Toronto, Canada: Dignitaries Condemn the CCP’s 27-Year-Long Persecution of Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) July 2026 marks the 27th year since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong. Despite heavy rain, practitioners in Toronto, Canada, held a rally on July 18 to commemorate their fellow practitioners who died due to this persecution. After the rally, they held a march and a candlelight vigil.

Many Canadian politicians, members of the public, and supporters attended the rally in front of the Ontario Legislative Building to call for an end to the CCP’s persecution. One guest speaker remarked, “This 27-year struggle against the persecution, like that in today’s heavy rain, bears witness to everyone’s unwavering commitment.”

Practitioners did the exercises in the morning despite the sudden downpour. When the rally began at 11:00 a.m., it was still raining, but both guests and supporters stayed with the practitioners throughout.

Practitioners did the exercises in front of the Ontario Legislative Building on July 18, 2026. (Minghui.org)

Rally in the rain (Minghui.org)

Former PM: Perseverance Will Eventually Lead to Victory

Former Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Wladyslaw Lizon (Minghui.org)

Former Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Wladyslaw Lizon addressed the rally and said, “I’m very happy and honored to be with you. I can promise you, for as long as it is needed, I’m going to come and support you.”

Lizon said that today’s rally was also a reminder for the Canadian government and people that the CCP is still persecuting Falun Gong. This persecution has crossed Chinese borders. “It doesn’t stop in China. It goes outside the country in different forms. The Chinese government, through its agencies, is working on a campaign of disinformation and lies, and it reaches Canada,” he explained.

Lizon mentioned that Shen Yun performances in Canada received bomb threats, so the show in Toronto was canceled. He congratulated Falun Gong practitioners on their eventual success in bringing Shen Yun back to Toronto, and said, “It’s very important—all people that were involved in that work, congratulations, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

“We can really have a celebration here today… of the fact that we can gather like this without fear. And many other people can do it because there are democratic rights that people enjoy in this country,” he continued, adding that the situation in China will change.

Growing up in Poland under the communist system, Lizon witnessed how the communist regime imprisoned and killed people, but he said the situation changed. “Why is it so important? It’s important for Falun Gong practitioners in China to know that there are people in other parts of the world that haven’t forgotten them,” he said.

“I always finish with showing the victory sign. The change will come, and we will be victorious,” he concluded.

Publisher: Standing with You in the Rain

Dean Baxendale (Minghui.org)

Dean Baxendale, president of Optimum Publishing International and CEO of the China Democracy Fund, said he was honored to be with practitioners again.

While he recently attended the World Uyghur Congress in Berlin, Baxendale saw many diplomats from Washington, London, and Canada. The speakers all supported the Uyghurs, another very oppressed group in China, who, like Falun Gong practitioners, are targeted for forced organ harvesting.

“It’s important that people recognize that there are no bounds and there are no limits to what the Chinese Communist Party will do to suppress religious freedom, individual rights and your ability to have free and fair speech,” Baxendale explained.

He emphasized: “It is important that people recognize that the Chinese Communist Party has no bottom line and no limits in its actions to suppress religious freedom, individual rights, and your ability to speak freely and impartially.

“So as we stand here together in the rain enjoying a beautiful summer day, I am with you, everybody is with you,” he concluded. “We’re all for freedom and democracy.”

Twenty-seven Years of Perseverance Is Admirable

Human rights advocate Sheng Xue (Minghui.org)

Sheng Xue, Global Vice President of the Federation for a Democratic China, poet, and award-winning author, praised Falun Gong practitioners for their 27 years of perseverance in telling people the true situation and resisting persecution.

“Thank you to every Falun Gong practitioner here. I believe many of you have been coming here, as well as to the city hall square, the Chinese consulate, and various tourist attractions to tell people the facts since the CCP began its persecution 27 years ago,” she said. “This struggle has continued from 1999 to today, and perhaps this heavy rain is also a testament to our perseverance.”

The CCP launched a persecution against Falun Gong practitioners 27 years ago, using state violence, the state apparatus, the police, its laws, its propaganda, and its infiltration around the world, even claiming it could eliminate Falun Gong within months. “Now, twenty-seven years later, we can see that this tyranny of the CCP is heading towards its end,” Sheng said. “Because the CCP suppressed Falun Gong practitioners, the world has thoroughly seen through and understood the true nature of the CCP’s tyranny.

“The CCP’s deep infiltration and buying off of the entire world is achieved by exchanging its resources, funds, and interests for the vast majority of media outlets, especially Chinese-language media, many of which have already been infiltrated by the CCP. In this process, it is precisely Falun Gong practitioners who have formed a media system that stands firm and is not infiltrated by the CCP,” she explained

“To a large extent, what many people around the world know about the truth of the Chinese Communist Party comes from Falun Gong practitioners’ media,” Sheng explained.

The CCP’s systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting crimes against Falun Gong practitioners are unprecedented in human history. “Falun Gong practitioners, in this process, not only risked their lives to investigate, collect evidence, organize it, and compile reports,” Sheng continued, “The software developed by Falun Gong practitioners that can bypass the [CCP’s] Great Firewall has allowed many people to see the truth of the world. Even in such a dangerous situation in Chinese society, including distributing leaflets, they have awakened many people and formed a genuine force to resist the CCP’s authoritarian tyranny.”

She concluded by saying, “So, everyone, you are all here today, braving this heavy rain. I’m sorry, but I'm still holding an umbrella. I truly want to say from the bottom of my heart: every one of you is a hero, every one of you is an unyielding hero in the fight against tyranny.”

“History will surely remember you, and today, each and every one of you is writing history,” Sheng said.

University Associate Professor Recounts Six and a Half Years of Wrongful Imprisonment

More than a month ago, Ms. Liu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Yunnan, China, arrived in Canada with her husband to reunite with their children while escaping persecution by the CCP. At the rally, she described their experiences and called for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.

Ms. Liu is an accomplished associate professor at a university in China. In her speech, she said that for the past 10 years, she has been illegally and unjustly imprisoned twice by the CCP authorities, for a total of six and a half years, because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

“During my imprisonment at the Second Women’s Prison in Yunnan Province, Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to brutal torture. The methods included being sprayed with pepper spray, being deprived of sleep, showers, and toilet breaks. Forcing them to sit on small stools for extended periods, prohibiting them from seeing their families or being allowed to buy food or daily necessities, and frequently verbally and physically abusing them—even those in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s,” Ms. Liu recalled.

She concluded by saying, “I wish that my beloved motherland will soon be freed from the control of this communist regime; I wish that the Chinese people, whom I love, will soon live a free, equal, healthy, and peaceful life! Thank you!”

Community Leader

Hou Shijun from the Federation for a Democratic China (Canada). (Minghui.org)

“I came here to support Falun Gong and oppose the persecution,” said Hou Shijun, Deputy Secretary-General of the Federation for a Democratic China in Canada. “I believe that China’s economy is declining, its faith is empty, and its morality is deteriorating.

“China needs a new spirit. I believe that ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance’ is the most precious universal value for revitalizing our Chinese civilization," said Hou.

At noon, Falun Gong practitioners marched in the city center in the rain, and they held a candlelight vigil at 9 p.m. that evening.

(To be continued)