In 2002, after spending two years in a jail cell in China, Shenli Lin got off his plane at Montreal’s Dorval airport and stepped into the national media spotlight. The man who had just endured two years of torture and intense mental pressure for his spiritual beliefs was beaming.

“First, I want to express my gratitude to the Canadian government and people for your help in my rescue,” were among his first words as cameras rolled.

“I hope you continue in your efforts to stop the persecution in China.”

Shenli was among tens of millions of Chinese citizens who was declared a criminal in 1999 by virtue of his beliefs in a traditional spiritual discipline called Falun Dafa (or Falun Gong). China’s former president had decided in 1999 that the peaceful practice- which espoused the values of Truth, Benevolence and Tolerance and included a meditation regimen- had become too popular in his atheist state, and he gave authority to the security forces to use any means necessary to eradicate Falun Gong.

Shenli and his Canadian wife had their phones tapped, were continually interrogated by police, and saw their beliefs slandered in the state-run media. In 1999, the couple decided to go to Beijing to the government’s appeal office—a last resort for those who feel they’d been wronged. Shenli was arrested, and his wife was deported back to Canada.

When she returned to Canada, his wife Jinyu launched a campaign to free her husband who had been detained without trial. Thousands of Canadians sent letters and signed petitions to free her Shenli.

In February, 2002, with the help of now Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and countless others, Shenli was reunited in Canada with his wife. Later that year, on October 24th, Canadian parliament unanimously passed a resolution to urge the Canadian Prime Minister to request that China release the 13 other Falun Gong practitioners being detained unlawfully in China who have family ties in Canada.

But while Shenli was being hailed as a “hero of Human Rights” by Minister Cotler, the fight wasn’t over; hundreds of thousands of people like Shenli still being tortured for their belief in Falun Gong. One of them was Shenli’s brother, Mingli Lin.

This Wednesday in Parliament, MP Scott Reid made a highly emotional plea to have Mingli given a special ministerial permit to allowed him to come to Canada to be re-united with his family, and asked why Mingli had been repeatedly denied a VISA to come to Canada.

“This is a man who has been tortured in China when he was in prison. Nobody doubts the fact of his case, nobody doubts the torture… nobody doubts that he is under intimidation by the Chinese authorities today, nobody doubts that if a ministerial permit were issued on compassionate grounds… he would be a model citizen. Nobody doubts any of this,” said Reid.

Like Shenli, Mingli went to Beijing in 1999 to tell his government about Falun Gong, about how it had benefited him and his family and how it was wrong to outlaw the practice. For his efforts, he was arrested and illegally detained in Shanghai.

After being released, Mingli was again taken away to attend forced brainwashing classes and detained for two months. Later, because he still didn’t denounce the practice, he was sentenced to two years of forced labor. During that time, his esophagus was ruptured when police officers administered force-feeding.

Roy Cullen, parliamentary secretary to the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness spoke to Reid’s concerns. While he refrained from addressing individual cases, he assured the house that ministerial permits were granted based on the merit of a case.

Reid responded that “Mingli Lin should be allowed to…join his family here on these shores as parliament unanimously decided he should be allowed. He should be allowed to do this, Madam speaker, for the compassionate reasons that are the foundation of ministerial permits”.

In 2002, Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler called the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong the “criminalization of innocence” as he stood side by side with Shenli Lin, whom his government had helped free.

“I would hope that the release of Shenli Lin will be the beginning of a reversal by the Chinese authorities of this policy and practice of prosecution and persecution,” said Cotler.

But to this day, the persecution continues.

On the cold Wednesday night outside Parliament Hill, Scott Reid addressed a small crowd of Falun Gong practitioners meditating and appealing in the cold.

“It’s our obligation to make sure that Canadians don’t forget about Mingli Lin.”