A Letter of A Member of Parliament to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada

July 21, 2000

The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Lester B. Pearson Building

125 Sussex Drive

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0G2

Dear Minister,

Sadly, tomorrow will mark the first anniversary of the ban by the Chinese government of Falun Gong. In March of this year, Amnesty International released an updated compendium of information about 2300 cases of detention, arrest or sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners since June 1999.

Spokespeople for Falun Gong claim that 20 to 25 people have died while in police custody.

When the People's Republic of China started its crackdown on Falun Gong, Canada was one of the first nations to speak up. Since, other nations have also expressed their concerns with this situation.

I encourage you Minister, on behalf of the Government of Canada, to renew publicly our invitations to China and its leaders to desist from mass arbitrary detention and other human rights violations.

Sincerely,

(signature)

Mauril Belanger, MP

(Note: MP = Member of Parliament)