TVA investigates scientology

Narconon exposed in Quebec

Le Soleil has published a devastating report about the fraud and abuses taking place at Narconon Trois-Rivières.

This is a translation of the report. The original French version can be found here and here.

Intoxicated by Scientology

by Marc Allard
Le Soleil

(Quebec City) Since he's been out of Narconon, David Edgar Love hardly gets any sleep. He has flashbacks about the traumatic experiences he says he experienced in the Scientology detox centre in Trois-Rivières, and sometimes he becomes so anxious that he loses his breath.

In November, a doctor at the Cité de la Santé hospital in Laval diagnosed him with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Mr. Love now consults a psychiatrist in a Montreal hospital who was recommended by Mike Kropveld, the director of Info-Cult, and he tries not to appear too drowsy at his new job.

Sitting in a small restaurant in a glum corner of Montreal's Lachine district, where he found a small apartment, Mr. Love, 57, recounts his experience with Narconon, where he was a client from December 2008 to May 2009 and an employee until the end of October.

Revealed for the first time today in Le Soleil, his testimony about the Quebec detoxification centre connected with the Church of Scientology adds to a series of disclosures that have shaken this religious organization in various places throughout the world in recent months.

At his side, David Love has a briefcase full of documents to support a complaint he filed with Quebec's Human Rights Commission and a separate complaint filed with Quebec's Labour Standards Commission, which are investigating his allegations.

During the 11 months he spent at Narconon, Mr. Love says he was the victim of harassment, threats and many other violations of his rights. He also says he did not receive a large portion of his salary.

In a letter dated December 21, 2009, the law firm representing Narconon, Heenan Blaikie, offered David Love $2,550.29 on condition that he not share his story with the media. Mr. Love declined the offer.

"They will not silence me," he says. "I have rights and I intend to have my rights respected."

By telephone, Le Soleil reached the director of Narconon Trois-Rivières, Marc Bernard, who declined to give his version of the facts. "I have nothing to say, I have no comment," he said. "No comment."

Omertà

A resident of British Columbia, David Love arrived at Narconon shortly before Christmas in 2008. He was addicted to methadone and cocaine and had decided to follow the rehab program at the detox centre in Trois-Rivières, where he knew an employee.

During the first weeks of his treatment, Mr Love says he was surprised by the omertà that reigned at Narconon about Scientology. He remembers hearing an employee interrupt a discussion among a group of clients he was in, by issuing an order: "You are not allowed to speak about Scientology when you are at Narconon»

The employee later explained to him that Narconon wanted to avoid the subject so as not to scare clients, their parents, or the "sponsors", who pay more than $20,000 for the treatment, a majority of whose clients are English speakers from the United states and English Canada.

On its Quebec website, Narconon presents itself as a "non-profit program of rehabilitation and detoxification" and boasts of having 50 centres in 21 countries. There is no mention anywhere that Narconon is part of the Church of Scientology.

For Paul Schofield, who was a member of the Church of Scientology for more than 20 years before becoming "case supervisor" at the Sydney and Melbourne Narconon centres and then director of Narconon for all of Australia, there is no doubt that Narconon is a satellite of the Church of Scientology.

"Aside from the withdrawal phase, all the courses you take at Narconon are almost identical to those you take at the Church," he says, "Except that when you take them at the church, they only cost you about a quarter or a third of the price."

While he was a client at Narconon, David Love says he was forced to memorize passages from books by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction author who founded the Church of Scientology and wrote the 8 books on which the Narconon program is based.

"Any book that might interfere with the mind-altering and brainwashing process is prohibited and confiscated," says David Love.

In addition to reading books by Hubbard, David Love also had to practice regularly the "training routines" prescribed by Scientology's grand master.

He remembers one routine that consisted of sitting for long hours while staring at another client without saying a word and without moving. There was another similar routine in which he was told not to react while his partner bombarded him with insults.

Extreme Purification

The 57-year-old man also remembers the training routine involving an ashtray. "I had to yell at an ashtray, 'Stand up!' then 'Sit down!' until it obeyed by itself," he said. "But since I was unable to find the right tone, I had to lift the ashtray by myself over and over." "After all these training routines," says Love, "I'm lucky not to be insane."

