Long-time parliamentarian and former cabinet minister Judy Sgro said it was divine intervention that helped the rain stop in Ottawa as she and many of her colleagues and Falun Dafa adherents gathered on Parliament Hill on May 8 to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day.
“God has helped us again this afternoon and the rain has stopped,” said Ms. Sgro, a Liberal MP and former minister of citizenship.
Ms. Sgro said she brought greetings on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as the Liberal caucus for Falun Dafa Day, observed on May 13, on the anniversary of the practice’s founding in 1992.
“Let me continue to applaud your tolerance, your belief in Falun Gong, and the exercise that many, many more Canadians need to do. I thank you for sharing that with us, because it is a way to promote peacefulness within ourselves, but it also promotes peacefulness within our country,” Ms. Sgro told the adherents of Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, gathered at the event.
“The more people who practise Falun Gong, the better we are as individuals.”
“On behalf of my colleagues and the prime minister, please stay strong, know that we are behind you, and that you can count on us to stand together,” she said.
Conservative Party Deputy Leader and MP Melissa Lantsman noted how Falun Gong practitioners have responded to the CCP’s persecution campaign with compassion.
“[People] need to see the compassion, the tolerance, the love that is shared by Falun Gong every single day in every single way everywhere,” Ms. Lantsman said.
“And it will not be the bullies in the PRC [People’s Republic of China] that will quash this spirit. It will be just like it is in Canada, that democracy, that the rule of law, that compassion win over the day.”
Falun Dafa is a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, or tolerance. Citing these values, Ms. Lantsman said that when the suppression in China ends, Falun Dafa adherents will be there “to teach the world, as you always have, the values that you practise, the values that you hold dear, and the values that you must continue to bring to the Parliament Hill every year until that change happens.”
The Ottawa celebration preceded World Falun Dafa Day on May 13, the birthday of the practice’s founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux highlighted Canadian parliamentarians’ broad support for the Falun Dafa community and said it’s important to mark this day.
“[Falun Dafa adherents’] contributions today mean a great deal to all parliamentarians of all political parties,” said Mr. Lamoureux, parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the House of Commons.
Mr. Lamoureux noted that Falun Dafa adherents have been outspoken against the rights abuses their fellow adherents suffer in China, including forced organ harvesting, and said it’s important to speak out about this issue.
“You raise a very important, not only national issue, but an issue that the world faces,” he said.
‘Eternal Values’
Falun Dafa, which is rooted in Buddhist and Daoist traditions, features moral teachings along with five meditative exercises. It is practised in over 100 countries worldwide, according to FalunInfo.net, a website that provides information about the practice as well as the CCP’s persecution.
Conservative MP Scott Reid said that while the CCP’s repression will eventually come to an end, Falun Dafa represents “the eternal values that are at the heart of Chinese culture.”
“It’s a fool’s errand to do what the PRC is trying to do and to suppress a movement that expresses the deepest values of that vast nation,” Mr. Reid said. “In the end, [Falun Dafa’s] values will prevail. They will prevail because of the work, the courage of people like yourselves … who are willing to carry on with their practice, despite this terrible oppression. That cannot be overcome, that will not be overcome.”
“And when the time comes—that the PRC relents or is made to relent—it will be the moment for all of those millions and millions of people in China, to rise up peacefully and to bring back into the public discourse of that great, magnificent, and ancient country, those values which are at the heart of China’s greatness.”
Conservative MP James Bezan, his party’s shadow minister for national defence, thanked Falun Dafa adherents for their values and for “making Canada stronger.”
“Truth, compassion, tolerance—what amazing values and fundamentals, and when you put them together, you have accountability and peace,” he said.
Mr. Bezan, who championed Canada’s Magnitsky Act to sanction those around the world involved in rights abuses, said Canada and other countries should ramp up their sanctions against the CCP.
“Your presence here today reminds all Canadians, especially those of us as lawmakers in Parliament, that we have to stand with you,” he said.
Liberal MP Yvan Baker said that truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance “are values that we all share.”
“We truly value the contributions that practitioners make to their communities, make to my community in Etobicoke Centre, and make to my country,” Mr. Baker said.
He added that it’s important for MPs to speak out for those who are facing persecution.
‘A Movement for Good’
Conservative MP Michael Cooper, his party’s shadow minister for democratic reform, also had high praise for the core principles of Falun Dafa.
“They stand behind the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. These are the principles for good, that are the very antithesis of the communist regime in Beijing,” Mr. Cooper said.
“That is why Falun Dafa practitioners are being persecuted, because they dare stand up for those principles against a brutal and evil regime.”
Mr. Cooper said the fact that many people gathered to mark Falun Dafa day, and the fact that so many parliamentarians came out to observe the event, is a testament that Falun Dafa is an “amazing movement.”
“Falun Dafa is a movement for good,” he said.
Garnett Genuis, a Conservative MP and shadow minister for international development, thanked Falun Dafa adherents for their work in “preserving the beauty of China’s traditional Asian culture, something that the communists have sought to distort and destroy.”
Stephanie Kusie, a Conservative MP and shadow minister for the Treasury Board, took to social media after the event to say she was pleased to wish “an early Happy Falun Dafa Day to advocates on the Hill today!”
“Falun Dafa is a traditional meditation and self-improvement system of mind, body, and spirit; guided by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. I remain grateful that in Canada, we are blessed with the freedom to openly practice our spiritual beliefs,” Ms. Kusie said.
Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer David Matas talked about the issue of China’s forced organ harvesting of Falun Dafa adherents, and stressed that the policy of “openness to China” and engaging the regime over the decades has not led to improvements in its abuses.
“The situation in China remains terrible,” said Mr. Matas, who along with the late MP David Kilgour, first researched and confirmed China’s forced organ harvesting of Falun Dafa adherents in 2006.
In his speech at the event, Conservative MP Colin Carrie thanked Falun Dafa adherents for holding the celebration.
“I want to commend you on your commitment to human rights, compassion, and truthfulness,” Mr. Carrie said.
Fellow Tory MP Dan Muys also thanked the practitioners.
“It’s important to speak out for those that are voiceless,” he said.
Philippe Refghi, assistant to Conservative MP and Quebec Lieutenant Pierre Paul-Hus, also spoke at the event on behalf of Mr. Paul-Hus, thanking the adherents for holding the celebration.
“It’s extremely important in this day and age to cultivate the values of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance that is exemplified in the spiritual practice of Falun Dafa,” he said.
