Scientology Lies

November 19, 1985: A Montreal stockbroker who claims he was brainwashed last year by members of the Church of Scientology testified yesterday that he paid $12,000 to the sect for personality courses. Gilles Lanthier told the court that he began having doubts about the sect when he was told to abandon his wife and seek further Scientology instruction in Toronto.

November 18, 1996: French police estimate that there are some 250 sects in France, representing 160,000 members and 100,000 sympathizers. The government's criteria for what it calls a sect include: mental destabilization; exorbitant financial demands; a break with job, family, or friends; dangers to health; indoctrination of children; antisocial discourse; disturbing public order; troubles with the law; embezzlement; infiltration of government.

November 17, 1984: A Supreme Court of Ontario judge has been asked to dismiss criminal contempt of court charges brought against two Ontario Government lawyers by the Church of Scientology of Toronto. J. J. Robinette, representing the two lawyers, told Mr. Justice John Cromarty yesterday that there was no evidence to convict his clients over the release of certain church documents in police hands to another Government lawyer.

November 16, 1999: Xavier Delamare, a former regional Scientology leader in south-east France, was given a further 18-month suspended sentence by the Marseille court while four other members accused of fraud, violence and illegally practising medicine were given suspended sentences of six months to a year. The verdict marked the end of a decade-long investigation into the group's activities in Marseille and Nice. Church officials were accused by former members of selling bogus "purification" treatments costing between pounds 1,200 and pounds 15,000 but consisting mainly of sessions in the sauna, jogging and vitamin pills.

November 15, 1994: Meyer was arrested three years ago when Clearwater police, alerted by neighbors, captured him in the bedroom of a woman who had screamed for help. Police said Meyer slipped in through an open window, rifled the woman's purse and then tried to rape her. Meyer told police he was employed by the Church of Scientology. Church officials said he had been hired to work on building renovation projects but had not been employed by the church for months.

November 14, 1997: How can the U.S. government criticize Germany for regarding Scientology as a business and not a as tax-exempt religion, a legal ruling the United States held for 25 years? Could it really be possible under U.S. immigration law that, by the mere act of not being given tax-exempt status, German Scientologists would be allowed to seek asylum in the United States for religious persecution? Above all, why must Germany subscribe to the same religious definitions as the United States?

November 13, 2006: The dreamy Italian wedding supposedly taking place in under a week between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will see the Mission: Impossible star provide the bride with a 'comb' and a 'cat' during their scientologist marriage service. The traditional Scientology ceremony set to take place next weekend (17-19 Nov 06), will see the minister tell the bridegroom, "Now, Tom, girls need clothes and food and tender happiness and frills, a pan, a comb, perhaps a cat. All caprice if you will, but still they need them."

November 13, 1988: "It's not our job to identify which groups are harmful," Kropveld explains. "It's not the group itself that concerns us, but the pitch used to get you to buy into them. You have to be aware of the deception, the dubious recruiting practice. Every group has a right to believe in what it wants. But the bottom line is - you have to ask yourself, does that belief withstand the scrutiny of the criminal or the civil law?" There are apparently a number that cannot. In February, The Church of Scientology, charged with fraud and false representation, agreed to pay 10 of its disgruntled members $250,000 in an out-of-court settlement. The 10 had given the church between $5,000 and $45,000 over periods of up to five years. As part of the settlement, the former members cannot talk to the press about their time with the Scientologists.

November 12, 1991: Future Films may be the latest, thinly disguised attempt by Scientology to gain widespread acceptance and suck thousands more into the movement. Cult watchers wonder if the upstart studio is related to a massive, sophisticated ad campaign now underway, which is designed to improve the groups dismal reputation, the result of a decade long mass of lawsuits and inquiries by the IRS, the courts, and governments around the world. Former members say the Church of Scientology is no Church at all, but rather an enormous totalitarian pyramid scheme whose bottom line is its bottom line.