Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Edmonton is very far from Beijing.

But for local devotees of Falun Gong, the quasi-religious movement that's swept up millions of mainland Chinese over the last decade, very far may not be far enough.

At one time hugely popular in China, Falun Gong ?a mix of slow-motion exercise, meditation and a philosophy that borrows heavily from Taoism and Buddhism - was declared a threat to public order by the Chinese government in 1999.

The Communist regime began persecuting and jailing Falun Gong practitioners. KunLun Zhang, a Chinese-Canadian, told an Ottawa press conference last week he was held in a Chinese prison for several months and tortured by police in an effort to force him to renounce Falun Gong.

Here in Edmonton, the environment is a lot more welcoming.

But local practitioners say they've experienced ongoing friction with the Chinese community.

"We think there's some pressure coming from the Chinese consular officials into the Chinese community here," said Huixia Chen, a recent immigrant from southern China and a Falun Gong devotee.

Chen cites a recent run-in with the Edmonton Chinatown Multicultural Centre, an agency that promotes Chinese culture in Edmonton.

Just last weekend, the centre staged its Chinese new year celebration at the AgriCom, an annual bazaar of kiosks run by local Chinese merchants and cultural groups. Falun Gong tried to book a table. They were turned down.

"They told us there weren't enough tables," said Tom Ozimek, another local practitioner. "One of our members called to book a table under his own name, and he was told they had 25 left.

"So we called their bluff. They told us they'd made some sort of agreement with some other organization for exclusive rights to the (bazaar).

"But when we went there, we found several Buddhist and yogic groups with tables set up. It wasn't 'exclusive' at all."

The Edmonton Chinatown Multicultural Centre was referring all questions about Falun Gong to its lawyer, Daniel Chow, yesterday.

Chow said a similar Edmonton-based meditation group had an "exclusivity" agreement with the centre, and wasn't keen on sharing the spotlight with Falun Gong. "Their grand master was coming all the way from Taiwan for the event," he said.

In the parking lot outside the bazaar, meanwhile, Ozimek said he met three Chinese men in suits in the parking lot, with a stack of "professionally produced" anti-Falun Gong pamphlets in the trunk of their black Mercedes.

"Sure looked like an embassy vehicle to me," he said. "The pamphlets said the most slanderous things. Like Falun Gong was responsible for people in China disembowelling themselves, setting themselves on fire.

"All lies. They blame these things on Falun Gong and it's totally groundless."

It pales in comparison to the pressure Kai Liu claims he's under. He's Falun Gong's spokesman in Calgary, and he held a press conference yesterday accusing Chinese security agents of harassing him and his family.

"My family in China is frightened, they tell me not to call them. I believe the government has threatened them," he said.

"My father-in-law has disowned me and my wife because we would not leave Falun Gong. They are breaking up my family. This isn't supposed to happen in Canada."

Local practitioners of Falun Gong believe Chinese consular officials in Canada are spreading lies about the organization in the city's Chinese community.