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A Series of videos featuring Mike McClaughry on OSA

AND BUMP!

A Series of videos featuring Mike McClaughry on OSA

Government clamp down on cult of Scientology
Date: Friday, 26 July 1968
Publisher: The Scotsman (UK)
Main source: link (98 KiB)

The Government, in the Commons yesterday, announced plans to curb the growth of what Mr Kenneth Robinson, the Minister of Health, called the "objectionable " growth of Scientology.

In a written answer to Mr Geoffrey Johnson Smith (C., East Grinstead), Mr Robinson said: "During the past two years the Government have become increasingly concerned at the spread of Scientology in the United Kingdom. Scientology is a pseudo-philosophical cult introduced into this country some years ago from the United States and has its world headquarters in East Grinstead.

"It has been described by its founder, Mr L. Ron Hubbard, as the world's largest mental health organisation'."

Mr Robinson said: "The Government are satisfied, having reviewed all the available evidence, that Scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members of families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it, its authoritarian principles and practices are a potential menace to the personality and well-being of those so deluded as to become its followers.

HEALTH THREAT

"Above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them. There is evidence that children are now being indoctrinated.

"There is no power under existing law to prohibit the practice of Scientology, but the Government have concluded that it is so objectionable that it would be right to take all steps within their power to curb its growth.

"It appears that Scientology has drawn its adherents largely from overseas, though the organisation is now making intensive efforts to recruit residents of this country.

"Foreign nationals come here to study Scientology and to work at the so-called college in East Grinstead. 

The Government can prevent this under existing law and have decided to do so."

These six steps are being taken immediately:

The college and all other Scientology establishments will no longer be accepted as educational establishments for the purposes of Home Office policy on the admission and subsequent control of foreign nationals.

Foreign nationals arriving at U.K. ports intending to go to these establishments will not be eligible for admission as students.

Foreign nationals already here will not be granted student status to attend an establishment.

Foreign nationals here to study at one of these establishments will not be granted extensions of stay to continue these studies.

Work permits and employment vouchers will not be issued to foreigners or Commonwealth citizens for work at a Scientology establishment.

Work permits already issued to foreigners for work at an establishment will not be extended.

Scientology has 15 centres in England and a small one at Helensburgh. In Edinburgh, a former hotel in South Bridge is the centre for advanced courses; there is a new academy for beginners in Queen Street, and a publications division in Thistle Street.

Scientology 'dangerous and corrupt'
Date: Thursday, 26 July 1984
Publisher: East Grinstead Courier (UK)
Main source: link (99 KiB)  

A HIGH COURT judge has made the most outspoken condemnation yet of the Church of Scientology, which has its British headquarters at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead. He condemned it as "corrupt sinister and dangerous".

Its founder, former American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and his wife Mary Sue were condemned by Mr Justice Latey as "charlatans and worse."

And the sect, said the judge, was "both immoral and socially obnoxious."

Hubbard and his helpers were said to be "grimly reminiscent of the ranting and believe of Hitler and his henchmen."

Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, former East Grinstead MP and now representing Westden, is to ask the Home Secretary if, in view of the judge's comments, he will order a departmental inquiry into the activities of Scientology.

"I have had people quite recently come to see me concerned about the effects this organisation is having on their family relationships," said Sir Geoffrey.

Scientology, which has been struggling to improve its image with a series of widely publicised reforms, found itself in the national newspaper headlines on Tuesday, after considerable exposure on radio and television the night before.

The judgment by Mr Justice Latey in the High Court came unheralded. He had been hearing in private a dispute about the custody of two children. Then he went into open court to order a father, aged 32, who is a Scientologist [?] his 10-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter to their mother. She is 28 and had fought for almost six years to be reunited with them after she broke away from the Scientology.

The judge ordered the Church Scientology of Scientology to stop intimidating and harassing the mother, warning that failure to do so would be dealt with, with the "utmost severity."

The father has since remarried.

"LIES, DECEIT"

Mr Justice Latey said Scientology was corrupt "because it is based on lies and deceit, and has as its real objective, money and power for its founder, his wife and those close to him at the top.

"It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices, both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestioningly, and to those outside who criticise or oppose it.

"It is dangerous because it is out to capture young people, especially children and impressionable young people and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others."

The judge praised the mother's courage in escaping from the "tight and unrelenting" hold of Scientology and its ruthless discipline.

He said the children were at a school controlled by Scientologists where the"baleful influence" was ever present and the objectives were to capture the child's mind. It would be a grave risk to leave them with the father, but they still loved him — and he loved them — regular visits should be arranged.

Mr Justice Latey's reason for giving judgment in open court he described as "a warning to others."

The judge made a detailed attack on the character of Hubbard. He was not, as claimed wounded in the war and decorated. It was false to claim that he had been crippled and blinded, then cured by Scientology techniques.

Hubbard, said the judge, had disappeared and was being sought by US police.

L. Ron Hubbard was a well-known figure in East Grinstead where he established Saint Hill as the world headquarters of his movement. In August 1983 the Scientologists announced that they had "kicked out" 12 key members of their UK headquarters staff at Saint Hill as part of a policy change.

Subsequently splinter groups have emerged and challenge the Church of Scientology's monopoly on Hubbard's teachings.

[Picture / Caption: L. RON HUBBARD as he was in his East Grinstead days. He is now 72]

Scientology 'dangerous and corrupt'

Scientology church offers to aid poor if charges dropped
Date: Tuesday, 26 July 1988
Publisher: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Author: Peter Moon
Main source: link (192 KiB)

In what may be an unprecedented legal manoeuvre, the Church of Scientology of Toronto has offered to make substantial cash donations to community agencies working with the elderly and the poor if criminal charges against it are dropped.

