The Martlet (UVic)
Recently a small crowd gathered around posters
displaying gruesome images of bloody, dismembered people at the steps in front
of the legislature.
A handful of Victoria Falun Gong practitioners
organized the demonstration to raise awareness of China’s persecution of human
rights lawyers and the alleged harvesting of human organs from imprisoned Falun
Gong members there.
Guo Ting Guo, the first Chinese lawyer to openly
defend practitioners of Falun Gong (a spiritual movement banned in China since
1999), was present at the small demonstration.
He has been living in
Canada as a refugee since late 2005, after his home was raided and his law firm
was taken away by Chinese officials, he said.
“We have done nothing
wrong,” Guo said, referring to himself and other Chinese human rights lawyers
who are finding themselves under attack from Chinese authorities.
“Lawyers are being told not to defend Falun Gong,” said Marie Beaulieu,
a local Falun Gong practitioner. “If even lawyers cannot defend those people,
where can they go to appeal for justice?”
Westerners need to be aware of
the slaughter that is occurring in China, said Beaulieu, as she motioned towards
gory pictures of what she maintains are tortured Chinese Falun Gong
practitioners.
A report released in July, composed by former Liberal MP
David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas, supports Beaulieu and other
protesters’ claim that China is harvesting the vital organs of persecuted Falun
Gong members for sale overseas.
The report concludes, “We believe that
there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from
unwilling Falun Gong practitioners. The allegations, if true, would represent a
grotesque form of evil, which, despite all the depravations humanity has seen,
would be new to this planet.”
Kilgour said China should put an end to
organ harvesting immediately, or it will risk jeopardizing the success of its
Olympic Games in 2008.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, however, has
denied the allegations. On their website, the embassy states, “The so-called
‘independent investigation report’ made by a few Canadians based on rumours and
false allegations is groundless and biased. … We hope that the Canadian people
will not be deceived by the disguise of the Falun Gong, and more people will be
aware of the nature of ‘Falun Gong’ as an evil cult.”
Falun Gong, also
known as Falun Dafa, was first taught publicly in China in 1992. It combines
meditation with Tai Chi-like exercises. The discipline has spread quickly in
China and in other parts of the world.
In 1999, the communist Chinese
government declared Falun Gong illegal.
“Chinese tourists walk past our
display quickly to avoid it,” said Beaulieu. “Because in China people are told
by the propaganda machine to persecute Falun Gong.”
Both Beaulieu and
Guo hope to see Canada’s government take a firm stance against China’s human
rights abuses.