40 Parliamentarians Urge the Canadian Government to Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) July 20, 2022 marked the 23^rd anniversary of the persecution against Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Forty Canadian parliamentarians wrote to the Prime Minister Trudeau and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, urging the federal government to stop the human rights atrocities going on in China.

40 Canadian parliamentarians urge the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong

The joint letter was initiated by Liberal MP Judy Sgro and Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, two co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong. It was co-signed by parliamentarians from both sides of the House, including 31 Conservative MPs, 2 Conservative Senators, 5 Liberal MPs, Green Party MP Elizabeth May and Independent Senator Kim Pate.

The MPs and senators said, “We, the undersigned parliamentarians, urge the government to include Falun Gong explicitly in Global Affairs Canada’s China Policy Framework (while other persecuted groups are mentioned), condemn the CCP’s continued attack on this peaceful faith, and call for an end to the persecution in China.”

The Largest and Most Violent Campaign

The parliamentarians wrote in the letter, “It has been brought to our attention that the evidence is overwhelming, corroborated, and voluminous proving that the persecution of Falun Gong remains the largest and most violent campaign targeting Chinese people, not just regionally, but nationally in mainland China today. It includes a devastating propaganda campaign to demonize Falun Gong with hatred and bigotry inside China as well as within the international community.”

The Forced Organ Harvesting

The parliamentarians said that in addition to the massive arbitrary arrests and torture, the Chinese communist regime also monetized the practitioners by killing them and selling their organs, “destroying the lives of tens of millions of innocent people and their families.”

The letter pointed out that the atrocities are well-documented by human rights organizations and experts, such as Amnesty International, governmental bodies, and the United Nations.

An independent investigation by late MP David Kilgour and renowned human rights lawyer David Matas in 2006 confirmed the allegation of organ harvesting. The final judgment issued in June 2019 by the China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC (also prosecutor of Slobodan Milosevic), similarly concluded that a significant number of Chinese prisoners of conscience had been killed in the massive organ transplant industry and that Falun Gong practitioners are the main source of organs.

In June 2021, a statement by 12 United Nations special rapporteurs released a statement, saying that they were “extremely alarmed” by credible information that forced organ harvesting is targeting Falun Gong practitioners in detention.

Prior to that, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 343 in 2016, “expressing concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in ‘large numbers’.”

Furthermore, Freedom House stated in a report published in 2015, “Hundreds of thousands of adherents were sentenced to labour camps and prison terms, making them the largest contingent of prisoners of conscience in the country.”

The joint letter also included the report by U.N. Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak almost a decade earlier that “Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody.”

The Cold Genocide

The parliamentarians went on to say that “Academics have concluded that the eradication of Falun Gong by the CCP is a genocide.”

In the article “Cold Genocide: Falun Gong in China” published in Genocide Studies and Prevention in 2018, it concluded that this killing is a “concealed genocide” that is “invisible, ignored, or forgotten.”

Another 2022 article affirmed that the CCP is waging a genocide against Falun Gong that “is long overdue for recognition.”

Time to Speak Out

The letter cited the case of Canadian citizen Ms. Qian Sun, who is serving an 8-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong. There are another 12 Canadians whose family members in China are also jailed because of their belief in Falun Gong, including Liu Zhoubo and Cao Wen, the parents of Liu Zhiyuan (a student of Carleton University), and Liu Yan, the mother of Liu Mingyuan (who studies computer animation at Sheridan University).

“Sadly, there has never been such a disparity between a humanitarian crisis and silence from the international community as that observed in the persecution of Falun Gong over the past two decades, where human rights and legal experts affirm that crimes against humanity are occurring.”

“We count on the government to champion the international human rights of all persecuted groups. In particular, the Falun Gong faith community deserves explicit mention in the current Global Affairs China Policy Framework, in which it has been excluded, as horrific acts and hatred continue to target them in China as well as here in Canada.”

“It is time we speak out for them.”