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Thank you very much for that generous  welcome.

It’s true that I have a petition on my website (elizabethmaymp.ca).  It’s available for everyone.  It’s very important because it raises awareness for other MPs.

Every time I stand in the House of Commons with a petition to call for respecting human rights in China, I’m speaking to the People’s Republic of China, their embassy here certainly notices, but I’m also speaking to my friends, who are other Members of Parliament.

We must not forget what’s happening on a daily basis in China.

It’s an assault on the very notion of humanity.  The inhumanity of treating some people as lesser creatures, as susceptible to incarceration, and to organ harvest, which is an intolerable term and an intolerable practice.  We need to stand strong, as brothers and sisters together, who share one common reality.  We are human beings on the same planet.

Human rights that are not respected in one country is an assault on human rights in every country.

That’s why I am so grateful to you, as practitioners of something that is about love, compassion, tolerance, patience, and truth.  With this, it’s amazing that we always have to get everyone’s attention in China to promote human rights.

It’s a difficult issue, as Canada increases its trade ties with China.  Increases with things that are as dangerous as the Canada-China Investment Treaty.  We must stand up against these things. We must be friends with China, but friends who can tell the truth.  When a friend is afraid to tell the truth, they are not friends, they are subjugated by a larger power.

That’s not friendship.  That’s losing our sovereignty.

I stand with you.  I’m grateful to you.  Continue your struggle.  It’s important for everyone to continue against the violations of human rights.

Thank you very much.

Every person is entitled to the peaceful practice of his or her religion without fear of persecution. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned the practice of Falun Gong in 1999, using tactics employed against peaceful Falun practitioners including imprisonment, forced labour, torture, murder, Orwellian indoctrination and even allegations of live organ extraction.

Help Elizabeth push the Canadian government to tell the Chinese government to stop their persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Sign or download her petition, get as many people as possible to sign it, and mail it – postage free – to either her Ottawa or Sidney offices. With as few as 25 signatures, Elizabeth can present your petition to the government in the House of Commons.

Online Petition

[cfdb-count form=”Petition: Falun Gong”] people have signed this petition. Add your voice to the growing number of Canadians speaking out about this issue.

We, the undersigned citizens of Canada, call upon the Minister of the Crown for Foreign Affairs to impress the importance of universal human rights declarations as an international norm upon the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC). persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, and we request that the Minister of the Crown for Citizenship and Immigration list the PRC as a refugee Source Country, thereby allowing swifter accommodation for those fleeing its persecution.

[contact-form-7 id=”6901″ title=”Petition: Falun Gong”]

The post Elizabeth May Speaking at Falun Dafa Month Rally on Parliament Hill appeared first on Elizabeth May.

1:15 p.m. – Green Leader Elizabeth May will speak at Falun Dafa Month rally on Parliament Hill.

Parliament Hill
Ottawa, Ontario

NOTE: Rally speeches will start at 1:00 p.m.

The post Elizabeth May to Speak at Falun Dafa Rally appeared first on Elizabeth May.

“China is a nation in transition. In the past couple of decades, it has made tremendous economic strides but this has been accomplished through ruthless suppression of its own people and of Tibet. Cheap labour has been augmented by nearly a million slave prisoners, mostly those being persecuted as Falun Gong practitioners. Moreover, these prisoners have been providing not only free labour but a source for the infamous live organ transplants estimated in the tens of thousands,” commented Joe Foster, Green Human Rights Critic. “Canadians need to speak out against trade agreements that allow purchase from countries where human rights violations are flagrant.”

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, asked, “At what cost has China’s economic miracle been achieved and have we abetted human rights crimes by pretending ignorance?”

While other faith groups, such as House-Christians, have also been persecuted, the Communists fear the strength and growth of the Falun Gong which is reputed to have adherents throughout the country with a membership of between 70 and 100 million. This non-violent faith organization was anathema to the Communist regime.

The outcry against the lack of freedom and human rights in China has been rapidly increasing. This has been led by a few courageous citizens inside China and dissidents who have escaped to inform outsiders of internal atrocities, combined with pleas from the Dalai Lama.  The confirmation of live organ transplant by David Kilgour and David Matas has created an international campaign demanding change. This has sufficiently embarrassed the Chinese government to demote Bo Xilai, the party leader who initiated the campaign against the faith groups. This change must be supported.

May continued, “Questions need to be asked of our Trade Department and of the Canadian business community. With the well-documented and long-standing abuses in China and Tibet and the human rights law suits against Bo Xilai in at least 13 countries, including Canada, how could they be totally ignorant of these horrendous crimes? Why would the Prime Minister, as recently as this February, seek an audience with him? Why is the budget for the Political and Legal Affairs Department, which directs the secret police, now larger than China’s military budget?”

