Hypocritical Totalitarian Unitarians Are At It Again. . .

Well the last couple of days have been quite interesting for The Emerson Avenger on the public protesting front. I will start with what happened today and then report what happened last night in another post. . .

This morning I arrived at the Unitarian Church of Montreal earlier than usual because the fourth Sunday of the month now has an additional service in French that starts at 9:15. I wanted to make it clear to the Francophone members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, aka Mouvement unitarien universaliste du Québec, aka Mouvement U*U du Québec ;-) ;-) , that if they are not part of the solution to the U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy that I am protesting against that they are part of the problem.

My protest action began at about 8:45 or so and a small handful of Montreal Unitarians, not all of them Francophones BTW. . . showed up for the early morning French language service that was "animated" by one Patricia Philip. In my hands I displayed two French language picket signs. One was the classic -

UNE EGLISE QUI N'EST PAS TRES CATHOLIQUE

slogan that dates back to Rev. Ray Drennan's insulting and defamatory anti-Catholic tirade against Pierre Elliot Trudeau's Roman Catholic rite state funeral and the other said -

UNE EGLISE QUI FAIT DES BETISES.

A sign saying -

EGLISE DE LA LANGUE FOURCHEE

(i.e. "CHURCH" OF THE FORKED TONGUE)

was displayed near the entranceway to this so-called Unitarian "Church".

My other English language picket signs were displayed in their usual places propped up against lamp posts, sign posts, a municipal trash can that the city kindly provided as an extra picket sign support last year, and the trees and bushes that border the property of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Rev. Diane Rollert drove by in her car around 9 am or so and witnessed what Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance once insightfully called my "alternative spiritual practice" once again.

Some time later a police car drove by on the other side of de Maisonneuve boulevard heading from west to east. It stopped at the traffic lights on the corner of Claremont and then did a U-turn and came back towards me as I was walking from west to east on the sidewalk in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. I walked a little bit past the church and the police car which had parked in front of it and then turned back towards the west and walked past the police car. It was clear that the police officers were either curious or responding to a compaint. As usual I just continued on with my "alternative spiritual practice" of protesting against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. After a while the police officers got out of the car and we had the usual chat that occurs when the police show up to act on a complaint lodged by Montreal's DIM Thinking U*Us. I told the police that as far as I was concerned I was acting 100% within my rights. The police said that they would verify that and got back in their car and spent a while consulting their onboard computer and list of municipal bylaws etc. I continued my usual protest activities. A bit later a police van (probably a supervisor's van) pulled up behind the police car and soon three police officers were consulting each other and talking on their cell phones, presumably with their superiors but possibly also with police department lawyers.

I can't remember exactly when certain things were said but one of the male police officers did at one point ask me if I had been contacted by an investigator, i.e. a police detective. I replied that I had not and that I was unaware of any criminal charges against me. I later informed this officer that I had already been arrested on criminal charges in 2000 and that I had been acquitted of those charges. This officer saw my picket slogan that says -

A "CHURCH" THAT DESERVES A TRUDEAU SALUTE

and asked me what a "Trudeau Salute" was. I showed him what a "Trudeau Salute" is. No disrespect was intended, it was just the simplest way to let him know what a "Trudeau Salute" is. He did not take offence at all, as I think he understood that the "Trudeau Salute" that I showed him was just a demonstration of what a "Trudeau Salute" is and not directed at him. He said "Trudeau did that?" and I explained to him that former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau had indeed once given the finger to some strikers in the 1970's and that, ever since that pivotal moment in Canadian history, giving the finger has been known in Canada as a "Trudeau Salute". I explained to him that the picket sign dated back to the time that Rev. Ray Drennan had offensively attacked the Pierre Trudeau's Roman Catholic funeral in his appropriately headlined 'Wrong Message' and very opinionated Op/Ed piece in the Montreal Gazette. I told him that the Gazette had received 50 letters to the editor condemning Rev. Ray Drennan's intolerance and bigotry and that five of them were published.

The police asked me the usual questions but not very many. They seemed more preoccupied with dealing with church members who had called in complaints and consulting each other and their superiors. I explained the basic reasons for my protest and made it clear that the dispute arose from Rev. Ray Drennan's fundamentalist atheist intolerance and bigotry. No doubt it was an eye-opener to these cops that a so-called "church" could have an intolerant dogmatic atheist as a minister. . . At one point I told the female officer that I considered the many complaints called in to the police by Montreal Unitarians to be police harassment. She understood that in the traditional sense of the term and replied that it was the first time that she had ever come to deal with a complaint at the Unitarian Church of Montreal. I told her that the police had come dozens of times in the past as a result of repeated complaints about my protest activities by Montreal Unitarians. I explained to her that I did not mean police harassment against myself so much as I meant that Montreal Unitarians were harassing the police by repeatedly calling in spurious complaints about my protest activities and were thus forcing the police to repeatedly come to the alleged crime scene that is known as the Unitarian Church of Montreal. . . I must say however that the repeated police interventions that result from numerous complaints called in by Montreal Unitarians, as well as certain acts committed by a few unprofessional police officers in the past, could indeed be considered police harassment. Indeed my arrest on trumped up criminal charges in December of 2000 could most certainly be considered to be a false arrest as the charges were totally spurious and I was rightly acquitted of those flimsy criminal charges.

