Title: Fleeing from Scientology.

Subject(s): FUGITIVES from justice -- Ontario -- Toronto; HENSON,
Keith -- Trials, litigation, etc.; CHURCH of Scientology
(Organization); FREEDOM of religion -- United States
Source: Report / Newsmagazine (Alberta Edition), 7/09/2001, Vol. 28
Issue 14, p45, 2/3p, 1c
Author(s): Cosh, Colby
Abstract: Focuses on United States citizen Keith Henson, who, as of
July, 2001, remains in Toronto, Ontario to avoid sentencing for
interfering with the Church of Scientology; Accusations against
Henson, including harassment of Scientologists; His decision to seek
refugee status.

AN: 4835824
ISSN: 1488-8092
Full Text Word Count: 612
Database: MasterFILE Premier
Section: SOCIETY

FLEEING FROM SCIENTOLOGY

A man who 'interfered with a religion' in California wants to remain in Canada permanently

It started out, Keith Henson says, as a joke. The American critic of the Church of Scientology was in Toronto May 12 to help picket the church's Canadian headquarters, along with others who believe the religious sect is a rogue cult which has harassed opponents and covered up suspicious deaths within its ranks. "Afterwards, a bunch of us were trolling on the Net and someone joked that I should seek status as a political refugee," he says. "The more we thought about it, the more it seemed a good idea.

I was going to go back that Sunday, but I moved the return date on my plane ticket to Monday." Keith Henson still has not used that plane ticket. He remains in Toronto, a fugitive from the law in his home country.

Mr. Henson is wanted on an April 26 conviction for "interfering with a religion" under an obscure section of the California Penal Code. The jury had refused to convict him of terrorism for making jokes on Internet newsgroups about hitting a Scientology compound with a "cruise missile." Previously sued into bankruptcy for posting copyrighted Scientology scriptures to the Net, Mr. Henson has spent much time picketing Scientology installations across North America.

The prosecution in his case claimed that he had been "taking down licence plate numbers" of cars at a Scientology facility in California, sometimes following Scientologists home and "yelling at them and doing other weird behaviour," in the words of district attorney Robert Schwartz.

Mr. Henson was to appear for sentencing July 6, but he decided to stay in Toronto and seek the advice of immigration lawyer Guidy Mamann. Mr.

Mamann studied the case and told Mr. Henson that he could not advise him to flee from justice, but that he had a "viable case" for refugee status. On May 28, while the paperwork was being readied, Mr. Henson was arrested by a heavily armed SWAT team in an Oakville shopping mall.

Canadian immigration authorities had been told that the affable grandfather was an "explosives expert" (which he is) and that the charges against him were related to threats involving explosives (although he professes himself unable to construct a working cruise missile).

Mr. Henson was freed June 8 and is living with an old friend in Toronto while he awaits an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing. His case has attracted little attention in Canada, but critics of Scientology from around the world are following his adventures. He has the support of the influential Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose legal director Cindy Cohn said June 22 that "He does not appear to have made any credible threat of physical attack...Mr. Henson has a legal right to express criticisms online without fearing a prison term."

Mr. Henson's exile has already come at considerable personal cost; he was unable to be present for the May 22 death of his father in Arizona.

But he is eager to challenge Scientology, which was started in the 1950s by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is known for celebrity adherents such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. "The cult has managed to get way too much influence over local government in certain parts of California and Florida," he says. "The U.S. State Department will now be obliged to ascertain whether I received a fair trial. They'll have the choice of either backing Scientology or treating it the way General Sherman treated Georgia."

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By Colby Cosh

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