June 1, 1998 - Wulfen

The annual American Psychiatric Association convention is being held this year in Toronto, Canada. As with every APA convention, guess who shows up to demonstrate? You got it, the Scientologists! This year, however, someone showed up to counter-picket the Scientologists. Yes, the Toronto branch of the ARSCC (WDNE) put in as many hours as the Scientologists.

It was quite a ride...

The saga started on Saturday, when I got a notification of the picket from Gregg Hagglund. Emails started shooting back and forth. On Sunday, it was determined that only myself and Deep Wog were available. So, the ARSCC (WDNE) made some arrangements..

Just so we had presence (the Scientologists were wearing "Psychiatry Kills" t-shirts), we got ourselves some supplies. Artemis lent his Lisa MacPherson t-shirt and "Scientology Kills" t-shirt. Gregg lent some signs: One with "Lisa MacPherson: KILLED BY HER CHURCH?" and "Is Scientology Practicing Medicine WITHOUT A LICENSE?" (my sign) , the other with "Scientology Processes Use Hypnotism" and "Scientology Boasts of Brainwashing" slogans (Deep Wog's sign). I wore the "Lisa t-shirt, Deep Wog wore the "Kills" t-shirt. Deep Wog also photocopied some flyers: Xenu (who else?) and a condensation of the NYT article on Lisa MacPherson.

My day started off at the unRonly hour of 6:00 AM. Urrrgh. I hate early mornings. I got up, and packed the usual picket supplies. After getting the signs from Gregg, I took the GO (commuter) train in to Toronto. As if it were a pleasant omen for the day, many people tried to read the signs.

In Toronto, I waited for Deep Wog at the corner of Front and University. I laid the signs on the concrete wall of a flowerbed. Five minutes after, I was approached by passers-by (not sure if they were APA delegates). One person asked if I was a Scientologist. I said no, I was opposed to Scientology. I mentioned that my compadre with the day's flyers was coming in a few minutes, however, I did have some old flyers about Scientology. So, I gave them the last (but three) of my Xenu/Criminal Conviction flyers. Not long after they passed, I saw some passing Scientologists, all wearing their t-shirts. How did I know they were Scientologists? One had body routed at the Org when we were picketing, and was holding hands with another. Not definitive evidence, but enough for casual deduction.

At the appointed time, Deep Wog showed up. We then donned our t-shirts and headed down to the Metro Convention Centre. There were already a number of Scientologists on the other side of the road, in the park. Deep Wog headed inside to talk to security, and I stayed outside to attract the attention of a police officer.

Well, I found a police officer, and the head of convention security found us. We had a short discussion about picketing, mainly revolving around non-violent intent. I told them that I had no intention of getting involved in any trouble - at the first sign of it I would run away - applied cowardice being the best policy in that kind of situation. This seemed to put them at ease - I think they hadn't foreseen a counter-demonstration, despite Deep Wog's efforts to verbally notice 52 Division. Eventually Deep Wog joined the conversation. It was finally relsolved that we two would stay by the convention, and the Scientologists could have the other side of the street. Actually, I originally thought that we should be there too, but there turned out to be MANY Scientologists, so I'm glad that we had a road between us and them.

Well, I'll take some time to describe what the Scientologists had on their side of the road. First, there were many of them. I'm no expert in crowd counting, I won't provide numbers. Visually, they covered the sidewalk and a lot of the front part of the park across the road from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The Scientologists had signs (black text on white, 1 sided), balloons, and plastic blow-up bags of money as props. There was also a big banner (Psychiatry Kills slogan? How soon I forget..), a podium, mikes and speakers. There was one megaphone in evidence, and several video and still cameras. To top it all off, there were two ladders that the video camera operators used to take elevated shots of the crowd. (As an aside, I worried about the people on the ladders.. They never had anyone steadying the base.) Yes, the Scientologists were loaded for bear.. or psychiatrists, as it were.

Well, Deep Wog and me started our picket, and we discovered something interesting.. Our flyers were very, very popular.. We were giving them out like they were going out of style. As well, the number of positive comments and smiles was simply amazing. I was carrying the flyers in my backpack, and often I found myself kneeling on the ground, frantically feeding Deep Wog some more flyers. More often than not, I couldn't get back up until I'd given out some more flyers to the people who had lined up for them while I was reloading our packets. Yep, all we had to do was stay still and a standing wave of entheta spread out from us..

Finally, it happened: I discovered that the flyers that I'd given Deep Wog were the last Lisa flyers I had. What was the time? 10:15 in the morning!! Yep, only 75 minutes and we were already running low.. So, I grabbed a copy and *ran* to the local copy shop.

A funny thing happened to me while I was down in the underground mall (under the CBC building). I saw "Rev." Al Buttnor (OSA), wearing his t-shirt and an official CCHR tag. He saw me, and we spent the next 30 or so minutes staring at each other off and on. I hope he saw the copy shop employees laughing at the Xenu flyer I gave them. ;-)

45 minutes and 500 Lisa flyers later I was back, and the Scientologists were singing. The same verse, over and over and over and over and over. Yes, it got wearing after a while. Deep Wog told me that they'd started a while after I left. I kept an eye on my watch, and it turned out that they would chant and march for 30 minutes, then change chants and keep marching (in a big circle). They kept this up for the whole picket..

