Calgary Herald
Friday, February 15, 2002
Ran Rintoul
A Calgary man is one of the six Canadians likely among more than 40 western Falun Gong practitioners arrested in Beijing Thursday.
Dan Rintoul, 23, travelled to Beijing as part of an international caravan organized on the Internet.
The protesters, who travelled separately to China's capital city, were to meet in Tiananmen Square and wave banners, said Ian Oliver, a Calgary practitioner.
Oliver said he alerted authorities when Rintoul, along with 28-year-old Tom Ozimek of Edmonton, failed to call home at a predetermined time.
Rintoul's mother, M.J. Rintoul, heard the news in a phone call from Oliver early Thursday.
"I'm worried, but I don't think (the authorities are) going to do anything to him," she said. "They'll be sending him home soon, I hope.
"If he can save one person's life, then he did what he set out to do."
The other Canadians thought to be detained are Victoria teacher Sophia Bronwen Palfrey and Andrea Dawn Hayley of Vancouver, as well as Adrian Sturdza and Dave Thompkins of Toronto.
David Robinson, a Vancouver Falun Gong practitioner, said he spoke with Palfrey on a cellphone as she attempted to make her way to the square.
"At that time she had five people following her and she was trying to make it to where they were going to do the protest," he said. "She sounded really worried."
Before departing to Beijing, Rintoul had left a note for his family and local practitioners to explain why he was making the trip.
"I have fully considered the possible consequences of peacefully appealing in China at a time when the persecution has claimed over 2,000 lives," Rintoul wrote.
"As a nation dedicated to global peacekeeping, we Canadians consider ourselves . . . people who cannot simply stand by and be silent while the rape, torture and murder of untold numbers of innocent, kind-hearted people is happening."
The Falun Gong spiritual movement was banned by China's Communist government in 1999 as a threat to public safety and the regime's rule.
The movement has attracted tens of millions of followers with its slow-motion exercises and mix of traditional Chinese beliefs and the teachings of its founder, a former clerk named Li Hongzhi.
Falun Gong supporters abroad have claimed 358 practitioners have been killed while in captivity, but Chinese authorities have denied mistreating detainees.
[...]
New York-based Falun Gong activists said as many as 100 followers from western countries had gone to China to demonstrate.
"The Government of Canada is aware of the detention of foreigners in China for demonstrating in Tiananmen Square for Falun Gong beliefs, and we understand there are Canadians in the group," said Marie-Christine Lilkoff, a spokeswoman for the federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
"The Canadian Embassy is in touch with the Chinese authorities. We're providing families with consular assistance." Lilkoff would not comment on the number of people detained nor their names.
Family members wanting consular assistance in this matter can call the Department of Foreign Affairs at 1-800-267-6788.
http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=5ABCB2EA-1A06-4F6B-848B-D0D4476B4E30
All content published on this website is copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
