August 29, 1998 - AndroidCat

I got there an hour late at 11am. (I got to bed at 4am, so kick starting that morning took some work.)

In attendance were Gregg, Artemis, Wulfen, diGriz, spBill, and myself.

The morning was fairly uneventful. There was a rented off-duty police office there again. (Scientology's $400 at work, thanks to the number of false-alarms they've called in. Apparently it's becoming a choice assignment for picking up some extra cash--you stand around all day, get an hour off for lunch, nothing much happens, and you get to do that "a policeman is a person in your neighborhood" thing which has to be a nice change.) The Org had routers out handing out their green movie pass stuff. Part way along, they brought out the tables and e-meters for the "free stress test". There wasn't any open flyer snatching, although I did notice one case of covert removal while someone was taking the stress test.

T-shirts of passers by:
A CoS staffer approvingly remarked on a "Winning is Everything" shirt.
(Says it all, don't it?)
Me, I liked the "Just Handle It" shirt. (2nd place to the "Green Eggs and Hamlet" shirt.)

At lunch, we chatted with our "trusted connection" to "Rev" Al Buttnor. Apparently Buttnor called to see what our reaction to the bribe offer was. I hear Buttnor is back in Alberta, involved in a $2 million libel suit with the Edmonton police. $1 million against him, $1 million against CoS. They used the Ontario ruling that actions by members of CoS for CoS benefit are actions by CoS to drag the CoS's deep pockets into it. So he's a little busy these days--no increased offers of Buttnor Bucks. tsk! (Gosh, if he loses, that might mean that CoS related cases will hold the #1, 2, 3 lo$er positions for libel suits in Canada! The Church of the Holy Lawsuit is mighty downstat in Canada!)

Gregg said that Scientology had tried to register six .ca sites with the same name as his incorporated (and trademarked) company names. Bounced! And yet they whine and rant about scientology-kills? Another harassment tec hnique for critics to watch out for.

In the afternoon, Gregg, Artemis and I continued on. Artemis on South point, Gregg on North, I "proceeded" back and forth. I got my photo snapped a few times by tightly-wound staff member. (Apparently they'd been taking pictures before I got there in the morning, and had been warned against criminal harassment by the officer they paid to be there. Mr. Tightly-Wound disobeyed that warning to get my picture [like they haven't got it already!], so first chance *his* picture is going up on a web-site.) Then they tried the lamest tactic yet: The flyers we'd been handing out were on pink paper. They started handing out the "Oxford" Capacity Test on exactly the same shade of pink--in hopes that people would think that they'd already received our flyer, or that we were also pro-Scientology. That took a couple minutes to foil, as we swapped to our *orange* flyers, heh!

At one point, someone dressed as a clown came down the street handing out adverts for something. Then he turned back and took a flyer from Artemis. Artemis was somewhat amused. (Elron was a bit of a fibber.)

There were a couple Sea Ogres (an ogre and an ogress). What rank is two stripes with a thin stripe in the middle in their toy navy?

Just before 5pm, the city works people came up the street. Sad to say, but there were a few of our flyers in their bags, but the majority of it was green "Free Dianetics Demonstration Session" and pink OCAs.

And then we finished. I'm not sure how many flyers were handed out, but Gregg had to make a trip to the car to get more. I didn't pass out all that many myself--people seem to be more likely to take them from someone who's just standing with a planted sign. (Especially Gregg doing his newsie speel: "Read all about it! Criminally convicted in Canada. Find out what the Scientology doesn't want you to know, what they are too embarrassed to tell you! Xenu the galactic overlord! Yowsa!")

That's it. Got too much sun, my legs started to cramp by the end, but you couldn't pay me enough to stay away. (Well, you could, but I wouldn't touch Buttnor Bucks with a 50 foot CanadArm.)

I'm looking at the slip for "Free dianetics demonstration session--as seen of TV - 'The Bridge to Clear'" As seen on TV? In other words they bought an infomercial somewhere. And I keep seeing "A Bridge Too Clear"...