태권도跆

International Taekwondo Federation

Canada

ITF

No country has a relationship with ITF Taekwondo like Canada — not as a competitive power, nor as a recipient of an imported tradition, but as the adopted home of the founder himself. In January 1972, General Choi Hong Hi fled Park Chung-hee's dictatorship and sought asylum in Canada. From Toronto and Mississauga, he led the ITF for thirteen years, organized the first World Championship in history in Montreal (1974), wrote the monumental 15-volume Encyclopedia, and lived out his days there. When he died on June 15, 2002, the ITF returned to Toronto: his son Choi Jung Hwa established his faction's headquarters there, making Canada the permanent home of the founder's dynastic line.

SCROLL

1968

first ITF school in Toronto — GM Park Jong-soo

1972

General Choi's exile — ITF moves to Toronto

1974

First ITF Worlds — Montreal (190 athletes, 25 countries)

years General Choi lived on Canadian soil

1983

Taekwondo Encyclopedia 15 vols — written in Mississauga

2002

death of General Choi — ITF-C returns to Toronto

先

1968 – 1971

The Pioneer

The Pioneer — Park Jong-soo and the first ITF school

Toronto, four years before the General's exile

ITF Taekwondo arrived in Canada before General Choi himself. In 1968, Grand Master Park Jong-soo (1941–2021) — one of the Twelve Original Masters of Korean Taekwondo, trained directly under General Choi — emigrated to Toronto and opened the first ITF school on Canadian soil on Danforth Avenue. Park had previously passed through Germany and the Netherlands, but it was Canada where he put down permanent roots.

His arrival preceded the General's exile by four years, paving the way for Toronto to become the heart of world ITF. The institute he founded on Danforth Avenue is still active today.

“Park Jong-soo, 1968 — the first ITF school in Canada, four years before General Choi's exile.”

先

先First, pioneer

創

1972 – 1979

The Exile

The Exile and the Reinvention of the ITF

Toronto becomes the heart of world ITF

In January 1972, while on an international tour, General Choi Hong Hi sought asylum in Canada, fleeing Park Chung-hee's Yushin Constitution. With unanimous consent of the ITF Congress, he moved the organisation's international headquarters to Toronto. He settled in Mississauga, Ontario, where he obtained Canadian citizenship in 1977.

From there he reorganised the ITF: he trained international instructors, managed national affiliations and projected the art to the world with an autonomy he could never have enjoyed under the watchful eye of the Seoul government. On 4 and 5 October 1974, he organised the First ITF World Championship in Montreal — 190 black belts from 25 nations at the Montreal Forum.

“First ITF World Championship, Montreal Forum, October 1974 — 190 athletes from 25 countries.”

創

創Creation, founding

藝

1980 – 1985

The Great Work

The Great Canadian Work — The Encyclopedia of Taekwondo

15 volumes written from Mississauga, Ontario

From Mississauga, General Choi undertook his most ambitious intellectual project: the 15-volume Encyclopedia of Taekwondo, completed in 1983. This monumental work — technical, historical and philosophical — was written and published from Canadian soil. Volumes 8 to 15 are dedicated entirely to the 24 Tul (forms) of the Chang Hon system and remain the supreme technical reference of the ITF to this day.

Also during this era, the General began visiting North Korea (from 1979), which would generate the first of the great schisms: Park Jong-soo and other Canadian masters distanced themselves from Choi, considering the alliance with Pyongyang unacceptable. In 1985, the General moved the ITF headquarters from Toronto to Vienna, Austria — but he never left Canada.

“Encyclopedia of Taekwondo in 15 volumes (1983), written and published from Mississauga, Ontario.”

藝

傳

1985 – 2002

The General Returns

The General returns to die — Mississauga to the end

30 years on Canadian soil, terminal diagnosis in Canada

Although the ITF headquarters moved to Vienna in 1985, General Choi never left Canada. He continued to live in Mississauga as a Canadian citizen, travelling from there to all corners of the world and always returning to Ontario. In 2001, the ITF Congress democratically elected his son Choi Jung Hwa as presidential successor; however, under pressure from the North Korean government, the General revoked that decision.

In June 2002, with a terminal diagnosis of stomach cancer already confirmed by Canadian doctors, General Choi travelled to Pyongyang to die on land he considered symbolically Korean. He passed away on 15 June 2002 at the Kim Man Yu Hospital in Pyongyang. He was 83 years old and had lived 30 of those years on Canadian soil.

“Terminal diagnosis in Canada → final journey to Pyongyang → death on 15 June 2002.”

傳

合

2002 – Hoy

Toronto, New Headquarters

Toronto as new ITF headquarters — The legacy continues

Choi Jung Hwa establishes the ITF-C in Toronto

The General's death triggered a three-front succession crisis. Canadian Russell MacLellan — former Premier of Nova Scotia and ITF vice-president — assumed the presidency on an interim basis under the Constitution and oversaw the election of Trần Triệu Quân at the Warsaw Congress (2003). Choi Jung Hwa — the son, who had emigrated to Canada in 1971, a year before his father — rejected both successions as illegitimate and established the ITF-C with headquarters in Toronto.

Choi Jung Hwa's faction operates from Toronto to this day, with affiliates in dozens of countries. The Canadian Taekwon-Do Federation International (CTFI), affiliated with ITF-Vienna, operates as the most established ITF organisation at national level. Canada is once again, for the second time in its history, the seat of the ITF.