The Peak (Simon Fraser University's Independent Student Newspaper): Falun Dafa practitioners converge in Vancouver

Vol. 114 -- May 26, 2003

Nicole Vanderwyst, The Peak

Over 1,500 people representing two dozen countries gathered to mark the third annual Canadian celebration of Falun Dafa a week ago in Vancouver's Thornton Park.

Li Hongzhi, a two time Nobel Prize nominee [Editor's note: Mr. Li Hongzhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for four times beginning in the year 2000], first introduced the Chinese practice of Falun Dafa - also known as Falun Gong - to the world in 1992.

"People everywhere have benefited from Li Hongzhi's teachings of truth, compassion, and tolerance," said Sophia Bronwen, a Vancouver practitioner.

"Everyone who practices [Falun Dafa] seems to report significantly improved health, reduced stress, and increased energy."

According to Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, who attended the Falun Dafa Festival, "Falun Dafa focuses its practitioners on moral standards and the healing traditions of honesty, courtesy, loyalty, and selflessness."

The practice of Falun Dafa, a form of qigong, has expanded dramatically over the past 11 years to involve over 100 million people of many ages and cultures in 40 countries. It has, however, has also been the target of a brutal campaign of persecution by the Chinese government since July 1999.

"Jiang Zemin, misunderstanding Falun Dafa's immense popularity as a threat to his power, banned Falun Dafa," Bronwen said. "This ban is the persecution of truth, of compassion, and of tolerance . . . a persecution of the very nature of humanity.

"This is not a Chinese issue. This is a world issue, a human issue, a global issue."

The persecution began in China when Jiang, the former president of China, established the "610 Office," an organisation dedicated to the eradication of Falun Dafa through genocide, torture, forced labour camps, and other horrific violations of human rights.

"When the crackdown on Falun Gong began, the media in China was saturated [with] lies and propaganda, sensational propaganda [that] demonised Falun Gong and penetrated the entire country," said Yuzhi Wang, a survivor of the notorious Wanjia labour camp in China. "It was like reliving a great Cultural Revolution, only worse."

Wang was arrested and imprisoned in labour camp for practising Falun Dafa. There she was tortured, and witnessed beatings, whippings, burning, branding, water torture, sleep deprivation, forced feeding, rapes by male prisoners, electric shock treatments to all areas of the body, people tied up with ropes and suspended from ceilings, and many other human rights violations.

Wang, who survived a 100 day hunger strike and near-blindness during her 9 month imprisonment, was released on the verge of death in June 2002 to relatives in the United Arab Emirates. Once there, she was arrested upon suspicion of being a dangerous criminal because she refused to renounce her faith in Falun Dafa.

The Chinese government was notified and demanded her immediate deportation, which meant almost certain death for Wang upon her return to China. Upon hearing this, however, the Canadian government intervened by issuing Wang a special visa. In November 2002, she was reunited with her family in White Rock, where she now resides.

Sadie Keane, co-chair of the British Columbia chapter of the Friends of Falun Gong, believes that Canadians and their government should take a more proactive approach to the situation by pressing the Chinese government to release all Falun Dafa prisoners. Keane asserted that the Canadian government must offer to provide amnesty to any such prisoner wishing to come to Canada.

"Having thousands of people joining together from diverse backgrounds [and] stating to all governments, [the Canadian] government and the Chinese government, that we will not tolerate the violation of human rights is an important endeavour for all of us to undertake together," Keane said.

The United States and Switzerland have both filed lawsuits against Jiang Zemin for torture, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Several other countries, including Canada, have brought a joint legal case against Jiang to the United Nations and International Criminal Court for his initiation of and participation in the persecution of followers of Falun Dafa.