National Post: Canadian Falun Gong Protester Now Safe

March 30, 2002

OTTAWA - A Canadian woman has returned safely to Canada after apparently being arrested in Beijing for protesting the Chinese ban on the Falun Gong meditation group.

Christine Loftus of Barrie, Ont., and her American boyfriend, Jason Pomerleau, were seized by several Chinese officers on Thursday outside a marketplace, a New York-based organization of Falun Gong supporters said.

Ms. Loftus's family received word late yesterday she had arrived in Vancouver and was en route to Ontario. There was no immediate information on Mr. Pomerleau's whereabouts.

Ms. Loftus, 22, and Mr. Pomerleau, 25, of Boston, had traveled to Beijing to raise awareness about the government's crackdown on Falun Gong, a practice of meditation and exercises with roots in traditional Chinese culture.

In July, 1999, the Communist government outlawed the practice, also known as Falun Dafa, which had attracted millions of practitioners.

Supporters say thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained and hundreds killed. China denies harming practitioners.

Fifteen Chinese police officers hauled Loftus and Pomerleau from a busy Beijing street, said the Falun Dafa Information Center, which learned of the arrest from an eyewitness who posted a photo and an account of the incident on the Internet.

The pair were reportedly pulled into a basement behind a nearby building while security officers dispersed onlookers.

Family members began to worry when they had not heard from Loftus, a second-year student majoring in child and youth studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. They then came across information about the arrest on the Internet.

"It is difficult," her mother Mary said earlier yesterday from Barrie. "I'm very anxious to hear that she's OK."

Jason Loftus, the twin brother of Ms. Loftus, said his family became concerned when she failed to make her regular call to check in with relatives.

"She had been calling Canada every 12 hours and she was quite regimented about making that call," he said yesterday. "Because the nature of what she was doing was dangerous, she was serious about making those calls to us."

Mr. Loftus knows first-hand the perils of protesting the Chinese position on Falun Gong, having been arrested last February for staging a demonstration in Tiananmen Square.

"I was detained for 27 hours, in which time I was punched, choked -- I had my hair pulled and my arm twisted," the civil engineering student said from Toronto. "I was denied water for a day, and I was kept in a filthy prison cell."

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said inquiries by Canadian officials in Beijing had yielded no information from Chinese authorities about Ms. Loftus, who arrived in China early this week.

Mr. Pomerleau's younger brother, Daniel, who returned to the United States from China yesterday, told of being detained and beaten by authorities after being arrested Monday while handing out flyers about Falun Gong. Daniel, 20, was expelled from the country Wednesday.

Ms. Loftus and Jason Pomerleau, who met at a 1999 Falun Gong conference in Toronto, were also distributing pamphlets about the practice and the Chinese government's response.

In an article for the Brock Press student newspaper, Ms. Loftus wrote that despite pressure from the government, Chinese practitioners of Falun Gong maintained their belief in the practice. "Through their own experiences, they have come to understand how precious and true these principles are to their lives."

Mr. Pomerleau, employed by a Boston medical centre, taught at the China University of Geosciences in Beijing for a year, returning to the United States in 2000.

In a recent statement released by Falun Gong practitioners in Boston, Mr. Pomerleau said he missed his Chinese associates. "Because of the persecution, they were forced to leave their schools, jobs and homes, and because our e-mail messages are blocked, I have lost contact with them."

Ms. Loftus and her brother took up Falun Gong after attending a Barrie health show four years ago. Their mother also became intrigued and adopted the practice.

But Mary Loftus was wary of her daughter's travel plans. "I tried to talk her out of it," she said. "I believe in the cause, I just think going to China's a bit risky."

Christine Loftus wrote her mother a letter on the plane to Vancouver, the first leg of the trip to Beijing, explaining her desire to promote awareness of Falun Gong in China.

"She's very dedicated, she wants to make a difference," Mary Loftus said.

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