Mr. Speaker, I have hundreds of petitions here from Canadians across the country who condemn the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and request the rescue of family members in China.
Falun Gong is a peaceful and beneficial spiritual practice centred on the principles of truth, compassion and forbearance, as well as a set of five meditation exercises. Since July 19, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party launched an eradication campaign against Falun Gong, its policy was to destroy the reputation of its practitioners, bankrupt them financially and eliminate them completely. This has led to the arbitrary detention and torture of hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners for their beliefs. Twelve family members of Canadians are now serving jail terms of up to 12 years simply for their belief in Falun Gong.
The medical community, the UN community against torture and many other organizations have shown great concern that living Falun Gong practitioners have been slaughtered en masse for their vital organs for organ transplant tourism. The petitioners are urgently calling on our government to publicly condemn the Chinese Communist regime's illegal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and to help rescue the family members of Canadians who are incarcerated in China simply for their belief in Falun Gong.