A SURPRISE PICKET

Picketing the Church of Scientology© since May 10, 1997, for Objectionable Management Practises.

Toronto Ontario Canada. June 7, 1997.

On Saturday June 7, 1997 from 2pm to 5pm an Information Picket
was held at the Toronto Org of the Co$ on Yonge St.

The Picket came as a total surprise to the Org.

Subject: Toronto Picket Report
by 'Artemis'.

Part Two:

I was equipped with a twelve page/six sheet flyer, printed on a delightful salmon colour stock. I had approx. 240 copies, and Gregg had 500 copies of the RX on white.

We were equipped with the three signs from before, and of course our Lisa t-shirts. I also carried a small supply of Xemu leaflets in German and French, Lisa's autopsy report and single copies of other reference stuff.

On site, our first encounter was with the Reverend Al Buttnor, our favorite OSA 'clam'. Asks Gregg if he has the picket permit (of course we do) and if we have a copy with us (We don't, cause we don't require to).

Notably absent from the previous pickets is the requests for our names.

Rev. Buttnor immediately grabbed the phone, presumably phoning for reinforcements. Must have been cottage country weekend, as there wasn't any noticeable increase in the number of 'clams' around the org.

A quick recap, on the May 10th picket we had 2 photographers, 1 videographer, plus approx. 4 who only passed out leaflets & other anti-picket reactions.

Today, we had one sole photographer, no anti-picket leaflets and only a total of three body routers active in the whole three hours. In fact one of those (the black guy mentioned above), spent at least 15 minutes talking to someone who was apparently a friend of his, trying desperately to ignore our leaflets in the friends hands.

After approx. 45 minutes, Miss U, who was convinced she would remain a lurker, decided to become an active picketer and helped me give out orange leaflets.

These leaflets were flying out of my hands.
I'd had a minor sore throat earlier in the week, and because of this I didn't want to do much shouting, but still I had people ripping them out of my hands.