16 Jul 2000

kaeli_xenu@klis.com

Attending: Gregg, Mike, Kaeli, Zeratul.Cat

We met at our usual location at 10 am.

At 10:45 am, we went to get the signs and flyers and arrived at the Toronto Org by 11am. There were nine of them out there, and the scaffolding and green mesh were still hung.

The green mesh is more or less improper for work it is being used for. Its job is to catch light debris, not to be hung over a scaffolding. The police officer that the Org hired for the day was very visible, and made it very clear that he would not put up with any shouting, pushing, and shoving by anyone. He spoke with each of the picketers, introducing himself. I explained during the June picket, I was shoved up against the scaffolding. He told me that this would not happen anymore. He also spoke to the Toronto Scientologists as well.

In spite of some bull-baiting by Andy Hill, and the insistence of calling me by my first name which I never answer to to start with, since I go by Kaeli, the picket was quieter than the average Toronto pickets I've been in. A few times, Andy Hill and several others were trying to get Zeratul.Cat to talk. In all cases Zeratul.Cat has picketed, he remains silent and expressionless much of the time, with an occasional smirk at a comment.

At 11:30am, we stopped and took a break as the Hare Krishnas paraded down Yonge Street past the Org. It was felt that while the parade was going past, we felt that our protest did not want to get mixed up with their parade, or be used against them. The Hare Krishnas had gone through a period where corruption was prevalent, but they had reformed their organization in all respects. During the parade, we noticed that the Scientologists were still handing out their counter-flyers. Before we returned to picketing, a member of the Hare Krishnas stopped to speak to us. She was a former Toronto Org staff member, who Mike Argue recognized. She could still remember the times they called out, "Hip hip hooray" for LRH.

We broke for lunch at 1pm and returned at 3pm. Again the picket was fairly quiet. At one point, while I was talking to a woman from Japan, who mentioned cults in Japan where some members have been known to kill their parents, one of the Scientologists came out, waving her DA flyer, "these people put pictures of children on the Internet!"

I explained that the Scientologist is hinting that we are child pornographers. The woman read it briefly, and said she knew that the CoS has trained its members to lie. Failing to get the woman to stop talking to me, the same female Scientologist raced back into the Org and retrieved a camera. At that point, the woman backed off, yelling at her, "Don't take my picture!" She waved goodbye to me as she hurried off.

At the end of the picket, we were speaking with a person who had stopped to talk with us about Scientology, laughing about Xenu. Apparently, he had the May 6th 1991 Time Magazine article that I have as well, and was considering photocopying it to give to people.

We all crossed Yonge Street and stopped to chat. The person asked when would we be picketing next and we said, "August 5th", which is a Saturday.

At 4:30pm, we were finished for the day. Before Gregg went home, he was told by his wife that apparently two people were picketing his home. Thanks to the police officer, it was a very quiet and orderly picket.

Kaeli A.
(KoX)
kaeli@klis.com

"In this fateful hour, all heaven with its power, the sun with its brightness, the snow with its whiteness, the fire with all the strength it hath, the lightning with its rapid wrath, the winds with their swiftness, the sea with its deepness, the rocks with its starkness, All these I place, Between myself and the powers of darkness."

Madeline L'Engle, "A Swiftly Twilting Planet"