(Clearwisdom.net) On October 10, 2003, Falun Gong practitioners in Victoria, B.C., Canada held a press conference in front of the British Columbia Legislative Building kicking off the Drive Across Canada for Justice van tour.

According to a tour member and Western practitioner, the purpose of this drive is to inform the public about the lawsuits filed by certain Falun Gong practitioners in several countries against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Jiang is responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong. In the meantime, they will also introduce the beneficial mind and body exercises of Falun Gong to Canadian people.

The three-person team will start from Victoria. They will stop in more than 50 cities before arriving in Quebec City. The trip will last one month. The practitioners will attempt contacts with local governments of all the municipalities they travel through and also try and make contact with local non-governmental organizations and Chinese communities.

Background information: In July 2001, Falun Gong practitioners in several countries had launched SOS Van Tours to urgently rescue Falun Gong practitioners in China. These included the 16,000 km tour in Australia, the 7,500 km tour from Montreal, the San Francisco-Washington, D.C. tour, the Los Angeles-Washington, D.C. tour, the 3,194 km tour in England and the Canadian New Brunswick -- Quebec SOS Tour.

A Chinese Falun Gong practitioner explained the difference between the van tours two years ago and now, "The tours two years ago represented the appeal of overseas practitioners for their fellow practitioners in China. Today, thanks to Falun Gong practitioners' relentless truth clarification, more and more people realized the evil nature of the persecution of Falun Gong. People realized that the persecution of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is aimed against all good people in the world. They know that unless Jiang Zemin, the chief evildoer behind the persecution is brought to justice, the persecution cannot end.

This van tour is part of the activities taking place as one of the efforts under the umbrella group Global Coalition to Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice."