Picketers: Me, Keith Henson

Leaflets handed out: Dianetics/Judges (approx 50), and the Parsonage leaflet (approx 120)

This was the second picket in two days.

Keith picked me up at 11:30 and we were at Starbucks before 12:30, sucking back iced tea in preparation for the hot day's picketing. At 12:40 my short attention span kicked in and we went to start picketing. Keith took up his usual position beyond the yellow fire hydrant on the other side of the road, and I went in front of the org. We picketed for about an hour, then took a 20-25 minute break for more iced tea, then picketed for about another 90 minutes or so. Then we went hunting an interesting lead (more about that later).

Keith apparently had two Scientologists come by and demonstrate that they are not intimidated by him in any way (ie they told him off, iirc).

However, and fortunately for me, my picket was very quiet. A number of the Toronto OT's were there, but nobody actually came and got in my face like the Scientologists do to Gregg Hagglund when he pickets.

I could do with more pickets like this - picketing quietly and giving out leaflets. Isn't that what it's all about?

The usual list of thetan oddities:

When I started picketing, the front doors to the Dianetics franchise and the main part of the org were open. A Scientologist came out of the front of the org and closed the main doors. When I came back from my break, they were open - and somebody (same person? I dunno) came and closed them again. This on a hot day in a building with no air-conditioning.

When I started picketing, first Mario (Dianetics Missionholder), then Andy Hill (OT Committee person) and a Scientologist I didn't recognize started making like airport ground technicians and directing Scientologists down Saint Mary Street. I must have entheta cooties or something, as I'm sure that Scientologists are in fact capable of walking past me to get inside the org. Of course, if joining Scientology (set cult phrasing ON) makes people incapable of confronting counter-intention and opposing views, (set cult phrasing OFF, set sarcasm to HIGH) maybe it's good that they get herded like sheep, instead of acting like free citizens of a Western democracy (set sarcasm to OFF).

The guy who herded the Scientologists who picketed me in 1998 is still a Scientologist - I saw him passing into the org. (You can see pictures of that picket here:

http://xenu.ca/pickets/photos/1998-12-02-frl-cwood/index.html)

I also got the mega-ego-boost of the day. A young couple (ie, younger than me) stopped and actually thanked me for picketing. I offered them a leaflet anyway, and the young lady said they had already been to the website, and no thanks. She must have meant xenu.ca, as that was the side of the sign facing them. Anyway, I feel all chuffed. Thanks back to you two nice people. (None of the opposite kind of ack today - which goes "You idiot, everybody already knows how bad they are!")

As others have noted, Blue Tarp Tech (the term comes from Clearwater, where the cult buildings put tarps up to prevent the members from seeing pickets) has morphed in Toronto to Black Wall Tech. The cult has put up large all-black posters in their Yonge-facing windows, each with a Dianetics ad in the middle and the copyright fine print at the bottom.

Before the break, I had given out 21 leaflets. After the break, I said to Keith that I would picket for an hour, or until all 50 of my leaflets were gone. Just as I was trying to give the last one out, an old guy who had parked his bike and gone into the org came back out. I offered a leaflet in his general direction, and to my surprise he took the leaflet and read it, then passed it back. He then asked me some questions, and as it turned out he had bought one book (Dianetics, probably) and had just been inside the org watching a film (the Orientation film, maybe?). I pointed out that while the book may have been only a few dollars, and the film was free, he was certainly headed towards the costlier cult courses. We discussed this and that, and in the meantime Mario came out of the org and stood listening to what I was saying.

Now obviously Mario didn't like what I was saying, but he did respect my right to free speech and let me converse with this potential Scientologist (and for that I do respect him). When I was done talking to the guy it was obvious I hadn't convinced him of anything right out (which is good, because he's more skeptical than to just believe anything that a person tells him). I said that he shouldn't feel obliged to spend any money, and wandered off to find an eager set of hands for this last leaflet. Mario rushed over, and I would have been interested to be a fly on the wall for that conversation - while coming back down the org I only heard the snippets "drugs", "drugs" and "twenty billion dollar industry". I'm not sure what it was about, but it sounded rather non-sequitur to the conversation I had been having. I can only wonder what the potential Scientologist thought about this.

At the end of the day I heard a wild story on Keith's audio tape - a passerby detailed how he lived in the same neighbourhood as a house full of Scientologists. Apparently this house had 47 Scientologists living in it (Keith and me were speculating that these were staffers and maybe Sea Orgers), which the neighbourhood only found out about when a fire was accidentally started in the building by some out of town visitors last January (2002), and the police/fire dept. carried all the mattresses out of the building. Everybody made it out okay, so that was ok - but the Scientologists were apparently supposed to have had insurance on the place (and didn't), and were eight months behind the ($2000/month) rent to boot.

(That's $42 per person per month - how could even a Scientology staff member not afford $42 per month??) We went by the house in question, and there was some damage apparent from outside (window broken). I took a picture, and it should be interesting to see if there's a police/fire dept. report on this somewhere. I wonder where all those people went?

Surely if they all went to a new landlord, that person wouldn't know their past history. It would also be nice to have some evidence of this that isn't the word of a single passerby.

--

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

http://xenu.ca

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