Some Jazz And Justice And A Bit Of A Snow Job For The Unitarian Church Of Montreal. . .
Tonight was the second of three Jazz & Justice fund-raising concerts at the Unitarian Church of Montreal. The Jazz & Justice series of concerts is an initiative of "Humanist" Montreal Unitarian U*U, and former President of the so-called Unitarian Church of Montreal, John Inder who is numbered amongst that select group of obnoxious, intolerant and abusive Montreal Unitarians who have had the gall to label Creation Day as a "cult" and/or "cult-like" to my face. . . In John Inder's case "and" is the operative term.
Needless to say I try to make a point of protesting against the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of John Inder and other Montreal Unitarian U*Us, as well as other U*U injustices and abuses, when a Jazz & Justice concert takes place. I managed to miss protesting at the first concert in February because I was distracted by an unexpected visit from a friend. I was almost distracted from protesting at tonight's Jazz & Justice concert by the fact that someone claiming to be Wilhelmina Tiemersma, the troubled transexual organist who burned down the Unitarian Church of Montreal in 1987, posted a comment to an Emerson Avenger blog post and I decided to blog about that quite unprecedented occurrence.* Most fortuitously a Google News alert on the term "Unitarian Church of Montreal" in my email inbox reminded me about tonight's Jazz & Justice concert because the Montreal Gazette published an announcement of the concert in today's Gazette so I was able to grab my picket signs and hop on the METRO in time to get to the Unitarian Church of Montreal about a half hour before the concert started.
As I was unbagging my picket signs and preparing to set up the two freestanding ones that I have left Nancy Lorimer aka Nancy Durnford Lorimer, a retired lifestyle journalist from The Gazette, showed up at the "church" with her husband Gordon. As they were approaching the Unitarian Church of Montreal from the east her husband said, "Do you see what I see?" Needless to say Gordon Lorimer was obviously referring to yours truly. Nancy Lorimer answered in the affirmative so I said to both of them, "Did you really think that I wouldn't show up?"
The Lorimers entered the "church" without further incident but, some time later, Gordon Lorimer came out of the "church" and appeared to be looking around. I thought perhaps that he had called the police and was expecting a police car to arrive immanently but he walked past me and disappeared up Bulmer Street which is the street immediately to the west of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Several minutes later I saw him approaching from the east with Nancy Eddis so he must have gone around the block or at least through the backlot that connects Bulmer Street to Claremont Street which is the street immediately to the east of the "church". Both Gordon Lorimer and Nancy Eddis entered the narrow path for disabled people that runs along the front of the sanctuary of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and connects with the ramp for disabled people that runs along the right side of the main entrance to the "church". Nancy Eddis was several feet behind Gordon Lorimer. As he drew level with me on the path which is set back from the sidewalk by about ten feet or so Gordon Lorimer angrily yelled, "Get out of my way stupid!" This is by no means that first time that Montreal Unitarians have pretended that I am in their way but it is the first time that a DIM Thinking Montreal Unitarian has pretended that I was in their way when we were on two different sidewalks separated by about ten feet. . . ROTFLMU*UO!
Nancy Eddis immediately expressed some dismay and disapproval of Gordon Lorimer's ridiculous angry outburst but I did not catch her exact words. Too bad that Nancy Eddis and Rev. Charles Eddis failed to express some suitable dismay and disapproval when, along with most other members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, I brought it to their attention that Rev. Ray Drennan had gone well beyond angrily calling me "stupid". . . I responded that the stupid people were inside the "church" which was not entirely fair since many of the people inside the Unitarian Church of Montreal at the time were non-U*U members of the Montreal public who had just come to hear the Jazz & Justice concert, but I am reasonably sure that both Gordon Lorimer and Nancy Eddis caught my drift.
Speaking of drifts. . . A Montreal snow-clearing crew chose to clear de Maisonneuve boulevard in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal at about the same time that the Jazz & Justice concert started. I am not sure quite how soundproof the sanctuary of the Unitarian Church of Montreal is but I am reasonably sure that it is not soundproof enough to completely block out the heavy bass thrumming of the rotating blades of the snowblower, the loud engines of the snowtrucks and graders etc., and the blaring honks of the horns of the snowclearing crew who occasionally sounded their approval of my "alternative spiritual practice" of protesting against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy.
