Two for one Toronto Picket report

Sat., May 18, 2002 we picketed the org *and* the hotel where the org had the local Dianetics event.

Early afternoon at the org there were three of us: Gregg and the unknown picketer in front of the org and me across the street. The batteries in our radios had gone dead so we went into a nearby drug store to replace them. While I was in getting batteries Gregg waited outside and people took about 25 flyers from him. When I got out and we were testing the radios, a young thin guy about 18 with 1/8th inch beard stubble came up while I was talking to a woman and insisted he was a scientologist. (I am not supposed to initiate contact with them, but that does not keep them from coming up and talking to me.) The woman I was talking to was just boggled when I mentioned I had this space cootie story on the flyer, handed her one and the horrified kid said it was confidential and ran.

Right, "confidential" when we have handed out about 20,000 Xenu flyers around the org.

There are not more than 20 (and that's very generous) scientologists in Toronto who are OT 3 and above. So there are a thousand times as many wogs in Toronto who know about Xenu and the body thetans as there are scientologists who know.

Other than Brian McPherson showing up looking more dead than alive, and a sighting of some of the regulars, there was very little to report. It was cold that day so the numbers of tourist were down. That reduces the flyers you can hand out because so many of the locals will give you a thumbs up and say they already read it. Still, I went through about a hundred.

We had a leisurely lunch from when we quit to about 4:30 then went over to scope out the Colony Hotel, same place as they used last year. Gregg paced off 100 feet from the ballroom they had rented and stationed me up the street. Turned out to be a very effective place, I gave Xenu flyers to at least 4 "raw meat" who where headed for the event. Some of them might have been confiscated, but the act of taking a Xenu flyer away from someone "you don't want to read that" is a highly effective way for the people to be warned off.

Gregg, the unknown picketer, and Chris Wood picketed and handed out flyers in front of the hotel. There were some tour buses full of high school kids from Tennessee that came in and many of them took flyers. Some of them said they were going to check out the event. All in all, I would guess we had 20-30 people in the event with flyers. Must have been interesting. We don't have a report from inside yet, but it is certain attendance was down from last year's dismal numbers.

The contrast between this year and last was amazing. Last year I reported that no police showed up and there was amazing bull baiting applied to Gregg, worse than anything I have experienced. This year 3 bicycle cops showed up, said hi, and politely asked Gregg if he had been abused by the Scientologists yet. Gregg explained that while we were not into violence, local picketers have been pushed around in the past by the scientology goon squad, especially Dan Bryenton, but that they had been behaving themselves for most of the last year. Daffy Dan was sullenly watching from about 20 feet away. He started to go up to the cops to put in his .0002 Cents, but another goony stage-whispered to Dirty Dan to put a cork in it. Heh, heh, this thug is on a chain that runs clear back to Hemet.

The hotel lobby revolving door is below the street in a driveway. The effect was to focus Gregg's voice so it was able to punch through the single glass when the revolving door was in that position. People inside told Gregg he fairly well controlled the conversation by coming in lumps (Scientology Management Lies!). In between the door revolutions the old time scns in the lobby were talking loudly about Gregg. (According to a person who came out they were claiming that Gregg had his wife lobotomized. After hearing that she had a brain tumor removed that has left her somewhat emotionally vulnerable and that the scns have attacked her using this, the guy looked back in and said they were not only crazy but *vicious* like junkyard dogs.)

The start time had been pushed back to 8 pm. We stayed till about 8:20 to catch a very few who were late to the meeting. It was cold and the traffic dropped of to near zero by that point.

All in all it was a *most* successful picket. Even if pickets have been restrained here with choke chains on the goon squad, they are still fun and productive.

We just might picket them again Monday. Monday is Victoria Day. Unless it is pouring rain we should meet about noon at the nearby Starbucks.

Keith Henson