To help addicts overcome their dependence, Narconon also requires that they strictly follow an intense vitamin and sauna treatment which Scientologists call the "Purification Rundown" and which is also provided by the Church of Scientology of Quebec City at a cost of $2,000.

For two weeks, David Love said he had to spend almost four hours a day in a sauna and swallow large amounts of vitamins and minerals each day. He recalls having had, among other things, to take a lot of niacin, a vitamin (B3) used to reduce a person's cholesterol level.

In a July 17, 2004 interview with the Journal de Trois-Rivières posted on the detoxification centre's website, the director of Narconon Trois-Rivières, Marc Bernard, described the virtues of niacin for expelling drugs from fat cells.

"The toxins remain trapped in fatty tissues for several years," Mr. Bernard explained. "When they are released, this is what addicts call flashbacks."

Asked about this practice, Dr. Lise Archibald, of the Ubald-Villeneuve Rehabilitation Centre in Quebec City, told Le Soleil that she has never read anything about the benefits of niacin for drug addicts.

A toxicology specialist at Quebec's National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ), pharmacist Lyse Lefebvre, also has never heard of niacin as an aid to combat drug addiction. However, she warns that consuming too much vitamin B3 may cause digestive problems, aggravate asthma, lead to a certain form of arthritis attack, and cause redness and itching.

Health Canada recommends a maximum of 500 mg of niacin per day. Clients of Narconon and Scientologists who follow the "Purification Rundown" ingest up to 5,000 mg per day," says David Love.

"The vitamin and sauna treatment was far from pleasant for the clients of Narconon," recalls Mr. Love. "It was horrible. People were sick. They vomited and had diarrhea."

Like a military base

During his rehabilitation, Mr. Love wanted to leave the Trois-Rivières detox centre to return to his family in British Columbia. But he says that Narconon refused to give him his wallet and his identity papers, even though he requested them more than once.

Except in special cases, Quebec law prohibits forcing drug addicts to continue treatment, which is to be followed on a voluntary basis.

Mr. Love recalls that, instead of giving him his papers, he was sent to the "ethics officer", who argued that he should stay longer.

"Many students want to leave and try," he says. "Some even manage to leave and set out on foot along along the road, but the ethics officer is called and a car is sent to recover them and bring them back to the Narconon buildings."

David Love said he never witnessed a client being forced to get into a car. Instead, he points out, Narconon calls a student's parents or sponsor and convinces them not to pay the bus or air fare for the student.

Every day, adds Mr. Love, Narconon's staff closely monitors the comings and goings of their customers. "It's like a military base," he says. "There is security, they have radios. They check on you every 20 minutes to know where you are."

Clients turned into employees

Mr. Love is not the only client to have worked at Narconon. About 40% of clients subsequently become employees, according to a statement made in May 2002 by Devinder Luthra, then president of Narconon Canada, at a session of the Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the House of Commons.

While he was an employee, David Love was responsible for contacting former clients of Narconon to compile statistics on the success or failure of the program. He says he received emails from many "exes" who had relapsed and still need help. What he was hearing did not appear to match the 70% success rate which Narconon boasts about on its website.

Mr. Love says he tried repeatedly to warn his superiors at Narconon Trois-Rivières, but they refused to change their practices.

It was at this point that David Love says he realized Narconon was a "hoax" at the service of the Church of Scientology. "Once I understood and believed it was true," he wrote on a message board operated by Anonymous, an anti-Scientology movement that originated on the Internet, "My eyes were opened to the reality of the lies that I had swallowed."

From the day he resigned, November 3, Mr. Love says he received threats from Sue Chubbs, Narconon's director of production.

With documents to prove it, David Love shows that, among other things, she posted on his FaceBook page the words "Enemy" and "Fair Game". This means, in Scientology jargon, he "may be deprived of property or injured by any means and by any Scientologist."

The church of Scientology, another hard hit

(Québec)Forced abortions, violence, imprisonment, torture, sexual abuses, embezzlement, blackmail: The church of scientology has been accused of commiting all these crimes in the last months, as denunciations from ex-scientologists multiplied in the world.

