July 1, 2000 - Kaeli

Present: Gregg Hagglund, Dave Palter, AndroidCat, Mike Argue, Zeratul^Cat and Kaeli Andersen.

Zeratul^Cat and I arrived at our usual meeting place. We were early, so I sat down while Zeratul^Cat went to get some beverages. While I was waiting for Z (short for Zeratul^Cat) Mike Argue, Gregg Hagglund, and Dave Palter showed up.

We stayed there for about fifteen minutes or so, then we went to Gregg's car to retrieve our picket signs and flyers.

Gregg informed 51 Division (Toronto Police) that we were about to do a picket, and we waited for 10 minutes after the call to give the police perhaps enough time to show up. It was Canada Day, after all and they were busy at any rate.

We then arrived at the Org and began our picket. The Org still had their scaffolding there.

One of the staff members, Mario, was extremely upset, and I could hear him saying that we should have let them know first. Within an hour or so, more Scienos came along, passing out their own flyers.

Not surprisingly, I got my first look at Peter Ramsay at this picket. Gregg called to me, "Kaeli? This is Peter Ramsay." I looked. From what I saw he appears to be a thin, white haired man, barely taller than I am. Mr. Ramsay apparently said that in September, they would picket Mrs. Hagglund's school where she taught, and Gregg caught that on video. A FSM, with a stronger accent than mine (I could not identify the nationality) was handing out the flyers, calling out, "Look at these people opposing freedom of speech..this is what these people did").. which is fairly libelous in itself when I took a look at a flyer that someone else dropped on the ground (I tried getting one from her after a break, but she held them away from me). It pretty much insinuated we were child pornographers, we were part of a hate group, etc, etc. I countered back, calling out, "Scientology doesn't want you to hear both sides of the story!"

Again not surprisingly, this fine advocate of freedom of speech came right up to me and said into my face, "SHUT UP!!"...LOL. If it wasn't so pathetic, it would be funny.

She began accusing me of harassment when one person began approaching me. She cut them off as we were about to speak to each other. I started laughing. "This is freedom of speech? An advocate of freedom of speech?"

This FSM continued to cut me off from anyone who tried approaching me, even if they didn't want to talk to her. At one point, she was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, between the scaffolding. A group of people were pretty much unable to move and were her captive audience for a minute or too until one of them yelled at her, "Jesus Christ, get out of the way and let us through!!"

When we finished the picket at 3 o'clock, we headed to our lunch area for some brew and fries. We were there for an hour and a half or so, then afterwards, we decided to see whether or not they were still body routing outside.

The Toronto Org had hung a green material over the scaffolding, hiding the front door of the Org from across the street and from the street itself. Gregg was calling it, "Classic Clearwater tech" and he decided to get a piece of the material to give to the Toronto Fire Department to test for flammability.

I crossed the street with him, in case there would be problems. Gregg cut out a piece of the material.

Within seconds, a staff member rushed out, yelling, "What are you doing?" "Whatever I want with it.. I will take this to the Fire Department and see if this material is highly flammable." The man began yelling at Gregg and then, poked him in the chest, shoving him backwards. Gregg called out, "You assaulted me, mister!" The man proceeded to run inside the Org.

By this time the two women who were body-routing came out and started making comments about how Gregg was drunk, how he was crazy, and that he was acting irresponsibly. Gregg asked, "where did you get this material from?" "It's ours," one said, then the other said, "No, we rented it."

"Well, " Gregg said, "Tell that company you got this from they are going to get a call from the Fire Department regarding this. This is highly flammable material."

While this was going on, I took a piece of the material in my hands, and as a test, touched it lightly with a lit cigarette. It began charring and melting away. The charred part was extremely warm.

For what it's worth, I think it was proven that the material is highly flammable. Gregg called 51 Division to report the incident, and mentioned the material hanging over the scaffolding, mentioning that it was flammable. I attempted calling the Fire Department later, however their office was closed for the holiday and for any emergency to dial 911. Since this wasn't an emergency, I decided to wait til Monday or Tuesday to contact the FD.

Another day :-) and Happy Canada Day to all Canadians here.

Kaeli@klis.com