'Canada, don't trust Communist China': Anti-CCP protesters unite outside Toronto consulate 🇨🇳
Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Taiwanese and Falun Gong practitioners rallied for freedom and human rights on Oct. 1 as the Cowards and Bullies campaign returned to the site of the attack on Falun Gong practitioner Lina Li.
“Canada, don’t trust Communist China!”
That was the message chanted outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on Oct. 1, as protesters from communities that have experienced life under the Chinese Communist Party came together to mark China’s National Day — not with celebration, but condemnation.
Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Taiwanese, Falun Gong practitioners and other opponents of the CCP gathered outside the consulate, calling for freedom and human rights while warning Canadians not to take their own freedoms for granted.
“We fight for our freedom, fight for our human rights, and we are against the CCP,” one demonstrator said.
For a Tibetan protester, the demonstration was an opportunity to draw attention to what his community has endured under Chinese rule.
“Tibetan people living in Tibet have been suffering since 1959,” he said, explaining that protesters want the world to pay attention to their demands for “freedom” and “basic human rights.”
A Hong Konger who recently came to Canada had a similar message.
“In China, no freedom. We cannot talk what we want,” he said.
We also returned with our billboard truck, which displays footage of the Sept. 22 attack on Falun Gong practitioner Lina Li outside the same consulate.
We first brought the truck to the consulate on Sept. 28 to launch our Cowards and Bullies campaign. The campaign calls on Prime Minister Mark Carney to identify and charge Li’s attacker — and deport him if he is not a Canadian citizen — expel any Chinese diplomat found to be involved in intimidating people in Canada, and permanently shut down every CCP “police station” operating on Canadian soil.
Li was assaulted and threatened after confronting a man who tore down Falun Gong banners. The man, who wore a black jacket bearing a Chinese flag, left before police arrived and remains publicly unidentified.
“This is fantastic,” one attendee said of the truck. “It’s great for anti-censorship, and it’s a great way of raising awareness.”
While the protesters came from different countries, cultures and movements, their message outside the consulate was remarkably consistent: what happened in their homelands must not be allowed to follow them to Canada.
“If this is disrupted, here becomes China,” one demonstrator warned. “No one has any rights.”
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