In Australia, senator Nick Xenophon requested, last november, a public investigation about the Church of Scientology, after receiving numerous letters from ex-employees and high ranking members of the religious organisations, amongst them, Paul Schofield, who spoke with ''Le Soleil''

«From my point of view, it's an organisation with 2 faces», said Nick Xenophon in the australian Senate. «There is the public face of an organisation that pretends to offer to offer support and counsel to it's members, and there is the private face of an organisation that mistreat it's members, targets viciously it's critics and that seems to be fueled by paranoia.»


Beating Staff Members

In the United States, the St. Petersburg Times revealed for the first time in june, accounts from four ex high ranking members of the organisation, that accuse the head of the Church, David Miscavige, of beating frequently his employees.


At the start of the month, the New York Times was publishing an investigation on the difficulty that scientologists encounter when trying to distance themselves from the organisation. To quit the Church of Scientology, the couple in the article affirmed having to sign false confessions about their life and their work, to give the Church thousands of dollars and having to cut any communication with their friends and family that stayed in the Church.

In france, following complaints from 2 ex-members of scientology that said they were defrauded of tens of thousands of euros, the correctional Tribunal of Paris condemned in last october the Church of scientology for ''Organized group fraud''.

In every country, the Church of Scientology accused the ex-members of lying.

Anonymous Montreal November 2009 raid: a resounding success!

On November 7, thirteen of us—including seven newcomers!—braved the chilly weather and held our monthly demonstration against Scientology fraud, crime, and human rights abuses. Here's a video recap of the event.



Our next monthly raid will take place on Saturday, December 5. As usual, we'll be meeting at Rachel and Papineau (the northeast corner of Parc Lafontaine) beginning at 11 am, and proceeding to the Scientology org (Mont-Royal and Papineau) at noon. If you, too, are outraged by Scientology's increasingly desperate attempts to excuse its illegal and unethical activities as being somehow protected by freedom of religion, we invite you to join us. Don't forget your mask!

"What you believe does not mean you are not accountable for how you behave."

When confronted with overwhelming evidence of its abuses and crimes, the tiresome response of Scientology is usually to claim religious persecution. Scientology hides behind aggrandized and, frankly, delusional conceptions of what religious freedom actually means in order to continue its litany of fraud, deception, and crime. On trial in France for organized fraud and unlicensed practice of pharmacy, the Scientology refrain was that they were the victims of a modern-day inquisition.

Any and all claims of religious persecution made by Scientology when its more dubious operations and methods come under scrutiny are red herrings—nothing more nor less.

Such claims are deliberate attempts to derail legitimate inquiry through intentionally disingenuous distraction. Furthermore, likening investigation and prosecution of Scientology crimes to the Holocaust is more than a validation of Godwin's Law. It is sickening, inappropriate, and disrespectful to the victims of the Holocaust and their surviving families. Scientologists are not being herded up and exterminated. What is happening in one country after another is that the corrupt Scientology organization is being exposed, investigated, and being subjected to laws that every organization—religious or otherwise—must follow.

When the Catholic Church was forced to answer for child sexual abuse among its clergy, was this a case of religious persecution? Are priests permitted to systematically break the law, leaving a trail of victims in their wake, and claim immunity from prosecution because they are members of a religious order?

Does outrage at Sharia Law "honour" killings constitute anti-Islam bigotry? Is the fact that such killings are prosecutable crimes in non-Muslim countries mean that Muslims in those countries are being persecuted?

The answer to these questions is a resounding NO. And the same moral and legal principles apply to Scientology. This is irrefutable and immutable.

Scientology variously refers to Anonymous as a hate group, religious bigots, anti-religious extremists, and cyber-terrorists. Such accusations are also red herrings. The goal of Anonymous is to expose the ongoing abuses and crimes within Scientology. We use the Internet as it was intended: to disseminate information to every corner of the world. (And we happen to be very good at this.) It is the unmitigated force of incontrovertible truth, through the unrestrained spread of information, that continues to force Scientology to answer for its crimes.

Do not call us religious bigots, because we are not. Nor are we a hate group, because we do not hate you; rather, what we hate are your crimes and human rights abuses.

