(Clearwisdom.net) (Minghui correspondent Ye Linghui) On April 28, 2007, Saturday, Falun Gong practitioners in Toronto gathered in Chinatown to commemorate the "April 25" peaceful appeal of ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners in 1999, to protest the CCP's eight-year-long brutal persecution, and to expose the CCP's evil nature.

Falun Gong practitioners in Toronto commemorate April 25 peaceful appeal and protest the CCP's eight-year-long brutal persecution

Mr. Zhang Zhaojin from the Canada Falun Dafa Association pointed out in his speech, "On April 25, 1999, around ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners voluntarily went to the National Appeals Office of the State Council in downtown Beijing and held a peaceful appeal to request three things: the release of 45 practitioners unjustly arrested in Tianjin, protection of their legal practice environment, and permission to publish Falun Gong books. The then Prime Minister talked with the representatives of the practitioners and the issues were resolved. This was the well-known April 25 peaceful, large-scale appeal. The international community expressed admiration for the practitioners' rationality, confidence, self-discipline and high social ethics."

Practitioner representative Li Xiaoce said, "The ten thousand practitioners did not shout slogans. They waited quietly and appealed peacefully. But Jiang's regime fabricated a story that they had besieged the communist compound and threatened the safety of the regime. Three months later, on July 20, 1999, the CCP initiated its brutal persecution of Falun Gong."

To defame Falun Gong, Luo Gan staged the Tiananmen Self-immolation incident. In the video footage of the staged incident, people can see that the victim Liu Chunling collapsed from being struck by a heavy object thrown by a police officer. One month later, her daughter died mysteriously for no apparent reason. Only her mother in her 80s was at home. When questioned by reporters, she said, "Don't ask anymore, the government does not allow me to speak out." After the self-immolation, Liu Chunling's hometown was under martial law, and even taxis were not allowed to enter.

Mr. Li said, "The CCP regime is so cruel and evil that to defame a practice group, it even kills people."

Ms. Zhang participated in the April 25 appeal. She said, "I heard that practitioners were arrested in Tianjin, that the matter could not be resolved there, and an appeal to Beijing was needed. I knew Falun Gong is beneficial to people's health and improvement of morality. Thus, I went to appeal."

She recalled, "On that day, practitioners in Beijing arrived early. Four intersections in Fuyou Street were blocked. Everyone waited on the sidewalks. Later, police let us enter. To make it convenient for pedestrians, everyone stood in a single line close to the wall. Everyone was peaceful, wishing to tell the government the situation and believing that the government would respond to the people."

"Later I saw the then Prime Minister Zhu Rongji coming back from outside. Several practitioners entered after him." Said Ms. Zhang, "We waited outside. Some read Dafa books, some practiced the exercises, some exchanged experiences--but all were very peaceful. Police were anxious initially and became relaxed when seeing the peaceful situation. Some of them even chatted with practitioners."

Ms. Zhang said at the end, "A little after 9 p.m., a practitioner in Haidian told us, 'There is an outcome. Tianjin has released the practitioners.' We left and everyone picked up the trash on the ground."

Another witness, Ms. Wang, said, "I heard of the Tianjin practitioners were arrested on April 25, 1999 at a practice site in Beijing, and we planed to appeal on the next day. I was a CCP member for more than twenty years and thought that the CCP would represent the people's interests. I did not think that the CCP would conduct such a cruel persecution against a group of kind people and even harvest organs from live Falun Gong practitioners."

When recalling the situation on that day, Ms. Wang said, "I arrived at Fuyou Street around 8 a.m. and left after 9 p.m. The whole process was peaceful. Police chatted with us."

Practitioner Wang Gongshi said in his speech, "After initiating the persecution, the CCP spread propaganda in all its media to defame Falun Gong and deceived countless people."

Mr. Wang said, "One day I asked a friend who believed the CCP, 'Do you know the basic characteristics of evil cult?' He could not answer. The basic characteristics of evil cults are groups that control people's spirits, and make them lose their ability to think for themselves and be independent.

"Who is doing this?" Mr. Wang continued, "The CCP controls Chinese people with its huge organization, three million strong army, half million armed police, one million police and countless spies. The CCP deprives the Chinese people of their independent thinking and basic human dignity through various brutal political movements. The CCP is the evil cult."