The Lisa flyers turned out to be popular again.. As well, people would walk up to Deep Wog and myself and ask if the people across the road were Scientologists. They also had questions about the slogans the Scientologists were shouting - about drugs, etc. At one point I found myself inside a group of MD's, explaining to them Scientology's stand on drugs. I pointed out that they were against psychiatric drugs of any kind. the question was asked, "How about for epilepsy?" I reiterated my point, and said that no, drugs for epilepsy were not allowed in Scientology. The same question was asked about Schizophrenia, and I gave the same answer, with the caveat that Scientology is about helping the able to become more able, and wouldn't accept anyone with a psychiatric history in any event. I also mentioned the engram thing.. At that point they all took Lisa flyers and went into the convention.

On the other side of things, I had a brief conversation with two patient advocates. The upshot of the discussion was that I explained Scientology's preoccupation with psychiatry as stemming from the fact that LRH thought psychs evil, and that Scientology wanted to supplant psychiatry. I pointed out, and they concurred, that psychiatric science has evolved and psychiatrists can speak freely about it, but Scientologists can't speak freely (and negatively) about Dianetics without getting ethics checked or RPF'ed. Another woman gave me her card and asked how she could get involved (in the ARSCC {WDNE}, I think), was there a phone number to call? I told her that I wasn't going to give out my phone number where Scientologists could hear it. She replied that she wanted a group number. I told her that there was no organized group, just individuals. Eventually, I told her to look up Scientology on the net, and email a critic with her city.. sooner or later she would find some picket info.

Now, if you're looking for strange, here's strange. Everybody who pickets the Co$ surely remembers getting there picture taken.. Well, this event had a twist. Yes, I had my picture taken by Scientologists (that I didn't recognize). However, I also had my picture taken by many APA delegates!! They were taking souvenir snaps of the Scientologists, and took some of me. The really odd part came when people started wanting their picture with Deep Wog and me.. Yep, you heard it here. The Toronto contingent of the ARSCC (WDNE) were tourist attractions. :-)

Not only were we tourist attractions who handed out many leaflets, but if the people kept their leaflets, then they are going to all corners of the world. We gave leaflets to people from Canada, the US, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, (South?) Korea, South Africa.. There were some others, but I can't remember them all. Yep.. the Lisa MacPherson story from the NY Times is going global...

Speaking of global, I had quick chats with some of the aforementioned delegates. The doctor from Germany had of course heard of Scientology, we had a quick chat about that. A lady from Florida said that Clearwater was slowly changing for the worse under the cult's influence. I ended up talking in my somewhat broken French to one Argentine woman, who translated to Spanish for her friend. One woman from the US said that her two brothers were in Scientology, and were completely round the bend..

The press also came and filmed the Scientology protesters. Surprise: I gave two press interviews. One was to a guy with a notebook (not computer), and the other was a standup for CTV News. ( I didn't give my real name.. it may lessen my credibility, but I am not giving out my real name where Scns can catch it.) Did anyone watch the CTV News on Monday or Tuesday? I don't watch TV except for Simpsons, so I don't know if they used the clip.

Well, around 11:30 I was holding both signs, and Deep Wog was using up his film to take some snaps of the Scientologists. I noticed that suddenly there were a lot of police around.. my count was 4 horse mounted police, 8 or 10 bicycle mounted police, and numerous standard officers. Being that this is never a good sign at a demonstration, I told Deep Wog that I was going to ask just what was going on. Turns out that an officer had already told him that someone had overheard the Scientologists planning to try and get inside the convention. Well, as this would have taken them right through where we were picketing.. argh. So, I looked for a place to hide, if need be.

In the meantime (the Scn demo was scheduled to break up at 12:30) some Scientologists came over to this side of the street - one guy on a ladder with a camera, some kids, and one other (he comes later). Never one to miss an opportunity, I offered the kids some Lisa flyers. They took two; one wasn't read, the other girl read a bit, laughed, tore up the paper and threw it on the ground. (I cleaned up.) Hey, I didn't write this stuff. Even so, it's disturbing to see a lack of critical thinking skills like that..

This is also the time that I gained a lot of sympathy for what demonstrators in the US have to go through. The last guy started following me around. I had a case of deja vu.. My very own OSA shadow? Wow, I'm moving up in the world.. I asked him if he was following me, and he replied that he wouldn't want to be near me or something like that (loud Scn chanting spoiled the effect somewhat). I asked him if he would like a Lisa or Xenu flyer, and he said "I wouldn't want anything with lice on it." Well.. I walked over to Deep Wog (with my shadow, of course), and showed off my newest "body Scientologist". Deep Wog recommended calling security, which DW did. The head of MTCC security had a brief chat with the guy, and he left us alone. I saw him later, in a group of delegates. Didn't look like he was winning the argument.

(As an aside, after the end of the picket a fat old Captain Lou Albano Scn clone took my picture as I was having my picture taken with a delegate.. Do you suppose I'm SP pinup of the month at Flag? hehe)

(Another aside.. Our Canadian Scientologists are much tamer than these imports. There were Scns from Germany, the US, etc. Is it something about Canada? Perhaps that legal precedent that a crime committed by a Scientologist for the benefit of the Co$ is to be considered a crime "of" the Co$? hehehe)

Well, the Scn protest ended.. and the police presence tightened up a bit. Two police and one security guard were posted near each entrance to the MTCC, and a ragged line of police stood between the road and the park the Scientologists were occupying. They dispersed over 45 minutes, with no problems.

Deep Wog and me had fries from the cart, and then went off to home and work for some (comparative) well-deserved rest.

One last thing.. Were any Scientologists who read this NG there yesterday? Do you have any thoughts to add to what I've written? Picket reports of your own, perhaps?

In the Canadian spirit: Have a nice day, eh?