On Friday, Sept. 16, just outside the Town of Stettler building, a group of members belonging to the Falun Gong meditation practice in China made a pit-stop along their Canadian car tour to raise awareness about the rise in forced organ harvesting in China.
Members of the group said that they were a part of the Alberta-wide tour to raise awareness of the issue. Other car tours are taking place all over Canada this summer.
"We have self-funded this tour and didn't think about fundraising," said Jenny Yang, the spokesperson for the group. She is a Calgary-based geologist and took a week off from her full-time job to participate in the southern-Alberta tour. "It is important that people are made aware of what is going on among the Falun Gong circles, and how members belonging to our group are being killed by the Chinese Communist Party."
According to a new report Yang said, there has been approximately 1.5 million victims of this forced live organ harvest.
Yang shared a media release, which stated that a report released earlier this year in June by renowned Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, former Canadian secretary of state David Kilgour, and investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann revealed that Falun Gong prisoners of conscience are being killed to supply China's lucrative organ trade.
The researchers estimate that up to 1.5 million Falun Gong practitioners have been killed since 2001 in this illegal state-sanctioned organ-trafficking practice.
The members are calling for an end to the ongoing campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China, which has resulted in untold suffering and death since it was launched in 1999.
"We are also calling for former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, the main perpetrator responsible for the persecution, to be brought to justice," said Yang.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a respected meditation practice in Canada and around the world that is exercised with teachings based on the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.