After Connie Chipkar's youngest son died from leukemia at nine years of age, the mother of four entered a 20-year spiral of depression.
Her life changed four years ago when she discovered the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
"I have never seen her so peaceful as she has been for the past four years," said son Joel, also a follower of Falun Gong for the past three years.
The 61-year-old woman, from Mississauga, was arrested today after becoming the latest in a series of westerners who took the movement's message to the heart of China's capital.
In the middle of Tiananmen Square, she sported a sash that read: ''Falun Gong" and "SOS."
Standing in the huge square while curious Chinese tourists watched, The Associated Press reported she sang and held out her arms before a uniformed officer and others in civilian clothes loaded her into a police van that drove her away.
The protest lasted only a few minutes.
A spokesperson for Canada's Foreign Affairs department confirmed that Chipkar had been detained. "Yes, we've been informed of the possible detention of Mrs. Chipkar," said Reynald Doiron.
"We are dealing with the Chinese authorities."
Joel Chipkar said Canada's Foreign Affairs department called him at around 9 a.m. to confirm that his mother had been detained by the Chinese.
He made a similar journey in November and filmed the arrest of Zenon Dolnyckyj, 23, of Toronto, and almost three dozen westerners, who were later expelled.
Even before he got the call from federal officials, Joel suspected his mother had been arrested when she failed to call as scheduled Tuesday evening.
"There are very few who do it and walk away."
He said his mom arrived in China on Tuesday with the goal of informing Chinese citizens that their government was lying to them about the spiritual movement that is practised around the world.
Police have detained thousands of Chinese followers, often beating and kicking them, on Tiananmen Square since the government outlawed Falun Gong in July 1999 as a threat to society and the Communist Party's grip on power.
Connie Chipkar's protest today's fell on the first anniversary of a fiery group suicide attempt on the square that Chinese authorities blamed on Falun Gong.
On Jan. 23, 2001, five people doused themselves in gasoline and set themselves on fire. One woman died on the spot and her 12-year-old daughter died later in hospital.
State media have been running prominent reports this week on the suicide attempt in a renewed effort to discredit Falun Gong.
National television and newspapers carried interviews with the badly scarred survivors, who were quoted denouncing Falun Gong. The newspaper Beijing Youth Daily quoted from what it said was an open letter from them to Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi accusing him of misleading them.
"You were leading us to embark on a road against society, against the government and against humanity," the letter was quoted as saying.
Li, a former Chinese government clerk, lives in the United States.
Most protests against the ban on Falun Gong have been by Chinese members of the sect.
But in recent months, there have also been scattered protests by foreign supporters.
The government says Falun Gong is a cult and blames it for more than 1,600 deaths, mostly followers it claims were driven insane or to murder, or encouraged to use meditation instead of medicine to treat illness.
Falun Gong accuses Chinese authorities of torturing and mistreating detainees. It says 350 have been killed, 500 sentenced to prison, more than 1,000 sent to mental hospitals and 20,000 detained in labour camps.