Xref: utzoo tor.general:979 ut.general:583 ont.general:934 soc.culture.china:19045
Newsgroups: tor.general,ut.general,ont.general,soc.culture.china
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!russell.csri!songw
From: songw@csri.toronto.edu (Wenyi Song)
Subject: Dr. John C. Polanyi Supports Students in China
Message-ID: <1989Jun10.231959.12329@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Summary: his speech during a commemorative service
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
Distribution: world


	Nobel laureate, Dr. John C. Polanyi, a professor at the University
of Toronto, made a speech during the commemorative service for martyrs of
democracy in China, on Saturday June 10, at the Nathan Phillips Square in
front of Toronto's City Hall.

**************************************************************************
			Commemorative Service
	          for Martyrs of Democracy in China

			   John C. Polanyi

	I am deeply honoured to be allowed to address you today.

	This assembly constitutes a moving reminder of a still larger crowd
that gathered recently in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China.

	The Tiananmen demonstration began on May 13th when a few thousand
brave university students organised a hunger-strike in front of the Great
Hall of the People. Their demands were elementary. They wanted a government
that consulted the people; a government that respected laws and individual
human rights.

	With each day that passed, following May 13th, the crowd in Tiananmen
Square grew in numbers and broadened in composition. Professors followed
their students, journalists became part of the event on which they were
reporting, the poor of the city moved in. However, up to this point the
numbers in the Square remained fewer than we are today.

	All of this changed with the arrival of large groups of workers
under the banners of their trades.

	At this point only the size of the Square, the largest in the
world, could limit the number of demonstrators. The crowd grew to a
million.

	It must have seemed as if every group in the nation was there ..
with the single exception of the Government of China.

	The government was invisible for three weeks, and it was silent.
It could, one must suppose, find nothing persuasive to say in its own
defence.

	On Sunday June 4th, in the early hours of the morning, the Govern-
ment found its voice. it turned its guns on the people in the Square, and
sent speeding vehicles to crush them indiscriminately to death. Thousands
perished, tens of thousands were injured.

	With this appalling action the People's Government declared, before
the world, that it ultimately ruled through terror.

	You and I are here today because it is our right to assemble in
peace, and consequently our duty, on such an occasion as this, to do so.

	The students in Tiananmen Square were your brothers and sisters,
my students and children. Their supporters were all of us. We recognise
them and salute them.

	As students they were brave as the young can be brave, intolerant
of lies, impatient with those who say that things cannot be changed, and
determined that human dignity be defended.

	They wished only to be heard. In the company of others around
the world, we attest to the fact that they are indeed heard.

	We mourn these people of China, but with the knowledge that they
have won a great victory.

	The Government of the People's Republic can have no doubt now
that the world is watching. This matters deeply to them.

	For let us not forget, in our legitimate rage, that the same
great civilization that produced the martyrs of Tiananmen Square produced
the present leadership of China. They understand full well what we are
saying.

	Seldom in the course of history have so many tyrannies in different
lands stood so clearly on the brink of defeat at the hands of those they
seek to tyrannise. It is a great moment.

	Together we may see to it that this is the century that buries
the tyrants. There could be no more magnificent memorial to the martyrs
of Tiananmen Square.