March 14, 1998 - Gregg Hagglund

Greetings ARSSKETEERS(wdne)!

As advertised on ARS and other places the Toronto Picket was scheduled for our usual start time of 2 pm.

But in a "Birthday Surprise!" move we launched our Picket at 10 AM catching the org completely off guard.

The usual panic phone use ensued.

For the 10 am to 1 pm first half of our picket we had 5 hardy souls in 30F temperatures later followed by a brief but very Xmassy flurry.

Present were Artemis, Deep Wog, myself and new participants Android Cat and (in from Montreal) Cardinal Richelieu.

Traffic was light at first but began to pick up steadily. The Org lame ducked a single underdressed BR Lady.

DSA Al Buttnor had the Org turn up the sound almost immediately on the external speaker so I went to the Megaphone in response.

Soon after the music was cut and Uncle Al came out to confront me about the Megaphone. ( I guess he didn't like my talking about Xenu so much.) He shoved a tape recorder in my face and demanded I cease using the MP. I refused and pointed out it was on the Notice. After repeatedly asking me the same question I finally asked him "What part of the word 'No' don't you understand?" I guess he had an M/U on that. He returned into the org and the music came back on but at a lower level.

I had been told by 52nd Division not to expect on site Police protection today because of manpower demands for a rally and a Parade. But shortly thereafter two Police from 52nd showed as Buttnor had laid a noise complaint. Apparently he was pretty incensed. The Cops listened to me using the MP and told Uncle Al I was within the law.

But they stayed in place because they said tensions were running high in the Org. because we showed early. I pointed out we showed as Noticed and if the Org was unprepared I could understand there upset but that was life. This earned me a couple of grins.

We were at total Cause from 10Am until 1PM, with no signifcant opposition.

Most well received were both the 5th edition of our local ARSCC(wdne) SP Magazine 'Dyin'Ethics the Bridge to Total Bankruptcy' (assembled by Artemis) and a new modified Xenu Flyer ( authored by myself).

The new Xenu flyer crammed the OT3 story on the front and dealt with a Major Local Issue on the back about the fact that the Toronto Org sweet-talked a $103,000 per year Property Tax Break from the City in 1996. Property Taxes in Toronto (which is in dire financial straights care of the Province finagling about) are going up drastically. Needless to say this added issue rekindled moral outrage in the hearts of many locals who had come to stoically accept "these freakin'Loons' in their midst. It also didn't help the Org that I spent Friday visiting 100 of the 122 local businesses in the immediate 2 City Blocks and fed them the facts on the Orgs PT break and the Org's Retail and Commissions Policies.

The new line I used was:"Find out what Scientology is Hiding- The Story of Xenu the Galactic Overlord- and how your Property Taxes are subsidizing the Retail Business of Scientology". Now that drew a lot of renewed interest, to day the least!

Both the new flyer and Artemis excellent 5th Edition of 'Dyin Ethics' were hits with a total dissemination of about 400+ on the day. After a very winning morning we broke for lunch. Android Cat had to leave us but the second wave joined us for the advertised time of 2PM to 5 PM. The flurries were over and we did the afternoon with 7 Picketers: Artemis, Deep Wog, myself, V-Tech, Witling, Cardinal Richelieu and another new face: Wulfen.

The local traffic was much increased and the counter body routing was enthusiastic, if somewhat in vain. One blonde Lady BR seemed to be pretty successful until they caught on to the fact that Artemis had put the answers to the OCA and other info about the OCA scam into Dyin'Ethics #5. A lot of people were going in and playing about. Several came out afterwards and told me they were asked to leave after they showed the partial price list I added on the back of the new Xenu Flyer along with the 10% Commission info. Ha! The org will report an increase in OCA stats, but failure rate of suckers sucked should be way up too!<grin>

There were many of all the usual Public Acks and praise, car honks, etc. in a steady stream all day. We pulled the plug at 4:30 as the weather closed in and since the temp. was now 35F or so the looming clouds began to drop some rain on our parade.

We retired to the Duke of Glouscester tired but in high spirits. We decided not to make the trip up to the Ontario Sceince Center for the actual Birthday Event as the set up there made it rather pointless and we had made alternative arrangements to get a fairly accurate Body Count for this event. Of course, I wouldn't want to be on the switchboard at the Metro Toronto Property Tax Assessment Department on Monday.........<grin>

I hope everyone else all over the world had an as uneventful but successful day. Bless you all!