August 30, 2001

On a warm Wednesday afternoon in Thunder Bay's Paterson Park, three Falun Gong practitioners from British Columbia pulled out sitting mats and went through the forms of their meditative spiritual exercise.

Meant to "cultivate" one's heart and mind though the study of the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, Falun Gong has seen an explosion in popularity. A 1999 Chinese government survey shows China had amassed 70 million followers in less than seven years.

Partly because of this, the Chinese government issued a crackdown on its practice, said Andrea Hayley, 26, one of the three mediation exercise participants.

The motions the group in the park went through yesterday, Hayley said, could have landed them in jail or seen them tortured in China.

She said that in the last two years, tens of thousands of people have been persecuted, including Canadian Shenli Lin, who has been inside a Chinese labour camp for more than 18 months.

The group's visit to Thunder Bay yesterday was a stop on the 11,000-kilometre western leg of a four-team Canadian tour, SOS! Urgent: Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China.

To this end, the group in Thunder Bay held news conferences, handed out pamphlets to passersby and went through the exercises for Falun Gong in two city parks.

Hoping to convince the Canadian government to send a rescue team to China to free jailed practitioners, Hayley said they have also written letters to mayors and members of Parliament during their two-month tour, which wraps up in about a week.

This tour hits home for 23-year-old Michael Wang. Upon moving to B.C. to attend university, he left his mother and other relatives at risk of being persecuted for practising Falun Gong.

"I worry they will be, just like happened to other practitioners, sentenced to jail, maybe tortured," he said.

He said he also fears his family might have given up the practice -- something Hayley said people aren't inclined to do because of its mental, spiritual and health benefits.

"Some people have been near death and they've become completely healthy through practising Falun Gong," she said.

"This is deeply rooted in people's hearts and as a result they won't give it up."

Source: http://www.chroniclejournal.com/story.shtml?id=5343