MP Roman Baber delivered speech on 2026 Falun Dafa Day celebration in Ottawa

Please welcome Roman Babber. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Roman Babber. I'm a member of Parliament from North Toronto, and I'm very, very pleased to welcome all of you to Ottawa on what is a typical day towards the end of spring in Ottawa. Welcome to Parliament Hill, and thank you so much for joining us here again. I'm very passionate in recognizing the importance of religious freedom, not just in communist China, but everywhere around the world. I have a particular affinity towards the Kuala Lumpur people as someone who is very passionate about freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Like some of you know, I was born in the communist Soviet Union, and the only religion allowed in the communist Soviet Union was communism. And as a practicing Jewish man, I remember the fear that my family had by having a religious book, a Jewish prayer book that my grandpa had that he read on Jewish New Year. Thinking now that if the communists found that book, they'd probably be sentenced to five years in a labour camp seems like such a surreal concept in 2026. But today, in communist China in 2026, between 40 and 50 million Falun Gong members are still being prosecuted, are still prohibited from openly practicing their religion, still have to be afraid. But worse, we know without any semblance of a doubt, the Chinese regime continues to oppress religious minorities, and not just the Falun Gong people. We recently see in the news the government of Canada's Mark Hardy Liberals' failure to exercise moral clarity and call out the practices against Chinese Muslims, the Chinese Uyghurs, who are subjected to labour camps, who are subjected to re-education camps, and who are subjected to forced labour. This Prime Minister has the difficulty in acknowledging that forced labour still exists in communist China and factors itself into our supply chain. We have to be very unequivocal and we have to be very clear morally about which side of humanity we stand on. Do we stand with a regime or do we tolerate a regime that trumples religious freedom, that compromises human life, that still potentially creates unthinkable human rights abuses against the Falun Gong people? Or are we going to stand on the right side for decency, on the side of human rights, on the side of religious freedom? And I'm very, very proud that myself and many of my conservative colleagues will always stand on the right side of history. But beyond that, it appears that the prevalence of the Chinese communist regime stems beyond its borders, but all over the world. A very important subject of discussion in our democracy right now is the interference in our political process coming out of Beijing. We saw testimony a year ago in one of the standing committees that every government since Brian Mulroney was somehow compromised by the regime in Beijing. But worse, how is it possible that I was at a Shen Yun concert about a month ago and at my friend Vixen's invitation, I came to the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts downtown Toronto and as I was coming up the elevator from the parking lot, I see that the building was evacuated because of a bomb threat and then a subsequent bomb threat that forced the organizers to cancel the show, to cancel Shen Yun. How is this acceptable that we have a situation in downtown Toronto where we have to be afraid to go see a theatrical and music and dance performance? It's unthinkable and it has to be condemned in the strongest terms and it has to be acted on by way of law enforcement and justice enforcement. We saw just yesterday in global news that the Chinese consular is pressuring Vancouver City officials to cancel Shen Yun over there. And beyond the foreign interference, what is it that they're actually afraid of? What are they scared of? Of people exercising an ancient form of faith? Of people meditating and calling for love and harmony with other people? What is it that the regime in Beijing is scared of so much? It's scared of our unity. It's scared of our moral clarity. It's scared of the fact that we can organize and get a good amount of people out, but we should not be afraid. We should not be afraid in our democracy to preserve our Canadian democracy from foreign interference or from foreign threats. And we should remember every day and think about those in communist China that are still oppressed, that are still afraid to practice their faith, that are still subject to a labor camp or a re-education camp or slave labor as this liberal government fails to admit. In myself and many of my conservative colleagues, you will always have a supporter on the right side of history and clarity here in communist China and everywhere. I'm Roman Babber. I welcome you to Parliament Hill, and I'm very honored to speak with all of you today. Thank you so much.