Falun Gong followers protest against alleged organ harvesting
Stop in Sydney part of Atlantic Canada tour

By Nancy King
the Cape Breton Post, Saturday, August 5, 2006

Sydney - A trio of Falun Gong followers brought their campaign against alleged live organ harvesting involving members of their spiritual group to the Civic Centre Friday.

The stop was part of a car tour by members based in Toronto to communities throughout Atlantic Canada, where they’ve demonstrated in front of municipal buildings.

In Sydney, patrons of a chip truck across the street watched curiously while local media spoke with Can Sun and Yan Liu, and as Yvonne Zhao displayed a sign reading, “China, stop harvesting live Falun Gong organs.”

Sun left an information package with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and was hoping Cape Bretoners would sign an online petition asking the House of Commons to condemn the alleged practice.

“We hope everyone can help support or even pray for these people who are being killed for their organs,” Sun said. “Anyone . . . can just tell their friends or write to their MPs or let everyone in Canada know about this issue and ask the Canadian government that no, we cannot tolerate this any longer.”

Reports of the practice first arose in March after an investigation by a Chinese journalist. Canadian followers then invited human rights lawyer David Matas and David Kilgour, former Liberal secretary of state for Asia Pacific, to provide an independent probe.

Much of their evidence was gathered through interviews and from tapes of Falun Gong members who called Chinese hospitals posing as prospective transplant recipients.

One witness was a surgeon’s wife who claimed he had removed more than 2,000 corneas from unwilling Falun Gong members over two years.

The result — a 46-page report — was released last month and determined that up to 41,500 transplant operations in China were probably performed using organs of Falun Gong members.

Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai subsequently indicated the government would investigate the claims.

Sun doesn’t describe Falun Gong as a religion, rather as a spiritual practice involving meditation. It was outlawed by the Chinese government in 1999, and the group claims that almost 3,000 practitioners have died in police custody, while others have been subject to torture.

The Canadian Chinese embassy has denied the allegations, saying China abides by the guiding principles of the World Health Organization endorsed in 1991 with respect to the human organ transplants.

The Kilgour-Matas report is available online at http://investigation.redirectme.net.