A celebratory event was held in downtown Toronto on May 6th to commemorate the 31st anniversary of World Falun Dafa Day. The festivities included a grand parade, traditional Chinese dancing and music, band performances, and a flag-raising ceremony. Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual practice with a foundation in Buddhist tradition that incorporates meditative exercises and moral teachings based on “truthfulness, compassion, forbearance.” It gained immense popularity following its introduction in China on May 13, 1992, largely due to its health benefits, and by 1999, estimates were that it had between 70 million to 100 million followers.
However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) perceived the practice’s rising popularity as a threat to their regime’s rule. In July 1992, they began a campaign of persecution aimed at eradicating the practice that persists to this day. The campaign includes arbitrary incarceration, torture, brainwashing, and sexual abuse of Falun Gong followers and the live harvesting of their organs to supply China’s lucrative transplant industry.
At the Toronto event, which included a speech by former Conservative MP and now Mississauga city councillor for Ward 11, Brad Butt, who praised Falun Gong’s defenders of religious freedom and condemned the persecution by the Chinese regime. Former Conservative MP Wladyslaw Lizon, who grew up in Soviet-controlled Poland, emphasized the importance of people living in free societies uniting against authoritarian regimes like the CCP. Toronto resident and democracy advocate Sheng Xue praised Falun Gong practitioners’ perseverance over the past 24 years and deemed them a model for resistance against tyranny in human history.
Dean Baxendale, president and CEO of Optimum Publishing International, reminded attendees that refugees flee persecution in China, where a “brutal and soulless communist regime” rules, but in Canada, they can be who they want to be and live in peace and harmony with fellow citizens. Baxendale also highlighted the CCP’s different plans, which include using the United Front Work Department and a network of Chinese friendship associations to engage and control all members of the Chinese community. The event also included handmade lotus flowers crafted by Falun Gong followers.