Monday, February 18, 2002

Dan Rintoul's spiritual search included taking up martial arts and consulting a psychic who shed light on his "spirit group" within.

But the Calgarian said his quest for answers came to an end 11 months ago after he called a telephone number on a Falun Gong pamphlet handed to him at a C-Train station.

Rintoul, 23, claims his chronic knee problems and astigmatism "virtually disappeared" because of Falun Gong's "mind/body/spirit cultivation."

It will take a bit more, he said Sunday, to recover from injuries sustained in Beijing last week after a "brutally violent arrest" and 22-hour detention before being booted out of China.

The burly, unemployed Falun Gong practitioner was arrested in Tiananmen Square on Thursday after trying to unfurl a banner for the spiritual practice [...].

Rintoul said he repeatedly yelled "Falun Gong Hao" (Falun Gong is good) as he was shoved into a police van.

"I didn't scream out to antagonize them. I didn't go there to cause any social disturbance. The propaganda in China tells people Falun Dafa is dead . . . . By calling out 'Falun Dafa Hao,' this is a westerner in Tiananmen Square saying it is good," he said.

Devout Falun Gong follower Ian Oliver said Rintoul wasn't sent into a hostile situation by the 30 or so [...]practitioners in Calgary.

"He wasn't sent there. It was entirely of his own choosing. I strongly support him," said Oliver, who said he didn't know Rintoul was Beijing-bound until the day before he left.

[...]

Edmonton practitioner Tom Ozimek, 28, was also arrested and kicked out of the country, he said.

"We actually accomplished quite a great deal," said Rintoul, who believes word of the protest will "spread like a bonfire throughout all of China.

"I went to China . . . to expose the lies that their government is telling them."

[...]

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