Toronto picket report 3rd November 2001
03 Nov 2001
Kaeli <yduzitmatter@sympatico.ca>

Picketers: At the Org: Gregg, yduzitmatter, Zeratul
110 ft away: Keith, the unknown picketer
120 ft away: Tasha, Kaeli (photographer/supplies)

We arrived at the meeting area early, and met with Keith, Gregg, and the unknown picketer.

We picked up our signs and supplies. Gregg went to the Org first, and Keith took up his accustomed 110 ft away picketing position, along with the unknown picketer.

yduzitmatter, Zeratul and I joined Gregg at the Org. My job for the day was to keep the other picketers supplied with fliers and to photograph if need be.

As I walked around the Org, I noticed that several of the staff, namely Al Buttnor, were on the phones. Buttnor appeared to be using a red phone, and at one point, when I thumbed my nose at him, he raised his camera and was about to take a picture, and I continued walking, after ensuring that Gregg had enough flyers. Gregg was continuing his normal picketing role of handing out flyers.

The unknown picketer alerted me that they were running short on flyers, so I headed back across the street to where Keith was. yduzitmatter joined me and Keith.

After ensuring they had enough flyers there, I headed back to the Org, and continued to watch and observe. It was fairly quiet. yduzitmatter and Tasha joined us at the Org. The three of us, yduzitmatter, Tasha and I, walked together. Al Buttnor showed up at the front door, so the three of us decided to head back to Keith's position.

Both Tasha and I maintained a position at 120 ft away. I decided to hand out the remaining flyers.

Suddenly we saw two police cars pull up, and two officers (from what I could see) were getting out of the car and speaking to both Al Buttnor and Gregg. Two bicycle cops also showed up as well. From where Tasha and I stood, we could see six cops and three picketers. It was mentioned that the police officers were pulled from a protest at Queen's park.

We continued to stand where we were and hand out flyers.

I called Zeratul's cell phone to get a detailed report as to what was going on. Apparently, according to Zeratul, the cops were complaining about Gregg's loud voice, and wanted the three at the Org to move across the street and picket there. I asked if he was all right.. he said, "yes, I'm doing fine."

One of the passersby took one of my flyers and began speaking about Lisa McPherson. His opinion was that they "tortured and murdered her." His explanation was that the reason why he knew about her was that he had done research on the CoS. Another passersby took one of the flyers and began describing what happened after he took a personality test. He said that the person who spoke to him told him that he would commit suicide within two years unless he did their introductory course for $200 Cdn. When he told them that he did not have $200, they were insisting he pay it through Interac, through Visa or call the bank to get the money. This all made him suspicious. His ending comment was: "It's been more than two years since then, and I haven't committed suicide yet."

After this, I looked back towards the Org and noticed that the cops had all left. Zeratul called me to say that everything was fine now, and that Gregg, yduzitmatter and himself were continuing their picket; I indicated I was running out of flyers on my end.

We distributed an approximate amount of 350 flyers. Gregg estimated that he had gone through many flyers while the cops were there.

Kaeli
kaeli@klis.com