I just kept walking back and forth with a couple of picket signs as usual. After going into the church once or twice to discuss the situation with church members the police car and van finally left. The police never made an issue of the picket signs that were leaning up against various props, as some officers have done in the past, and they never indicated that they thought I was doing anything illegal. The fact that one of the police officers specifically asked me if I had been contacted by a police investigator aka detective does however indicate that some Montreal Unitarians may have brought some criminal charges against me, and that there may be yet another criminal prosecution of my protest activities in the works, unless he just misspoke which is a possibility.

The police van parked surrepticiously behind a nearby building just off Bulmer Street, immediately to the west of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, presumably to keep me under surveillance for a bit. I saw the van and I think that the driver knew that I had seen the van. After a few minutes the van gave up and left. Some time later a supervisor's van, I am not sure if it was the same van because I didn't notice the word Superviseur written on the first van, drove by from west to east keeping an eye on me. Later a police van, possibly the same one, parked a couple of hundred feet to the west of the Unitarian Church of Montreal on de Maisonneuve boulevard and kept me under surveillance for at least fifteen to twenty minutes, and possibly as long as half an hour or so. It must have been quite boring and I kind of regret that no Montreal U*Us decided to try to assault me today. . .

I just continued on in my "alternative spiritual practice" and, when the WASU*U ** crowd began to show up, I replaced the French language picket signs with two brand-spanking new English language picket signs that said -

WHAT "CULT" JOHN INDER?

and

"SOLAR TEMPLE" FRANK GREENE?

Their backsides said -

UNSAFE SECT?

and

"CHURCH" OF THE "PSYCHOTIC" REACTION

These signs were quite shamelessly displayed to the police van that had me under surveillance for at least fifteen minutes. Most Montreal U*Us were not at all happy to see the picket sign slogans that directly referrenced the false and malicious labeling of Creation Day as a "cult" by Frank Greene, John Inder, Keith Robinson and of course Rev. Ray Drennan. Many Montreal U*Us shot me stony faced glares when confronted by these "image tarnishing" picket sign slogans. It was quite gratifying to see John Inder himself approaching the Unitarian Church of Montreal from Clairemont avenue in the east. He walked very stony faced past these picket sign slogans that I made certain that he would have to look at unless he closed his eyes or something. Some Montreal U*Us actually do their best to hide my picket sign slogans from their eyes by averting their eyes from the picket signs or even by pulling their hats and umbrellas down low over their heads.

Some time later, probably after 10 am the police car that had first arrived on the scene from Station 11 (11-1) pulled up in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal again and the two police officers got out of the car and headed towards the entrance of the Unitarian Church of Montreal once again. . . I asked them if they had a few seconds and they said "Later". I none-the-less suggested that they should call in their Community Relations officer to deal with this problem. This is a suggestion and even a recommendation that I have made many times in the past but the police have never acted on that eminently reasonable suggestion.

The two police officers went up to the front entry of the church but remained outside and had a long discussion with a tall blonde fifty-something woman who I did not recognize as being a member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Interestingly enough, a car with Massachusetts licence plates had arrived earlier and I believe that it is within possibilty that this tall blonde woman may have been in that car as I did notice a similar looking blonde woman in that car as it passed me. It would be quite interesting if Boston has actually sent someone up to Montreal, especially if their approach is more geared towards police intervention (including possible further criminal charges) rather than entering into dialogue and negotiating a genuinely just, equitable and compassionate resolution of this ludicrously drawn out war of words.

After their discussion with this tall blonde woman, which went on for at least five to ten minutes and included some discussion with one or two Montreal U*Us like Juan Vera, the two police officers approached me. They asked for my current addess and phone number in case they needed to contact me. I provided them with my address and my email address which is the best way to contact me. The fact that they asked for my address and phone number in case they needed to contact me indicates to me that the police officer who asked if I had been contacted by a police investigator yet may not have misspoken, other than unwittingly alerting me to a possible new criminal investigation of my protest activities of course. It will be most interesting to see how this most recent misguided attempt by hypocritical U*Us to criminalize my criticism and dissent plays out. . .

