Taking part in the Torch Walk are (L-R) human rights lawyer David Matas, human rights activist and former Miss World Nazanin Afshin-Jam, founder of Canadian Students for Darfur Clement Abas Apaak, the HRTR Goddess of Freedom, chair of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong Clive Ansley and Green Party federal candidate Jim Stephenson. (The Epoch Times)

VANCOUVER—Bringing with it the message that the "Olympics and Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Co-exist in China," the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) arrived in Vancouver on Sunday.

Elected officials, democracy and human rights activists, NGOs and local musicians were joined by about 200 supporters at the Vancouver Art Gallery to welcome the torch.

Initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), HRTR is a global grassroots campaign calling for an end to human rights atrocities in China before the Beijing Olympics in August.

Many supporters held signs and banners calling on the Chinese regime to stop abuses against such groups as Tibetans, Uyghurs, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, journalists, lawyers, democracy advocates, and others.

Several speakers addressed the crowd, but first a minute of silence was observed and a statement read to commemorate the victims of the cyclone disaster in Burma and the recent earthquake in Sichuan, China.

The human rights torch was presented by the Goddess of Freedom to MP Bill Siksay, the Vancouver ambassador for the torch, who spoke about trade with China. He stressed that Canadians "must not allow our economic interest or concerns for trade opportunities to trump our concerns about human rights."

While occasions like the Olympics are important, said Siksay, "we must ensure our participation is measured and not exploited to goals contrary to our values and the values of such occasions."

The Goddess of Freedom and HRTR supporters gather by the "Olympics Countdown Clock" for the Vancouver 2010 Games. (The Epoch Times)

Host Clement Abas Apaak, founder of Canadian Students for Darfur and a member of the Simon Fraser University board of governors, said a lot of Chinese citizens "are not given the basic rights that should be accorded every human being."

"The Chinese regime has made it a point to suppress and indeed persecute its own citizens and we just feel that this is simply not acceptable. Ultimately we want to bring about an inclusive and tolerant China where everyone can live with freedom, without fear of persecution or death, and explore its God-given potential."

Apaak also condemned the regime for supplying arms to Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe and for supporting and funding "the Sudan government's genocide against its own people in Darfur."

Human rights lawyer David Matas said that although Chinese officials promised to improve human rights if given the Olympics, in fact the opposite has happened.

"The human rights situation in China has deteriorated since the awarding of the Olympic Games—in part because of the awarding of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games have created a new venue for Chinese discrimination against its chosen victims which would not have existed had the Olympic Games not been awarded to China."

Matas and former MP David Kilgour published reports in 2006 and 2007 providing compelling evidence of the illicit harvesting of the organs of tens of thousands of imprisoned Falun Gong prisoners of conscience since 2001.

Matas said that despite a new organ-harvesting law in China, organ theft continues.

"Killing innocents for their organs is a crime against humanity. That means it is a crime not just against the victims—it is a crime against all of us…. Everyone engaged in the Olympics movement must do their part to end crimes against humanity in China. To fail to do that is to fail to be human."

CIPFG chair Clive Ansley said that after the 1936 Berlin Olympics, people were appalled when the truth of Hitler's atrocities finally emerged. Today, he said, "we know that Beijing is systematically murdering thousands, probably scores of thousands of human beings in order to harvest their organs for profit."

"We've awarded the Olympics to the most chillingly brutal perpetrator of crimes against humanity on the planet. And history is not going to allow our generation to once more fall back on the excuse—if only we had known."

Ansley also criticized the "derelict media" for under-reporting the persecution of Falun Gong, now in its ninth year.

"Over the last nine years the most barbaric atrocity in modern history has been going on systematically in China and it has provoked an absolutely thunderous silence on the part of our media and most of our North American politicians."

Miss World, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, (center of banner) supports the Vancouver HRTR event. (The Epoch Times)

Human rights activist and recording artist Nazanin Afshin-Jam outlined what it might be like for Canadians if they lived under such a regime as that in Beijing:

"Imagine one day you're in your yoga class and a bunch of police officers come and arrest and torture you on the grounds that you are practicing a cult. Or imagine you criticize the Harper government and the next thing you know you're detained and sent to a labour camp. Or yet imagine being told that in two weeks your home is going to be bulldozed to make room for the 2010 Olympics coming up here in Vancouver.

"These kinds of things are happening in China right now."

Jim Stephenson, federal candidate for the Green Party, said that following the selection of Beijing as host of the 2008 Olympics, Amnesty International identified six practical and realistic steps that China should take in order to "bring government practice closer in line with international human rights standards and the ideals of the Olympic Charter."

In its five "Olympics Countdown" reports reviewing China's human rights situation issued since then, Amnesty concluded that China has made virtually no progress, said Stephenson.

"In fact, additional violations have occurred as a result of Olympics-related activities including assembling land for Olympics venues, enforcing Olympics security, and managing Olympics publicity.

"China has built dramatic new Olympic venues. China has supported and coached a new generation of elite athletes. China has organized an ambitious international torch relay. China has even taken radical measures to reduce its chronic pollution problems during the Olympic Games. But China has not honoured its commitment to respect and protect the human rights of its citizens."

The rally included a public "torch walk" to the Chinese consulate through Chinatown and back to the art gallery. The afternoon continued with live music from local bands interspersed with speeches by representatives of Burma, Tibet, Darfur and Falun Gong.

HRTR began in Athens last August and has since traveled to over 30 countries on four continents. Vancouver was its last stop in North America.