Rally for Rights Sees Hundreds Take to Hill

Falun Gong practitioners meditate for justice ahead of Harper’s China visit

The tension between trade with China and calling the regime out for its abuses has been a problem for successive Canadian governments.

Some of the most serious atrocities are happening in China at the present time, and I think we have an obligation to speak up.

Tory MP Garry Breitkreuz

Tory MP Garry Breitkreuz said MPs face a “huge challenge” in balancing the lure of China’s market with concerns about human rights. The China business lobby also remains a powerful force on Parliament Hill, he said.

“It’s difficult to weigh these things and balance some of the competing interests but it’s our obligation to do that,” he said after voicing his support in a speech at the rally on Tuesday.

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“Just how Sinopec became co-author of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new foreign policy and energy strategy isn’t a question any of us are supposed to be asking,” Terry Glavin writes.

But if doing business with China means getting entwined with its ruling Communist Party, it’s important that the government still draw a clear line, said Zhang Tianxiao at the press conference Tuesday.

Zhang’s sister, Zhang Yunhe, disappeared in China in 2002 after being arrested for practicing Falun Gong. Zhang worries she has been a victim of organ harvesting. Zhang’s brother-in-law is among the confirmed 3,400 dead, persecuted to death by the regime for refusing to renounce his belief in Falun Gong.

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