September 19, 2001

Five women who are walking from Toronto to Ottawa in support of Falun Dafa passed through the Prince Edward County area on Sept. 15.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is an ancient Chinese cultivation practice that teaches people to live their lives with three principles, truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It was introduced to the general public in 1992, and since then over 100 million people from over 40 countries have learned from the practice.

However in 1999, the Chinese government began persecuting those who practiced Falun Dafa. Statistics in a Falun Dafa brochure claim that as of April 2001, at least 197 practitioners of Falun Dafa were tortured to death, while another 500 were sentenced to prison.

Although the walk did not go directly through Prince Edward County, two spokespeople for the walk spent Sept. 15 in Picton informing people of the persecution and collecting signatures on a petition.

"We're trying to let as many people know what's going on as possible. All of these people can really make a difference," said University of Toronto student Jason Loftus.

Loftus was joined in Picton by Cindy Gu, as well as Lily Wang, one of the five women who is walking from Toronto to Ottawa.

The walk began from city hall in Toronto on Sept. 7. After walking 25 to 30 kilometres per day, the walk is scheduled to end at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 27. There, the walkers will bring their message to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, in hopes he will discuss the subject with Chinese officials when he visits China next month.

The other four women walking with Wang are Cathy Hu, Danielle Zhu, Li Zhang and Yuxue Li. There are also Falun Dafa walks currently going on in other places throughout North America.

As Gu pointed out, the walk has even more meaning for Li Zhang, who came to Toronto in May after her husband was arrested in China for distributing written material about Falun Dafa.

"He was arrested by public security and he was sentenced to a three and a half year jail term. He's still in jail today," Gu said.

Gu said the Chinese government is cracking down so swiftly on practitioners of Falun Dafa because they think it threatens the communism regime. She says the government feels threatened by anything that has as many followers as Falun Dafa.

Gu and Loftus said there are things Canadians can do to support the right to practice Falun Dafa.

"Individual towns can get involved by writing to councillors and their mayor and telling them to send support. Or write to your MP or even the Prime Minister," Loftus said.

To this point, nearly 100,000 Canadians have signed the petition supporting Falun Dafa.

To find out more about the walk, visit www.sos-earthwalk.net.