Falun Gong is freely practiced in more than 50 countries around the world, but relentlessly persecuted in China. The peaceful courage of practitioners there has shocked their oppressors and moved the people of the world. While China continues to block all information, FGMtv brings you the stories you may not hear anywhere else.

Hello, and welcome to FGMtv on January 29^th , 2002.

I’m Susan Mitchell.

Our top story this week:

· A special report about Connie Chipkar, the gentle mother from Mississauga near Toronto, who walked through 14 European countries and then travelled to Tiananmen Square – just to tell people that Falun Gong is good.

In this week's update from China:

· A rare photo report about another mother, Chi Chunxia now in critical condition after a horrendous interrogation by police

and finally…

· Shenli Lin is released from Dafeng labour camp after 700 days. We have excerpts from his wife's press conference in Montreal

Just two months after her son Joel Chipkar filmed his 35 fellow practitioners and their banner in Tiananmen Square, Connie Chipkar walked through the Square singing "Falun Dafa is good". The small sash she had worn as she journeyed on foot through 14 European countries was soon ripped off her jacket by plain clothes police and Connie was marched unceremoniously into a police van and detained. But… let's hear her tell her own story as she arrives at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

The next day, Connie spoke at a news conference in downtown Toronto.

Connie was not physically mistreated by police, but in another part of China, just three weeks before Connie arrived there, another much younger mother suffered greatly.

On the night of January 3^rd, Meng and Du from Mishan City Political and Security Office in Heilongjiang Province and some hired thugs rushed, without a warrant, into the home of Falun Dafa practitioner Chi Chunxia where she lived with her 2-year-old child and husband Xue Yanrong. After ransacking the house, the family was forced to go to the office where they were brutally interrogated. During this time, Mrs. Chi was forced to jump from a 4^th floor window. She landed on a 2^nd floor balcony and lost consciousness. Officials left her there overnight. By the time they took her to hospital the next afternoon, her face, feet and hands were severely frostbitten, her cranial blood vessels had ruptured and doctors had to cut her trachea to supply her with oxygen.

The police forced her family members to bear all the medical expenses.

One month later, her husband, Xue Yanrong, is still being illegally detained and their two-year-old has had to be sent to Xue's brother and sister-in-law to be taken care of.

Many people ask why Connie and other practitioners would risk going to Tiananmen Square. Falun Dafa IS good. How can we not speak out against injustice to innocent and good people like Chi Chunxia?

and finally… words from Jinyu at her press conference in Montreal today

· On January 23, 2002, I heard my husband Shenli’s voice when I called my family in Shanghai, China. It was wonderful that Shenli had been released after 700 days from Dafeng labour camp and had returned home.

· Shenli is home and has maintained his firm belief and his dignity. He carries with him the righteousness of a Falun Dafa disciple. I am proud of him. I feel so joyful and happy. As your wife and your co-practitioner, I sincerely salute you, Shenli.

· The good news is spreading quickly. So many kind Canadian people have worked hard for his freedom. Over the last two years, Amnesty International launched and twice re-launched a nation-wide letter-writing campaign to appeal for Shenli’s release. Over the last two years, I received over 50 letters from MPs, Senators, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and over 100 letters from professors. They all expressed their sympathy, concern and support. Over the last two years, countless just reports from the media made the ordeal of our family known to the Canadian people. My special thanks go to Mr. Irwin Cotler, (my lawyer), who has been the best support anybody could possibly get when facing such kind of misery.

Thanks for watching FGMTV, dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.