From: janeebeslis@hotmail.com (Praxis)
Subject: 1,525 Canadians follow Scientology?
Date: 14 May 2003 09:20:38 -0700
Message-ID: <3e471c14.0305140820.2860be1f@posting.google.com>

From http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/Canadiana/2003/05/14/86721.html

Canucks offer prayer to Yoda
By Sarah Green

The force is with them.

Some 20,000 Canadians named Jedi -- made famous by Star Wars -- as their religion, according to census data.

This echoes a result of the 2001 British census where 390,000 residents claimed to follow the Jedi faith after a massive Internet campaign.

Those who worshipped at less conventional altars included 9,575 who cited Wicca as their religion; 1,135 Rastafarians; and 1,525 who follow Scientology, made famous by celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Meanwhile, 4.8 million Canadians, including 770,850 Torontonians, claimed to follow no religion in 2001, compared with 3.3 million a decade earlier.

"It doesn't mean they don't believe in God," said StatsCan analyst Sophie Bourbonnais. "They don't have any religion."

Ironically, "no religion" was the second largest denomination. Roman Catholic was the predominant faith, practised by 12.8 million Canadians, up 4.8% from 1991. Yet the proportion of Catholics fell 2% to 43% of the population.

"We haven't closed any churches," Suzanne Scorsone, Toronto Archdiocese spokesman said. "The churches are jammed to the walls (in the suburbs). They're there because they want to be."

The number of Canadian Muslims more than doubled in the past decade to 579,000, while the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths each reported increases of more than 80% -- all buoyed by immigration.

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