(Minghui.org) Several Members of Parliament filed separate petitions calling on the Canadian government to pass a resolution to help stop the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and its forced organ harvesting. They also called for the release of a Canadian citizen and 12 family members of Canadians who have been illegally detained by the CCP for practicing Falun Gong.
Members of Parliament Garnett Genuis (back row, first from left), Tom Kmiec, Larry Brock, Jeremy Patzer, Brad Vis, and Greg McLean (back row, third from left to eighth from left); and Marc Dalton (back row, second from right) had a group photo with Falun Gong practitioners He Lizhi (first from right), Cong Xinmiao (second from right), and Zhang Tianxiao (fifth from right) in parliament on October 30, 2024.
80-Year-Old Woman Sentenced to Four Years in Prison
Scott Reid, Member of Parliament (MP), calls for the release of Cong Lanying, mother of Montreal resident Cong Xinmiao. (Screenshot of parliament video)
Scott Reid, MP and the Conservative caucus chair, called for the release of all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Cong Lanying, a relative of a Canadian citizen. He said, “We call for Canada to adopt legislation to stop forced organ harvesting and publicly call for the end to the persecution of Falun Gong, a peaceful movement that embodies the best of Chinese cultural practices. I wanted, as in conclusion, to point out that Cong Langying, a practitioner with family ties to Canada, is one of those imprisoned, we also would call for their release.”
Mr. Reid first proposed a motion in support of Falun Gong on October 24, 2002, which was supported and passed by all members of Parliament. The motion asked the Canadian Prime Minister to ask former CCP leader Jiang Zemin to release 13 imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners (all relatives of Canadian citizens) when he attended the Asia-Pacific Summit in Mexico so that they could be reunited with their families in Canada.
Ms. Cong Lanying, whom Mr. Reed mentioned, is an 80-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Weihai City, Shandong Province. She is currently detained in Jinan Women’s Prison in Shandong Province. According to her daughter Ms. Cong Xinmiao, before she practiced Falun Gong, Ms. Cong Lanying had severe myocarditis, cervical spondylosis, and other chronic diseases, and difficulty breathing. The tips of her hands and feet were black. She could not relax and was on medications for years. She was hospitalized for several months almost every year.
Due to her ailments, Ms. Cong Lanying was in great pain and almost wanted to end her life. She heard about Falun Gong in 1997 and went to the park to practice the exercises every morning. Eighteen days later, while she doing the second exercise, she heard a clicking sound and she was able to bend her back. After that, her ailments disappeared and she practiced every day, whatever the weather.
Ms. Cong Lanying said, “Chinese medicine, Western medicine, and folk remedies did not cure me. I practiced Falun Gong for 18 days, and my illnesses disappeared. It is impossible to stop me from practicing Falun Gong.”
Because she insisted on practicing and telling government officials and people at all levels the truth about Falun Gong, she was frequently harassed by the neighborhood committee and the police and was illegally detained many times. In February 2023, Ms. Cong Lanying was arrested again, sentenced to four years in prison, and fined 20,000 yuan (US $2,808), but her family was not informed. She was imprisoned for one year and nine months.
In June this year, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs responded to Cong Lanying’s case. Ms. Cong Xinmiao’s petition calling for an end to the persecution was signed by tens of thousands of Canadian citizens. She thanked Canadian parliamentarians and kind people from all walks of life for their assistance and support. She hopes that “more and more people will learn about Falun Gong and help stop the CCP’s persecution, and release all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners, including my mother.”
Farmer Sentenced to Seven Years for Falun Gong Videos on His Mobile Phone
In May 2004, due to the efforts of Canadian MPs and the general public, Falun Gong practitioner He Lizhi, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by the CCP, was rescued to Canada. Mr. He Lizhi was a former senior engineer with the Ministry of Metallurgy and the Ministry of Construction of China. He was a recipient of the National Excellent Engineering Design Award and and had won other, ministerial-level individual awards. Twenty years later in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, he is appealing for the release of his younger brother He Lizhong.
Mr. He Lizhong is a farmer in Minqin County, Gansu Province. He was once incarcerated in Jiuquan Prison for three years for practicing Falun Gong and telling others how the practice has benefited him physically and mentally.
On July 12, 2023, during the busy farming season, the police broke into his home again, saying that he had Falun Gong content on his mobile phone. They took him away in front of his parents, who were over 80 years old. The police also took his bank passbook with all of his savings from working in the city for decades.