Do not cry religious persecution where there is none. We do not care what you believe. We are not protesting your secret (not to mention expensive) "scriptures" that tell the story of how humans became infested with the souls of space aliens who were blown up in volcanoes 75 million years ago by the evil galactic overlord Xenu.

But most importantly, do not assume that your past successes in hiding behind an undeserved cloak of religious freedom will in any way guarantee that you can continue to do so with impunity. It's just not going to work anymore.

On November 17, Australian Senator Nick Xenophon made a speech (PDF here) calling for an investigation of illegal activities of the Church of Scientology in that country. Probably his most succinct assertion, and the title of this blog entry, was that "[w]hat you believe does not mean you are not accountable for how you behave."

This is the case not only for Scientology but any organization and any individual with a modicum of moral fibre. If Scientologists were truly "the most ethical people on the planet," as they claim, then they would understand this moral imperative. It appears they don't, and this will be their downfall.

Remember, remember the Fifth—make that the Seventh—of November

Anonymous Montréal will be celebrating Guy Fawkes Night a couple of days late, but without a bonfire... and during the day, actually.

We'll be having our monthly protest against Scientology's crimes, organized fraud (for which they have recently been convicted several times over in France), and human rights abuses on Saturday, November 7.

We'll be meeting at the corner of Rachel and Papineau (the northeast corner of Parc Lafontaine) at 11 am, after which we'll walk to the Scientology headquarters (Papineau and Mont-Royal) at noon.

We highly suggest that you arrive at the meeting place with your mask already on.

Hope to see you there!

Anonymous Montréal October 2009 raid: a recap

On October 17, Anonymous Montréal held its monthly protest against Scientology fraud (for which—among other offenses—they have been convicted in France) and human rights abuses. Here's a video of some of the day's highlights.



Our next protest will take place on Saturday, November 7. As usual, we'll be meeting at the corner of Rachel and Papineau (the northeast corner of Parc Lafontaine) at 11 am, after which we'll walk to the Scientology headquarters (Papineau and Mont-Royal) at noon.

If you're new to Anonymous and would like to know more about us and the truth about Scientology's ongoing crimes and human rights abuses, we encourage you to visit the following websites:

www.xenu.net
www.whyweprotest.net/en
forums.whyweprotest.net
www.whoisdavidmiscavige.com

The Anonymous Montréal discussion forum is located at:

montreal.roflforum.net/forum.htm

Anonymous Montreal: next protest Saturday, October 17!

Ready for another demonstration against Scientology fraud and abuses?

Our October monthly raid will take place Saturday, October 17. We'll be meeting at the corner of Rachel and Papineau (the northeast corner of Parc Lafontaine) at 11 am, after which we'll walk to the Scientology headquarters (Papineau and Mont-Royal) at noon.

Don't forget your mask!

September 2009 raid: a recap

On a gorgeous late summer day, about a dozen of us—including three newcomers—held our usual monthly protest in front of the Montreal Scientology org. In keeping with our "/b/lackup" theme, most of us wore suits and afro wigs. All in all, it was a pretty laid-back demonstration, but most definitely a success: we distributed hundreds upon hundreds of flyers until we finally ran out!

Here's a video recap of the event.



Our next protest will take place on Saturday, October 17. We'll be meeting at the corner of Papineau and Rachel at 11 am before heading to the Scientology org (Papineau and Mont-Royal) at noon. Hope to see you there!

No scientology dissolution in France

Disturbing news from France:

A hitherto unnoticed change in French law will prevent a court from dissolving the two Scientology organisations charged in the Paris trial, as prosecutors had recommended.

Judges will not be able to follow the prosecutors’ recommendations to shut down two organisations charged in the Paris trial of Scientology thanks to a law passed just before the case was tried.

The law, voted May 12, was part of a package designed to simplify existing legislation. But buried in a long list of measures was one removing the power of judges to order the dissolution of an organisation found guilty of fraud.

The rest of the article is here.

An important message from lawyer Graham Berry

This important message was posted by anti-Scientology lawyer Graham Berry on WhyWeProtest.Net:

I urgently need to hear from everyone who has made a complaint to the F.B.I. about Scientology, or who has provided it with information about Anonymous, to PM or email me with information as to which F.B.I. office, the F.B.I. Agent, Date, Subject and brief description of what information and documents was/were provided.

