Passersby:
First, a guy pulled over his car and got out to talk to us ...
Passerby: Hi.
Gerry and Reg: Hi.
Reg: Scientology is bogus.
Passerby: I know it is. I believe it 100%. That's why I can't believe, like, you've go people like Tom Cruise and Chick Corea [a few words I can't make out on the tape] that are getting sucked in too. You guys are on your own doing this?
Reg nods.
Passerby: They tried to suck me in there one time, I went to take the personality test, and they take you upstairs and tell you whatever you want to hear.
Passerby (to John, who's sign says "Joan Treasure, please call home, your family loves you"}: So is this your daughter or something?
John: That's my sister.
Passerby: Is that right. How old is she?
John: Right now, 47.
Passerby: 47, how many years have they had her?
John: She's been in there 30 years. She actually hasn't spoken to me for 20 years.
Passerby: Unbelievable.
John: And she's got a daughter that my mother's never seen.
Passerby: You gotta be kidding man. They just cut off the family totally, eh?
John: That's because I'm a Suppressive Person.
Passerby: A what person?
John: Suppressive.
Passerby: Ok.
John: That's my official designation.
Passerby: So, you want to suppress the church, or ...
John: No, I'm a Suppressive Person because I've publicly spoken out against the church.
Passerby: Oh, is that right, yeah, thats ...
Gerry: They divide the whole world up into, there are two main classes, Scientology and Wogs. You're a Wog. Within the wogs, there's really three classes. There are the Suppressive Persons, which comprise 2.5% of the population, ok. Suppressive Persons, they're the truly evil people, like us.
Passerby: Because they've spoken out against Hubbard.
Gerry: Right. As soon as you do that, you become a Suppressive Person. A Suppressive Person ...
Passerby: What's the third group?
Gerry: They are called Potential Trouble Sources, they are people who are connected to a Suppressive person. And that gives them their justification, so they're able to separate children from parents, because the parents are Suppressive Persons.
Passerby: Is there anybody in the Government, City or Federal, that is helping you out? Or are they all sticking their heads in the sand or whatever?
Gerry: Head in the sand as far as I know. I don't know of anyone in Canada who is interested.
Passerby: What about big lawsuits that are happening? Wasn't there a huge lawsuit that they, Scientology won some money, didn't they?
John: In Toronto, for defamation.
Gerry: No, no, well, Scientology was criminally convicted in Toronto.
Their intelligence offices had penetrated the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, and a whole bunch of government agencies.
Passerby: Is it because of all the money that they .... you've got to turn over your money, basically.
Gerry: Power and Intelligence. At it's core it's an intelligence operation. Everyone reports on everyone else. Moles are in business and in government.
Passerby: I believe it. Ok, well, I wish you all the best of luck in the world, man. See ya. Does the media ever come visit you here or anything?
John: The last picket they did.
Reg: At the last picket they came down for a while.
Passerby: So how long are you doing this for?
Gerry: For the afternoon.
Passerby: Ok, see ya.
Next, we talked to a young man who was at the org taking the personality
test and watching the Orientation video. He was out for a smoke break.
I'll call him testguy.
Testguy: Want my commentary on it?
Darlene: Sure.
Testguy: It sucks.
Darlene: That is the perfect word.
Testguy: It does. It's copywrited, it's taken from 5000 years old or plus, and they're trying to take credit for it. It should be free of charge, like the bible, The Gidion, they give out free bibles. Hare Krishnas, the religion is open for everybody. This one, you gotta pay big bucks to do it.
It can't happen. If it's for everybody, why can't the homeless people get it?
Darlene: Exactly. The people who need it.
And finally, towards the end of the picket, a couple stopped to talk to us.
Actually, only the woman talked to us.
Gerry: Oh, good, we're glad you did. We are protesting the fraud and abuses of the Scientology cult.
Passerby: Do you know anybody that's been a part of it?
Gerry: Yea, I have, that lady has, that gentleman has...
Passerby: What happened?
John: Why don't you go in and find out?
Passerby: I really don't want to go in. I've had friends who have gone in and had a really hard time.
Gerry: That's it, they'll give you a hard time going in and a worse time coming out.
Passerby: Really. How long were you a member?
Gerry 12 1/2 years.
Passerby: Holy.
Reg: He was actually a personal friend of the founder, the founder of...
Passerby: Of Ron Hubbard?
Reg: Yea, Ron Hubbard. Ron Hubbard was at his wedding.
Passerby: No kidding.
Reg: And get this, Ron Hubbard opened all the wedding gifts.
Passerby (laughing): Really. So how come there's so few of you guys here?
Why isn't there more people?
Darlene: There's probably as many outside as there are inside.
Reg: Yea, we outnumber them.
Passerby: Huh. Cause I've seen, like, things about Scientology on A&E and stuff, and all over North America there's people talking about it, like how weird it is and all that. Like, there's an outcry against it, but I don't understand why there's only five of you guys standing here. Cause I've heard mostly bad things about it. And I've had friends that like, actually have gone in and...
Reg: 8 million blown Scientologists can't be wrong. See, they claim to have between 8 and 9 million members. But 8 million of them are all out hiding, you know, what they do is they move two or three times and change their phone number so they can't be gotten a hold of, but they're still counted as members.
Passerby: No kidding. Huh. So how did you guys get out of it? If it was really hard to get out, how did you leave?
Gerry: Escaped.
Passerby: You had to completely change your everything to get away from it, or...
Gerry: I escaped. I took my things off the property a box at a time, over a period of a couple weeks, and then just left. If I had told them that i was leaving, I would have been locked up.
Passerby: How would they have locked you up?
Gerry: They would have taken me physically and locked me up.
Passerby: Does it happen a lot?
Gerry: It happens a lot.
Passerby: Really. Do you still have a lot of people that you know that are members.
Gerry: Yep.
John: My sister hasn't talked to me for 18 years.
Passerby: You weren't a member though, were you?
John: I was at one time.
Passerby: And your sister is a member in the City, in Edmonton?
John: She's in California.
Reg: Joan Treasure. She's in California.
Passerby: Really. Well, you've got my support, 100%.
At this point, she looks behind her to see the local E.D, Caroline Kristensen taking her picture.
Passerby: Heeyyy! We're gonna go, it was really nice talking to you. Good
luck.
There were also several other people who stopped to show their support, whom
we did not get on tape, and quite a few honks. There was one guy, who was
not a Scientologist and knew nothing about it, who didn't like that we were
protesting a religion, and didn't want to listen to what we had to say. But
that was the only passerby who gave us anything other than positive
feedback.
And that's all folks. At least until the next picket that is.