Toronto Star Online: Falun Dafa protester released by China

RELIEVED: Orysia McCabe, mother of Falun Dafa follower Zenon Dolnyckyj, speaks to the media after her son was briefly detained. Tannis Toohey/TORONTO STAR

Nov. 22, 2001

Zenon Dolnyckyj, a Toronto Falun Dafa follower who was arrested in Tiananmen Square, was winging his way back home last night.

His mother Orysia McCabe said her 23-year-old son was released after being held in custody in Beijing overnight and put on a plane bound for Canada. McCabe said a Canadian consulate official in China saw Dolnyckyj before he left and said her son looked tired, but seemed fine.

Dolnyckyj was part of a group of three dozen western Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) practitioners from 10 countries who were dragged off after they unfurled a banner in support of the movement.

The practice of Falun Dafa is banned in China and those who adhere to it are harshly punished.

Joel Chipkar, a 33-year-old Toronto follower, went to Beijing to secretly videotape the peaceful protest.

"The police were very fierce, very forceful," he said at a press conference yesterday after arriving back in Toronto.

Chipkar said the protesters realized they were risking arrest, but felt strongly about spreading the message to average Chinese citizens that Falun Dafa is not demonized outside China.

By last night, little more than 24 hours after they chanted, sat cross-legged and unveiled the banner in Tiananmen Square, all the protesters had been forced to leave the country,[...].

[...] The group says more than 300 practitioners have died from torture and abuse in custody since China's [party's name omitted] leaders outlawed the movement in July, 1999. Thousands of followers have been imprisoned.

Falun Dafa said the Tiananmen Square demonstrators also included Australians, French, Germans, Irish, Israelis, Swedes, Swiss, Britons and Americans.

Falun Dafa attracted members in the late 1990s with a combination of slow-motion exercises and [...] the teachings of its founder, Li Hongzhi.

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