This is urgently needed in connection with my own communications with the F.B.I. and D.O.J. and a current separate request from the F.B.I.

Graham Berry
grahamberry@ca.rr.com

An Open Letter to a Scientologist from an OT8

Dear Scientologist,

I completed New OT8 in February 1990 after being in Scientology since 1973. During that period I was mainly "public" but did several years as a staff member in Paris Org as Qual Sec. I trained up to be a C/S, FPRD and Confessional auditor and solo auditor. I was a Scientology celebrity as an international fine artist, creating beautiful paintings of "visualized" music. Many Scientologists (thousands) knew me personally from my art tours of orgs and missions in the early 1980s. Samples of my art can be seen at http://www.mpattinson.smugmug.com/

Though you may read about how and why I actually left Scientology on the internet (you would probably have to use a non-Scientologist's computer, however) and see the data at http://www.lermanet.com/michaelpattinson/, I wanted to address a simple letter of "Truth Revealed" to you here. After all, that is the very name of the OT8 level.

As I read the lists of many Scientology staff names and addresses so recently published on the world wide web I was filled with compassion at the fact of your commitmentand devotion to Scientology and its basic aims. I was also a proud trooper for decades and was utterly convinced that Scientology was really everything I read it was and heard it was. Peer agreement was also a strong re-enforcement of my convictions and myunrelenting in-KSW attitude that I applied very well despite itsometimes coming back at me with counter-emotions and counter-efforts.

Like you, I too have made things go right when things looked very bleak. I, too have spent a lot of money on services and donations that I really could not afford. I have done the "yo-yo" exercise and stood and applauded and cheered LRH's photo over and over again at events.

Like you I have also held back the tears of protest and dismay when "handlings" went wrong or were off-target and waited endless frustrating hours in waiting rooms for folders, C/s"s and D of P interviews. I have, maybe like yourself, had serious doubts as to the unexplainable mysterious "outnesses" in the Scientology lines and terminals that seemed to be so quickly smothered, hurried away or blanket-defined as "entheta". I quietly "wondered" (but better not say anything) at seeing the sudden painful hostilities towards and upsetting disappearances of staff members, the sadness of the RPFers or the black hole money pit my money got sucked into so fast.

I have also had the personal wins from auditing, feelings of group ARC in the briefings and in courses in LRH tech, admin and ethics training, though in retrospect I could wish that they had been as permanent as my payments were to purchase them. I have also seen the F/Ns and the VGIs from my pc's and (in cramming) auditors from applying tech. Without those wins along the way I would never have made it all way up the Bridge to New OT8, as you know. Going OT is an uphill battle all the way.

I have been in your position when my own ethics handlings went both well or badly, when conditions were applied both to eventual wins and to the strained "E.P" of satisfying the fixed ideas of tech or ethics terminals who were aiming at a specific result I had to attain. I have
done conditions formulas till they were coming out of my ears, and tons and tons of other ethics, tech and admin applications. I personally knew the Flag Class 12 auditors from the Apollo as I trained with them at Flag, I have known the Int Execs since they were teenagers, I have personally known all LRH's children. I have known and frequented many of the Scientology celebrities too.

I WENT ALL THE WAY UP THE BRIDGE (there is no available level above New OT8).

What happened then is why I am writing this letter. I wish it was not necessary to write this but it is. I firmly believe that Truth is a friend to, and that lies are an enemy of survival. Yes, feel free to investigate what I write about here...

It is truly heartbreaking for me to have to inform you that you have been lied to, and not just in a small way. I am so, so sorry to have to tell you this, but please bear with me.

You have been lied to regarding the "Bridge to Total Freedom" as it does not arrive at Total Freedom. I know this because I have been there and experienced it. OT8 is NOT Total Freedom, yet there is no more Bridge to travel.

You may have wondered why OTs still behave in "strange" or weird ways and still exhibit aberrated behaviors. They are on the big secret missed withhold of not having received what LRH promised. Every non-OT "misses" the withhold.

