A former top Scientologist testified yesterday his intelligence office had copies of Ontario cabinet documents stored in a secret hideaway code-named "The Garden." Emile Gilbert, former executive director of the Church of Scientology of Toronto, told a jury yesterday "The Garden" contained 40 or 50 filing cabinets of intelligence files on Scientology's targets. "We had all kinds of files," Gilbert said, "some from Premier Bill Davis' cabinet meetings." Gilbert also said the agents had amassed so much material dealing with the ...

The jury in the Scientology trial yesterday heard the church's spy network extended far beyond the four government agencies they're charged with infiltrating. The Church of Scientology of Toronto and five Scientologists are standing trial on five counts of criminal breach of trust in connection with "agents" planted in the RCMP, the OPP, Metro Police and the Ontario attorney general's office during the mid-1970s. But yesterday, during his fifth day on the stand, a former top Scientologist admitted their "target list" ...

Church of Scientology intelligence officers in the 1970s were "complete zealots" prepared to use illegal means to attack critics, a former official has testified. "Within Scientology, we were completely indoctrinated and did believe that everything we did was 100 per cent right. Our minds were completely altered," Bryan Levman told an Ontario Court, general division, jury. Testifying in return for immunity from prosecution, Levman said he thought at the time it was justified in having "plants" infiltrate Metro police and other ...

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY sues Time Warner for libel. The church seeks $416 million in punitive damages for an April 1991 cover story in Time magazine, a unit of Time Warner Inc. The article called the church a "Mafia-like" cult and alleged criminal activities by its leaders. The suit alleges that a biased reporter was put on the story and that the article was false and defamatory. A spokesman for Time, based in New York, said the magazine stands by the article ...

In the summer of 1973, dedicated Scientologist Bryan Levman left the yacht of church founder L. Ron Hubbard with a new title and a mandate he believed allowed him to infiltrate police agencies and steal government files. For three years, Levman oversaw a series of covert intelligence operations as deputy guardian for Canada, aimed at attacking the "enemies" of Scientology, founded by Hubbard in the mid-1950s. Levman left the church in 1976 in some disillusionment — "it didn't deliver what it ...

The jury in the Scientology trial yesterday heard evidence about that group's infamous "Fair Game Law" which authorized attacks on their enemies. Testifying for his third day, Scientology's former Deputy Guardian for Canada, Bryan Levman, said the Fair Game Law and other policies were the basis for a world-wide campaign of spying and theft. The Church of Scientology and five members are on trial for criminal breach of trust in connection with a spy network that planted agents in the RCMP, ...

Church of Scientology "plants" infiltrated Metro police and the Ontario Provincial Police and succeeded in obtaining copies of investigators' files, a trial has been told. A church member also obtained a file from the attorney-general's office by telephoning a central registry, pretending to be a government lawyer and sending a phony secretary to pick it up, witness Bryan Levman testified. "It was considered a big win. Everybody was very happy," Levman testified yesterday. He added that a Scientology plant later obtained ...

Scientology engaged in worldwide break-ins and espionage because its founder believed he was the focus of a global conspiracy, court heard yesterday. At least 12 police forces and government agencies in Canada were targeted for penetration by Scientology spies in the mid-1970s, Bryan Levman, a former top Scientology official, testified. Levman, testifying under immunity, said L. Ron Hubbard, a former science fiction writer who founded the organization, believed mental health professions were behind a conspiracy to destroy Scientology in concert with ...

The former head of Scientology's Canadian intelligence network has identified one of his underlings as being responsible for "running" agents the church had planted in several police and government agencies. Bryan Levman was testifying yesterday at the criminal trial of the Church of Scientology of Toronto and five Scientologists. Levman said defendant Jacqueline Matz "ran the agents" who got jobs in the mid-1970s with the RCMP, the OPP, Metro Police and the attorney-general's office in order to pass information back to ...

A bewildering array of jargo and termnology characterize the first day of testimony at the trial of the Church of Scientology's Toronto chapter and five of its members on breach of trust charges. The opening witness, Bryan Levrnan, left Mr. Justice James Southey of Ontario Court, general division, confused and frustrated as he tried to explain the organization's complicated management structure. Southey stopped the proceedings several times to ask the crown and the witness to slow down so he could complete ...

