Scientology is a religious institution and exempt from State payroll tax, the High Court ruled unanimously yesterday. It was the first time that the court came head on with the question "What is religion?". All the judges rejected the view that belief in a supreme being was essential to religion. Justices Mason and Brennan, in a joint judgment, stressed the importance of the case in determining fundamental questions of religious freedom in Australia and the extent to which an individual is ...

THE High Court yesterday decided to end God's exclusive reign over the nation's religious affairs, opening the way for many non-mainstream religions to claim the legal status of a church and all the financial and other privileges that go with that status. In a landmark decision handed down in Perth, the Full Court unanimously rejected a narrow definition of religion and moved towards the American judicial view under which Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture and Secular Humanism have been held to be ...

Robert Dardano and Warren Friske were trusted members of the Boston mission of the Church of Scientology in the mid-1970s when they say they were recruited to join a group of other church members intent on carrying out "dirty tricks" against critics and others deemed enemies of the church in this area. The activities of the group included break-ins, the theft of documents, harassment and misrepresentation, according to sworn testimony by Dardano in Florida last year and affidavits from him and ...

A VERY old and pure form of tax avoidance favoured by governments throughout the western world came before the High Court yesterday. The device is not available to individuals. First they must band together and become recognised as a religion, before they can take advantage of the tax exemptions which are provided by legislatures for religions, or religious organisations, or religious bodies. The case before the High Court concerned the Church of the New Faith, as it is known in Victoria, ...

The Victorian Government will go ahead with plans to lift bans on Scientology despite a ruling yesterday by the State Full Court that the Scientology organisations could not claim to be a religion. The Minister for Health, Mr Roper, said that the court's ruling would have no impact whatsoever on the State Government decision to amend the Psychological Practices Act which has outlawed the Church of Scientology since 1975. He hopes to have the amendment passed by the end of the ...

MELBOURNE — The Victorian Full Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Church of the New Faith, practising Scientology, was not a religion or a religious institution. The Full Court unanimously dismissed an appeal by the organisation against a ruling by Mr. Justice Crockett in December, 1980, that it was not a religious organisation. Mr Justice Crockett had dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Commissioner of Payroll Tax not to grant the church an exemption from tax as a religious ...

MELBOURNE: The Victorian Full Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Church of the New Faith, practising scientology, was not a religion or a religious institution. The full court unanimously dismissed an appeal by the organisation against a ruling by Mr Justice Crockett in December 1980 that it was not a religious organisation. Mr Justice Crockett was dismissing an appeal against a decision by the Commissioner of Payroll Tax not to grant the organisation an exemption from tax as a religious organisation. ...

SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals on Monday overturned a jury's finding that the Church of Scientology had committed fraud against a former member and intentionally caused her emotional distress. The court nevertheless ruled that Martin Samuels, a Portland minister of the church, and the church's mission in Oregon should be retried on the fraud count. However, the jury will be allowed to look at only those claims made against the church that were of a secular nature, the ...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court Monday let stand the convictions of two former leaders of the Church of Scientology, rejecting their final efforts to contest the legality of the FBI's search of the church's Los Angeles offices in 1977. The court's action apparently clears the way for Mary Sue Hubbard - the one-time "controller" for the church group and wife of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who was not charged in the case—to begin serving a five-year prison term on a ...

Mitchell Hermann and Francine Vannier now have a choice: They can talk to a federal grand jury about the Church of Scientology or they can go to jail. The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to hear appeals by the two Scientologists of their contempt of court convictions. The contempt finds were issued in June 1981 by U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman in Tampa after Hermann and Mrs. Vannier refused to testify before the grand jury about the church's activities in Clearwater. ...

Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard told his followers early on that they should use civil litigation to harass, silence or even to destroy opponents. From the defamation suits filed four years ago by Scientology's Calgary, Edmonton and Old Strathcona Missions, however, seven weary but very determined Albertans last week emerged unsilenced and undestroyed. The $100,000 lawsuits against them (the figure, incidentally, specifically recommended by scientologist Hubbard) were thrown out of court without coming to trial. Even so, lawyers say, ...

EDMONTON (CP) — A Church of Scientology defamation action against seven people has been dismissed in Court of Queen's Bench because the church did not produce $45,000 security to cover costs. The defendants in the action were Lorna Levett, Les Jackman, Brendon Moore, William Reid, Neil Taylor and David Wallace, all of Calgary, and Betty McCoy of Edmonton. Yvette Shank, director of public affairs for the church in Alberta, said yesterday the church did not deposit the security with the court ...

A lawyer representing three jailed Scientologists says he will appeal to the state Supreme Court after losing another bid to free his clients on grounds their imprisonment is illegal. Harold De Young, Philip Deland and Donald White, of the Riverside Scientology mission, have been in jail since Friday for refusing to answer questions before the county grand jury. Attorney Howard Gillingham on Tuesday made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Court of Appeal in San Bernardino to free the three on ...

For the second time, Circuit Judge John S. Andrews has ordered Church of Scientology guardian Douglas Sadwick to appear in court to face possible contempt charges. Friday's order stemmed from Sadwick's continued refusal to cooperate in a criminal investigation of members of the Church of Scientology. On Monday, Andrews sentenced Sadwick to 90 days an jail for contempt of court. Sadwick is appealing the decision. Now Sadwick faces another possible jail sentence for his refusal to answer a series of questions ...

About 100 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation learned on July 6, 1977, that they would be participating two days later in an operation unprecedented in the United States. The notification, described two years later in a Washington court room, said the agents would be raiding offices of an organization that some governments, in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, officially classified as a religion — the Church of Scientology.

Confidential documents from various Ontario Government offices including an attorney-general's communication about police intelligence operations have been found in U.S. Church of Scientology files. The documents were part of the evidence submitted by federal attorneys in the Washington prosecution of U.S. leaders of the cult on charges of conspiring to steal government documents and obstruct justice by cover-ups and by kidnapping an informer. Of 12 indicted, including two in Britain and the informer, nine have been tried, convicted and sentenced by ...

Because they don't have to file annual financial reports with the IRS, unscrupulous sects can — and do — ignore the law with impunity. Let's close this tax loophole HOW CULTS BILK ALL OF US SOME THREE MILLION AMERICANS have joined cult churches in the last decade, a phenomenon attributed to everything from the breakdown of the family to loss of faith in traditional institutions. One thing is certain: these cults could not have experienced their spectacular rise to wealth and ...