C-News: Falun Gong vigil in T.O., Canuck prof jailed by Chinese

Rows of Falun Gong supporters sat on the ground in front Toronto's Chinese consulate last night demanding the release of a Canadian professor jailed in China.

"Our message here today is to the government of China," said Jason Loftus, an organizer of the 100-person vigil and Falun Gong practitioner.

Falun Gong is believed to keep the body and mind healthy through meditation and various exercises.

"We want them to release and stop the persecution of Falun Gong, particularly Mr. Zhang," Loftus said outside the consulate on St. George St.

Kunlun Zhang, was sentenced to three years in a forced-labour camp after his July arrest for practising Falun Gong in a public park.

NATIONAL ATTENTION

The case has received national attention, prompting MP Irwin Cotler, a human-rights lawyer, to defend Zhang.

Zhang, a former McGill arts professor, returned to China in 1996 with his wife to care for his mother-in-law after living in Canada for seven years.

The practice of Falun Gong, was banned in China in 1999 and deemed a threat to the Communist Party after it was found 100 million Chinese use the methods.

'PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE'

Cotler called Zhang's plight "such a classic case of a prisoner of conscience it just leaps out at you" in a Parliament Hill news conference Thursday.

Zhang's daughter Lingdi, a student at the University of Ottawa, has also joined the charge to release her father but has only had the opportunity to speak to her mother, Shamei, who remains in China.

"They reconnected her phone two weeks ago so I can talk to her. She has people watching her and monitoring her phone line," said Lingdi.

Natalie Dube, a foreign affairs department spokesman, said the department has been rebuffed by China in its diplomatic efforts to visit Zhang in detention.

"We are requesting through consular access (to see Mr. Zhang). As of Friday there has been no positive response.

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