A small group gathered in the lowest level of Canada's Parliament building Tuesday with a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him to put human rights at the top of his agenda when he meets with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China, an umbrella organization of 11 groups concerned about human rights in China, is calling on Harper to raise the plight of ordinary Chinese people when he meets with the Chinese leader before and during the G20.
Hu will arrive in Canada mid-week for a state visit in Ottawa before heading to Toronto on Friday.
“It is long past time for substantial improvements in China's human rights record at home,” said Alex Neve, secretary general for Amnesty International Canada.
“Hu must be pressed to stop the human rights violations that continue to be the daily reality for millions upon millions of people in every corner of China … from the plight of the Uyghur people, the ongoing persecution of Tibetans, the continuing harsh crackdown of Falun Gong practitioners, to the often brutal consequences faced by lawyers and activists who speak out about human rights and democracy.
“Countless millions of men, women and young people across China face relentless human rights violations day in and day out.”
Neve said Harper has raised human rights in the past, but the abuses continue and nobody is held accountable. 
“On this visit, it must be made clear to President Hu that this cannot continue and that Canada expects real progress in human rights protection in China.”
Neve said hosting the G20 gave Canada a special forum to raise human rights in China and it was its responsibility to do so.
Tenchoe Dorjee with the Canada Tibet Committee said the group was deeply concerned about the protection of Tibetans.
“It is essential that G20 leaders make an unambiguous presentation to President Hu over China's use of the death penalty, lack of fair judicial process, religious repression and continued human rights abuses of the Tibetan people,” she said.
Dorjee also raised concerns over the imprisonment and execution of Tibetan protesters who staged mass incidents of civil disobedience before the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. None have received a fair judicial process, she said.
She also highlighted the exploitation of Tibet's natural resources, saying that the Tibetan people were not consulted and were hurt by the process.
“The exploitation of Tibet's natural resources is to the detriment of the Tibetan people and has been undertaken without their consent or any meaningful consultation.”
The most widespread human rights abuse in China today is the persecution of Falun Gong, a situation raised by Lucy Zhou with the Falun Dafa Association of Canada.
“For over a decade, the systematic persecution of Falun Gong remains the largest modern-day atrocity in China, through imprisonment, torture, hate propaganda, brainwashing, information blockades, murder, and even organ harvesting from incarcerated practitioners,” she said.
“Confirmed deaths number in the thousands.”
Zhou said that although China Communist Party's crimes against Chinese citizens are widely documented, the regime has successfully used its economic clout to manipulate other countries into turning a blind eye.
“They target the conscience of democratically elected leaders who are put into a position to choose between money and silence over the principled stance of not selling out human rights to the almighty dollar,” she said.
“We remind our government to beware of the communist regime's sly deception and to not fall into their trap of closed-door talks or self-censorship to appease this oppressor.”
Zhou said any talk on human rights needs to be public, especially when it comes to the persecution of Falun Gong.
Maggie Wenzhuo Hou with the China Democracy Party highlighted a list of some of the most disturbing and common human rights abuses in China today.
In addition to late-term forced abortions, slave labour, and mass incidents of tainted products including food and milk, Hou talked about the widespread use of torture within China’s borders.
“Torture-induced deaths are pervasive, but governmental cover-up is even more systematic. Torture and death happen frequently in detention centres, prisons and even in black jails. [Editors note: black jails are unofficial secretive prisons]. But when cases are exposed, the government gives all types of bizarre excuses.”
Hou listed some of the oddest officially-listed causes of death, including that prisoners died while dreaming, washing their face, or playing hide-and-seek.
