Glosslip Radio is thrilled to be interviewing ex-Scientologist Gerry Armstrong. Gerry’s history as a critic of the Church is legendary and he has been described as being the Salman Rushdie to the secretive organization. Join us for an incredible 90 minute interview with the man who has many consider Scientology greatest nemesis.
Original broadcast 30 June 2008
Enhanced audio file (Thanks scientrology.org)
Bruce Livesey On the 30-Year Vendetta Against Gerry Armstrong
The first time I met Gerry Armstrong, I thought he was paranoid. I’d driven down from Vancouver, summer 2007, into the verdant Fraser Valley to Chilliwack, BC, a somnolent, wind-blown town surrounded by jagged mountain ranges. A place as far removed from Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Scientology’s loopiness as one can possibly get. Armstrong and his third wife Caroline live in a walk-up, one-bedroom apartment above a tiny strip mall that’s seen better days.
When I arrived, Armstrong suggested we drive to a nearby park, rather than talk in their apartment. It was a beautiful July day and, except for a couple of stoners milling about out of earshot, the three of us were alone on the manicured grass beside a pond. Now sixty-one, Armstrong is an alarmingly small man, with elfin features, a beaky nose, sallow skin and large limpid blue eyes. The baseball cap he wore to ward off the hot sun made him look even more vulnerable. Amiable, soft-spoken with no trace of aggression, he chose his words with deliberation. Caroline seemed protective of him.
Full article online at Maisonneuve
The following images were published in the hard copy magazine article.
National Post writer Nathalie Atkinson mentioned the Maisonneuve cover and I sent the paper and Ms. Atkinson the letter that follows. I don’t think they did anything more with it. The artist Bryan McMillin (Payallin) also saw the Nat Post mention and commented on his blog. http://payallin.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/too-cool/
Nathalie Atkinson wrote in a May 1 article on magazine cover design, “Cover pages of the ages:” http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=483708
“Singling out a feature on persecuted former Scientologist Gerry Armstrong, the current issue of Montreal-based
magazine Maisonneuve has a grainy cover image of a young man resembling Armstrong, kneeling in prayer and illuminated from above by an unidentified flying object. It takes a page from Lois and is witty, clever and austere in its simplicity. I was waiting in the express lane and, dear reader, I bought it.”
I’m the persecuted ex-Scientologist in writer Bruce Livesey’s Maisonneuve story, but the guy kneeling in prayer on the cover resembles, or is supposed to resemble, Tom Cruise. Miss Atkinson’s comment almost even influenced the artist Payallin, who blogged: “Ok, the person on the cover is supposed to look like Tom Cruise but if it looks like Gerry Armstrong that works too.”
Tom’s resembling me has certainly been good for his career, although I’ve never exploited it, until now. There are clear differences, however, and I’ve uploaded as evidence a photo just taken of me in prayer in my office in Chilliwack.
[My anonymous friends should get a lol or two from this]
Notice that praying man Tom has his eyes wide open, as if it’s because he just knows, whereas for all I know I might not even know if I was off somewhere in samadhi.
The scilon, scieno, clam or whatever handing out the anti-anon black PR flyers in Vancouver on June 14 has been identified as Harland Giesbrecht. From Harland’s Scientology cookie cutter web site:
Hello, my name is Harland Giesbrecht, and here is a little bit about myself:
I’m a musician and I’ve been playing professionally since the age of 10 when I started in my dad’s band.
I’m also a songwriter, producer and recording engineer. I’m currently teaching at a recording school and very much enjoying it. Music has been my passion as long as I remember. I corresponded for some time with L. Ron Hubbard and sent him some of my music and poetry, and his letters in response to these are some of my most treasured possessions.
I live in Vancouver, BC and go to the Church of Scientology there. I have also been many times to Advanced Organizations in Los Angeles and Florida for services.
http://scientologist.myhomepage.org/harlandgiesbrecht/myself.htm
Here’s an image that pretty well confirms that Giesbrecht’s the cult’s black PR artist in Vancouver: http://www.columbia-academy.com/images/harland_giesbrecht_tn.jpg
I tried to engage him in conversation but he was very rude, and dramatized pretended ignorance, which is a universal Scientologist trait when interacting with wogs the Scientologists evaluate as critical of their cult’s abuses and criminality, and therefore SPs.
At one point, and without provocation, he pushed me, so he has the potential for violence that folks at future Vancouver protests should be aware of. I told him that he would be very wise to not push people or even put his hands on them because it constituted physical assault, and he asked if I was threatening him. I told him that no, I was warning him.
Since Giesbrecht claims to have been many times to the “Advanced Organizations” in Los Angeles and Florida for services, he’s probably “OT,” which explains his aggression, his willingness to black PR the good people attempting to reform his cult, and his willful OT-level pretended knuckleheadedness.
I took some photos of him to document his participation in Scientology’s world wide campaign to black PR the anonymous people protesting its fraud, human rights abuses and other crimes. I stated my view of this campaign in a letter to cult head David Miscavige that I handed out at the March 15 protest:
I believe that your current handling and nano-management of the Anonymous phenomenon is incitement to violence. It is sociopathically sponsible of you to not deal with your organization’s unconscionable policies, practices and activities that provide anyone, Anonymous or Non, with ample reason to oppose you and your organization. It is moreover wickedly irresponsible that your treatment and handling of people’s legitimate criticisms of Scientology, and your response to legitimate, orderly protests of your orgs, is to label the people criminals and terrorists and blame them for a manufactured list of crimes and threats. http://gerryarmstrong.ca/archives/389
Giesbrecht handed out most of his black PR flyers in front of the Waves Coffee Shop at the corner of Richards and Hastings a block west of the org. This was where a couple of the protesters had this very interesting conversation with him:
http://forums.enturbulation.org/129-canada/vancouver-british-columbia-18404/2/
Seated behind Giesbrecht and taking photos is the guy who tailed a couple of my friends and me at the April 12 protest. http://gerryarmstrong.ca/archives/469
He called me by name, and when I asked him his name he said, “Pissoff.” I’m not sure of the spelling. It might be “Pissauf” or something else, but it sounded like “Pissoff,” and I’m not sure if that’s his surname or his given name.
Giesbrecht wouldn’t give the other protesters or me a copy of the flyers in which his cult was black PRing the anonymous people, but handed them out to every passerby who would take them. And the passersby happily passed them on to us.