In April 2024, the family received a letter from Lanzhou Prison, informing them that he had been sentenced to seven years in prison. On April 8, the prison informed the family that Mr. He Lizhong had been transferred to Lanzhou Prison and that they could visit him. The family made the 400-kilometer (249-mile) trip to the prison on the designated date, but prison officials refused to arrange a visit, saying that He Lizhong had not given up practicing Falun Gong. Mr. He has been imprisoned for 15 months, and his family is very worried about his safety.
Mr. He Lizhi said that his brother was framed by the CCP just because he practiced Falun Gong and used his mobile phone to encourage people to be kind. He was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison. Mr. He said the CCP’s tactics were absurd and shameless.
He hopes that Canadian parliamentarians can help by calling for the release of all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners, including He Lizhong, and to stop the persecution.
Canadian Citizen’s Sister “Disappeared” for 22 Years
Cathay Wagantall MP addressed parliament. (Screenshot of parliament video)
Cathay Wagantall MP said in her speech, “Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline whose moral teachings are Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. The Chinese government perceives religion as a threat to its state atheism, especially Falun Gong, whose popularity has grown since it was founded in 1992. Since 1999, the Chinese government has persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in the 1000s, perhaps even millions.
“Zhang Yunhe is the sister of Zhang Tianxiao, a Canadian citizen from Toronto. She was arrested in 2002 in Qingdao City and was detained because she was a practitioner of Falun Gong. Her family was not notified of her arrest, making this a case of forced disappearance. Her family called on the Shandong Province prison administration many times to inquire about her. The prison administration remains silent on this matter, a clear dereliction of duty. She has not been seen, and there have been no reports on her since her arrest. Therefore, these individuals, the undersigned, request the Canadian Parliament and Government to pass a resolution to establish measures to stop the Chinese communist regime’s crime of systematically imprisoning Falun Gong practitioners, amend Canadian legislation to combat forced organ harvesting, and, finally, publicly call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China.”
Ms. Zhang Tianxiao said, “For more than 20 years, the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong has been disasterous for countless families in China. My sister has not been heard from for more than 20 years—our family has suffered a huge blow, the impact hard to describe. In fact, many Falun Gong practitioners in China have lost contact. Many practitioners are no longer alive, and some have even been victims of the CCP’s forced organ harvesting while they were still alive.”
MPs Support Falun Gong Practitioners
Marc Dalton MP said, “Liu Zhoubo is the father of Jack Liu, a resident of Ottawa. Liu Zhoubo was unlawfully imprisoned from 2001 to 2009 for clarifying the truth regarding Falun Gong. Then, in 2021, he was kidnapped from his home in Langfang City. He was detained for two years in the Beijing No. 3 Detention Center. He is a victim of the persecution and a prisoner of conscience.”
He added, “I’ve talked to practitioners who were imprisoned, it’s a very serious situation, and this is an important petition.”
Jeremy Patzer MP said, “Li Yongmei is the mother of Suting Li, a resident of Calgary. Because she is a practitioner of Falun Gong, Li Yongmei was handed her second prison sentence of five years in 2023. Her phone has been monitored for six months, and the police ransacked her home. She was strung up by her wrists with her feet in the air during her interrogation. She was first arrested in 2014 and was incarcerated and tortured from 2015 to 2017. Because she refused to renounce her faith or to admit any guilt, she endured extended periods of squatting and standing. She had freezing cold water poured on her. She was deprived of food and sleep. She was forced to do unpaid labor. She was made to sleep on a bare bed board with no blankets.”
Tako Van Popta MP said, “I rise to present a petition signed by Canadians who are deeply concerned that the Chinese Communist Party has launched an intensive nationwide persecution campaign against practitioners of Falun Gong, including Ms. Alice Zhang. They’re concerned that many of these Falun Gong prisoners have died and their organs have been harvested.”
Ms. Alice Zhang’s mother, Tang Huafeng, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for distributing Falun Gong information materials on June 12, 2021. She is currently in Jinzhong Women’s Prison in Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. Over the past 25 years, she has been illegally detained by the CCP many times.
According to Ms. Gongyu Dai, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, more MPs will speak out for Falun Gong practitioners in parliament in the future.
In front of Parliament in Ottawa, Canada, practitioners call for the release of their family members who are detained in China for practicing Falun Gong.
All content published on this website is copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
