Watching Michael Wang's graceful hand gestures as he meditated beside a fountain in Memorial Park yesterday, it was hard to imagine any government feeling threatened.

But in the last two years, more than 250 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in China, according to a trio of followers from B.C. who stopped in Winnipeg yesterday on a cross-country tour.

After several mass murders this summer, Andrea Hayley is convinced that the Chinese government is planning genocide.

"We just feel the situation is urgent," she said. "Innocent people are being persecuted simply because of their beliefs."

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice designed to achieve physical and mental well-being through the pursuit of truth, compassion and tolerance. Hayley estimated the movement has gathered 100 million followers in more than 40 countries since it went public in 1992.

The Chinese government, officially atheist and threatened by the movement's mass appeal, tries to discredit it as a[term omitted].

"Falun Gong has absolutely no political interest," Hayley said.

[...] Unlike other countries, Canada has not passed an official resolution demanding unconditional release of imprisoned Falun Gong members and a lifting of the Chinese government's ban on the movement.

[...] The trio from B.C. is driving and camping across the country to raise awareness of the persecution and build public support. [...]

She [Hayley] started practising Falun Gong 16 months ago after seeing an ad for free sessions in Victoria.

Wang's mother, a physician, introduced him to the movement in China before he moved to Vancouver to study business administration at Capilano College. He said one of his relatives was taken in for questioning by the police.

Winnipeg has a relatively new group of Falun Gong practitioners, who meet Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. in Assiniboine Park by the duck pond.

More information on Falun Gong is available on the Internet at www.falundafa.org