At least a couple of other Gazette employees showed up for tonight's Jazz & Justice concert, namely Mark Abley and Irwin Block the Gazette reporter who wrote the reasonably fair and balanced news report about my first court appearance arising out of Rev. Diane Rollert's deeply misguided and almost certainly futile effort to seek a restraining order against me on the highly questionable grounds that she has "reasonable grounds" to *fear* that I will commit a "serious personal injury offence" against her. When I recognized Irwin Block approaching the Unitarian Church of Montreal from the west I simply said, "Hello, hello." Irwin Block maintained seemingly sullen silence. It seems that Irwin Block doesn't appreciate my justifiably less than favorable opinion of the Montreal Gazette even though I have told him a few times that I had no complainst about his story which, to date, is the only fair and balanced news report that the "paper where no news is bad news" has ever published about my trials and truibulations with the Unitarian Church of Montreal. My encounter with Gazette columnist Mark Abley is quite another story, one that is rather more comparable to my run-in with Gordon Lorimer and, because it merits individual treatment, it will be reported in a separate follow-up post. . .
When I left the scene there was still a fair bit of snow that needed to be cleared on de Maisonneuve boulvard in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal so I expect that the rest of this month's Jazz & Justice concert included a fair bit of completely unintended improvisation as it were. If my memory serves me well the coincidence of snow removal with a Jazz & Justice concert has happened before. No doubt a few paranoid Montreal Unitarians are thoroughly convinced that they have "reasonable grounds" to *fear* the City of Montreal is secretly conspiring against hapless Montreal U*Us by deliberately scheduling noisy snow removal to coincide with Jazz & Justice concerts. Who knows? Maybe litigious, to say nothing of "criminal minded" (as it were), Montreal Unitarians are already seriously considering charging the city's noisy and "disruptive" snow removal crew under section 176(3) of the Canadian Criminal Code which prohibits wilfully doing *anything* that disturbs the order or solemnity of "an assemblage of persons met for religious worship or for a moral, social or benevolent purpose". . . Montreal Unitarian U*Us might actually have a slightly better chance of actually obtaining a conviction in this case than they did with yours truly a few years back in that the rather loud noise, including quite *wilfully* honking their approval of my protest. . . caused by the municipal snow removal crew almost certainly did disturb this assemblage of persons for a social or benevolent purpose. ;-)
* This was the first time that someone claiming to be Wilhelmina Tiemersma has posted a comment to The Emerson Avenger blog, however it is within possibility that Wilhelmina Tiemersma has already commented on some TEA blog posts in the past, either anonymously or under a pseudonym.
Needless to say I try to make a point of protesting against the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of John Inder and other Montreal Unitarian U*Us, as well as other U*U injustices and abuses, when a Jazz & Justice concert takes place. I managed to miss protesting at the first concert in February because I was distracted by an unexpected visit from a friend. I was almost distracted from protesting at tonight's Jazz & Justice concert by the fact that someone claiming to be Wilhelmina Tiemersma, the troubled transexual organist who burned down the Unitarian Church of Montreal in 1987, posted a comment to an Emerson Avenger blog post and I decided to blog about that quite unprecedented occurrence.* Most fortuitously a Google News alert on the term "Unitarian Church of Montreal" in my email inbox reminded me about tonight's Jazz & Justice concert because the Montreal Gazette published an announcement of the concert in today's Gazette so I was able to grab my picket signs and hop on the METRO in time to get to the Unitarian Church of Montreal about a half hour before the concert started.
As I was unbagging my picket signs and preparing to set up the two freestanding ones that I have left Nancy Lorimer aka Nancy Durnford Lorimer, a retired lifestyle journalist from The Gazette, showed up at the "church" with her husband Gordon. As they were approaching the Unitarian Church of Montreal from the east her husband said, "Do you see what I see?" Needless to say Gordon Lorimer was obviously referring to yours truly. Nancy Lorimer answered in the affirmative so I said to both of them, "Did you really think that I wouldn't show up?"
