(Clearwisdom.net)
On July 20, 2002, marking three years of China's persecution of Falun Gong, practitioners from Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton held a sidewalk parade in downtown Calgary. During the parade, Member of Parliament Rob Anders appealed to his fellow politicians and Canadians to help stop this human rights violation tragedy. Several times during his speech, he was moved to tears by practitioners' great compassion and endurance when facing inhuman torture. During the event, many Chinese tourists learned the truth of Falun Gong.
Stephen Avenue is the busiest pedestrian street in Calgary. Practitioners decorated the area with hand-made paper flowers and banners. They also made many paper lotus flowers and pasted them on flyers. The lotus flowers stood for practitioners peacefulness and sincerity. Such a peaceful scene immediately attracted lots of people. Many passers-by asked for lotus flowers. Some wanted to learn how to make lotus flowers. Later on, practitioners began to perform group exercises. The Pioneer Newspaper (Chinese) and CBC TV came to gather the news. A local Western practitioner discussed with MP Rob Anders how Chinese practitioners clarified truth to people with great compassion even though they were jailed and tortured. He was very moved, and then he walked to the podium and gave his speech.
He said: "You are so remarkable that you keep on sending out peaceful and wonderful messages to people even when you are under such persecution!" He participated in the rescue of Professor Zhang Kunlun from a Chinese Forced Labor Camp. He recalled, at the news conference there were over 60 Members of Parliament. But some did not dare support Falun Gong because they were worried about trade with China. When he said this, he stopped, becoming overcome with emotion. He said he encouraged his colleagues to say a fair word for Falun Gong many times. He expressed that although at the moment it hasn't shown an obvious effect, but through our step-by-step endeavor, the day of victory will come in the end. When speaking with a journalist, Mr. Anders said he would send letters to all residents in his riding of Calgary West introducing Falun Dafa. He thought the persecution of Falun Gong is the biggest human rights tragedy in the world. Under such inhuman persecution, practitioners are still so peaceful, he recalled the legacy of Mr. Gandhi. For a third time, he was moved to tears.
At noon, practitioners conducted a sidewalk parade. Passersby stopped to look at our banners and poster boards, and accepted flyers. When passing by the Chinese Consulate, we stopped and sent forth righteous thoughts.
After the parade, we returned to the starting point of the parade and demonstrated the exercises. Many kind citizens expressed their support for Falun Gong and their anger over the persecution after they read the information on our signs. Some people took photos, waved to us and smiled at us. Several tourists from the Chinese Government were happy to accept our flyers and newspapers. One of them pinned a lotus flower on his shirt.
During this parade, while condemning the Jiang Zemin regime's persecution, practitioners clarified the truth to people, at the same time, passed on the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa.
July 23, 2002