Cynbad asked this question on 4/26/2000:

3rd attempt to post this......

I'm a UofT student looking for information about Scientology.

Besides Scientology, is there any other church in Canada that has been convicted of felonious breech of the public trust and racketeering?

thank you all.

desertphile gave this response on 4/26/2000:

I am not sure if I understand your question. To my knowledge, the only other church involved in crimes in Canada recently is AIM (American Indian Movement), but that is civil disobedience--- nothing compared to the Church of Scientology's crimes in Canada.

The Church of Scientology paid $2,953,624 in a libel suit for spreading lies about Casey Hill (a former crown attorney and now an Ontario Court Judge). They also had to pay Ms. Bonnie Woods over one million dollars for slandering her, libeling her, and "Fair Gaming" her (see my FAQ for "Fair Game").

As for crimes, the Church of Scientology was charged with 12 counts of stealing documents from Canadian offices such as medical doctors and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It was fined $100,000

Offices tresspassed and documents stolen from:

1. Fasken & Calvin [law firm].

2. Goodman & Goodman [law firm].

3. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario [medical governing body].

4. Ontario Medical Association.

5. Canadian Mental Health Association.

6. Ontario Provincial Police.

7. Metropolitan Toronto Police.

8. Attorney General of Ontario.

9. Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

In their Canadian tax-fraud case, the Church of Scientology was raided and more than 250,000 documents were seized. Some of those documents showed criminal activities being performed. It is unfortunate that the majority of those documents were not examined, but were returned.

The case was widely reported. For example, on CBC-TV "The National News", 10 p.m. December 13, 1985:

Vicki Russel - "It was nearly three years ago that police raided the Church of Scientology and dragged away a quarter of a million documents as evidence. The Church and 19 individuals were charged with offences including theft and possession of stolen property. Police alleged that the Scientologists got the stolen documents by inflitrating organizations which were investigating or had information about the Church, and today in court the first of the accused went to trial and pleaded guilty to possesssion of stolen property. Nanna Anderson said Church officials pressured her to find a job in one of three places. She chose the Ontario Medical Association, which was investigating the Church to see if it was practicing medicine. She told the Court of the hardship she went through in the 17 years she was involved with the Church. She said Church members pressured her for money and expected her to put in long hours doing volunteer work. The judge gave her an absolute discharge."

For more info see the following web pages:

http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/toronto

http://www.rickross.com/reference/Scien9.html

http://www.lermanet.com/reference/scientologyincanada.htm

http://www.scientology-lies.com/crimesindex.html

http://mars.superlink.net/~mgarde/courts.htm

The average rating for this answer is 4.2.

Cynbad rated this answer a 5.

Hi. You didn't answr my question, though I think your answer dserves a lot of thanks 'cause u obviously did a lot of work on it.

I wanted to know if there have been other churches that have done the same things in Canada. This is for my Comparative Religious Studies class. I asked here 'cause I dont know whereelse to ask.

thanks for trying