(Clearwisdom.net, November 4, 2003) After two years, over ten hearings and several investigations and rounds of testimonies, the lawsuit against the Montreal Chinese weekly newspaper Les Presses Chinoises for defamation and incitement of hatred against Falun Gong will enter its final period on November 10, 2003 in the Quebec Superior Court.
In 2001, when the persecution of Falun Gong was the most severe, on November 3, Les Presses Chinoises published a Chinese agent Ms. He Bing's articles, defaming and inciting hatred against Falun Dafa, Teacher and Falun Dafa practitioners in the name of "a Canadian Falun Gong Exerciser." The words used were filthy and extremely vicious. Practitioners made every effort to contact Les Presses Chinoises, asking it to stop publishing the articles, make an apology, and desist in propagating misinformation. However, Les Presses Chinoises refused any contact, calling practitioners' compassionate behavior "threatening." They not only did not pay any attention to the three letters issued by practitioners' lawyer, but also further intensified their efforts in publishing whole pages of defamatory articles on November 10, November 24 and December 8. During this time there were whole pages that copied word for word articles issued by Jiang Zemin's regime, which defamed Falun Dafa. Given the circumstances, over 200 practitioners had no choice but to file a lawsuit at the Quebec Superior Court against Les Presses Chinoises, the editor of the newspaper and the Chinese agent Ms. He Bing for defamation and incitement of hatred.
From deciding to pursue legal action to the final trial, we have gone through the following steps:
Deciding to Pursue Legal Action -- the Issue of Being Compassionate.
The words that Les Presses Chinoises used to defame Teacher, Falun Dafa and practitioners were extraordinarily filthy and vicious. Besides using words like "anti-science" and "anti-humanity," the expressions used were filthy and pornographic, and there were as many as over 120 of such words used.
Facing such a vicious attack and a hostile attitude from Les Presses Chinoises, many fellow practitioners realized that we must use some legal means to stop the evil from poisoning the public's minds. However, some practitioners also raised a question: How can we understand this from the perspective of the Fa. Is this true compassion? What is true compassion?
One understanding was that confronting the evil attack is an expression of genuine compassion, and we do it to safeguard Dafa. With no other way to change Les Presses Chinoises's vicious slander, we can seek justice through legal channels. The other understanding was that no person with a conscience would ever believe such an absurd article. If we do not pay any attention to it, if we do not have our hearts moved, there would be no audience for the evil. If we pursue legal action, it might end up helping to publicize the articles. Many people have been deceived by the defamatory propaganda and gone against Dafa. If we pursue legal action to punish Les Presses Chinoises, it would surely make those people who have misunderstandings against us believe that we are not compassionate.
For some time, the fellow practitioners in Montreal could not reach the same understanding. At this moment, something that kind-hearted people could never imagine happened. In the next several weeks, Les Presses Chinoises continuously published articles published in China by Jiang's regime to defame Falun Dafa and Teacher. The articles were long and vicious, cover the pages. Bing He, again in the name of "the victim's family," continuously defamed Teacher, Teacher's family and some veteran practitioners by their names. On November 3, Les Presses Chinoises also published the so-called readers' letters, which expressed that they believed in the vicious lies.
Fellow practitioners from Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa shared their experiences very seriously. From the perspective of the Fa, we understood the genuine kindness and compassion that the Fa-rectification disciples should have. That is, we should suffocate the evil, clarify the truth and save sentient beings.
Improving Ourselves As One Body, We Had a Smooth Beginning -- the Court Issued a Protection Order to Prohibit "La Presse Chinoise" from Publishing Any Similar Materials Defaming Falun Gong.
With regards to Les Presses Chinoises's behavior, they did not do it out of temporary foolishness, since we had been contacting them and clarifying the truth to them. It was not that they did not know about the truth. This is one of the systematic steps to defame Dafa overseas by Jiang's regime, which can be seen clearly from the close cooperation of the domestic media in China. All the big media outlets immediately "reprinted" all the lies fabricated by Les Presses Chinoises, saying that Canadian Falun Gong practitioners "besieged" the press. The lies were exactly the same as those in Mainland China. It mislead the masses in China, saying that Canada was also against Falun Gong and helped to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Every one of us practitioners felt very distressed, and we felt our responsibilities. In the first trial on December 10, 2001, we went to the court with determined righteous thoughts. The result was very good. The court issued a protection order, prohibiting Les Presses Chinoises and Bing He from publishing any similar materials defaming Falun Gong.
Pursuing Results -- Hoping to Achieve the Goal of Suffocating the Evil, Clarifying the Truth and Saving Sentient Beings
At that time, we believed that it was so obvious that Les Presses Chinoises was defaming Dafa. If the court read the vicious defamatory articles, the decision of the court would be inevitable. That is, we would surely achieve our goal, which is to suffocate the evil, clarify the truth and save sentient beings. For this reason, we waited anxiously for the next court date, and tried to finish the case as soon as possible, so that we could get the accused convicted of the crime of defamation and incitement of hatred. However on February 2, 2002, Les Presses Chinoises suddenly published a 12-page long "special edition," written by the editor himself. Like the media in China, they asked the Chinese to "denounce" Falun Gong. In all the other pages, they not only reprinted the previous defamatory articles, but also increased the length of the defamatory articles written by religious leaders who pledged loyalty to the communist party.
