24 Jun 2000

Kaeli <kaeli@klis.com>

Picketers: Alan Barclay, AndroidCat, Dave Palter, Mike Argue, Zeratul_Cat, Kaeli.

We met outside the Starbucks' cafe at their patio chairs. Zeratul_Cat and I showed up rather early (9:30am) and waited outside. At 10 AM we would have gone to the Starbucks, or failing that, would have gone nearby the Toronto Org to wait for the others.

As it was, Alan joined us outside, followed by Mike and David.

AndroidCat joined us about 10 minutes later, and we headed to AndroidCat's car to retrieve the picket signs and flyers. We noticed the light scaffolding in front of the Org, but couldn't see any work that was being done on it. We planned to picket straight through from 10am to 2pm, as the Gay Pride parade was today, and the procession would lead in front of the Org. We decided later to break for lunch at 1pm and come back to picket between 2pm and 3pm.

There was the usual group of suspects.. Dirty Dan, the Shrew, Andy Hill, and several others I do not know. Dan was staring at me (giving me TR-0) throughout most of the morning, as I handed out flyers and spoke to Alan, who was across from me.

AndroidCat and Mike were near the intersection of Yonge and St Mary's, near where the police officer were. Zeratul_Cat endured the endless taunts of both the Shrew and Dirty Dan as he walked up and down with his sign. He ignored (not/is'ed) them :-)

Dan returned to give me some more TR-0, which I ignored. I felt like he was trying to bait me, and I'm not going to play. Finally at one point, he came right up to where I was and pushed me against the scaffolding with his back. If the scaffolding was not there, it was very likely I would have landed up being pushed right into Yonge Street, which is an extremely busy Toronto street. I called out, "Excuse me, Dan" a few times before Alan suggested he and I switch sides. We changed sides, and Dan again headed in my direction. Alan came between me and Dan, who bumped Alan's sign a few times and even picked him up physically in front of me to get him out of his way so he could physically intimidate me some more.

He gave up when Alan raised his voice louder, to attract the attention of the police officer. During the rest of the morning, the Shrew and Andy Hill came over to where me and Alan were, commencing to make comments on Alan's long hair (tucked under his shirt), about his Scottish accent, suggesting he needs a speech therapist. Then they proceeded to pick on me, about my anxiety disorder, the medication I'm taking to control it, comments on how nervous I was, and to look at my eyes to see them flickering. (I have a pollen allergy, I wear rigid contact lenses, and furthermore, there was a smog alert in Toronto. Go figure as to why I was blinking rapidly.) I could hear them making comments about my nose pierce, asking why I was so nervous, "Kaeli is a nervous girl," I heard one of them say.. (gee thanks, but I'm older than a girl), and asking what psych hospital did I meet Alan in? They also made fun of my own accent, which sounds like as if it has a light French Canadian lilt.

We broke for lunch at 1pm, as decided, and returned at 2pm. There were less of the scientologists there.. one or two were handing out their own leaflets. As the sidewalk became more and more heavy, we stopped right at 3pm, and returned to AndroidCat's car. Alan had five hundred and fifty flyers in the morning, and we were down to approximately fifty at 3 o'clock.

A normal day :-)
We'll be back.. we don't go away :-)

Kaeli@klis.com