Kevin Duan would give anything to hear his mother's voice, but he can't.

She disappeared last week after being interrogated by Chinese authorities about her son's [spiritual] practices.

As he waved a "rescue my mother" sign outside the Calgary Chinese consulate Monday, Duan prayed she's safe.

Last Thursday, the Calgary Falun Gong practitioner spoke out at an Edmonton press conference against the Chinese government's persecution of his [belief]. He described 15 months of beatings, torture and brainwashing endured at a forced labour camp in 2000 because he refused to recant his beliefs.

Later that day his mother, Liu Yueyu, was kidnapped by authorities in China's Guangdong province, he said. She spent four hours answering questions about her son before being released.

With dozens of Falun Gong practitioners tortured and killed in recent years, Yueyu feared for her life. She went into hiding and no one has heard from her since.

"She's in shock, in the horror," Duan's wife, Sophia Wang, translated on his behalf as a dozen protesters waved signs or sat cross-legged meditating on the sidewalk outside the Chinese consulate.

"She was going shopping with her granddaughter when the police kidnapped her on the way home," said Wang. "They just took her."

Duan thinks his mother was targeted in an effort to silence him and fears his sister will be next. He's been outspoken in his calls for the Canadian government to deny entry to Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong province, based on human rights abuses committed under his authority, and plans to file a lawsuit against the governor. Huahua is to be part of a Chinese delegation to Vancouver next week.

"This did not happen by chance," Wang said. "What is happening to his family is a crackdown by the Guangdong government. He will not yield to it."

[...]
"We are very concerned about Liu Yueyu's safety," said Xun Li, president of the Falun Dafa Association. "We call upon the Canadian government and human rights organizations to monitor and protect her safety.

"Guangdong is reported to be one of the provinces with the highest number of torture and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners. We have confirmed information of at least 97 deaths-by-torture of practitioners in police custody."

[...]
Despite the danger to his family, Duan remains firm in his fight against human rights abuses.

"He hopes his mother can be safe and be strong and not give in to the horror," Wang said.