(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners in Quebec City held an information day at Place D’Youville, a popular tourist attraction for residents and tourists that features concert halls, restaurants, and hotels, on October 5, 2024.
Practitioners from Montreal, Sherbrooke, and the south shore of Quebec City also took part in the event to raise awareness of Canada’s transplant tourism law and its effects on China in particular. Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been forcibly removing organs from prisoners of conscience - mostly Falun Dafa practitioners – which are sold for a profit.
Practitioners collected signatures on a petition to the Quebec government, asking it to enforce the federal law concerning forced organ harvesting from living Falun Dafa practitioners. They also introduced Falun Dafa to passersby and demonstrated the exercises. The Tian Guo Marching Band performed to help raise awareness.
Practitioners conduct activities in Place D’Youville, Quebec City.
People stopped and talked to the practitioners.
A woman takes photo of the exercise demonstration.
People sign the petition calling to stop the persecution.
A woman signs the petition in the rain.
The Practitioners’ Petition
Frédérique Binette, the event organizer who helped draft the petitions to the Quebec government, said of the federal law, “In 2022, it’s the first time in the world that we’ll have an extra-territorial reach. If it’s criminal in Canada, it’s criminal abroad. It also criminalizes the whole system of organ traffickers and medical teams abroad. It’s a way of combating forced organ harvesting. It’s the first legislation in the world to do this, so we’re very proud.”
This petition calls for the provisions of the Criminal Code to be applied to the Quebec context, specifically to better inform patients awaiting transplants, so that they don’t unknowingly participate in forced organ harvesting abroad. It also calls for doctors to be given the tools they need to inform Quebec citizens of this human rights violation.
The petition reads as follows:
WHEREAS Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a spiritual meditation discipline based on the principles of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance, which numbered between 70 and 100 million practitioners in China before it was persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party in 1999;
WHEREAS numerous NGOs and human rights experts have documented that crimes against humanity and genocide are taking place, and that an independent London-based tribunal, the China Tribunal, has concluded that “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one - and probably the main - source of organ supply”;
WHEREAS the Canadian Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (trafficking in human organs), adopted in 2022, makes it a crime for a Canadian citizen or resident to travel abroad to receive an organ from a person who has not given informed consent;
WHEREAS 10% of transplants worldwide involve organ trafficking, human trafficking or transplant tourism, that China is the most frequent and most controversial destination, and that Canadians participate in this phenomenon;
We, the signatories, call on the Québec government,
To deploy the necessary means to enforce the new provisions of the Criminal Code;
To inform the Québec population of the ethical issues and legal questions surrounding transplant tourism, particularly in China.
Forced Organ Harvesting is “Against Human Principles”
Jérémie and Camille, from France, moved to Quebec eighteen months ago. As they passed the Falun Dafa booth, they were drawn to the Tian Guo Marching Band’s performance and stopped to chat with the practitioners. The organ harvesting posters attracted their attention, and they picked up an informational leaflet about Falun Dafa. They said this was the first time they had heard of the practice.
Jérémie said, “Forced organ harvesting goes against our human principles and is totally negative. It reminds me of slavery. It’s totally unthinkable. It’s sad.”
Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance is Beautiful
Three local friends, Kira, Meariem, and Alexis, happened to be passing by during a performance by the Tian Guo Marching Band. They stopped to listen, and practitioners told them about Falun Dafa and the forced organ harvesting from practitioners.
“The principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance are beautiful values,” Kira said. “Forced organ harvesting is appalling.”
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