Sorry this took so long to get to ars. Been busy.

Toronto Picket Report 2002-05-11

Picketers: Me, Gregg Hagglund, Keith Henson

Leaflets:

Scientology's Founder: Con Man / No Science in Scientology (by me) Xenu / Crimes (by Gregg)

Gregg and me arrived in front of the org at about 1:00, with Keith in his usual position up the street. I actually gave out nearly all the leaflets in my bag, while Gregg and Keith depleted their supplies in a somewhat similar fashion. This probably means that it's summer tourist season, as the Yonge St. locals all seem to already have our leaflets.

A couple of incidents to note:

No Scientologists approached Keith Henson this time. In past pickets, Scientologists have actually gone near him, talked to him, and stood watching him pass out leaflets. This after the cult's protestations that its members are intimidated by Keith. However, at this picket no Scientologists were engaged in actively disproving their supposed fear of Keith.

One passer-by said 'Watch this!', and snatched a copy of 'Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health' from the display table outside the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation part of the org. Gregg was more on the ball about this than I was; he was shouting for Mario (Dianetics Foundation boss guy) while I was still saying 'hey, you shouldn't do that'. Mario came outside, was apprised of the details and given a description of the thief, and then took off down the street. He came back a few minutes later, having retrieved the book. He did (albeit with prompting from Gregg) say thank you - does this mean he now has to fill out a Knowledge Report now?

Another of my 'Scientologists are sheep' stories: All it takes to be herded like cattle if you're in Scientology is to have someone wander by, reading OT3. Just after we got to the org, Gregg did a side trip up Saint Mary St., reading from his copy of OT3. Suddenly, the OT Scientologists started moving the other Scientologists into the org. Can't have them hearing the introduction to OT3 read on the street, then non-OT Scientologists might not want to pay thousands of dollars to read the Hubbardian drivel for themselves. I've said it before, and I still don't understand why anyone would submit to being treated like this.

All in all, it was a pretty quiet picket. We wound it up at 3:00 when we discovered that we were nearly out of leaflets.

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** Scientology's gate is down. ** Canadian Scientology information is now at:

http://xenu.ca

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