Immediately, we again sued the newspaper for "contempt of court." On March 14, 2002, the judge, after learning about the facts, expressed explicitly that this case was closely related to people's lives and safety. After the Justice of the Quebec Superior Court got involved, the court decided to hold Les Presses Chinoises in contempt of the court.
However, after the court trial started on April 14, the judge decided to throw out the case, saying that the previous court protection order was not "clear." After appeal, the court overruled this decision.
Striving Forward Together -- Paying Attention to Clarifying the Truth, and Getting Rid of Our Attachment to Pursuit
Facing such an unexpected change, we were not calm enough in handling it. Fellow practitioners who did not have direct contact with the lawyer believed that our legal team, who directly contacted our lawyer, had not studied the Fa seriously, and as a result had not clearly clarified the truth of Dafa to our lawyer. They felt that if the truth had been properly clarified, it would be impossible for our lawyer not to state clearly the facts about Falun Dafa and win the case. However, the practitioners in the legal team believed that the lawyer had a clear understanding. This unexpected occurrence was an exhibition of the state of cultivation of all practitioners, since the lawsuit related to every single practitioner. Only when every practitioner strives forward together could we reach the requirement of the Fa-rectification to suffocate the evil. Some believed that since the lawyer was unwilling to talk about the facts about Falun Gong, we should replace him with a new lawyer. Some other practitioners believed that it was the Dafa practitioners' duty to clarify the truth, that an ordinary lawyer cannot replace Dafa practitioners, that we should have Dafa practitioners clarify the truth in the court and that we do not need any lawyer.
After in-depth study of the Fa and checking ourselves inside, we found our own attachments and tried to strive forward together in understanding the Fa. The legal team made more efforts in clarifying the truth to our lawyer. With the help of our lawyer, we also mobilized fellow practitioners in other areas to further clarify the truth to the judicial departments. Many other fellow practitioners treated the lawsuit with righteous thoughts, They took action to clarify to the local Chinese the truth about the Jiang's regime's evil nature and its presence in Les Presses Chinoises. Some fellow practitioners volunteered to contact and communicate between the legal team and other practitioners. Gradually we formed one body that was much more in harmony from the perspective of the Fa.
We realized that a good result would surely become good material for us to further expose the evil and clarify the truth. However, we should not wait for the court's decision. The court's decision depends on the broadness and depth of the way that we clarify the truth. When we can make full use of this lawsuit to clarify the truth, it will truly suffocate the evil and save sentient beings.
Eliminate the Old Forces, Further Advancement in Understanding the Fa.
We tried our best to clarify the truth. We often went to the Chinatown where Les Presses Chinoises is located to send forth righteous thoughts as a group. Fellow practitioners also kept sending forth righteous thoughts individually to eradicate the evil factors in other dimensions that control Les Presses Chinoises. With Teacher quickly pushing forward the Fa-rectification process, when it is reflected in the case of Les Presses Chinoises, we feel clearly the tremendous tide of the old forces being eradicated. In January 2003, Les Presses Chinoises tried to get the charge of "defamation and incitement of hatred" dismissed. After the court started its trial, our lawyer did not make many statements. Basically it was the judge who overruled the defense's request. On June 27, 2003, the Appeals Tribunal of the Canadian Quebec Superior Court allowed our appeal, ordered the court to proceed with the contempt of court ruling. The decision by the Quebec Court of Appeals described the character of Falun Gong and its form of practice positively. It also pointed out that Les Presses Chinoises used words to attack Falun Gong that were the same as those used by the Chinese Communist Party. This decision has been recorded in the most prestigious law journal -- Dominion Law Reports, and will become a reference for cases of the same nature in the future.
Unlike when we got excited when the charge of "defamation and incitement of hatred" was first heard and the court gave a protection order, this time, the success made us calmer. This case is in its nature, forced on us by the old forces, and it is nothing that we should tolerate. The purpose of our lawsuit is to clarify the truth. Though the result is good, we should not have an attachment to being overzealous. We should make more efforts in doing well the three things in the Fa-rectification period.
Seeing Our Own Shortcomings and Walking Well Every Single Step in the Process
Teacher said, "I often say that we don't seek to gain any worldly things, right? When it comes to doing things, I consider the process most important, because during the process you can have people see the truth, during the process you can save the world's people, and during the process you can reveal the truth" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference").
We repeatedly study Teacher's recent lectures, especially Teachers' explanation regarding our lawsuit, which made it even clearer that we did not do well in many respects. For example, how we can incorporate our own cultivation experiences and use layman's terms that are easy to understand to comprehensively clarify the truth of Dafa, expose the evil lies, without limiting ourselves to the case itself. We believed that we should not talk at too high a level in clarifying the truth. We should not talk beyond the level that ordinary society people can understand. We should go into depth on the persecution, and explain the extent of it. We should not limit ourselves to the persecution cases themselves. We should further explain that this persecution is targeted at the morality and conscience of all of China and the whole human world.
What is even more important is asking ourselves, before the final hearing comes, how can we expose to the public that Jiang's regime forces overseas media to condone the persecution in China, so that he could continue to try to eradicate Falun Gong? We still have a long way to go. We should try our best to do it, and do it well.