Over the past 24 years, Falun Gong adherents across the globe have steadfastly raised their voices against the persecution campaign initiated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against their fellows in China. As harrowing atrocities persist, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux is calling for continued global pressure on the Beijing regime.
Mr. Lamoureux, parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the House of Commons, commended the commitment of Falun Gong practitioners in putting a spotlight on the CCP’s human rights abuses, including the atrocity of live organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience.
“I have a deep amount of respect for the sense of commitment that [Falun Gong practitioners] bring in wanting to ensure that there’s justice,” he told NTD Television, a sister company of The Epoch Times.
“I think that the issue that they raised in terms of the illegal harvesting of organs is something in which most, if not virtually all, Canadians would feel very important.”
“There is no magic wand where the prime minister picks up the phone and makes a phone call, and then they’re released,” Mr. Lamoureux said. “Unfortunately, defending human rights isn’t as easy as that, and the key is in a diplomatic way to apply pressure. And a part of that pressure is also what takes place in other countries.”
Mr. Lamoureux’s remarks came as Falun Gong practitioners marked the 24th anniversary of the CCP’s persecution, initiated in July 1999. Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline and meditation based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, quickly gained widespread popularity in China after its introduction in 1992 due to its health benefits. But then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin perceived that popularity as a threat to the regime’s totalitarian rule, and instigated a nationwide persecution campaign.
Legal Efforts
Other MPs have expressed similar sentiments as those of Mr. Lamoureux in interviews with NTD.In July, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, a frequent advocate in the House of Commons in highlighting the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, called on the government to maintain awareness by consistently bringing up the issue with Beijing.
“This is something that Canada needs to continue to speak out about, the legislators need to continue to speak out about,” he said. “We need to end a global culture of impunity for violations of human rights and move towards a world in which serious violators of fundamental freedoms are held accountable through sanctions and through other mechanisms.”
Apart from Bill S-223, Conservative MP Michael Cooper also pointed to provisions in Canada’s Criminal Code as tools that could be used to combat gross human rights abuses by China.
“It is estimated that 150 people a day in the PRC [People’s Republic of China] are killed as a result of forced organ harvesting. These are extraordinary human rights violations that are taking place and are being directed by the Beijing-based communist regime,” Mr. Cooper said on July 20.
