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May 10, 1997 - Artemis
You've probably seen Gregg's PR on Toronto. This is my PR. asked for a copy of HOM and they had to dig it up for me from another location. The org is a multi story building, about 8 or 10, I 8 floors. The right half of the org is the public section for body routing and book sales. On my visit it was deserted except for one Sea Org gal This also has a job advert. terrible sales people, but polite enough. As I left I noted the incredible 50s style 'B Horror Movie' designed anti-psyche posters in the window and the ad for the 47 Anniversary of Dianetics Celebration at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for May 10 at 7:30pm. I noticed that they reused the same picture 3 times on 3 different posters. Perhaps they can't afford the cost of 3 different pictures. Artemis chose a sign that had: What 'Church' Intimidates and Sues Maliciously? and: What 'Church' Persecutes and Frames Its Critics? And a very nice sign it was. Good work Gregg. I also had 250 of the Roland Xenu flyers in packets of 50. (No eggs all in one basket.) I had the flyers in a Paper Carrier Bag I wore. Other equipment I carried in belt pouches were a camera, microrecorder, spare I said after the picket, I'd wished I had a variety of other flyers to backup some of the questions we were asked. Things like Lisa's autopsy, press clippings and so on, details on anti-critic actions, course price listings and so on. An Internet connection would be even better. CULT would register and they would turn around, come back and ask for a flyer. I had one lady, whose hands were full, who asked me to fold it and stick it in one of her bags. I had a man who put down a bag so that he would have a free hand to grab a leaflet. Of course Org staff were trying to chase down anyone who they could to take their stuff which consisted of a Freedom Mag, and Invite to the 47 Celebration and a one page DA of me, CAN and the Internet sweetened by Religious Freedom and abuse of Free speech bullshit. ( See other Post.) One lady was handed this bumpf, and didn't initially realize that the person was scientology, she thought that the scientologist was a fellow protester. We got into a discussion, and as I was explaining the policy of harassing critics, one of the sea org chose that time to try to take my picture. Great timing guys! At this point, the subject of CAN came up, and as I explained the lawsuit & the results she realized that the majority of the literature in her had was scientology, so she chased after the sea org to give it all back. One sorry Org specimen, a short stocky dark haired loud mouthed guy kept carping from a doorway, "Three? Only Three?" Yukka,Yukka, Yuk. I passed by the org before the 2:30 meeting, and at this time he was inside a huge copy of Dianetics, tall enough that a face and hands holes were about 2/3 of the way up, just bellow the title. This looked VERY amateur, flimsy, and not very well designed. Most humans seem to be comfortable with their hands somewhere between their hips and the chest, but this had three holes in a row, like this: o O o A very uncomfortable position to be in I'd say. cools down, says he is sorry for getting carried away and goes over to the OT7 and says, Is this stuff true? The OT7 says No! Its from the Internet and the Internet is all lies! At this the guy starts to laugh and leaves saying, So it is true, you people are being had! This was basically the only argument I heard all day from the CoS. However I think they've missed how the Internet has changed in the last few years. take a peek, that felt reassuring. When we started there was a Bicycle Beat Cop parked across the street for at least the first 10 or 15 minutes. I think he was satisfied things were going to be 'quiet' and went off. I'd like to thank the Metro Toronto Police. They performed excellently at both demonstrations. InHouse Equipment Rentals. (And more 15% taxes.)Also the T.O. had pretty costly glossy postcard sized invites printed by the hundreds and had You mean thousands. They have been giving them out for a few weeks, and there were dozens on the floor or in trashcans after the demo. advertised and laid out quite a large spread of free food and Beverages ( non alcoholic). We didn't see the food but I imagine it featured a Rice and Beans salad, of course. Minimum cost for all this would have to be at least $5000 Canadian. Likely as high as $8,000. And it was wasted. The event was a dud. A complete PR and staging Disaster. We arrived at 6:45 and parked in the one open lot. We then proceeded the block over to the front of the theatre. The theatre has a U shaped driveway so that vehicles can drive in and disgorge occupants at the entrance and then swing right back out onto the street. We could not picket inside the U as that is private property, even though it is not posted, and the CNE Security have the power to issue some pretty stiff tickets for trespass. We stayed on the sidewalk at the open end of the U at the street. Standard 4 foot wide walk and about 50 feet worth of it in the U. When we got there at 6: 45 about 30 clams and guests were milling about outside the theatre entrance talking and smoking (yech)Kools. Most had familiar faces from one time or another earlier at the Org Demo. I assumed twice as many were already inside to set an initial attending figure at this point of 100 max. Reverend Buttocks was out front, pacing and attended by a herd of about 10 kids aged 8 to 12. As soon as he noticed we had showed his already sulky demeanor became an absolute black glower. The kids were pointing to us and asking him questions. And he was telling them something and pointing to us. This makes me a bit sad. I can imagine what a twisted type of information he was imparting to them. "Those are enemies. They are Suppressives and Bigots. Nothing