September 8, 2006 Friday

James Yang, and Lisa Wang hold an SOS sign at a demonstration to raise awareness about the live human organ harvesting that is happening to members of Falun Gong in China. The group from Toronto started at the Chatham Centre then headed over to Chatham-Kent Essex MP Dave VanKesteren's office.

Stop the killing!

That's the message four Falun Gong practitioners from Toronto brought to Chatham-Kent Thursday.

The four are travelling throughout southwestern Ontario raising awareness of China's Communist regime harvesting live Falun Gong practitioners' organs.

Clement Sun, the group's spokesperson, said there is overwhelming evidence of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist party.

"Because of the urgency of the problem, Falun Gong members are travelling across Canada raising awareness of the issue,' said Sun.

Sun and his group had hoped to meet with Mayor Diane Gagner, but he was told the mayor was in Toronto attending meetings.

The mayor's secretary said she would pass along an information package from the group on her return.

Sun said Canadians are being asked to petition the government to intervene in the slaughter of innocent men, women and children.

Claims of large-scale organ seizures are backed up in a report published in July by former MP Hon. David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas.

Their report noted that the Chinese government policy on Falun Gong has been to "defame their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.

"The policy of repression of the Falun Gong means they are in prison without rights, at the disposition of corrupt authorities.'

Sun said the report tells the world that it must no longer underestimate and ignore crimes against humanity.

"They are an attack on the moral conscience of all human beings,' he said. "Canada needs to end its policy of appeasement in the face of communist China's human rights atrocities as soon as possible.'

Sun said his group is calling on the Canadian government to condemn the atrocity and take urgent measures in conjunction with the UN and other international bodies to further investigate and intervene.

Sun said organs can be purchased in China in under a week.

"The majority of buyers are foreigners,' he said. "It's big business. In most countries people wait months and years for matching organs.'

Sun said Falun Gong is a practice of meditation, gentle exercises, and the cultivation of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance in oneself.

"These three values form the backbone of Falun Gong's teachings,' he said.

"Practitioners of the discipline aspire to live by them in their daily lives, striving to achieve, over time, a state of selflessness and inner balance.'

Sun said because of fears by top Chinese government officials that Falun Gong's widespread popularity was overshadowing them, they ordered in 1999 that the practice be eradicated.

"The Chinese government has used a massive propaganda campaign to demonize Falun Gong,' he said.