MPs Urge China to Release Canadian Falun Gong Practitioner, Family Members of Citizens

Falun Gong practitioners whose family members have been arbitrarily detained in China for their faith pose for a photo on Parliament Hill on Oct. 30, 2024. That day, MPs presented a petition in the House of Commons calling on the Chinese regime to end its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. NTD

Eight MPs presented a petition in the House of Commons on Oct. 30 urging Ottawa to demand that the Chinese regime release a Canadian citizen and the family members of 12 others detained for practising Falun Gong.

The MPs who presented the petition highlighted the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) systemic use of torture, live organ harvesting, forced labour, and various other forms of abuse to suppress members of the spiritual discipline, and called for an end to the persecution campaign against Falun Gong.

Initially, 13 Conservative MPs were scheduled to present the petition, but only eight were available on Oct. 30: Cathay Wagantall, Larry Brock, Damien Kurek, Scott Reid, Brad Vis, Jeremy Patzer, Tako Van Popta, and Marc Dalton.

Five other Conservative MPs—Garnett Genuis, James Bezan, Greg McLean, Tom Kmiec, and Dave Epp—supported the petition but were unable to be present in the House on Oct. 30 due to time constraints.

Wagantall said the CCP views religions as a threat to its atheist ideology and has specifically targeted Falun Gong, perceiving its popularity in China as a challenge to the regime’s authoritarian rule.

Conservative MPs Garnett Genuis (1st L), Tom Kmiec (5th L), Larry Brock (6th L), Jeremy Patzer (8th L), Damien Kurek (C), Greg McLean (11th R), and Marc Dalton (2nd R) stand with Falun Gong practitioners calling for an end to the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in China. The Epoch Times

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is rooted in Buddhist traditions and involves meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

Following its introduction in 1992, Falun Gong gained widespread recognition for its health benefits, attracting an estimated 70 million to 100 million practitioners by the end of the decade.

In July 1999, the Beijing regime launched a campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, resulting in the suppression of Chinese citizens “in the thousands, and perhaps even millions,” Wagantall said. She highlighted the case of Yunhe Zhang, who was arbitrarily detained by Chinese authorities in February 2002 and has not been heard from since.

Zhang’s sister, Tianxiao, who lives in Toronto, said the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has had a “catastrophic impact” on countless families in China and should serve as a stark reminder in human history.

“Numerous Falun Gong practitioners, many of whom are unknown by name, have died and had their organs harvested due to the CCP’s persecution, which is a tragedy for both China and the world,” she said in Mandarin in an interview with NTD Television, a sister company of The Epoch Times.

“I hope that one day, when the CCP’s crimes are recorded in history, it will remind future generations to never again allow the existence of such a regime.”

In December 2022, MPs from all political parties unanimously voted in favour of Senate Bill S-223, which establishes criminal offences related to forced organ harvesting and trafficking abroad. This legislation aligns Canada with other countries that have similar laws, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Norway, Spain, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Montreal resident Kelly Cong said she was “very happy” to see MPs openly supporting Falun Gong practitioners and denouncing the CCP’s human rights violations. Her 80-year-old mother, Lanying Cong, a practitioner in Shandong Province, was arbitrarily detained in February 2023 and sentenced to four years in prison.

Torture, Forced Labour

The CCP’s detention of Canadian citizen Sun Qian is perhaps the most well-known case among those mentioned in the petition presented by MPs. Sun was arbitrarily detained at her residence in Beijing in February 2017 and subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison in June 2020.

During her detention, Sun reportedly endured prolonged physical and mental torture, including being shackled to a steel chair, pepper-sprayed in the face, and subjected to sustained brainwashing and psychological manipulation, as reported by the Falun Dafa Association of Canada.

Sun Qian, a Falun Dafa practitioner who has been illegally detained in China since February 2017, in an undated photo. The Epoch Times/Handout

MP Patzer detailed the torture endured by Yongmei Li, the mother of Calgary resident Suting Liu. According to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based Falun Gong information website, Li was first detained in 2014 for practising Falun Gong and was incarcerated for nearly two years.

“[Yongmei Li] received her second prison sentence in 2023 for five years because she is a practitioner of Falun Gong. Her phone has been monitored for six months, and her home was ransacked by police. She was strung up by her wrists with her feet in the air during the interrogation,” Patzer said.

“She refused to renounce her faith or to admit any guilt, and as such she endured extended periods of squatting and standing, had freezing cold water poured on her. She was deprived of food and sleep, [and] was forced to do unpaid labour.”

‘Responsibility to Do Something’

Kurek, the Conservatives’ heritage critic, called for the release of Yan Liu, the mother of Toronto resident Mingyuan Liu, who was detained and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in April 2022. Pointing to the many other Falun Gong practitioners who have faced persecution, he noted the importance of ensuring that “their freedoms are respected.”

“As Canadians, [we have a] responsibility to do something about it,” Kurek said.

Yan Liu (L) with her daughter, Liu Mingyuan, and her husband in a file photo. Yan Liu was arrested in China on Sept. 30, 2021, for her belief in Falun Gong. Courtesy of Liu Mingyuan

Many Falun Gong practitioners with ties to Canada have been detained while trying to raise awareness in China about the CCP’s persecution campaign. Other persecuted groups include Christians, Uyghurs, Tibetans, human rights advocates, and democracy activists.

Huafeng Tang, a 62-year-old retired middle school teacher from Shanxi Province, was arrested and sentenced to 3.5 years in June 2021 for distributing materials related to the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. She is the mother of Canadian citizen Alice Zhang, who resides in Vancouver.

Similarly, Lizhong He, the brother of Toronto resident Lizhi He, was detained in July 2023 and sentenced to seven years in prison for sharing short videos about Falun Gong. He is being held in a prison in Gansu Province known for its violence toward Falun Gong prisoners of conscience, according to Minghui.org. His family has been denied visitation for over a year since his arrest and has no information about his health or safety.

Zhoubo Liu, father of Ottawa resident Jack Liu, received a three-and-a-half-year sentence in April 2023. Liu has been unlawfully detained for nearly two years in Beijing No. 3 Detention Center after being kidnapped from his home in November 2021. This is not his first detention; he previously spent nine years in prison for raising awareness about crimes against Falun Gong.

Others Detained

The persecution campaign against Falun Gong that began under former CCP leader Jiang Zemin in 1999 continues to this day.

Recent cases include Mingguang Xie, father of Regina resident Xingxing Xie, who was abducted from his home by Chinese police in February of this year and is now detained in Lichuan Detention Center in Hubei Province. Xie previously spent three years in prison in 2002, during which he was reportedly tortured.

Other recent cases include Shuang Sun, cousin of Wenli Sun, a refugee living in Vancouver. Sun was detained on Nov. 23, 2023.

Zuo Li, cousin of Calgary resident Baolian Jiang, was arrested in July 2022 and is currently imprisoned in Shanxi Province. Li has previously endured two illegal sentences—one for five-and-a-half years and another for five years—during which she underwent relentless torture, as reported by Minghui.org.

Fengyun Yao, the aunt of Calgary resident Helen Yao, received a four-year prison sentence in 2020 for practising Falun Gong, which was recently extended by six months. Yao has already been imprisoned for her faith four times, Minghui reported.

Lijuan Gao, the wife of Toronto resident Yong Zhou, was arrested on Dec. 28, 2017, in Tianjin City. She was sentenced to nine years in prison and is currently held in Tianjin Liyuan Prison.