My name is Paul Li, a fellow Canadian citizen living in Toronto.  My father Xiaobo Li has been illegally imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese Communist party (CCP) for 14 years for practicing a peaceful meditation called Falun Dafa (a.k.a Falun Gong), and is still experiencing violent abuse in prison today. 

I would like to urge every one to help me - to rescue my father from danger, bring justice to his case, and call to China to end the 20 years long persecution of Falun Gong.

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The Childhood Memory

Ever since I could remember things, my father was working remotely, and I hardly met him once or twice a month.  I recall I only stayed with my father for about 2 years in total before I came to Canada at the age of 13.

My father used to be a county mayor working for the Chinese government in the 1990s, with a very prosperous political career in that system.  But after witnessing the corruption inside the party, he decided to leave his post and later became the president of a real estate company. In 1996, my father started practicing Falun Gong and began guiding himself with the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance”.

The Persecution

From 1990 - 1999, there were many 'Qi Gong' practices emerging in China, Falun Gong was one of them. By the year 1999, close to 70 to 100 million Chinese population was practicing Falun Gong due to its superior effects in healing illnesses and more importantly, its profound teachings in elevating one's moral rectitude.

However, China today is still strictly a communist country, ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  Under a communist country, any ideologies, beliefs or systems that do not conform to the 'communism' ideologies, or the government, including atheism, materialism, Marxism/Maoism, are bounded to be suppressed, 're-educated' or persecuted.

In 1999 July 20, out of jealousy and fear, the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin saw the growing popularity of Falun Gong as an ideological threat to its power & control over the population, and launched a national wide persecution and hate propaganda on Falun Gong, including the notorious self-immolation hoax at Tiananmen Square in 2001.  In fact until today, there are still many Chinese believed in this propaganda and refused to talk to Falun Gong practitioners or even report them to the local authorities. This is how my father and myself were abducted in 2014.

Since the persecution started, my father began writing articles to expose all the lies and defamation that were spread by CCP. In 2004, my father was abducted by local police at his workplace and was illegally detained in a warehouse for a year (along with many other Falun Gong practitioners). In 2005, the local court held a secret trial and sentenced my father to 8 years of prison. My father later told me, the trial lasted less than 30 minutes with no presence of lawyers nor family members, only the judge and few agents from the “610 Office”.

The Tortures

My father did not mention what happened to him in those 8 years and I was afraid to ask. But based on the articles and reports I read from minghui.org, including ones written by my father, I realized my father suffered severe mental and physical tortures during his sentence.  He was under forced labours for over 10-hours per day; He was beaten and humiliated because he refused to sign the paper that denounces his belief; He was locked in solitary confinement for 3 months with extreme physical tortures everyday and almost no food to eat. These types of tortures and humiliations, deprivations are common to all imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in China until today. Many practitioners were persecuted to death or even organ harvested.

I was attending the University of Waterloo during those years and I flew back to China multiple times during my break, each time I was only able to meet with my father for 20 to 30 minutes.

Before my father was released in 2012, I relocated back in China, living in the same old apartment we lived together. In 2012 March, I waited in front of the prison gate for my father to come out. When he came out and stepped into the car, I sat beside him in the back seat and held his left hand. I remember, he looked out the window, for a long time and didn’t say a word. I did not disturb him, I could not imagine what those 8 years of persecution meant to him. Soon I found out, my father's left eye was nearly blind.

The Second Sentence

In the following 2 years, we lived in peace, my father continued to follow the teachings of Falun Gong of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance”.  In 2013 I started practicing Falun Gong myself and we spent time together reading the teachings of Falun Gong and made truth clarification materials, including articles that we printed and folded into envelopes and small amulets we crafted.

On weekends we would go out and hand them to people in the rural areas and clarify the truth of Falun Gong to them. This is a very common grassroots method by practitioners in China to spread the awareness to people, but also very risky.  We knew what this action may lead us to, but we also knew it was our moral responsibility to spread the awareness to those who were deceived.

In April 2014, as both my father and I were handing out pamphlets to the people in a village, 3 police cars showed up. The police grabbed our arms and forced us into the car, at the same night put us into detention centre. Our home was ransacked. In the next few days, I was forbidden to contact the Canadian Embassy, and 4 days later, the local authorities escorted me to the airport forced me back to Canada. However, my father remained in the detention centre until 2015.

Between 2014 to 2015, I contacted local media as well as various Members of Parliament, City Councillors, including staff from Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, and Amnesty International etc to rescue my father. There were other Toronto citizens who had their family members incarcerated in China during that time. We held press conferences inside Parliament Hill, multiple times, to urge Canadian government to help rescue our families.

Despite all the effort and support from the Canadian government and other sources, the local court held a show-trial in April 2015, and my father was charged for another 8 years of sentence, just for his belief and handing out pamphlets. 

In the past few years, the prison intercepted all of the letters and greeting cards that I sent to my father, and he was not allowed to write letters to me.  Each month my father may make a 3-5minutes phone call to my aunt in China, and only through her can I learn briefly about my father’s condition. Currently, at the age of 63, he is facing forced labour for 8 hours per day.

The Hope

This may seem to be a tragic story.  But one thing is for certain, the good will always transcend the evil.  This firm belief, is the source for us to carry on, it is the source of the unwavering spirit of my father and Falun Gong practitioners in the face of tyranny.  It is also the source of our humanity, regardless of our race, social status, country, or religion.  The good will always prevail.

This is why after 20 years of brutal persecution, there are still countless Falun Gong adherents standing by with their faith and belief unafraid, and peacefully carrying on the protests against the authoritative regime in China, for hope, for justice, for freedom.  

This petition is directed to Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: to help rescue my father and other Canadian family ties, including citizen Ms. Qian SUN from danger, and call to China to end the 20 years long persecution of Falun Gong.

Please sign and share this petition. Thank you very much for your support!

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References:

Son pleads for release of father imprisoned for religion in China
  (July 2014)
https://www.mississauga.com/news-story/4638717-son-pleads-for-release-of-father-imprisoned-for-religion-in-china/

Canadian Citizen Calls for Release of Father Detained in China (December 2014)
http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/12/22/147399p.html

Toronto Falun Gong Practitioner Seeks Father’s Release
 (May 2015) https://www.theepochtimes.com/toronto-falun-gong-practitioner-seeks-fathers-release_1344217.html

Fears for Father Imprisoned in China - Another eight years prison for spiritual practice (May 2015)
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/starmetro-toronto/20150501/281595239087320

Amnesty International “Urgent Action” Pressures China to Release Li Xiaobo
 (May 2015) http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2015/5/24/150718.html

Three Family Members of Canadian Citizens Sentenced to Prison in China
https://faluninfo.net/three-family-members-of-canadian-citizens-sentenced-to-prison-in-china/

Falun Gong Seeks Trudeau’s Help as PM Prepares for China Trip (August 2016)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/falun-gong-seeks-trudeaus-help-as-pm-prepares-for-china-trip_2146034.html

Canada: Falun Gong Rally Seeks Help from Prime Minister to Rescue Family Members
 (December 2017) 
http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2017/12/2/166603.html

Video:

Legends Unfolding: Tianguo Marching Band (23:44 - 29:30)
https://youtu.be/1r8sR-tKmC4?t=1424 (English Narration & Caption)

Miss Canada Anastasia's testimony in Washington D.C CECC meeting 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH8dEwLn0Js (5:00 - 6:00)