Letter from MP Andrew Telegdi to Prime Minister of Canada

Right Honourable Jean Chretien
Prime Minister of Canada
Langevin Block
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ont.

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the vicious persecution and defamation of Falun Gong practitioners by the government of China. Thousands of these people have had their basic human rights abused and have been arbitrarily detained and tortured by police, with a large number believed to have died while in police custody.

I am particularly distressed by the imprisonment for their spiritual beliefs of 130 Falun Gong Chinese nationals in the notorious Masanjia Labour Camp in the city of Shenyang. Many of these individuals have suffered abuse, torture and deprivation of the essentials of life, treatment that contravenes the United Nations Convention on Human Rights to which Canada is a signatory.

I urge you to protest the imprisonment in a labour camp in Shanghai of Shenli Lin, the husband of Jinyu Li, a Canadian citizen and to request his immediate release. Mr. Lin has applied for Canadian citizenship and had received a visa to visit his wife here shortly before his detention.

I support the Falun Dafa Association's request that any and all Chinese officials who are in any way connected with the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China be expelled and/or bared entry into Canada. Please express Canada's objection to these human rights abuses to President Jiang Zemin when you meet with him on your state visit to Beijing this October and let him know that we can never have fully normalized relations with his country until these abuses are ended.

Sincerely,

Andrew Telegdi, M.P.

CC: Hon. John Manley, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Jinyu Li, wife of imprisoned Falun Dafa practitioner in China