Scientology faked David Miscavige appearance at Paris opening: The smoking gun

There’s no doubt that Scientology leader David Miscavige gave a speech at the Paris “Ideal Org” building to some cheering faithful. You can see it in the photo above.

But ever since the newest addition to the Ideal Org program had its grand opening on April 6, we’ve been asking whether Miscavige was actually there on that day.

Numerous observers who were there, including our friends Alex Barnes-Ross, Pete Griffiths, and journalist Jonny Jacobsen, believed that Miscavige had not appeared at the event itself. He was definitely missing, for example, at the ribbon pull outside the building, and Miscavige has never missed one of those at the grand openings he’s actually attended.

But a couple of days after the event, the Church of Scientology put out a press release claiming that Miscavige had, indeed, presided over the event and gave a speech, and the press release was accompanied by photos like the one above.

But our correspondents were still not convinced. Alex pointed out that flight data showed that Tom Cruise had flown his private jet to Paris the week before the event, and he suggested that Miscavige might have arrived at that time, given the speech so that it could be photographed and recorded, and then left the country, which is fairly notorious for its anti-Scientology feeling.

Miscavige didn’t want to risk being on the scene for the event itself. Too risky, Alex figured.

There were some interesting pieces of evidence that Alex and the Underground Bunker both found that suggested this was not a farfetched idea.

But now, Alex has taken another look at the photos, and it suddenly dawned on him: The evidence was right there in front of our faces.

First, take a look at Scientology’s generic image of the Paris Ideal Org’s chapel…

And note in particular the backdrop to the stage…

Now, take a look at the photo of Miscavige on that stage that Scientology put out in its press release, and that they claim was taken at the grand opening itself on April 6…

And now focus on the elaborate backdrop that they brought in for Dave to stand in front of…

So there’s no question: When Dave gave his speech, an elaborate setup had been installed in the chapel for him to stand in front of. And remember, Scientology is claiming that this was on April 6, when the grand opening happened.

However, some of the Scientologists who were at the grand opening posted their own photos of the facility on the day of the event. One of those photos includes this shot of the chapel…

And again, let’s focus on the stage. As you can see, no backdrop.

Conclusion: David Miscavige did not tape his speech on the day of the grand opening, but some time before, when an elaborate backdrop was installed in the chapel. A backdrop that was not there on the day of the event itself.

Busted.

And Alex, you are a genius, man. Maybe Charlie Hebdo will do something on this? Ooh la la.

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London Ontario Scientology Event Protest

And here’s a report from one of our great contributors, Phil Jones…

April 28, 2024, London, Ontario. Scientology had their safepointing and interfaith event, held in their Scientology Volunteer Minister big yellow tents. Initially, the event was to take place at the large Covent Garden Market. They had booked this ahead, of course without mentioning Scientology, and said they were an International Disaster Response Center.

Just before the event at Covent Gardens took place someone informed the management that this supposed International Disaster Response group was actually Scientology. This resulted in a cancelation of Scientology's booking by the management.

Scrambling to relocate their event, Scientology was able to secure the corner of the parking lot of a mattress store in a less-than-favorable neighborhood.

At this time, we the protesters, were all heading to London and had no idea of this change of venue.

As I was driving into the city my GPS, as it sometimes does, took me on a slightly different route. When I was still about 4 kilometers from Covent Gardens I saw the big yellow tents on a small parking lot on the corner of a side street. I almost drove by but decided to pull into the side street and call Jeff (‘PTS For Life’ on YouTube). Jeff had already arrived at Covent Gardens and said that Scientology wasn't there and that nothing was happening that day. I told him that I'd stumbled across their new location.

We quickly called all the other protesters who descended on the new location. Fortunately, we were still early and the event hadn't started yet.

As people arrived we started talking to some of the speakers who were from various groups and non-profits. They freely gave us their contact information. One very nice woman from a child protective agency in Ontario took the time to speak to me at length, gave me her card, and agreed to meet me at a later date to discuss what Scientology really does.

Another speaker, a gentleman from a Canadian non-profit group for supporting cultural groups and immigrants agreed to do more to learn about Scientology and whether it is suitable to ally with in the future.

Also, Jeff did an interview with a London newspaper about the event and our protest.

Scientology's OSA Canada was there. The head of OSA Canada, Yvette Shank was there and didn't seem too happy that we'd found their event at this location.

All in all, I think it was a successful day.

Side note: There was also a Toronto fund-raising event on Saturday (April 27) that we also went to protest. It was at a hall that Scientology rented which had two large rooms, one that held 170, and the other held 350. Scientology rented them both. We got there hours early so that we could count the attendees. Some of the early arrivals were OT Committee members (volunteer Scientology support group), who were there to set things up. We couldn't differentiate between volunteers and attendees but overall I didn't count more than 20-25 people going in. About 15 years of fund-raising and an estimated $8 million dollars raised, and so far no renovations going on. That was the message we were trying to get across to arrivals.

— Phil Jones

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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

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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