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“Woman Who Dared to Challenge Bikram Yoga Event Faces Troubling Backlash From Organizer”
A Canadian yoga group is reportedly hosting a seminar later this month in Vancouver with alleged sex offender Bikram Choudhury, and an organizer suggested he could release a personal letter from a woman speaking out against the event.
Jill Lawler has started an online petition to stop Choudhury from coming to her hometown and said the idea that her alleged rapist could be a class teacher at a luxury hotel was her “worst nightmare come true”.
She alleges Choudhury groomed, abused, and sexually abused her for several years beginning in 2010. She is about to sue him in the US and says the trauma of the ordeal caused her to develop complex PTSD and an eating disorder. Her allegations against Chaudhury were not proven in court.
Lawler is “absolutely appalled” that the Canada Yoga Sports Federation is collecting payment for a planned Bikram yoga event at JW Marriott Parq Vancouver this month titled “Boss is Back.” Although the event does not mention Choudhury by name, the promotional posters feature pictures of him.
Canadayoga.org
It’s not clear if Choudhury himself will be attending the event, although the group confirmed to Daily Hive that he was invited.
The organizer of the event is threatening to release the private letter from the alleged victim of Choudhury
Things took a worrying turn when Lawler voiced her concerns to Vancouver promoters.
Canada Yoga Sports Federation executive chair Adam Chipiuk sent Lawler a photo of a private letter she wrote to Choudhury more than a decade ago. She had given the letter to a trusted friend to deliver to Choudhury at the time and has no idea how the Vancouver organizer got it.
Lawler met Choudhury at a teacher training college in Las Vegas in 2010 when she was just 18 – with special permission from Choudhury herself to attend the training three years under the legal age limit. At the conference, Choudhury allegedly called Lawler into his room for a massage and then sexually assaulted her.
“I was exhausted after being up almost 24 hours and begged him not to force me,” Lawler wrote in a blog post describing the experience.
But Lawler didn’t want to lose the community she’d found in her beloved sport, despite the alleged rape. She attended other conferences from 2010 to 2013 where the alleged Choudhury continued to sexually abuse her, and she was too scared to do anything other than freeze.
She wrote the letter after an escape attempt. In it, she expressed loving feelings toward Choudhury while feeling ostracized by her beloved yoga community. She said it’s a clear sign of trauma attachment – where the abused person seeks reassurance from their abuser.
Lawler didn’t know if Choudhury ever received the letter, and said the photo of Chipiuk was the first time it had been mentioned since she wrote it.
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In messages seen by the Daily Hive, Chipiuk hints that he could publish the letter and “let the world decide if it sees both sides of the coin.”
“I’ll wait 24 hours for your response and then contact my lawyers to see what steps to take next,” says Chipiuk.
To Lawler, the interaction felt like an attempt to threaten and silence her. She reported it to the Vancouver Police Department. The VPD has not yet responded to Daily Hive’s request for comment.
Chipiuk did not answer Daily Hive’s questions about how he got hold of the letter or why he suggested it be published. Chipiuk declined an interview request, only offering to attend a “live podcast interview.”
Chipiuk sits alongside his sister, Eva Chipiuk, on the Canada Yoga Sports Federation Board of Directors describes himself as “Advocate for Rights and Freedoms” and as advocate for Tamara Lich of the Freedom Convoy. Also on the board is Brad Colwell, a Vancouver-based yoga instructor, who called the sexual assault allegations against Chaudhury “water under the bridge.”
“There is no water under the bridge. Sexual assault is never water under the bridge,” Lawler told Daily Hive. “And when Adam threatened me with that letter, I felt almost as hurt as if I had been raped. It was terrible.”
Choudhury has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by several women
Choudhury rose to fame more than a decade ago when his eponymous style of hot yoga became very popular in North America and around the world. But the yoga leader is now widely viewed as a predator after he was accused of sexual assault by several women.
In 2016, a Los Angeles court order ruled that Choudhury must pay his former legal counsel nearly $7 million in damages after she said he sexually harassed her while she worked for him, and fired her after investigating allegations , he raped a yoga student.
Choudhury eventually fled the US to avoid arrest and has since been spotted teaching yoga in Mexico. He was the subject of the 2019 Netflix documentary Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator.
But even after Choudhury’s reckoning, the organizers of the Vancouver event are still supporting him — charging $800 for the event with his likeness.
Despite the disturbing news and the realization that Chipiuk has access to her letter, Lawler will not remain silent. She would rather jeopardize her own privacy and reputation than expose others to Choudhury’s dangerous behavior.
“I rightly fear for the well-being of all who are exposed to this man,” Lawler said.
The JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, the hotel hosting the event, declined to comment.
Featuring files by Daily Hive’s Nikitha Martins
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