Toronto, December 20, 2001 -- On Wednesday, December 19th, 2001 one hundred and fifty-six (156) Falun Gong practitioners filed a law suit in Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Canada's largest Chinese language newspaper, the Sing Tao Daily, for libel, slander, negligence and incitement of hatred. Constitutional and Civil Rights lawyer, Mr. Rocco Galati, legal counsel for Falun Gong, will join practitioners in a news conference in Toronto on Friday December 21, 2001.
On September 20, 2001, a full-page spread, entitled "Radical religions advocate destroying the world", published in the Sing Tao Daily, carried photographs and commentary placing Falun Gong with many reportedly violent and doomsday religious cults as well as with the September 11th terrorist attacks that had occurred only 9 days before.
Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual practice that includes meditation, gentle exercise and profound teachings based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It is enjoyed in at least 53 countries, however, only in China it is currently targeted in a large scale persecution and defamation campaign. Since July 1999, over 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily arrested and detained; more than 20,000 have been sent to labour camps without trial, thousands have been incarcerated and abused in mental hospitals and more than 300 have been confirmed to have died from persecution in police custody. Sources in the Chinese government admit the true number is actually more than 1600.