Scientology's Legion of Doom

[link to torontoist.com]
Rumour has it that Mr. Cruise was under lockdown during Anonymous' global day of action against L. Ron Hubbard's brainchild. As the Toronto campaign got underway, Sunday commuters voiced solidarity with the placard-waving Vs and Vaders through their horns. “Honk for Xenu” read one such sign; “Honk if you think Scientology is silly” read another.

The war Anonymous wants is over ten years old, fought on a digital battleground. Many of the demonstrators gathered on Yonge Street were rallied through Facebook or YouTube, new recruits in a struggle that, in this city, can be traced at least as far back as a guy named Gregg Hagglund (pictured above) and “The Great Internet Wars” of the late nineties.

“I started picketing because Scientology attacked me for criticizing them on the Internet,” he said. Referring to a Usenet newsgroup on the subject, he says, “Some of it was wild, but a lot of the posters were very, very educated in their information about Scientology. So I made the comment that if what they were saying was true, Scientology should be investigated.” As exchanges and e-mail bombings escalated, things got ugly. Before long, Hagglund and his compatriots were embroiled in a struggle which, at its heart, was about freedom of speech, information, and challenging a “culture of surveillance.”

That was something like ten years ago. And while Anonymous is a new movement, it is fighting the same war.