By - Abbotsford News
Aug 17 2006
Abbotsford MP Ed Fast is right to say Canada has a reputation for standing up for the human rights of the persecuted.
He is also right when he says that China is one of our country’s major trading partners.
It is this conundrum that Ottawa could face in the coming months as it considers what action, if any, should be taken over the alleged organ harvesting of the Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the Falun Gong, the grim practice has been ongoing since the movement was banned by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at the turn of the century. But it was only in July, when former Liberal MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas published a report concluding that the practice was indeed going ahead, that the issue received widespread publicity in Canada.
A campaign is ongoing to put pressure on Canadian authorities to take a stand, and that team was in Abbotsford on Tuesday to spread the word and meet with Fast.
There are doubts as to whether the organ harvesting is even happening. For one, the Chinese Embassy in Canada has called the Kilgour and Matas report “biased” and “groundless.”
The embassy has also described Falun Gong as an “anti-science, anti-humanity and anti-society evil cult” that is diminishing in popularity. The information from China itself will likely not prove or dispel the allegations. However, while there is any doubt, surely it is up to countries that pride themselves on compassion to examine the possibility.
If true, Falun Gong members are being captured against their will, held, tortured, removed of their organs and cremated.
It is almost unbelievable, but that thought alone should not be enough to assume that the accusations are lies.
“At first, when you hear these allegations, you say, ‘They can’t be true. Human beings do not do this to one another,’ ” Fast said in an interview this week.
“But then you hear reports from reliable sources and you say, ‘Maybe this is possible,’ and, if it is, it is horrible. We as Canadians have a reputation for standing up in these sorts of circumstances.”
If that is in fact the case, now could be the time for actions rather than words.