Thank you, and I'd like to sincerely thank the immigration committee for our opportunity to present here today.
We ask you to solidify the protection of practitioners in China and in Canada, to acknowledge the expertise of Falun Dafa Association on these matters, and to protect the integrity of Canada by barring perpetrators accountable for torture and crimes against humanity towards the Falun Gong practitioners.
For those of you who don't know, Falun Gong is a profound spiritual belief. It's a cultivation practice of mind, body, and spirit that espouses the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance. It is common knowledge that in China freedom of belief does not exist. There is no religion or spiritual discipline that exists that is not governed by the Chinese Communist Party.
In 1999, the Chairman at the time, Jiang Zemin, ordered a vicious crackdown against the persecution. Over the past seven years the persecution has penetrated all sectors of the Chinese society, covering all 30 provinces within China. The entire legal system is threatened. Lawyers and judges are ordered to not defend but criminalize Falun Gong practitioners. The entire education system forces students from kindergarten to university to condemn Falun Gong or face expulsion. State and private workplaces persecute practitioners by firing them, taking away their housing, or sending them to brainwashing classes. Citizens are rewarded for spying on and reporting on practitioners.
The persecution has led to hundreds of thousands of innocent people being jailed in prisons and forced labour camps without trial, and has resulted in thousands of deaths by torture. Some of the most barbaric methods include women being stripped naked and thrown into male criminal cells, gang rapes, forced abortions, suffocation, drug injections, burning, and electrocution.
The cases I have brought in are from NGOs, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and Amnesty International. They represent less than 1% of the reported tortures that are happening within China today.
In November 2005, the Chinese Communist Party forcibly closed the law office of a respected lawyer called Mr. Gao Zhisheng in China who had conducted an extensive and independent investigation into the persecution of Falun Gong. Amnesty International issued an urgent action bulletin after an assassination attempt was made on his life. The following are only a few stories that he documented in his investigation.
[Ms. Chang]...lowered her head in shame while recounting her...humiliating experience in a labour camp: ... They stripped me naked, and several inmates began pinching my breasts, plucking my pubic hair, and stabbing my vagina. They used a brush that usually cleaned the water tank. ... [They] repeatedly stabbed my vagina with it. I could not bear the excruciating pain any longer and succumbed to their demand of not doing the Falun Gong exercises in the camp.
Inmates tied many knots on a thick rope and pulled it back and forth in a sawing motion across [Ms. Wang Lijun's] vagina. Her entire lower body swelled up. The head police then ordered inmates to jab her swollen vagina with the thorny end of a broken mop stick. The torture caused Ms. Wang's vagina to bleed profusely. ... I also witnessed these inmates perform this same torture on a virgin.
Mr. Liu Haibo was stripped of all his clothes and forced to kneel down. Police pushed the longest electric baton they could find [up his rectum and turned it on]. Liu died immediately on the site. ... Twenty-three practitioners were tortured to death there. I knew many of them. The police simply buried their bodies in a hole.
The persecution is nationwide and spans over 30 provinces. It is not limited to the millions of people in China who practise Falun Gong, and it has destroyed their families and friends. The entire social and moral structure of a society is being destroyed by this persecution. Third-party reports from the U.S. Department of State and Amnesty International confirm that the persecution is arbitrary, and anyone associated with Falun Gong may face danger.
On April 21, 2005, the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board recognized the widespread and systematic persecution of Falun Gong as crimes against humanity. On October 25, 2005, Amnesty International Canada confirmed their concerns about the deportation of practitioners to China, stating that Falun Gong practitioners who have come to “the attention of authorities in China through its vast intelligence network in China and abroad would be at risk of human rights violations, and therefore in need of protection”. They further state:
We are concerned about the widespread use of arbitrary detention and torture or ill-treatment against Falun Gong practitioners and reports that Chinese authorities monitor activities of Chinese activists overseas, including...Falun Gong practitioners.
There are at least 120 victims currently residing here in Canada who have faced torture, including Mr. Lizhi He, who was jailed for three and a half years and was almost killed in jail. His only crime was sending letters to his friends, trying to tell them the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong.
As the issue of protecting true Falun Gong practitioners is a matter of life and death, and with the submissions of the above information, we ask that the immigration committee pass the motion attached in this regard.
We truly appreciate your time and the opportunity to be here to discuss this issue with you today.