My arrival in Canada. The true nature of SGI Canada by Brian

I would like to respond to Shovoy's questions, but before I do I'd like to explain a little history about what happened just before and after my arival to Canada 11 years ago.

Actually, I wrote this up yesterday and, either the moderator hasn't released it, won't release it, or maybe I failed to properly send it off because it's not here. I did give the proper names of those involved, for which I take full responsibility for. 

In France, in the months just before our departure, I was approached several times by Marc de la Chanel, who was the regional director of SGI France centered in Dijon (where good French Mustard comes from). Marc has passed on since then, I'm sorry to say. He was a simple, earnest man with a big heart, but lacking in critical thinking. Anyway, he wanted to convince me that the temple was wrong and their priests were the cause of the split. He was so intent on convincing me that he insisted that I accept a gift from him, a book translated from English into french outlining 100 reasons on why the priesthood was at fault. I reluctantly took the book, read a few pages of dreadful nonsense and put it away. 

Six months later, after we had moved our family back to Canada, settling in Montreal (great city by the way), I got a surprise phone call from Tadashi Ohira, director of the Montreal Head Quarters for SGI Canada. He wanted to meet with me and to find out if I was going to try and steal members away from the gakkai. How he knew I was even in Montreal, let alone my phone number, was a big surprise and he never told me where he got the info from. A few weeks later, my wife was speaking with another temple supporter in France, who knew Marc de la Chanel and she said that he had called to complain that I had left France without returning his book and he desperately wanted to get it back. She unwittingly gave him our contact info. Marc never made any attempt to contact us at all, but Tad Ohira did, after the info was passed on to him through SGI. 

In the interests of finding out what SGI Canada was up to, I agreed to finally see Tad Ohira. When we met, he brought with him the General Director of SGI Canada Micky Masuda. I wondered why all the attention for a single person like myself. The meeting was predictable and we parted with nothing accomplished and I thought that would be the last I would see them. But it wasn't. 

A few months later, my wife and I were preparing to drive to Ottawa and to participate for the first time in a small district meeting with a group of very young temple supporters, none of them with any knowledge of the Gakkai. An hour before leaving, I got a call from Tad, he wanted to chat and asked if I was busy that day. I though what a strange coincidence. I told him nothing and advised that he might want to call back in a few months - whatever. 

Upon arriving at our destination in Ottawa, I was met at the door by our host and she was exited to let me know that my "friend" had arrived a few minutes ago and was waiting inside. Who the hell could that be!?!? She led us in and there, in the living room, in the midst of a dozen or so people, sat Tad in his business suit, a brief case at his side. I was staggered!!! The Audacity of the man. No one there had any idea as to who he was and of course he didn't say. The host was astonished when I explained he was a gakkai official. She took a while to comprehend the situation, but eventually asked him to leave or she would call the police. Tad, being encouraged to get lost, started waiving about a piece of paper and shouting at me, "You wrote letter to Morehouse University!", You say bad things about Ikeda!", "I go Dawson College (where I work) tell what you did!"***. So what is Morehouse? 

Don't remember when I wrote to Martin Luther King's Alma Mater, but it was probably 6 months before the above incident, at the same time when Ikeda's portrait was to be hung on the wall of their chapel. I found that to be a dumb thing for them to do, so I wrote to the University's president asking him to reconsider. In the letter, sent by registered mail, I included copies from various main stream media sources, such as Time, BBC, Far Easter Economic review etc. and nothing from Nichiren Shoshu. The letter Tad was so pissed off about was this letter. I leave it to you to figure out how it came into his possession. It was my last encounter with him and the gakkai. 

I know there are people who want to excuse this type of antisocial-criminal behavior saying that these are extraordinary cases of people acting on their own, but this is patently not true. The problems that caused the split go back to the 50's and 60's when Japanese Gakkai members made their way to your country and mine, bringing with them sensibilities foreign to our western notion of liberal democratic values. To be fair, I can also accuse the temple of the same thing, but they were always the junior partner in all things overseas. Still, the reluctance in dealing with contentious issues from the outset: problems of doctrine, organization, translations and how to practice all contributed to the split. Both the SGI and NS and their leadership share the blame in this mess. Both entities have used distorted interpretations of Nichiren's teachings to back their own misguided actions. Unfortunately, we, as people who came to this teaching with honest intentions and open minds are powerless to change their fossilized visions of the way ahead. We have to abandon their models of organization and develop totally new ways based upon our collective experience accumulated over these past 50 years. Itai doshin is an inclusive principle, not a divisive one. We are, all of us, right and wrong so let's admit it and get on with the work ahead. This is entirely doable and there are thousands of people out there willing and able to join in." 

***Editor's note: Defamation, for example, going to or calling a person's place of employment and falsely reporting on that person, possibly leading to a loss of livelihood, is very hard to prove and litigate. SGI knows this. This is their principle modus operandi [MO].