A LOUD PICKET!

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

PROLOGUE:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
September 1, 1997.

The Toronto Contingent of the ARSCC* ( *which does not exist) held another Demonstration at the Toronto Org today.

The Demo ran from 2pm to 4:45pm on a fine sunny day.

Demonstrators included Gregg Hagglund, Artemis, D'Artangnan, V-Tech, Nan Maclean and Cerberus.

Leaflet dissemination stats: 450 copies of RXspecial, Dyin' Ethics, and 'The Court's Opinion' were snatched up by passersby.

No major incidents occurred, but some amusing and personally embarassing ( for yours truly ) did.

We were at Cause over the Org again.

Heavy Police initial police presence.

Buttnor complained about my LOUD Picketing.

******************

Report:

After our last Demo/Picket on Aug. 16th I sent a list of complaints to the Metro Police about the conduct of the Co$ Toronto staff under the direction of Al Buttnor during the absence of Police cover.

The Metro Cops responded by mustering a massive show of manpower and gracing our opening moments with a total of three bicycle cops, three beat cops and two Sergeants. The three bicycles and four Police vehicles made it look very much like a raid. Perhaps this is why the Org appeared deserted. Maybe everyone was upstairs manning the shredders and preparing to repel boarders! However, the Org. staff needn't have worried, the horde of Cops was temporary. The duty sergeant parked three Officers on site and kept two B Cops on frequent drop bys for the day.

As our group approached this 'assembly' in Blue, one Sergeant approached me and introduced himself. Apparently the show of force was to demonstrate to the Co$ not to mess with our Demo. Again. Ever.
He also complimented me on my new equipment and as per my (unpublished) request, he was willing to advise me on its lawful and technical use. Since my new piece of hardware was similar to the Police Issue he gave me a quick briefing and then invited me to try it out.

"This is the Toronto Contingent Of the ARSCC, which does not exist, "I said,"....exist..xist..ist..st" echoed off the office building walls.
I lowered the microphone of my new 10 Watt Megaphone and gave the Sergeant a raised eyebrow. He smiled and nodded and said it was ok but he wanted to go up the street a bit and check again. He walked away and headed up Yonge towards Bloor, advising me to give the Megaphone another try when I saw him wave.
As he walked away, I eyed the Toronto Org and the street traffic. The Org was deserted and the street was rather quiet. A lot of people looked kind of sad, sad as I too felt. I had almost decided to pull the plug on this Picket. The sudden tragic death of Lady Di had knocked a lot of people, including me, into a loop.
I glanced up the street and saw the Sergeant wave back at me from about 200 meters.
"Our Last Demo was intefered with by disruptive tactics, including sound. ||| The use of this megaphone is the promised result. ||| You drew it in.. it in..t in... in."
Heads appeared in the upper windows of the Org. The sergeant gave me a thumbs up and started walking back. He gave me a 'repeat' sign and so I obliged." Scientology does not tell the truth. ||| Learn all about the dirty little secret of Scientology: the story of Xenu the Galactic Overlord. ||| Yohsa, Yohsa, Learn all about the criminal history of the Church of Scientology in Canada and all over the World.||| Ahgee Doggie, Buffalo Buffalo. Find out what Scientology doesn't want you to know: that Hubbard taught 'the man on the cross, there was no Christ. And that God was an evil implant of the Galactic Overlord Xenu!...enu!....nu!" More people were in the upper windows of the org.peering down at me and every passerby in eyesight was looking our way.

Gregg and MegaPhone.

And we were at Cause over the Org again.

The first body router/pamphleteer didn't appear for more than 30 minutes. This was a Lady Cosite from our first picket. I hadn't seen her since. She was ignored by the passersby who began sweeping our flyers out of our hands. Some people did take her flyer, but then contemptuously dropped it on the sidewalk ( a big sign of rebuke in Toronto) and grabbed one of ours.

Now, at first the traffic was surprisingly sparse. It being Labour Day, I had experienced huge traffic before in the same area in previous years, so I was a little disappointed. But not for long. What was missing was a large number of the local denizens. What we got was a lot of tourists and out of towners. And traffic picked up considerably by 3 pm. I kept up a consistent but static commentary on the M-phone. I quoted some of OT3 and many of Hubbards most outrageous statements like the Fair Game Policy. By 3:30 pm we were getting low on flyers. There were a lot of people who wanted to talk and more who wanted to listen to discussions. Sometimes I was literally being mobbed for RXflyers! Artemis was getting out a steady traffic of the 'The Court's Opinion' flyer and whenever I saw someone with one I would ask if they wanted the comic book companion and usually they would.

We were getting constant Car and Tour Bus Acks and all the usual acks from passersby.

....Continued.