Several cars were seen at Garry Point Park on Saturday bearing signs speaking out against the Chinese government.
In photos submitted to the Richmond News, one sign reads “CCP = the most evil virus, a scourge to the world” and another, “stop persecuting Falun Gong.”
It appears that the demonstration is linked to Falun Gong.
Founded in 1992, Falun Gong is “an ancient Chinese spiritual discipline in the Buddhist tradition,” according to the website for the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre. Seven years after its founding, around 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong.
However, in 1999, the Chinese government “launched a violent campaign against Falun Gong,” according to the information centre.
“They did so due to Falun Gong’s exploding popularity and because they felt Falun Gong’s emphasis on moral living and traditional Chinese culture were a threat to the atheist communist regime that largely ruled by fear,” the website reads.
In a statement issued Oct. 27 for International Religious Freedom Day, Canada's foreign affairs minister, François-Phillipe Champagne, said that Canada “remains concerned...by the ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and other faith and belief communities in China.”
In order to raise awareness about persecution in China, Falun Gong practitioners around the world organize protests, the information centre’s website notes.
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