(Clearwisdom.net June 28, 2003) The annual Windsor Multicultural Festival in mid-June is the largest such festival in the Great Lakes area and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Immigrants to Canada from five continents display their traditional food, local products, dress, music and dances to visitors.
The multicultural committee invited the local Falun Gong practitioners to participate in the festival. Like the last few years, the festival organizers asked for our yellow button that said, "I support Falun Gong". We found before the opening ceremony that the stage demonstration of Falun Dafa exercises was not included in the schedule this year. After we contacted the organizers, they discussed and made a decision to let us demonstrate the exercises on stage immediately after the opening ceremony. The practitioners with golden exercise costumes demonstrated the five sets of exercises. Among the practitioners, the eldest is over 70 years old and the youngest is less than two years old. Later we overheard some of the visitors, "Such a beautiful practice, I don't understand why the Chinese government wants to ban and persecute them." Many visitors came forward to request information.
It was gratifying to see that the attitude towards Falun Gong among local Chinese changed significantly. Before the start of the activity, while we were setting up our booth, some Chinese residents came to ask for information one after another. Some of them arrived in Canada only five days ago. Some of them came to our booth several times to check if they missed any newspapers and VCD's. Some talked with practitioners and agreed to read Zhuan Falun online after their questions were answered. A young man wanted to buy the book after talking with a practitioner for quite a while and left happily with the book that a practitioner was reading.
One older Chinese couple watched us practicing the exercises from a distance. Practitioners talked with them and learned that they had lived in Canada for over twenty years. Before leaving, the couple took our newspapers and VCD for their family members. One Chinese tourist from England took footage of our exercise demonstration on stage and came to our booth to request more information on Falun Gong. He left happily with a set of our truth-clarifying material and a VCD.
Like the last few years, our booth was arranged at an eye-catching place. The program host on stage introduced every culture to the visitors and mentioned Falun Dafa several times. Many Chinese people were glad to see the Westerners' appreciation for Chinese traditional culture.
The last program of the festival was the chorus by the Falun Dafa practitioners. In the song "Falun Dafa is good", we completed our truth-clarifying activity in this year's Windsor Multicultural Festival.