You have been lied to about O.T.powers. I will not go into any case data or OT level data as it is not necessary, but I can tell you that the advertised and promised O.T powers LRH writes about such as telekinesis (moving objects as a thetan), perfect total recall, "clear" of any and all aberrations, permanently Cause over Life, real-life Cause over MEST, etc are NOT in reality delivered by Scientology (in my direct experience and in that of many others).

You have been lied to about LRH's death, and the lies were criminally false. The "story" about LRH deciding to causatively but regrettably depart his body, go off to research further OT levels, etc. was very likely a pack of lies. The coroner's report found a psychiatric drug
(Vistaril") in LRH's body after death as well as many needle marks. The surrounding circumstances of LRH's death such as a very unkempt body, changing his Will a day before he died, the hurried cremation, the refusal of autopsy, all make for a very suspicious situation. LRH had been hiding out at the Creston ranch under the false name "Jack Mitchell" so as not to be served with lawsuits, as those who knew have revealed.

You have been lied to about LRH's biography, and in many aspects of it, not just a few.

Though this may seem to be shocking enough or upsetting already there are many other big and awful lies you have been told and false data you have been fed. In fact enough false data to fill books which expose and clarify them. Such books as "A Piece of Blue Sky" by Jon Atack, Bare
Faced Messiah by Bent Corydon and L.Ron Hubbard Jr., L.Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?" are full of truths revealed and internal Scientology mysteries unfurled.

The internet is a source for you to explore the truths that hundreds of former Scientologists, some from Int Exec strata, have written and revealed.

Truth, being made of pure Life itself can never be "entheta". It is pure theta, even if shocking in its first impact ;like the sunshine that dazzles the eyes of someone emerging from a deep and dark cavern, having followed a closely taped path to nowhere but blind obedience.

But why, you may ask, not let us down slowly? Well, we who "found out" were not let down slowly and we survived the truth and its powerful re-orientations. So can you.

I invite you to explore the internet and finding your own freeing truths. I ask that you open your eyes and see for yourself. I invite you to see both sides of the Scientology coin.

For example;
http://www.lermanet.com/
http://www.xenu.net/
and other linked sites.

BEWARE of those who say "Do NOT look!" or try to label the truth or me, or other brave ex-members who have the integrity to seak out despite personal dangers as "entheta" or SP's. To my knowledge I have NOT been declared SP, and have even asked Scientolgy terminals if there was such a "declare" on several occasions to no avail, so I would welcome you to be in communication with me.

I am proud to have been a companion of many, many Scientologists along the way and I am equally proud of those who have had the guts to speak out publicly. I regret the lies we were told and the fraud that took advantage of our trusting good nature. I believe they must be fully
exposed and dealt with appropriately.

In closing, I salute your positive goals, your will to survive, your bravery in facing new viewpoints and especially the divine spirit within you that is immortal, beautiful and full of the Light that shines as bright as the Sun. This inner Light is your real Source.


Michael Pattinson
mpattinson AT gmail DOT com

August 2009 raid: Post-game

A double-header! On Saturday, August 8, a half dozen or so Anons raided the Montreal Scientology org for a few hours as usual. We then headed to Anticipation, the 67th WorldCon science fiction convention, which was being held at the Palais des Congrès, where we continued flyering and informing the public about Scientology abuses.

Here's a video recap of our (long) day.



We also encountered a young woman who told us the story of how her family's golf course, Les Vieilles Forges in Trois-Rivières, was bought by Scientologists who then started forcing Scientology techniques and courses on employees. (The French Anonymous Montréal blog first reported on this story this past February.) She understandably didn't want her face shown. The video is in French, but will be subtitled in English shortly.



Our next protest will take place on Saturday, September 12.

Aloha Xenu!

On Saturday, July 11, we held our monthly raid at the Montreal Scientology org, with a Hawaiian theme. Decked out in loud Hawaiian shirts, leis, straw hats, and grass skirts, we did our usual thing for about three hours before the rain got too heavy. One thing's for sure: rain or shine, Anonymous delivers!

Here's a video of highlights from the raid.

