By a practitioner in Toronto

On the evening of Monday November 5, around 120 Falun Gong practitioners in Toronto held a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate to condemn the recent severe escalation of the persecution taking place in Falun Gong's birthplace - Changchun ("The City of Eternal Spring"), in northeastern China.

Most practitioners heard about the candlelight vigil in the morning but made efforts to attend right after work without dinner and sat in the cold weather for 2 hours. Several young practitioners helped keep all the candles going in the wind. We felt strongly that practitioners inside and outside of China are one body. We must all expose the evil and lighten the burden of practitioners in China.

The atmosphere was peaceful and solemn. Many people passing by were moved by the scene. One woman stopped and asked me what had happened and was eager to learn more about the persecution. Another young man living in the neighborhood came to me and said he supported us and what the Chinese government had done was terrible. I felt so happy for them to be able to know the truth and know Dafa.

University of Toronto engineering student Jason Loftus read a statement on behalf of the Toronto practitioners, condemning Chinese president Jiang Zemin and Luo Gang's 610 Office in their brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun.

Sometimes for local events at the consulate, media has not come to cover the event. Some practitioners commented that even if media did not join us, our strong presence at the Consulate eliminates a lot of evil in other dimensions. One practitioner shared his experience that as the group of practitioners was sending righteous thoughts at the vigil, he had the thought that since the practitioners had organized such an event, it must be for a good reason. Master's arrangement is certainly not for practitioners to not reach people and let them hear the truth. If we doubt the impact of our efforts or that Dafa has arranged something wonderful, we are showing a lack of faith in Dafa and are leaving a loophole for the evil to cause interference. As the practitioner had this thought, City TV, a popular local TV station, arrived and then filmed the vigil and interviewed a practitioner.

Posting date: 11/7/2001
Original article date: 11/6/2001
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide

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