Canada Rejects China Legal Association’s Involvement in Falun Gong Lawsuit

By Yue Yi and Li Jia, Epoch Times Toronto Staff, Canada, Dec 03, 2007-

TORONTO— On November 23, the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario laid five heavy restrictions for All China Lawyer Association (ACLA) which had applied to be involved in a lawsuit Falun Gong practitioner’s had submitted against former communist party leader Jiang Zemin. The restriction includes barring the association from providing any evidence or taking any stance on the lawsuit against Jiang in Canada.

(photo: All China Lawyers Association is a unit under the direct command of China’s Ministry of Justice, shows on the Chinese website. /The Epoch Times)

The development in the case certainly disappointed Jiang who is orchestrating overseas tools behind the scenes in order to dismiss the appeal against him.

“It is very obvious that after Australian Falun Gong practitioners’ lawsuit against Bo Xilai gained judgment by default, Jiang began to worry that the several lawsuits he faces in 17 countries around the globe may bring about similar results,” said Zhu Wanqi, director of the Asian Branch of the Human Rights Law Foundation headquartered in U.S.

Global Lawsuit Against Jiang Zemin

According to attorney Zhu Wanqi, from 2002 to 2007, Falun Gong practitioners have filed more than 50 criminal and civil lawsuits against Jiang in more than 30 cities and regions. The number of cases against Jiang is constitutes the largest international human rights lawsuits in the 21 century.

According to incomplete statistics from Falun Gong website, Minghui.net, since July 20, 1999, 3,107 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death. The persecution cases spread to more than 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under China’s Central Regime.

Jiang Responds to Lawsuit Behind the Scenes

Shi Zangshan, an expert in Chinese affairs in Washington considers that Jiang’s tactic of interfering with and requesting withdrawal from the charges amounts to an indirect response to the lawsuits. “The action itself proves that Jiang is defending for himself,” explained Shi. “Although he is working behind the scenes, it reveals that the global effort to sue Jiang has entered a serious stage.”

ACLA Is Controlled by the CCP

“The ACLA is actually a Chinese authority controlled organization,” explained famous Chinese human rights attorney Guo Guoting after learning of the judge’s recent decision. “All the national, provincial and municipal level attorney associations have Party Committees and Party branches. The associations don’t have any autonomy. They are institutions which have been castrated.”

History of The Case

On November 15, 2004, six Falun Dafa practitioners from Toronto filed a lawsuit at the Canada Supreme Court against Jiang Zheming, Li Langqing, Luo Gan, Liu Jing and Wang Maolin, the officials who had played a major role in the persecution of Falun Gong. The lawsuit condemned the officials of crimes such as illegal imprisonment, personal attacks, illegal confiscation, destruction of property, economic interference, mental and physical torture, slander, and severe emotional abuse. It asks for damage of C$ 20 million.

On July 2006, the Supreme Court of Ontario had authorized immunity documents and other necessary procedures to clear up the obstacles for Jiang and other absent defendants.

On October 2006, the ACLA had made a request to the Ontario Supreme Court to intervene in the lawsuit filed by Canada Falun Gong practitioners. On November 23, 2007, the Ontario Supreme Court ruled that the ACLA could only turn in an appeal for Jiang of no more than twenty pages, and they were not allowed to provide evidence or other restricts.

Background of the ACLA

According to China’s Judicial website, the ACLA is an organization set up by China’s Ministry of Justice. Now a Toronto resident, Han Guangsheng said that he was both Canada’s chief of the Shenyang judicature bureau as well as the chair of Shenyang’s Lawyers’ Association.

In fact, this information is clearly shown in the association’s own documents. Under Article 4, Item 17 in the ACLA Regulations, it states, “The ACLA accepts judicial administration department’s monitor and guide…a judicial administration department can appoint a lawyer who has qualifications as an electoral candidate from among ACLA’s leadership.

- Original report from the Epochtimes