Canada gained 3.5 million people between 2011 and 2021 — and lost 365 Scientologists

In July, we reported that in Australia’s latest census, the country had gained 2 million people in five years, but over that same period had lost 26 Scientologists.

And now, Canada has released new data from its latest census (thanks for the head’s up, Pan!), and it turns out that Scientology is also declining there.

Canada has reported that it went from a population of 33,476,688 in 2011 to 36,991,981 in 2021 — a gain of 3.5 million people overall.

But in that same period, those Canadians reporting themselves to be Scientologists declined from 1,745 in 2011 to only 1,380 in 2021, a loss of 365 Scientologists.

Both of these results, in Australia and Canada, are particularly interesting because both have been longtime strongholds of Scientology, and the organization has spent or planned to spend huge sums of money in those countries.

During the time that Scientology lost numbers in Australia, a new “Advanced Org” was built in a Sydney suburb for some $57 million. A similar “Advanced Org” has been planned for Canada for years, but it never seems to get off the ground.

The same goes for its Toronto “Ideal Org” project, which is still stuck in the fundraising mode while its longtime home on Yonge Street continues to fall into disrepair.

Now, will these actual hard numbers from official government agencies that show Scientology steadily shrinking — and in line with our global estimate of about 20,000 active Scientologists — stop the church from claiming that it’s the “fastest growing religion in the world”?

No, of course not. The first thing to know about Scientology is that it never tells a single truth about itself, and so why should it stop now?

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Sunny Pereira on Jane Doe 3’s ‘ethics’ trouble

Monday and Tuesday featured some pretty distressing testimony from alleged victim Jane Doe 3 in the Danny Masterson trial. In particular, she discussed what she was told by Scientology “ethics” officers when she went to them to report being sexually assaulted by Masterson in December 2001. She was told that rape wasn’t possible in a relationship like the one she was in with Masterson, and that he would face no consequences because as a productive celebrity, Masterson was an “upstat.”

We asked Sunny, who dealt with celebrities and their ethics troubles at the Celebrity Centre in the 1990s to give us some thoughts on what we all learned from Jane Doe 3 this week.

Jane Doe 3 was the first of Masterson’s alleged victims to report a crime to Scientology, in 2001. It was not something that Masterson felt guilty about and volunteered the information to Scientology. This is important, as it completely affects how the handlings are done.

So what happens? The person who came in to report it gets all the attention on “handling” it. And so, the target was always on Jane Doe 3 from the moment she reported it.

And besides all of the other huge gaps in Scientology, here we have another one. Even if Danny was asked directly about it, if it’s not something he sees as rape, it doesn’t come up. It’s “above his responsibility level” at the time. There may be a hope that somewhere up the line he will see it for what it is and can get it addressed in Scientology auditing sessions.

These types of situations are all over in the Scientology staff and public field. Persons who should, for various reasons, be turned over to law enforcement are not. And they drift around the fringes of Scientology. Not able to practice much of the religion, not able to leave it either. And their vices go unnoticed until the next complaint comes in about it, and so the circle goes.

The celebrity status has a lot to do with it as well. A celebrity Scientologist is expected to promote Scientology as the reason for their success. Scientology does not want to lose any of its members, but especially not the celebrity ones. So they get the lighter touch.

And it happens like this with them all. But every once in a while you do get a celebrity who does turn themselves in to do the right thing, and what happens? They get nailed to the wall with interrogations, ethics programs, and the like. Leah Remini tells about this in her wonderful book. That’s because her responsibility level is high enough to endure the proper punishment.

— Sunny Pereira

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

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