When I said good-bye to David on Feb 6, 2022 ending our phone call, I had no idea that was to be our last goodbye. David Kilgour passed away on April 5, the Chinese Ching-Ming Memorial Day. He will be remembered by us all.

I have known David for 20 years, most of my life in Canada . He stood shoulder to shoulder with us to fight for Falun Gong issues in China. He was a warrior, a mentor and a friend.

The first time I met David was in March 2002 in Ottawa. He was the Asia Pacific Secretary of State. We went to the hill to have a peaceful vigil to appeal to the Canadian Government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China. He walked out of his office and talked to our group. He was extremely shocked to see we were having a peaceful demonstration on the lawn during an extremely freezing cold day. There had previously never been any other human rights group that had ever held a vigil throughout the whole night. From that day on, he became very vocal on the issue of Falun Gong.

In 2007, the Chinese defector Chen Yonglin visited Canada. Chen, a Consul Official with the Chinese consulate in Sydney, defected to Australia in 2005. We hosted him in Toronto for a media interview. I accompanied him to Ottawa. David met Chen and introduced him to someone really important in Canada’s Intelligent Agency. Chen exposed the Chinese Government’s interference within the Canadian Government and the infiltratation within the Chinese community.

David was granted a degree of Doctor of Divinity by Knox College (University of Toronto) in 2006. David and his wife Laura came to Toronto to accept this honour at the 2006 Convocation. After the ceremony, Danielle and I invited he and Laura for a Cantonese tea brunch. He was very excited and shared a lot of stories about his family. After the brunch, he insisted on paying for the restaurant bill. He was such a generous man.

David retired in 2006 and was one of the longest serving MPs in Canadian history. Shortly after his retirement, he came to Toronto to attend a Darfur protest. After the event, on the way to the airport, I talked to him about the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. That was the first time he had heard about the allegation. He got extremely upset. He suggested we talk to one of his alumni, a man named David Matas, who was a renowned Human Rights Lawyer. They had known each other for many years.

After he went back to Ottawa, he started a decade long journey of globally exposing this shocking crime. He and David Matas released the Kilgour-Matas Report after an in-depth investigation and interview. This report stunned the whole world. They travelled to many countries to expose this crime. We are so grateful for what David did.

I kept in contact with David and we always exchanged holiday greetings. I remember we had a Skype call a few years ago. He shared with me his presentation for a forum in Winnipeg talking about Chinese culture and language. He asked me to give him some feedback. Despite the concern from the organizer, he insisted on adding a part about Communism destroying the Chinese culture.

Later, because the organizer was under great pressure from the Chinese Consulate , they did not approve his presentation. He decided to pull out as a guest speaker. He was such a principled man. No matter how much pressure he was facing, his principle never changed. I respect him deeply for that.

2022 marks the 30th anniversary of Falun Gong’s spreading to the world. We were planning a series of interviews with all the supporters during the past 20 years. I put together a list of the interviewees. David was on the very top of the list. I called him in February and discussed how we could conduct this interview. We wanted to have a top quality production but due to the lockdown he couldn’t come to our studio in Toronto and suggested a zoom call.

I consulted our production team and we decided instead to travel to Ottawa to do the interview in early March. Because of some scheduling conflicts we had to postpone it to April. David was diagnosed with lung cancer in March which sadly progressed very quickly. By the time Laura informed us he was already in hospital in a very bad condition. He died shortly after. I’m so upset that I didn’t get to say a final goodbye or wasn’t able to tell him how much his friendship and courage meant to me!

There is a famous Chinese saying - “All men must die, but some die a more meaningful death than others”!" The legacy David left for us is always fight for justice no matter where it is.

David - you had a heart of gold. You were kind and empathetic and had great wisdom. You spoke out against injustice when others were silent. You stood up strong to the totalitarian and you are my hero. You died on the Ching Ming Festival. Every year we will celebrate your life on this very day. You will be remembered by us all.