On this day...

Lawsuit against Albertans fizzles out
Date: Wednesday, 20 August 1980
Publisher: Calgary Herald (Canada)
Author: Gordon Lee
Main source: link (236 KiB)

The Church of Scientology's four-year-old defamation lawsuit against seven Albertans has fizzled out on the eve of trial.

The Scientology organization was required to deposit $45,000 by Monday at the Court of Queen's Bench in Edmonton. But Calgary lawyer Ken Staroszik, who represents the seven defendants, said the court clerk's office confirmed Tuesday that the money has not been received.

At a Queen's Bench hearing June 18 in Edmonton, Justice Arthur Crossley ordered the organization to post the money as security for costs in the event it lost the case. Crossley said the lawsuit would be dismissed if the organization did not deposit the money in the clerk's office within two months.

Staroszik said that while the organization's failure to come up with the money will kill the case, his clients may return to court one last time to ask for recovery of all their legal expenses from the Scientology group. He estimated his clients' total legal costs at about $50,000.

"They've dragged us through four years of litigation and four times through the court of appeal (but) they don't want to go to trial," complained Staroszik.

A two-week trial of the case had been scheduled to start Oct. 6 in Edmonton.

Staroszik said his clients were pleased the case is now dead, although they were "disappointed in some ways" because they wanted the organization's allegations against themselves "dealt with in a public forum."

The Scientology "missions" of Calgary, Edmonton and Old Strathcona filed a statement of claim in September, 1976 asking damages of about $115,000 for an alleged conspiracy to defame and interfere with the organization.

The Scientologists claimed the defendants defamed the group by writing letters as early as 1975 to public officials and several organizations.

Ex-Scientologist // Scars have yet to heal
Date: Wednesday, 20 August 1980
Publisher: Calgary Sun
Author: Bill Hart
Main source: link (236 KiB)

Brendon Moore was yesterday piecing his life back together — after. being cleared by a court of defaming the Church of Scientology.

The case, which has lasted four years, was thrown out of Court of Queen's Bench in Edmonton Monday when the church failed to post a $45,000 bond to cover future court costs.

But Moore says the scars from his association with Scientology have yet to heal.

The Scientologists sued eight ex-members in September, 1976 for allegedly defaming the church by writing letters to several organizations and elected officials.

Legal action against one Edmonton woman was later dropped when she agreed to testify for the church.

The other seven — Moore, Lorna Levett, Les Jackman, William Reid, Neil Taylor and David Wallace, all of Calgary and Betty McCoy of Edmonton — fought appeals, delays and refusals to comply with court orders.

Moore, an electrician, said the battle had cost him his marriage, several jobs, 5,000 given to the church and four years of court costs.

He has changed his telephone number and won't give out his address for fear of harrassment.

His brother and sister are still involved and Moore says he can't visit them.

Moore joined the church in Calgary in 1968 when his brother, already a member, told him about Scientology.

He says he was given a personality profile and told he needed counselling to reach the spiritual goal of the Scientologists — a training course (level) called OT III.

"It's like a carrot on a stick," Moore said. "I was really hooked on the fact I needed this stuff."

Moore left Scientology in March, 1974, after a disagreement over which courses to take. He still then believed the church was right — only some of its followers were corrupt.

Moore said he'll continue to try to show what he believes the church is really like.

Ken Staroszik, lawyer for the seven, said yesterday they'll be back in court In October, to recover legal costs from the church. They could file for as much as $50,000, he said.

Letters to the Editor // The Scientology debate
Date: Friday, 20 August 1993
Publisher: East Grinstead Courier (UK)
Main source: link (114 KiB)

The Courier has received a number of letters this week which are not being published because they are considered to be defamatory.

Misdirected energy

AS SPOKESMAN for the Church of Scientology I have only one thing to say to Mike Ricks (Letters, August 13), and that is that if he had spent as much time on improving conditions in town as he did in persecuting a religion, East Grinstead would be an even more pleasant environment to live and work in than it already is.

I would like to see the same energy spent in saving our Queen Vic Hospital, in providing a coffee lounge for youngsters to visit, or in doing something effective about the levels of vandalism in the town.

These are problems we in Scientology are working to help with and frankly we are more interested in these activities than in worrying what any anti-religion person thinks.

Mr Ricks, I hereby extend an invitation for you to visit me at Saint Hill to discuss how we may get out of the past and get on with the future. Meanwhile, I agree with another writer, John Ablett — let's end this debate and get on with more constructive issues that will benefit the town as a whole.

PETER MANSELL
Saint Hill Manor
East Grinstead

HAVING been a Scientologist for some 30 years and a Christian for even longer, and a born-again Christian for 14 years, I believe I am in a unique position to speak about both Christianity and Scientology.

There is about as much "love" in Scientology as there is "understanding" in Christianity, but then that is how it should be. Christians will never understand until they become Scientologists and Scientologists will never really "love" until they become Christians.

Life can be likened to a very large jigsaw puzzle where the edge pieces are love and understanding. The whole of life is contained in these two words. "He who loves understanding is a wise man, he who understands love is a fool".

L. Ron Hubbard has stated that he developed Dianetics and Scientology because of his love of understanding. Very early on in the subject he decided love was unscientific, and wrote it out of the computation and replaced it with the word "affinity".

Hubbard is a builder in the accepted sense of the word and it is indeed the stone that the builder rejected that has become the capstone.

We need both the builder and the capstone, but we also need the cornerstone if we are ever to even get started.

For me Scientology was dealing with my grubby past so that I might claim my true inheritance in Christ Jesus.

GRAHAM THREFALL
Western Road
Liss, Hants

 

Enter Prince Xenu

HOW refreshing it was to read in last week's Courier about Mr Revill's encounter with Old Doll Body. I believe that his letter has put the whole Scientology debate into perspective.

In a similar vein, I wonder how many local people will remember old Prince Xenu. He used to be a familiar figure in the Dorset Arms in the High Street where he worked as a barman in order to raise the money to pay for his life repair. Of course, that was in the days when it was possible to pay for a basic service out of a year's wages and still have change for a copy of All About Radiation.

I well remember the Old Man and Xenu having a drink and laughing about old times while they wrote the OT III materials.

The Old Man was into nuclear fission and Xenu fancied himself as a bit of a vulcanologist. That was before he was discovered to be a pyromaniac and had his visa withdrawn. The incident was duly recorded by the Church of Scientology HCO Department.

He often took his space pod up to the Hill where he and the Old Man used to take the advance levels students for very lone intergalactic rides. This photograph was given to me by Old Doll Body himself and shows Xenu's pod when it was parked outside the pub one night.

These days it is impossible to park a spacecraft anywhere in East Grinstead. The only place that has clearance for flying saucer landings in Saint Hill itself. I hope Saint Hill will write and confirm this and add any further data.

JOHN ABLETT
Acorn Close
East Grinstead

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