When Michael Prue first learned about the persecution campaign against Falun Gong adherents in China soon after it was launched 24 years ago, he felt he should help any way he could.
Prue, now the mayor of Amherstburg in Ontario, has been a strong advocate for Falun Gong ever since.
“[The launch of the persecution] had only just made the newspapers, and they were in my office,” Prue told The Epoch Times, referring to local Falun Gong adherents who had visited him at his office at Toronto City Hall when he was a city councillor.
“God bless them. They were not letting this pass by, and I was there to listen to them. And what I said, I still hold true.”
After the Chinese regime launched its far-reaching persecution campaign against Falun Gong adherents in July 1999, adherents in the Western world began working to raise awareness of the situation, including approaching officials and requesting their support.
That’s how Prue learned more about the persecution, which includes the arbitrary incarceration, torture, brainwashing, and sexual abuse of Falun Gong adherents. In 2006, news emerged that imprisoned adherents were being killed for their organs to supply China’s lucrative transplant industry.
“When they talked to me at first, it was almost impossible to believe. I did believe them, but it was almost impossible that such a thing could transpire,” Prue said of the Falun Gong practitioners’ visit to his office in August 1999.
“It was almost impossible that a national government would take such a group and fear it so much, and so I promised to help in any way I could. And here we are 25 years later, I’m still speaking out against it because it is wrong. It is wrong.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions that involves meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance. After it was introduced in China on May 13, 1992, it grew rapidly largely due to its health benefits, and by 1999 had an estimated 70 million to 100 million adherents.
Fearing Falun Gong’s immense popularity, the Chinese Communist Party initiated the persecution campaign, which still continues today.
Meanwhile, the practice also spread to many countries overseas; it was first introduced in the Greater Toronto Area by Canadians of Chinese descent in 1995.
Prue said he often used to see Falun Gong practitioners on the streets of Toronto, at city hall in downtown, and at Queen’s Park, the site of the Ontario legislative building where he served as an MPP for 14 years. Those outdoor gatherings to practice the Falun Gong meditative exercises and carry out awareness-raising activities have continued throughout the years.
“They are part of our fabric, fabric of Canadian life,” he said.
“You can’t go to a parade in Toronto, or Windsor, or anywhere—Falun Gong marchers will be in that parade, holding up the banner, talking about truth, compassion, and forbearance, and so everybody knows who they are.”
During the month of May each year, to mark the anniversary of World Falun Dafa Day which falls on May 13, many municipalities across North America issue some form of proclamation to acknowledge Falun Gong’s contribution to local communities. In Canada, many municipalities and cities also hold flag-raising events, including Amherstburg.
“I’m very proud to continue this tradition here in Amherstburg,” Prue said, referring to the annual celebration of Falun Dafa Day in his town, which has a population of about 23,000 people.
During the event on May 5, Prue, Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb, and several councillors learned how to do the Falun Dafa meditative exercises.
‘They Live Their Faith’
Toronto resident Carolyn Jin, a finance professional, was Prue’s first point of contact with Falun Gong.Back in 1996, Jin worked at the Beijing office of a U.S.-based global accounting firm. It was a golden time for China’s economic development, and making money was a major life objective for her peer group.
After taking up the practice of Falun Gong in Beijing in 1996, she said she began to realize the goal of her life: finding herself and inner peace. She rebalanced her view of life.
“I realized that human relations shouldn’t be based on money. When everyone was after money and power, Falun Gong was so refreshing,” she told The Epoch Times. “Falun Gong taught me to believe in goodness; we shouldn’t be afraid of losing personal gains by being a good person.”
Because of the teachings, she took on tasks at work that others avoided. And by refining her character and doing the Falun Gong slow-moving exercises, including meditation, the insomnia that had accompanied her for years due to highly competitive college and workplace environments went away.
After two years, she was one of the first Chinese employees to be dispatched to the United States. Her manager told her that he wanted to train global project lead successors and picked her as he felt she was different from many other employees.
Jin was quite encouraged; she saw this as an example of how Falun Gong’s teachings transformed her life. She worked in Washington, D.C., in 1998 and 1999 until she married a Canadian and moved to the Toronto area.
Being an introvert, Jin used to avoid speaking in public, but after the persecution of her fellow practitioners in China began, she overcame that obstacle and became involved in reaching out to politicians. She went on to host many events over the years, including the flag ceremony in Amherstburg.
She credited her practice during her speech: “I found a deeply rewarding spiritual path. It uplifted my wisdom and unlocked my potential. I found myself being able to achieve a lot of goals. I became happier, smarter, and full of confidence.”
Jin and Prue have known each other for 25 years.
“Carolyn is a gentle, wonderful person. She cautions me sometimes when I get angry about what is happening in China, about the hatred and the put-downs, and the jailings and the harvesting of organs and all that,” Prue said.
“‘Falun Gong is more than that,’ she brings me back. ‘It is a spiritual message that 100 million people worldwide embrace, and we need to concentrate on that as well.’ So she brings me back to that. I didn’t show the same kind of compassion and forbearance that she does. That’s wonderful—I see that right through her and every single person of that movement.”
“God bless them,” said Prue. “They live their faith.”
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