This is for two pickets, one May 20, Victoria day, where we never got around to reporting it and one today, June 1. I have lost count, but there have been a lot of pickets so far this year and the season is just getting started. <grin> Last time was Chris Wood, a new guy, Ron Sharp, Gregg and me. We did 3 hours of picket split by a late lunch and gave out about 400 xenu and other flyers.
This was the last time the "making the able more able" sign was up at the org. It seems that advertizing this is some kind of hate crime against the disabled here in Ontario. We think they were forced to take it down.
It was a good picket didn't rain on it this year. Two of the goon squad showed up but they just watched. We took a break when the Victoria Day parade went down Yonge St. Interesting parade, especially for someone not fully up on Canadian/British culture. Groups such as the Monarchist league were small and the membership old. There was a very large group of Falon Dafa, the local Falon Gong, marching in the parade. Must have been 5 times the total scientology membership in Ontario in the parade.
The org has gone to blue tarp tech, only in this case it was black foam boards in the Dianetics windows on Yonge St.. An amusing sequence happened when Gregg ran off the guy who was scraping the inside of the window with OT3. He was replaced by a woman. Gregg was looking at a large flake of paint while asking her through the glass about why she didn't use her OT ability to take the paint off? She made motions like Gregg was nuts so he tapped the window and the large flake fell off. The poor woman's eyes got about as big as saucers and she ran off freaking about these SPs having the awesome OT powerz.
Today it was just David Palter, Gregg and me for an hour and a half. Even with all the people who say they have one, we still gave away 125 flyers on each side of Yonge St.
The new sign blocking the window is false advertizing saying that Dianetics is a "science of the mind."
First thing that happened to me when I started was a tall woman with brown hair came by and said she was a scientologist and that this Xenu stuff was crap. I mentioned that I had seen it in Hubbard's own handwriting. She said it was still crap even if LRH wrote it. I said she was going to have to do a knowledge report about having talked to me and she left going down the street freaking out. I watched and she never crossed the street to the org. Whoever you are, don't forget the knowledge report!
Gregg and David in front of the org were getting a continuous stream of acks and encouragement.
There was one funny sequence where this guy who is either involved or has a relative in carefully checks out that nobody is watching him from the org, takes a flyer from Gregg and stuff it into his pants. Another pubic spent 10-15 minutes listening to Gregg rap about the cult, but never worked up the nerve to take a flyer. She went up the street and sent a friend back to get a flyer.
They have totally filled in the front window using black foam board tech and painted over the windows in the back. I am sure this is on DM's orders to hunker down and just take being picketed and to make no response to the picketers beyond whining to the police.
Gregg had more than one person warn him scn was a formidable litigant. These people were happy to learn that scientology is a cowering criminal cult with dirty hands in the Canadian court system. They totally lack the balls to sue Gregg for restraining their trade, but--like the bullies they are--will intimidate old people, and the defenseless.
Gregg rapped about this several times to the public within earshot of the now muzzled goon squad reduced to the "dianetic" duo of Brian McPherson and Gwen Jones. They are down to telling each other how terrible we are and calling the police who won't even do a drive by any more.
Been an interesting year so far.
Keith Henson, with an upbeat report from the Toronto front.
PS, for those of you who have been wondering about the effect of suing the cops, the scientologists have in desperation restarted their harassment efforts against Gregg.
Gregg has heard from a reliable source that scientology upper management in the states is putting blame on the deadbeat Toronto org for having left themselves deeply exposed by their over eager misrepresentations to Canadian authorities (after, of course, ordering them to do exactly what they did). Their local lawyers are worried about legal ramifications and backlash from these actions and the likelihood of the Hagglund/Henson lawsuits exposing them. There is also a major embarrassment of the Canadian justice department for buying into scientology's insane view of me. It seems certain people were caught totally off guard by their cult influenced work showing up on the net and being read by people they didn't expect to see it.