(Minghui.org) A rally in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, Canada, was held on July 19, 2014, to call for an end to the 15 years of persecution of Falun Gong in China and to help rescue Ms. Li Hong, sister of a local resident. Ms. Li was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for telling others about Falun Gong.
Brent Rathgeber, Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton-St. Albert, said at the rally, “I encourage you to keep up the work. Your message is not lost on your government, and your government needs to put pressure on the Chinese government to end these horrific acts.”
MP Brent Rathgeber spoke at the July 19th Edmonton rally to support Falun Gong practitioners.
Mr. Rathgeber signed the petition calling for an end to the persecution against Falun Gong.
Ms. Li was arrested in October 2012 in a shopping center by local police. She had been held at the Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian for 18 months before the trial on February 28, 2014. Ms. Li is currently incarcerated in the Shenyang Women’s Prison.
“My parents are both over 80, and my sister is their only help in China," said Robin Li, who was in tears as he spoke. They asked many times to visit my sister, but were not allowed to. Instead, the officials kept asking them for money.”
Robin said his sister already had severe uterine bleeding at the detention center. But officials ignored this and insisted on sending her to the Shenyang Women’s Prison, a place notorious for torturing practitioners.
Mr. Robin Li spoke at the event to rescue his sister who has been imprisoned for telling others about Falun Gong.
Pedestrians came up to learn more about the persecution.
“I’ve been a member of Parliament for about six years, and before I got to Ottawa, I wasn’t very familiar at all about the plight of Falun Gong practitioners’ persecution and forced organ harvesting,” Mr. Rathgeber shared.
After learning about the severity of the persecution, Rathgeber found himself deeply disturbed and concerned. He became chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong and also communicated with other Canadian officials as well as the public for support.
Ms. Liu, one of the organizers for the event, handed Rathgeber over 4,000 signatures she and other practitioners had recently collected in Edmonton that called for an end to the brutal persecution, especially harvesting organs from living practitioners.
Many pedestrians signed the petition at the event. Several media including Global TV, CTV, CBC, and CHED 630 interviewed the practitioners during this event.
“I want to my sister back home,” Robin said. “She is innocent, and she does not belong in prison.”