Revisiting the CCHR at Concordia affair: Part 1

The recent flap over Concordia University’s hosting the “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” exhibit by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a Scientology front group, is still fresh in the collective memory of Anonymous—not only in Montreal, but around the world.

It seems that the Concordia administration, represented principally by Vice-President, Services Michael Di Grappa (whose department booked the CCHR exhibit in the first place), stopped reading emails of complaint and concern long ago. With this in mind, Anonymous Montreal will use the public forum of this blog to directly address Mr. Di Grappa, university spokesperson Chris Mota, and those other members of the Concordia administration who seemed incapable of recognizing and acknowledging (at least publicly) the true nature and intent of the CCHR and its exhibit. By acting as de facto apologists for the CCHR, we believe Mr. Di Grappa and Ms. Mota in fact made the university administration look even worse than had they displayed a modicum of humility and maturity, and admitted (even if subtly) that they had perhaps made a mistake in allowing the CCHR to set up its traveling propagandist horror show in the atrium of the McConnell library building for a mere $250 a day.

(The fact that the October return of the CCHR exhibit appears to have been canceled leads us to believe that—behind closed doors, at least—the administration recognized its colossal blunder. As well, having seen what Anonymous was capable of accomplishing in a matter of days in alerting the local news media, spearheading an email campaign, and organizing a demonstration, they no doubt wanted to avoid a repeat of this headache as well as further negative publicity.)

With this in mind, this first blog post on the CCHR/Concordia affair will make clear the truth about the CCHR as existing solely to further Scientology’s stated goal of the global obliteration of psychiatry and psychiatrists. In fact, Dr. Nada Stotland, president of the American Psychiatric Association, recently declared the CCHR a hate group.

Mr. Di Grappa’s form letter sent in response to the hundreds of email complaints received about the CCHR at Concordia made arguments in defense of the CCHR that were weak, flawed, and poorly (if at all) supported. (Perhaps if Mr. Di Grappa—and it is indeed “Mister,” not “Doctor,” for he does not hold a Ph.D.—had actual research and teaching experience, he would have been able to construct a better argument, and would have displayed an understanding of the importance of academic integrity.) We will be addressing this form letter in detail in a future post. For now, we will look at two points made in the letter that are directly relevant to the video posted below.

Mr. Di Grappa wrote that “it [was his] understanding that the Church of Scientology is a recognized religious and charitable organization.” Further, he stated that “[i]t is a precondition of any event on our campus that the emphasis will be and at all times will remain on the respectful discussion and debate of possibly opposing positions in a secure, collegial environment.”

Meanwhile, in the news media, spokesperson Chris Mota parroted the same tired talking points that were no doubt fed to her by the administration. For example, in the CTV Montreal report on the CCHR affair, she said, “Even if you disagree with the content of what is being presented, if you can’t do it in a university, then there’s really no place left.” Ms. Mota, the CCHR exhibit left no room for disagreement. (In a French radio interview with Benoit Dutrizac, available here, Ms. Mota defends at length the university administration's decision to host the CCHR exhibit—and then admits to not having actually seen it.)

With the foregoing in mind, then, we invite Mr. Di Grappa, Ms. Mota, and other members of the Concordia administration who defended the CCHR exhibit, to watch the following video. It features none less than David Miscavige, leader of Scientology, spouting incendiary anti-psychiatry rhetoric with clear undertones of violence. Please, out of respect to all those who emailed you to express their concerns about the CCHR’s infiltration of Concordia—concerns you in large part ignored—watch the following video, and then try and defend the CCHR as a charitable organization with a legitimate interest in “respectful discussion and debate.”

June 13th protest in Montreal

Anonymous protested on June 13th in Montreal in fornt of the scientology building on the corner of Papineau and Mont-Royal.

This is a video relating this event:



We also encountered a former scientologist who spoke briefly about his experience in the cult:

Quebec: reaction to the French scientology trial

Former scientologist and critic Jean-Paul Dubreuil was invited by LCN to comment the French Scientology trial.

France 24: Scientology faces ban in France

CNN: scientology trial in France

Scientology trial in France: a Channel 4 report

A Channel 4 (UK) report about the upcoming Scientology trial in France. This trial is set to begin on May 25th.