I reminded the female police officer about my suggestion to make judicious use of their Community Relations officer in an effort to settle this dispute and she responded that it was up to the police to decide whether or not to use their Community Relations officer. I said that it was just my "recommendation". I also told the police that I had repeatedly sought dialogue with the Unitarian Church of Montreal in an effort to settle the dispute. I told them about the recent emails that I had sent to the new settled minister of the UCM Rev. Diane Rollert. I told them how she had not even provided an acknowledgement of receipt of the emails. I also told them in some detail about how I had spoken with Rev. Rollert last Sunday as we both walked towards the church from the Vendome METRO station and that she had orally acknowleged having received the emails but had then said that she was "not at liberty to speak" with me. I told the police that it was possible that Rev. Diane Rollert's hands were tied by the Board and congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. I even put my hands behind my back as I said this, in a gesture that the police officers would well understand. . . The police officers gave me some world-weary knowing looks and we left it at that. I am seriously thinking of forwarding my recent emails to Rev. Diane Rollert to Station 11 as evidence of the UCM's refusal to negotiate a settlement with me, and I will probably have a chat with the commander of Station 11 in the near future.

I am quite certain that it is only a matter of time before the police at Station 11 realize, like their colleagues at Station 12, that it is the Unitarian Church of Montreal's obstinate refusal to enter into dialogue with me and initiate responsible conflict resolution procedures that cause me to persist in my "alternative spiritual practice" . . . As a Montreal journalist once told me, the police at Station 12 who he had interviewed after my arrest in December 2000 thought that the Unitarian Church of Montreal was crazier than I am. I would have to concur. In fact the police clearly understand that I am a very reasonable person as a result of my numerous interactions with them that are usually very smooth with the occasional exception when over-zealous and unprofessional police officers abuse their authority. Today's police intervention has certainly given me the push to move forward with my complaint to the Police Ethics Commission about the highly questionable and probably illegal seizure and destruction of my picket signs last fall by two totalitarian police officers from Station 11. In fact I will discuss the "big picture", including today's intervention, with appropriate advocates and rights groups.

Just before they left I asked the police officers if there was any problem with my protest activities and the female officer indicated that everything was OK ask long as I refrained from saying "stupid things" (betises) to church members as they entered the church. The male officer had previously asked me if I made comments to church members and I indicated that I did at times make comments as people passed me. I also pointed out that I did not have a megaphone. . . Quite frankly I believe that I have a perfect right to make pertinent comments to certain people as they pass. If people can blare all kinds of slogans and diatribes though megaphones at peaceful public protests I see no reason why I cannot say a thing or two to some DIM Thinking Montreal U*Us as they pass me on their way to their alleged "church". AFAIAC The police have no grounds to ask me to refrain from making coments and the police and Montreal Unitarians should be quite thankful that I don't shout slogans through a megaphone as I am protesting. If the police try to restrict my ability to make a comment or two as people pass I may well invest in a megaphone. . .

This all comes down to outrageously hypocritical U*Us, and possibly not just Montreal Unitarian U*Us, trying to use what former UUA President Rev. John A* Buehrens referred to as "the secular authorities" of the state to impose Unitarian "church" censorship and suppression of my constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression and peaceful public protest. Once again Montreal Unitarians, and possibly even UUA U*Us. . . are making a complete mockery of obviously insincere and effectively fraudulent U*U principles and ideals in using the "state" police force to try to silence or restrict my legitimate public protest in front of their so-called "church".


* Asshat

** WASU*U = White Anglo-Saxon U*U

Pronounciation wa-zoo

Comments

Bob Keller said…
Very interesting and extremely well written. You have a gift for prose.

I cannot comment beyond that because it is clear there are larger issues at work here and my understanding is still too limited.

I appreciate you continuing to post comments on my blog and directing me here to keep up with your activities.

I'm deeply saddened that you cannot work out a more amicable and perhaps long lasting solution with the Montreal UU church.

A really innovative solution is clearly needed here.

the Wizard.....
Robin Edgar said…
Thanks Wizard

AFAIAC All that is needed is for U*Us to enter into genuinely just, equitable and compassionate conflict resolution procedures as they are already laid ou in UUA policies etc. and start actually practising what they preach instead of making a total mockery of U*U principles and ideals.

I have repeatedly sought dialogue but Montreal U*Us and Boston U*Us don't want to talk because they know that once free and open dialogue gets going some rather unpleasant truths will out. . . Truths that they would much prefer to Deny, Ignore or Minimize.

BTW Am I correct in understanding that you are an attorney and even a judge? Your reasoned opinions here are most welcome. It is starting to look that the only way that I can hope to obtain some real justice in this matter is to take legal action against the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the UUA.