 While the Green Party applauds the diversification of our trading partners, the Canadian government has also turned a blind eye to the atrocities of regimes in Latin America in its rush for trade expansion.

“It is time for Canadians to re-evaluate our priorities against our traditional values of social justice and human rights,” said Joe Foster. “Unless all Canadians speak out, including those originally from countries where human rights abuses are rampant, there will be little incentive for change both within our own government and in those countries that flagrantly abuse human rights.  As a start, the Green Party urges our Prime Minister to create a trade document that insists that no products will be purchased where slave labour is involved.”

The post China in Transition: It is Time for Canadians to Speak out appeared first on Elizabeth May.

The Green Party is calling for Canadians to demand accountability from both the government and the business community for human rights abuses in nations that trade with Canada.

In a statement released Friday, the Greens said China in particular needs to be held to account for human rights abuses—noting especially the ongoing persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual group.

“At what cost has China’s economic miracle been achieved, and have we abetted human rights crimes by pretending ignorance?” asked Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

View the full original article >>

The post Canada’s Greens Urge Trade Deals to Disallow Rights Abuses May singles out China for its ‘worrying lack of human rights’ appeared first on Elizabeth May.

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I am asking the Prime Minister, as he hands the keys of Canada to China, what principle excludes Cuba?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper: Mr. Speaker, the issue is that the Summit of the Americas, by agreement in the Declaration of Quebec City some years ago under the preceding government, agreed that the Summit of the Americas was open to democratically elected leaders from the hemisphere. Cuba does not qualify because the leader is not democratically elected, and China does not qualify because it is not in the Americas.

The post Oral Questions – Foreign Affairs appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands) recently stated, “There are Falun Gong practitioners in my riding who have visited my office and have made sure I am aware of the conditions that Falun Dafa practitioners face in China. I am very aware that your practice is one of non-violence, individual responsibility, and grace and that makes it doubly unacceptable that you should be subjected to torture and imprisonment and harsh conditions, only for following a practice that is liberating to mind and spirit.”  May urged Canadian and Chinese leaders to remember that both countries are signatories of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Therefore, any trade negotiations should be considered in the light of improving human rights and the preservation of ethnic cultures.

In 2006, Stephen Harper was making the same points.  At a stopover in Anchorage (Nov. 15, 2006), he stated, “I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that, but I don’t think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values — our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights. They don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar.”

In the past week, rallies have been held on Parliament Hill by both Tibetans and practitioners of Falun Gong, asking the Prime Minister to work for reforms when he visits China February 6th to 12th.  Green Leader May spoke to both rallies.  “If Canada wants to be a partner with China, we also have a responsibility to play a role in ending persecution and human rights abuses.  This is particularly relevant given that Canada is allowing the Chinese government to actually own Canadian resources, with over $20 billion invested in the oil sands.”

Members of the Conservative caucus seem to agree.  Tory MP Garry Breitkreuz noted, “Some of the most serious atrocities are happening in China at the present time and I think we have an obligation to speak up.” Other MPs, including Rob Anders and Stephen Woodworth, also voiced their support.

Zhang Tianxiao, one of the demonstrators, noted, “There is only one principle about trade, it is just that Canada should never sacrifice human rights and moral principles for any material benefit.”  Zhang’s sister, Zhang Yunhe, disappeared in China in 2002 and Zhang’s brother-in-law is among the confirmed 3,400 dead, murdered by the regime for refusing to renounce his belief in Falun Gong.

Former MP and Secretary of State for Asia Pacific David Kilgour added, “Selling production plants in Canada to Chinese state-owned companies with terrible environmental records and histories of playing political roles in the countries they operate in is another matter entirely.”

“Will our children remember us for promoting trade, or for using trade as a vehicle for improving human rights in developing countries?” asked Joe Foster, Green Human Rights Critic.

The post Greens to Stephen Harper: Don’t Sell Out Human Rights to “Almighty Dollar” appeared first on Elizabeth May.

“There are Falun Gong practitioners in my riding who have visited my office and have made sure I am aware of the conditions that Falun Dafa practitioners face in China.

“I am very aware that your practice is one of non-violence, compassion, tolerance, and truth, and that makes it doubly unacceptable that you should be subjected to torture and imprisonment and harsh conditions, only for following a practice that is liberating to mind and spirit.

“You are yourselves like the gentle snowflakes, you do no harm, you do only good, and I am so so much in solidarity with your efforts.”

View the full original article >>

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