The Lorimers entered the "church" without further incident but, some time later, Gordon Lorimer came out of the "church" and appeared to be looking around. I thought perhaps that he had called the police and was expecting a police car to arrive immanently but he walked past me and disappeared up Bulmer Street which is the street immediately to the west of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Several minutes later I saw him approaching from the east with Nancy Eddis so he must have gone around the block or at least through the backlot that connects Bulmer Street to Claremont Street which is the street immediately to the east of the "church". Both Gordon Lorimer and Nancy Eddis entered the narrow path for disabled people that runs along the front of the sanctuary of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and connects with the ramp for disabled people that runs along the right side of the main entrance to the "church". Nancy Eddis was several feet behind Gordon Lorimer. As he drew level with me on the path which is set back from the sidewalk by about ten feet or so Gordon Lorimer angrily yelled, "Get out of my way stupid!" This is by no means that first time that Montreal Unitarians have pretended that I am in their way but it is the first time that a DIM Thinking Montreal Unitarian has pretended that I was in their way when we were on two different sidewalks separated by about ten feet. . . ROTFLMU*UO!
Nancy Eddis immediately expressed some dismay and disapproval of Gordon Lorimer's ridiculous angry outburst but I did not catch her exact words. Too bad that Nancy Eddis and Rev. Charles Eddis failed to express some suitable dismay and disapproval when, along with most other members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, I brought it to their attention that Rev. Ray Drennan had gone well beyond angrily calling me "stupid". . . I responded that the stupid people were inside the "church" which was not entirely fair since many of the people inside the Unitarian Church of Montreal at the time were non-U*U members of the Montreal public who had just come to hear the Jazz & Justice concert, but I am reasonably sure that both Gordon Lorimer and Nancy Eddis caught my drift.
Speaking of drifts. . . A Montreal snow-clearing crew chose to clear de Maisonneuve boulevard in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal at about the same time that the Jazz & Justice concert started. I am not sure quite how soundproof the sanctuary of the Unitarian Church of Montreal is but I am reasonably sure that it is not soundproof enough to completely block out the heavy bass thrumming of the rotating blades of the snowblower, the loud engines of the snowtrucks and graders etc., and the blaring honks of the horns of the snowclearing crew who occasionally sounded their approval of my "alternative spiritual practice" of protesting against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy.
At least a couple of other Gazette employees showed up for tonight's Jazz & Justice concert, namely Mark Abley and Irwin Block the Gazette reporter who wrote the reasonably fair and balanced news report about my first court appearance arising out of Rev. Diane Rollert's deeply misguided and almost certainly futile effort to seek a restraining order against me on the highly questionable grounds that she has "reasonable grounds" to *fear* that I will commit a "serious personal injury offence" against her. When I recognized Irwin Block approaching the Unitarian Church of Montreal from the west I simply said, "Hello, hello." Irwin Block maintained seemingly sullen silence. It seems that Irwin Block doesn't appreciate my justifiably less than favorable opinion of the Montreal Gazette even though I have told him a few times that I had no complainst about his story which, to date, is the only fair and balanced news report that the "paper where no news is bad news" has ever published about my trials and truibulations with the Unitarian Church of Montreal. My encounter with Gazette columnist Mark Abley is quite another story, one that is rather more comparable to my run-in with Gordon Lorimer and, because it merits individual treatment, it will be reported in a separate follow-up post. . .
When I left the scene there was still a fair bit of snow that needed to be cleared on de Maisonneuve boulvard in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal so I expect that the rest of this month's Jazz & Justice concert included a fair bit of completely unintended improvisation as it were. If my memory serves me well the coincidence of snow removal with a Jazz & Justice concert has happened before. No doubt a few paranoid Montreal Unitarians are thoroughly convinced that they have "reasonable grounds" to *fear* the City of Montreal is secretly conspiring against hapless Montreal U*Us by deliberately scheduling noisy snow removal to coincide with Jazz & Justice concerts. Who knows? Maybe litigious, to say nothing of "criminal minded" (as it were), Montreal Unitarians are already seriously considering charging the city's noisy and "disruptive" snow removal crew under section 176(3) of the Canadian Criminal Code which prohibits wilfully doing *anything* that disturbs the order or solemnity of "an assemblage of persons met for religious worship or for a moral, social or benevolent purpose". . . Montreal Unitarian U*Us might actually have a slightly better chance of actually obtaining a conviction in this case than they did with yours truly a few years back in that the rather loud noise, including quite *wilfully* honking their approval of my protest. . . caused by the municipal snow removal crew almost certainly did disturb this assemblage of persons for a social or benevolent purpose. ;-)
* This was the first time that someone claiming to be Wilhelmina Tiemersma has posted a comment to The Emerson Avenger blog, however it is within possibility that Wilhelmina Tiemersma has already commented on some TEA blog posts in the past, either anonymously or under a pseudonym.
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