on the signs is true or means anything. Look at them, how downstat they are dressed, they are all lunatics, etc" Those poor innocents. What a shame. This is a pretty deserted area of Exhibit Halls Bldings, but it is a main bus thoroughfair. Pedestrian traffic was virtually non existent, but traffic was steady at about a car every minute and buses every 10 minutes oneway or another. I am trying to get my hands on the Media Release they sent out, but I have had it read to me on the phone. Pretty standard fair, and no mention of Scientology. My contact said she got the copy out of the trash in her bosses office. It wasn't even filed as is SOP. NO Media Showed. They ignored the whole thing. The front of the Theatre has dark blue/black mica or glass paneling on it and the T.O. had a banner about 3 feet by 20 feet tacked up. The banner was white paper and had 47th Anniversary of Dianetics neatly painted on it in sky blue paint. In other words it was not very outstanding. The banner was hung at shoulder height and add to that the fact that the clam SmokeOut going on was right in front of the banner and you realize right away that even a small crowd hid the damn thing from the street. They had standard size Dianetics Cover posters up too, but these were just brown blots with yellow writing even at 30 feet. With our bright yellow signs we were clearly visible for 100s of meters in any direction on the Fair Grounds. Cars would go by and people would be craning their necks to see our signs. If they slowed down we would flip the signs to give them both sides. It was quite windy at times and we were walking back and forth with one side facing the Clam SmokeOut and the other treating the traffic. When a Bus came by we would give the driver and passengers a good look too. Occasionaly a car would go by very slowly peering at our signs and pointing at the clams. These were the herd of clams coming to this 'event' and they were none too pleased with our presence. We got fingers and Squeeling tires as they turned about looking for the parking, for which there was NO sign out front and if you weren't familiar with the grounds, not easily spotted. Infact one set of clams actually stopped and asked me where the parking lot was, " Hey smartass, where do we park?" I resisted the temptation to send him into Lake Ontario and gave him valid, simple directions. A lot of clams also came by bus and were let off about a block away. They kept peering in windows of the Bldngs looking for the 'Event'. (The theatre entrance is recessed back from the street of course for the U shaped driveway.) When they got close enough to see the writing on the signs they clued in. We made good sign posts. The ARSCC* Picket Parking Valet and Tour Guide Services were a complete success. (*WDNE) We kept track of the body count, giving and taking for those who wandered in and out. By the announced 7: 30 start there was at most 200 Clams inside or out. The start time came and went without notice until about 10 to 8 pm when the first of the FIVE times they announced "We're starting Now" drew some of the faithful inside. Another 100 Clams and guests kept drifting in until about 8:20 when I think they actually did start. At least that was the time the odd clam or two sneaking out for a smoke stopped happening. We called it a done deal at 8:30. Total attendance was at most 300 people from a population of over 5- 8 million within 45 miutes drive in time. I imagine they got every body to sit in the front centre section inside. Must have been pretty depressing And there was a pretty high % of children. Most of the arrivals seemed to be family groups. If the figures for approx 100 staff at the peak are right, then really we're probably talking about staff + spouses + offspring accounting for half of this, and maybe about 75 public. Scientologists and where I got my information. Rev. Buttocks was close enough to hear that and catch my answer. I said, No, I didn't hate the people, I just disagreed with the management practices and the costs. Did The reverend also accused D'artangan and myself of preaching hatred later on in the evening, I said that "I don't hate anyone, why do you say I do". He had no answer to that. I tell him the Internet. He says what is the URL? (Note: I screwed up and didn't have or print up a list.) I tell him how to find Operation Yes, we need a list of URL's to hand out too. finger. Most significantly we had 5 highly positive Bus Driver Acks. One driver even stopped and opened the door and said something like 'Keep it up" or " Good going". I believe it was you who noted that when the bus drivers drove past, they would slow down to read the signs, and the passengers would look to see what the driver was looking at. And one Bicycle Ack. Another German student. He took a flyer and asked for my email address. He had uncomplimentary things to say about the Co$ but he was on the clock and had to move on. ( I think he was a courier.) This guy had heard about the Nazi uniforms incident. He wasn't impressed to say the least. From the general reaction of Germans and German Canadians, I'd say that the organization has totally lost Germany. The German psyche has been too clued into oppressive techniques & organizations to be fooled by the OSA PR machine. The late arrivals for the 'Big Event' petered out at about 8:20 and they finally closed the doors at 8:25. We decided the field was won and packed it in at 8:30, even tho' I had filed a Notice for a Demo til 9:30. As we were leaving, the short stocky bloke from above thanked us for getting their stats up at the earlier demo, claiming that we'd caused the busiest day in ages. We politely offered to do it every Saturday, which he had no answer to. I don't foresee a picket every Saturday, but I hope that this picket will not be the last.
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