The offer was made yesterday in a letter written by the church’s lawyer, Clayton Ruby, and delivered to Ontario Attorney-General Ian Scott’s office.

The church is charged with several counts of theft by church members of photocopies of confidential documents from Ontario Government offices while some of them were working for Government agencies. 

The documents all referred to the Church of Scientology.

The charges resulted from the largest police raid in Canadian history. One hundred police officers seized about two million documents in a 20-hour raid on the organization’s headquarters on Yonge Street, near Bloor Street, in 1983. The raid followed a long investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police into the church’s activities, a probe that included the use of undercover officers within the church.

In addition to the church, 15 of its members were subsequently charged with offences alleging the theft of photocopied documents. Four have pleaded guilty and received absolute or conditional discharges. The others are awaiting trial. The church’s offer does not insist that the charges against its members be dropped.

The church waged a long, complicated challenge to the validity of the OPP search warrant until last year, when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal seeking to quash the warrant.

A preliminary hearing into the charges against the church, begun in March, is to resume for two weeks in November and to continue next February.

Cathia Riley, director of the office of special affairs for the Church of Scientology in Canada, said in an interview that the church has already spent $3-million challenging the warrant and fighting the charges.

She said it faces at least another $1-million in legal costs if the province insists on pursuing the charges against the church and its members.

Mr. Ruby said in an interview that he believes the province has spent at least $15-million in legal and investigative costs.

Mrs. Riley said the church’s offer to make charitable donations if charges are dropped “is not a case of trying to buy off” the prosecution, but an acknowledgment of the church’s moral and ethical responsibility to the community because of the actions of some of its members.

“The church feels it has made amends,” Mrs. Riley said. “We’ve done good works in the community. It’s time now that somebody takes a look at what this church is doing.”

Mrs. Riley said the church has been working with drug addicts, mental patients, the elderly, children and others with special needs. She said it has donated both money and the time of its members to community projects.

In his letter to Mr. Scott, Mr. Ruby said a church has never been prosecuted on criminal charges in Canada or the United States.

“The prosecution of this church pits your Government against a particular religion,” Mr. Ruby wrote. “This is constitutionally impermissible.

“In the United States, similarly, there has never been a criminal prosecution of a church. No doubt this is deliberate. The American Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion is similar in scope and purpose to our own. In that respect, the development of religious freedom in both countries has similar roots.”

Mr. Ruby said in an interview that his letter to Mr. Scott is an attempt to head off what would ultimately be a constitutional dilemma for the Attorney-General, who is pursuing a prosecution begun by former attorney-general Roy McMurtry.

“I think it’s inappropriate for the state to be criminally prosecuting a church, as opposed to individuals who committed criminal acts,” he said. “I have no difficulty with that, constitutionally, whether they are members of a church or executives of a church or the Pope.

“But when you start taking on the institution of a church directly. I think you raise problems of a constitutional dimension that are very troubling.

“So I’m trying to find a way around that by putting together an over-all accommodation that brings into it consideration of the needs of the Crown . . . and the needs of the public and the needs of this church, and the constitutional needs of the country.

“It is inappropriate for this kind of constitutional clash to take place. If it does, the courts will resolve it, but it is inappropriate for it to take place.” In the letter to Mr. Scott, Mr. Ruby wrote that “the charges against the church arise out of what is, practically speaking, ancient history. These acts are alleged to have occurred 12 to 15 years ago and the last illegal act allegedly to have taken place occurred as long ago as 1976. . . .

“Moreover, when the prosecution began, the principal focus of the then attorney-general’s concern was the theft of confidential information by the Guardian’s Office of the church. (The Guardians were a secretive division of the church supposed to be responsible for public and other external relations.) In the interval, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled . . . that the theft of confidential information is no longer a criminal offence.

“Thus the main thrust of the Crown’s concern was directed to a problem that . . . now forms no part of the criminal law and should no longer be the subject matter of a criminal prosecution.

“This change in the law in itself warrants careful consideration by you in determining whether continuation of this prosecution is now justified . . .

“The (church) will make substantial contributions to worthy community agencies, unconnected with it, who work to assist the needy and the homeless. We would like to have your views on what would be the appropriate amounts; those views will be given great weight.

“The (church), though it has broken no criminal law, does not seek refuge in any legal vacuum. We seek to rely on no technicality.

“But the constitutional dilemma created by this prosecution cries out for steps which will avoid a confrontation between your government and religion. We think these steps meet that need and thus serve the best interest (or the administration of justice.”

The Church of Scientology was founded in the 1960s by U.S. science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986. It now claims seven million members in several countries. In Canada, there are 22,000 members with 8,000 of them in the Toronto area, Mrs. Riley said.

For many years, the Guardian’s Office was a key group within the worldwide church. The office was headed by Mr. Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue. In 1983, she was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to directing a conspiracy to steal U.S. Government documents about the church.

The conspiracy involved stealing documents from the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s office, bugging an IRS meeting at which the church’s tax-exempt status was discussed, and planting spies in the IRS and Justice Department.

Mrs. Riley said the Guardian’s Office was a secretive group that operated without any control from the main church. But she said the church accepts moral and ethical responsibility for the excesses of members of the Guardian’s Office, which has since been disbanded.

She also said there is no precedent for charging a church in Canada with a criminal offence.

She said the Unitarian Church has counselled its members to break the Immigration Act to help refugees, but neither its members nor the church have been charged.

And if a Jehovah’s Witness member is charged with failing to provide medical care for a child, she said, the church itself is not charged.

“It is not fair to continue prosecuting the Church of Scientology. What the Crown wants is the church found guilty for the actions of some individuals. That would only serve to harm the present-day practitioners and the religion itself. We question what the motives are of the Crown in pursuing this.”

Scientology church offers to aid poor if charges dropped