Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology From: dennis.l.erlich@support.com Subject: Canada Defeat Message-ID: <9507220839.0C61J00@support.com> Organization: L.A. Valley College Public BBS (818)985-7150 X-Mailer: TBBS/PIMP v3.35 Distribution: world Date: Sat, 22 Jul 95 08:39:41 -0700 Lines: 71 * forwarded for * +---------------------------------+ hutton@promis.com (Don Hutton) "Surely it is not requiring too much of individuals that they ascertain the truth of the allegations they publish." - Justice Peter Cory, Supreme Court of Canada, July 20th, 1995 Well, the Scientology corporation in Canada just lost their last possible appeal of the largest libel award in Canadian history. With interest and legal fees added on to the original award, the tab comes to around 4 million C$ (1 C$ = .7342 U$). The jury which originally made the award found that Scientology and their lawyer had maliciously made statements which they knew to be false regarding one of the Crown lawyers who (successfully) prosecuted the "Church of Scientology Toronto" w.r.t. various criminal acts in the 1980's. When they were convicted of the criminal charges and ordered to pay a 250,000 C$ fine, the local Scientology organization declared bankruptcy saying (in a full page ad in Canada's largest national newspaper) that they had spend about 10 million C$ defending themselves against the charges and had no more money. (Rather like their claim during the criminal trial that since it had dragged on for so long [due to their endless novel legal motions] it should be cancelled as their right to a swift trial had been violated.) In order to continue their appeals of the libel conviction they had to put up a surety but couldn't very well put up cash. So they put up the deed to their six-story office building in downtown Toronto (a major fixture in the downtown for over a decade now). They, therefore, have 30 days to cough up the cash or lose the building. I find it hard to imagine how the "Fastest Growing Religion in the World" (tm) will come up with the cash as their mother Church in California (who was found during the criminal trial to exercise complete control over the day-to-day [although not necessarily the criminal] activities of the Toronto branch) is also claiming bankruptcy in the Wollersheim case. That's the one where the Supreme Court in the US has awarded Mr. Wollersheim several million dollars as recompense for the vicious treatment afforded him by a California Scientology group. Perhaps Mr. Miscavige (who swore under oath in the criminal trial that he was the head of the Church of Scientology) has some money but he seems to be missing these days. I'll let everyone know if he turns up here. Tom Cruise? Don "Who wants first dibs on the old Guardians Office offices" Hutton P.S. Although that might be kind of like the first few chapters in "Dune" where Paul's family is moving into the old fortress of their enemies... P.P.S. - As one of the foremost users of Ontario's strict libel laws to crush the dissemination of any opinions that they didn't like, you'd think they'd have known better. Their statements to the press positioning themselves as champions of freedom of expression in the face of "libel chill" sound kind of odd to me too. Haven't various Scientology organizations been involved in a couple of chilly activities in the past? Perhaps some of the regular posters on alt.religion.scientology could enlighten us on the details of these incidents. If you meet the Buddha in the Net, put his address in your Kill file. Don Hutton, hutton@promis.com