmental groups, and many others.

Everything was decided last-minute, the night before the activity was to take place, but we really felt people's kind hearts, as they went out of their way to help secure space for us and help organize the activity. We set up a booth, mounted some truth-clarifying posters, laid out some materials, and spent several hours there.

Many people came by to ask questions and find out more. There was one practitioner doing the exercises in front of our table, and after seeing the practice, all the people that talked with us could not understand at all why the persecution was taking place. It seems that more and more people, when presented with the truth, can automatically recognize the evilness and utter irrationality of the Chinese president's vile crackdown. At the same time, many people signed up to be honorary members of the Club, to be able to find out about--and join in --club activities in the near future.

The lady in the booth next to ours (who was making sculptures) thanked us many times for playing the Pu Du music. She said that she really enjoyed it and, although she did not have much chance to watch us practice, she nonetheless really felt the 'energy' and thought that the practice really was good. I also overheard her spreading the truth about Dafa to the people at her booth who asked about us!

We also spoke to many people at other booths, met some people who wanted to help however they could, and talked with some others who wanted us to go and give workshops etc. The head of one group even came over to our booth and offered to do whatever possible to help our club out; he said all we had to do was ask. A reporter from TV McGill came and interviewed us about the practice and the crackdown, and others passed by to photograph us practicing and clarifying the truth. After finding out the truth, many people accepted the yellow buttons that proclaimed to the entire universe "I Support Falun Dafa."

We will help them to take this message with them, and spread the truth of Dafa to all corners of the world. The mighty power of Dafa truly manifested today. We realized that our continued appeals and spreading of Dafa in all environments suffocated the evil with benevolence and left no room for evil to exist. At the same time we could feel our minds getting clearer and clearer as we stepped forward, bit by bit, out of our human shells.

Some Practitioners in Canada

March 5^th 2001

Organizers from the IFH and Amnesty International McGill give opening remarks and welcome the public and guest speakers

MP Ms. Francine Lalonde delivers her speech, clearly voicing her ongoing support.