Saturday, August 11, 2001

Bob Vaillancourt Falun Gong practitioners in Canada are hoping to raise awareness of the arrest, torture and killings Falun Gong followers face in China.

The practitioners say their campaign of raising awareness will culminate in a major rally in Ottawa in mid-September.

Falun Gong is a system of self-improvement, combining slow-motion exercises with the study of the principals of truth, benevolence and forbearance.

It is the opposite of those principles that have been applied to practitioners of Falun Gong in China, where as many as 300 people have died from beatings and torture for being followers of the practice, said Gordon Yu.

Yu was in Sudbury Friday to meet with Sudbury-area MPs Diane Marleau and Ray Bonin.

He also gathered signatures on a petition calling on the federal government to demand an end to the persecution in China.

The Chinese government declared the Falun Gong illegal in 1999.

Since then, practitioners have been arrested, tortured and even killed.

The campaign of persecution took on a new dimension this year, however, said Yu, with more killings of Falun Gong followers. More people were killed in June than in all of 1999, Yu said.

That level of violence prompted an international campaign aimed at ending the persecution in China.

Canadians can help, said Yu, by writing letters to federal politicians and local newspapers, and by signing petitions.

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