Here is some of the fallout I referenced to Ms. Yuan's appearance at the All Candidates Forum on Monday, October 6th.
Thanks to Anonymous who posted this to our blog:
Leeshai Lemish: The Games are over, the persecution continues
National Post blog.
An Open letter to Wendy Yuan & the Liberal Party from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada - representing members of the Falun Gong in Canada.
Dear Liberal Candidates,
I am writing with our serious concerns that the Liberal Party candidate Ms. Wendy Yuan, speaking of the Liberal Party policy regarding the torture and killing of Falun Gong in China, stated "for Falun Gong, our policy is not to interfere other country's internal affair" at an all-candidate debate in Vancouver on October 4, 2008, while all the rest of the Candidates all spoke for protecting the basic rights of Falun Gong practitioners.
We were shocked beyond belief to hear this statement from Ms. Yuan about the Liberal Party's policy. Why would the Liberal Party’s policy on Falun Gong reflect the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s policy? For the purpose of stopping the condemnation and criticism from the international community toward its horrific human rights abuses, CCP has already claimed their rights abuses to be “internal affairs”.
However, human rights abuse is not an internal affair. The murder and torture of world citizens for their beliefs is NOT an internal affair. It is a crime against humanity and against all human, international, and constitutional laws! We hereby write to you to seek answers and clarifications from the Liberal Party on its position of the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong. We would start with giving you the necessary background:
What is happening to Falun Gong in China
First of all, Falun Gong is a spiritual practice with a principle of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" and five sets of gentle exercises and meditation. It was widely accepted in China before 1999 when the persecution started because of Falun Gong’s popularity. The CCP leader at the time, Jiang Zemin, declared that the CCP must defeat Falun Gong.
For the past nine years, the persecution of Falun Gong has been a crucial and essential part of the human right abuses in China and the persecution has been happening systematically across the nation. UN Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak reaffirmed in his 2007 report that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody. US State Department annual reports indicated that Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labour camps, while the real number could be even higher.
The Hon. David Kilgour, former Liberal MP, and Mr. David Matas, renowned human rights lawyer, concluded in their independent investigation report that "there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners" by the "the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country"; “The widespread killing of Falun Gong practitioners for profit to provide organs for transplants is "so shocking that it represents a new form of evil on this planet.”
According to the Falun Dafa Information Center more than 3,100 practitioners have been tortured to death to date. Many more cases of detention and death remain unreported, as the Chinese regime imposes an information blockade, and reporting these cases to outside authorities constitutes a severe “crime” of "leaking state secrets."
Millions upon millions of Falun Gong practitioners have lost their jobs, housing, education, and all basic rights and have been incarcerated and tortured for refusing to give up their belief. No lawyer was allowed to defend them. Lawyer Gao Zhisheng, "the conscience of Chinese lawyers," lost his license to practice, his law firm was shut down, and he was incarcerated himself for defending a Falun Gong practitioner, and for writing to Chinese leaders calling for an end to the persecution.
Persecution affects Canadians
The persecution also affects Canadians. Currently, thirteen family members of Canadians and practitioners of Falun Gong are currently incarcerated in China for their belief in Falun Gong. Yue Yao, wife of Canadian resident Wenyu Liu in Calgary, is one of 12 jailed practitioners with Canadian ties. In 2001 Ms. Yao was sentenced to 12 years in prison for downloading information from Falun Gong websites and printing leaflets for distribution. Mr. Jian Ma, husband of Ms. Yao Lian in Montreal, is currently serving 2.5 years in forced labor camp for having Falun Gong-related documents at his home.
What is the responsibility of the international community
We have appreciated the help from members of the Liberal Party, such as Prof. Irwin Cotler, who was instrumental in rescuing Canadian Falun Gong practitioner Kunlun Zhang in 2001. There are also others who have supported us; I will not list their names one by one here.
It is disheartening, however, to see statements from your candidate that your current policy on this issue is not to "interfere with China's internal affairs".
Now the victims of the persecution are not just practitioners of Falun Gong. The persecution of Falun Gong is a persecution of the human conscience of our elected officials, and the candidates for the elections also. When facing such a "new evil on this planet", should the candidates and your elected officials be turning a blind eye to such atrocities in exchange for business, trade, and other interests under the excuse of so-called “engagement”? Should the international community label it a Chinese “internal affair” to avoid their moral and social responsibility?
Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." China is a signatory of the UN Declaration of Human Rights; so is Canada. Does Canada also have a responsibility to urge the stop of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners?
With this letter, we seek clarification from the Liberal Party on your policy regarding:
1. the ongoing human rights abuses in China against Falun Gong in general; and
2. efforts in rescuing the family member of Canadians who are incarcerated in China for their Falun Gong belief.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Lucy Zhou
Falun Dafa Association of Canada
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3 comments:
Here's one more letter for ya! I agree with the ex pats and others. Too many Wendies elected in Ottawa would not be healthy for Canadians as a whole. Democracy is something that we must nurture.
Open letter to Wendy Yuan
Dear Wendy Yuan,
(Liberal Candidate for Kingsway-Vancouver)
I was really shocked when I heard you talk at a town hall meeting last week of the "sovereignty" of China and the suggestion that the Falun Gong is a sort of an outlawed/criminal organization.
Have you any idea how China has interfered in Canadian sovereignty, for example and only one of many, manipulated the CBC to doctor Peter Row's documentary "Beyond the Red Wall", and how the consul in Vancouver has used our police, our courts, and our government to harass the Falun Gong.
Though I am not a member of that organization or a "practitioner" as I gather they are called, they are beautiful moral peace people. Like the Monks of Burma and Tibet in their spirituality, their wonderful commitment to their three principles of ‘Truth-Compassion-Tolerance’—I ask you how evil is that?
By supporting the butchers of Beijing and their crimes again humanity -- yes even worse than Hitler and Stalin combined -- you become complicit in those atrocities. Surely you know and the whole world knows that people were displaced in order to put on the Big Show called the Olympics in August. And remarkably, there are people who like to pretend that this is not a repetition of Hitler's 1936 show Olympics as he was preparing his extermination plans.
I know of no Chinese friend or the thousands who are not Chinese here and in 60 or more countries around the world who are not aware of the fact that China is building its military to be the most powerful on earth, in military hospitals where they seize the organs of healthy people, primarily Falun Gong and any person they dislike, for sale to the rich transplant tourists from around the world --prices range from $70,000 to $200,000 an organ, and like MacDonald's you get two organs for cheaper -- called supersizing when it comes to McDonald fast food. It is Communist China’s fast organs. You can get an organ in three or four days; they kill to order. In the rest of the world instead of two or three days it takes two or three years to get an organ.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not a Falun Gong member. But I admire them greatly. It might interest you to know, also that even though I am Canadian born, a journalist here for 30 years, a Member of Parliament, daughter of one of Canada's earliest pioneers from Europe (in Alberta before it joined confederation in 1905) I have been harassed by the agents from the Communist consul. That is respect for our sovereignty?
And to think that the Canadian Chinese with whom I was so close, who worked so hard for me, and who I served from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland--all of them came to me for their cases to be handled as a journalist seeking social justice for them or as an MP with problems of immigration, family, or just because they were my friends. I was supported by the Chinese Benevolent Association, Chinese Merchants Association and they were all my friends. I attended family parties and weddings and every community event with these friends. Now they are willing to call out the police against me...and I might tell you that the police, who have been my friends for years, were amused but angry because they know they are used by the Chinese Communists in Canada to harass Falun Gong and their friends.
Yes, my father was a Canadian pioneer -- in Alberta-- there before it joined the confederation in 1905. So you can imagine how much I despise those who owe some sort of allegiance and love of China, who are silent when a young man is pistol whipped (twice) outside the Chinese consulate compound at 5 a.m. ...and I know that there are thousands of illegals here serving the Communist Chinese government.
And you dare to talk of their sovereignty!
What about the country you owe your allegiance to—the sovereignty of Canada?
I am told however, that you have a vested interest as did David Emerseon--a personal agenda--business with China. I hope my information is wrong ...
Simma Holt, former MP - Vancouver BC
Just a thought: If the Liberal candidate were to win in this election, would we be expecting another Liberal floor-crossing, this time from Liberal to Communist?
It wouldn't be surprising one bit judging by Wendy's strategy.
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