Having gradually made its way around the world, a torch relay that aims to highlight China's human rights abuses ahead of the Beijing Olympics is set to arrive in Canada.
The Human Rights Torch Relay, which lit its first flame in Athens last August, will arrive in Halifax on May 4 and then continue across the country, stopping in 10 cities.
Bringing with it the message that "Olympics and Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Co-exist in China," the torch has traveled to about150 cities on four continents. Its last stop in Canada will be in Vancouver on May 25.
Events in cities hosting the torch include rallies, runs, concerts and speeches. Unlike the official Beijing Olympics torch bearer who is surrounded by bodyguards at every stop, anyone can join in and run alongside the bearer of the human rights torch.
Initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), the Human Rights Torch Relay is a global grassroots campaign to bring an end to all human rights atrocities in China before the Olympics in August.
"We condemn the Chinese regime's recent crackdown in Tibet, large-scale arrests and killing of Falun Gong practitioners, persecution of Christians and all other religious followers, human rights defenders, reporters and all who have suffered as a result of Beijing's pre-Olympics 'cleanup,'" says a CIPFG news release.
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline that has experienced an unprecedented level of persecution by the regime since 1999.
The New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre says arrests of Falun Gong adherents have escalated ahead of the Olympics, and claims to have received reports from inside China of over 1,878 arrests since January. The Falun Gong website Minghui.org, which receives and compiles accounts of persecution from inside China, has reported that 129 Falun Gong adherents were tortured to death by authorities between January 1st and March 20th, 2008. The website provided a list and case details for each individual reported to have been killed.
CIPFG is calling for the release all prisoners of conscience and for China to stop supporting regimes in Myanmar and Darfur "to show the world in concrete terms its commitment to improve human rights."
CIPFG chair Clive Ansley, who is the China country monitor for Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, said there has been a recent "massive campaign" against human rights lawyers and advocates who are being intimidated, beaten, arrested, tortured, and having their law license taken away.
"It's a real campaign to intimidate anybody in the legal profession who has the courage to speak out against the abuses," said Ansley, who practised marine law in China for 14 years.
Dates for the Canada route are: Halifax, May 4; Quebec, May 8; Winnipeg, May 9; Montreal, May 10; Ottawa, May 14; Toronto, May 17; Kingston, May 18; Calgary, May 19; Edmonton, May 21; and Vancouver, May 25. http://www.humanrightstorch.org .
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