Hour (Montreal, Canada): Falun Gong Protest

By Stephanie O'Hanley

September 15th, 2005

Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Canada last week gave local Falun Gong practitioners a chance to draw even more attention to the persecution faced by Falun Gong members worldwide. President Hu sidestepped journalists' questions about the murder, disappearance, torture and illegal detainment of thousands of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) followers in China since 1999.

[...]

Bill Guan, who left China in 1995, says he returned for a visit in 1999 to "tell the truth about Falun Dafa to the government." But instead, Guan, then a permanent Canadian resident and Chinese citizen, was arrested and detained for one week, then kicked out and told he could come back to China only on condition he gave up Falun Gong, Guan says.

Continued devotion to Falun Gong has cost Guan his Chinese citizenship and the right to return to China to see family members, Guan says. In 2000, Guan says the Chinese government refused to renew his Chinese passport unless he renounced Falun Gong. After receiving Canadian citizenship in 2001, Guan says his boss requested a visa on his behalf so he could act as translator for a business trip to China. The visa was refused.

Guan also says that in 2000 a midnight phone call from an unidentified man warned Guan his life would be in danger if he didn't stop practising Falun Gong, and that this year strange things have happened with his car. After a brief visit to a friend in Chinatown just before Canada Day, Guan drove away to discover the two back tires were flat. When he went to pick up the car from the garage, he says mechanics were surprised to find that one of the back tires of the car, which had been parked outside, had once again gone flat. Guan says Montreal police can't help because Guan has no witnesses and no proof.

A reader commented on this article on September 15.

The reader said, "What ever happened to equality in the world. I mean, I know that there's never going to be 100% respect for other religions, races and beliefs but this has gone too far. I think that if you want to believe in something and practice it, then you should be free to do so, especially since it's not hurting anyone else. I mean, they got people fleeing from China who can't even make it anywhere else because everyone is hurting them for their beliefs. It's not like they formed a cult to kill others. These people are being treated like terrorists. All they want is to practice Falun Gong in peace and they should be allowed to do that. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read this article."

Source: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=7149

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version