News Release: MP and Canadians Back from China Express Concern over Police Violence for Their Appeal for Falun Gong

From: Media-Update <media-update@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Media-Update <dafa-news-ottawa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 19:09:53 -0500

News Release    For Immediate Release: November 29, 2001

MP and Canadians Back from China Express Concern over Police Violence for
Their Appeal for Falun Gong


?They did not break any laws. What they did was within the Chinese
constitution, and within the International Treaties that China has signed.?
Ottawa? Mr. Scott Reid, M.P., together with Mr. Zenon Dolnyckyj and Joel
Chipkar held a press conference today at parliament hill to condemn the
president of China?s regime?s violence against the 35 westerners who legally
appealed in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on November 20, 2001.
?I went to Tiananmen Square so I could speak to all of China. I want all
Chinese people to have a chance to know Falun Gong is good and to not be
deceived to aid in crimes against humanity by the Chinese president?s
propaganda.? Said Mr. Dolnyckyj.

?They did not break any laws. What they did was within the Chinese
constitution, and within the International Treaties that China has signed. If
a Canadian traveled to Nazi Germany in 1940 to peacefully appeal for the
rights and lives of the Jewish people he would be considered a hero today by
his country and the world.? said Mr. Chipkar.

?However, for my legal appeal, Chinese police broke my nose, detained and
interrogated me and beat and molested other practitioners in custody. It is
the Chinese authority who broke the law and violated its own constitutions and
the international treaties it had signed when they stopped our legal appeal
and beat a Canadian and other foreigners. If they treat westerners this way
how do they treat their own people in labor camps?? Dolnyckyj said.
Zenon?s experiences raise grave concerns about China?s state terrorism, which
has been carefully camouflaged by hastily crafted ?laws? that sanction the
persecution of innocent people.

?China has to accept a movement such as Falun Gong for variety of reasons.
First of all, millions of Chinese people support and participate in it. They
are not going to change their ways just because Chinese government?s actions.
Also because Chinese constitution requires it and because International
conventions China has signed require it, China is bound by its own laws to
respect the rights of practitioners of Falun Gong. And it has obligation to
respect foreigners who come to China to engage in peaceful activity there?I
want to emphasize that we have a duty as Canadians to carry on in a same way
as these courageous individuals.?, said Mr. Reid.

By comparing the response of our own foreign affairs spokesperson to the
reaction of Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Reid commented that ?Our own
government ?, on this occasion, is not perhaps as strong as it ought to be?.
Film footage of the practitioners? peaceful appeal in Tiananmen Square shot by
Mr. Chipkar were distributed.
                                        ###


For more information, please contact Lucy Zhou 613-599-7494 (H), 613-862-7494
(Cell)

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News Release: MP and Canadians Back from China Express Concern over Police Violence for Their Appeal for Falun Gong

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