The Church of Scientology of Toronto and five adherents are on trial on charges they ran a spy network that infiltrated three police forces and the attorney-general's office. A jury yesterday heard Crown attorney James Stewart outline a spy network that saw members of the church spiriting files out of police and government buildings for copying. The five counts of criminal breach of trust faced by Scientology and the five co-accused stem from activities alleged to have occured from 1974 to ...

The church says it will move some residents of Hacienda Gardens to satisfy the Clearwater building code. CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology has been cited by city building officials for overcrowding in apartments. In recent inspections, city officials determined that 34 apartments were overcrowded at Hacienda Gardens, a complex at 551 N Saturn Ave. used mostly for church staff. James Bond, the church's director of renovations, said some of the residents would be moved to different apartments, so that no ...

Green Valley: Under the proposal, 250 students would board at the campus. A county spokesman says approval of a permit would be based on land-use issues. The Church of Scientology is seeking permission from Los Angeles County to open a boarding school for 250 students on the site of a former juvenile detention camp near Green Valley. The proposal has worried some of the 1,200 residents in the rural community, who voiced concerns about it at a public meeting Monday night. ...

Everyone seems to have a plan to assist the citizens of the former Soviet Union, and the CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY is no exception. For the past month, journalism students at the 237-year-old Moscow State University have been studying in the newly renovated L. Ron Hubbard Reading Room. Scientology propaganda in dozens of languages lines the walls, and video equipment is available. Pictures of Hubbard decorate the corridors, along with a bronze bust of "The Founder." Students, who have only the vaguest ...

WORRIED town clergy have issued a warning on the controversial church of Scientology. More than 2,000 leaflets have been sent out with parish magazines warning people to be wary about scientology and dianetics. And clergymen say they are available for help and independent advice on problems caused by the cult. Felbridge vicar the Rev Stephen Bowen said the Ieaflet had been a co-operative effort by several of the town's churches because of concern over the effects of scientology. He said: "I ...

The Church of Scientology of Toronto Inc. and five members pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of breach of trust yesterday before a panel of 200 prospective jurors. The charges, Mr. Justice James Southey explained to the panel, arise from allegations Scientologists got jobs with the RCMP, the OPP, the attorney general's office and Metro Police so they "could act as a spy or a plant." These "spies", Southey said, are alleged to have "obtained information for the church and passed ...

The highest libel award in Canadian history just got sweeter for a top crown attorney. In a ruling yesterday, a judge rejected the Church of Scientology's bid to slash the record $1.6 million damage award for libelling Crown Attorney Casey Hill. Instead, Mr. Justice Douglas Carruthers ordered the church and lawyer Morris Manning, a co-defendant, to pay pre-judgment interest to Hill on a portion of the damages, calculated at 10 per cent a year since 1985, when the lawsuit was launched. ...

Canada's costliest libel loss became even costlier yesterday when an Ontario Court judge not only confirmed a $1.6-million jury award but tacked on legal fees and about $560,000 in interest. In a written decision, Mr. Justice Douglas Carruthers rejected arguments by lawyers for the Toronto-based Church of Scientology and lawyer Morris Manning that he should reduce the jury award to S. Casey Hill on the grounds that it was unreasonably high. Judge Carruthers of the Ontario Court's General Division said he ...

The Worldwide Institute of Scientology Enterprises has sued other critics in the past, but now they are taking on a religious group for the first time. "I just don't think they realize potentially what kind of Pandora's box they are opening here," says Craig Branch, southeast director of Watchman Fellowship (WF), one of the groups being sued. "One of the questions is whether Christian organizations have the right . . . to publicly speak out against groups that are in conflict ...

PETROLIA, Humboldt County — The people who have been allowed to see the colossal tube that's buried in a velvety green hill just up the road from Petrolia say it's the strangest thing they've ever laid eyes on. And the most mysterious. The huge, pipe-shaped vault is as wide and high as the cabin of a Boeing 747. It is more than 140 feet longer than one of the jumbo jets. Disciples of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of what ...