Montreal: Commemorating the Ninth Anniversary of "April 25" -- Peacefully and Rationally Clarifying the Facts (Photos)
By Xiao Yan in Montreal
(Clearwisdom.net) On April 16, 2008, Falun Gong practitioners in
Montreal, Canada, held a rally at Zhongshan Park in Chinatown to commemorate the
ninth anniversary of the "April 25" peaceful appeal in
Beijing. With the same peaceful and rational spirit that prevailed on April 25,
1999, practitioners exposed the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese
Communist regime over the past nine years. They called for the international
community and people from all walks of life to condemn the Chinese Communist
regime's brutal conduct and help bring an end to the persecution. Montreal rally to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the
"April 25" peaceful appeal A local family of five stopped to listen to the truth
clarification Passers-by reluctant to leave after learning the facts about
the persecution Two women joined the Falun Gong exercise group A family on holiday from Vermont came to understand the
persecution Passers-by approached practitioners to sign the petition to
call for an end to the persecution A practitioner said, "Throughout the nine years of persecution, the
Divine Land (China) has been spattered with blood. However, the real victims are
not only practitioners of Falun Gong, but also the many Chinese people, who,
under the regime's control, became unwitting accomplices in the killings. In the
face of the cruel persecution, practitioners have put themselves and their
personal safety at risk and persevered in "clarifying the facts" to
people. Consequently, more and more people are able to step out of the shadow of
the CCP's lies and have changed their formerly hostile attitude toward the
practice, which can bring them great benefits. Practitioners outside of China
have selflessly contributed their own time and money to expose the Communist
regime's cruelties, thereby inspiring compassion, while many practitioners
inside China have lost their lives." The rally lasted approximately three hours. More than ten practitioners gave
prepared speeches. They clarified the facts of the persecution endured by
practitioners over the past nine years. The event attracted many bystanders.
Practitioners were very busy handing out informational materials and collecting
signatures for the "Million Signatures" campaign. Many passers-by
heard about the persecution in China for the first time and asked practitioners
for further details. One man asked after reading the materials, "Why is the Chinese Communist
regime persecuting such a good practice like Falun Gong? It is really hard to
comprehend." He then asked for the address of the local practice site, and
said he would there go to learn the exercises the following day. A family of four on holiday from Vermont had never heard about the
persecution. They spent a long time at the rally reading the truth-clarification
materials. The mother and two children listened carefully while practitioners
were telling other people about Falun Gong and the persecution. The father held
down two corners of a banner, attentively reading the information on the banner
about the persecution. The boy, approximately ten years old, also looked
carefully at the truth-clarifying materials. The mother asked practitioners
three times, "Why are people being persecuted simply for practicing Falun
Gong?" When she learned about the benefits Falun Gong that can bring to
people's minds and bodies, she asked for more information and said she would
send it to her father. Five youths, around 16 or 17 yeas old, solemnly signed the anti-persecution
petition after hearing the facts. One of the boys asked, "What can I do to
help?" But he quickly thought of a way, "Please, give me a petition
sheet. I will photocopy it for other students at my school, so they can all sign
to help stop the persecution." Over the past nine years, more and more people have learned the facts and are
now able to distinguish good from bad as a result of practitioners' unyielding
truth-clarification efforts. When a Chinatown Chinese restaurant worker walked
past the rally, he told practitioners who were distributing pamphlets, "Falun
Dafa is good!" A local Chinese family of five arrived. When they saw the rally, they stopped
to listen to a practitioner clarifying the facts. A little while later they
returned and gave that practitioner ice-cream they had especially purchased for
her. The mother said, "We brought our children here and learned about Falun
Gong and the persecution of practitioners. We cannot bear it, especially the
suffering of children. She (the practitioner who spoke with them) is doing
something very remarkable." On Saturday the weather was fine, and as a large number of people went to
shop in Chinatown, the practitioners ran out of forms for the "Millions of
Signatures" campaign, initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the
Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG). Many people in the crowd heard about the
practice for the first time and wrote down the addresses for local practice
sites, saying they would like to learn to practice as well. Two women joined the
exercise group that day. April 25, 1999, is a milestone, which will forever be recorded in history.
Nine years ago, approximately ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered of
their own accord at the State Council Appeals Office in Beijing. They did so to
peacefully appeal after a series of adverse incidents across China, including
the slander and framing of Falun Gong. This defamation was carried out by those
with ulterior motives, such as He Zuoxiu, and included the unlawful arrests of
45 practitioners in Tianjin. Practitioners went to appeal for the release of
those who were wrongly detained and petitioned the authorities to allow them a
relaxed cultivation environment and also the freedom to publish Falun Dafa
books. Then Premier Zhu Rongji received practitioners, and as a result,
preliminary resolutions were agreed to. Afterwards, the practitioners left
peacefully. However, on July 20, 1999, because of resentment, envy, and loathing of Falun
Gong's popularity, former Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin, utilizing the
"April 25" peaceful appeal as a pretext, officially and in
complete violation of the Chinese Constitution, launched history's most evil and
brutal persecution. Ridiculous lies and false evidence were carefully
fabricated; a large number of practitioners were arrested, tortured, put through
coercive brain-washing, raped, forced into mental institutions, or had their
organs harvested and sold for profit. Their families were also severely
implicated and persecuted. Jiang Zemin's evil regime used all kinds of ruthless
methods to torture practitioners physically and torment them mentally. This
resulted in thousands of deaths, and undreds of thousands Falun Gong
practitioners were incarcerated and suffered unimaginable misery, while
countless families were torn apart. To date, the number of practitioners verified to have died as a result of the
persecution has reached 3,149. The actual figure could be several times higher.
Even more chilling is the Chinese Communist regime's crime of organ harvesting
for profit from living practitioners. Furthermore, the regime is now using the
Olympic Games as another pretext to escalate the persecution of Falun Gong by
mass arrests of practitioners. In the last few months alone, 1,878 such arrest
incidents were reported.
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/4/27/177362.html
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