Soka Sect Has Problems in Canada Too : Development: Foes of religious group see a parallel between clashes over projects outside Toronto and here.

A Japanese Buddhist sect’s plan to build a large institution in a verdant meadow has touched off a community war.

The sect is so determined that it paid above-market prices for the site and hired top lobbyists to secure government approvals.

Yet a group of neighbors and public officials are equally dedicated to blocking the project. They think it is too large for the environmentally sensitive area and are worried about allegations that the sect, which is closely tied to Soka Gakkai, is a dangerous cult.

This could be a story about Soka University, whose proposal to build a 4,400-student college in the Santa Monica Mountains is opposed by nearby residents and by state and national park officials.

But it’s not.

Instead, the similar struggle is taking place a nation away--on 134 acres outside Toronto--where the Nichiren Shoshu Sokagakkai of Canada (NSC) wants to build the Caledon Centre for Culture and Education.

“The parallels are really amazing,” said Bill Wells, spokesman for the Coalition to Preserve Las Virgenes, a group formed to fight expansion of the Soka campus in the mountains above Malibu.

Wells recently met his Canadian counterpart, Air Canada pilot Jim Reid, and the two men say they have learned by comparing notes. “It confirms that (Soka Gakkai’s) tactics are just that, tactics, that they say or do whatever they think will fly,” Wells said. “They are like water flowing downhill; they change direction whenever they hit an obstacle.”

Sect members and their defenders say any similarities between the two projects are coincidental. They accuse the opponents of launching a witch hunt fueled by bigotry, religious intolerance and misinformation gleaned from the tabloid press.

“I went to a local meeting and I was embarrassed that they were comparing the NSC to Charles Manson,” said Richard Lambert, a retired police officer who lives next to the NSC property. “I find them to be friendly, honest people.”

Caledon is a hilly town of 33,000 people, growing rapidly as young couples move from Toronto for affordable housing. Most of the new residents live in subdivisions or country estate lots scattered among livestock farms, apple orchards and gravel pits.

In 1989, the then-unknown NSC group startled local residents by filing an application to build a large religious center. It was a radical departure from the community plan for the area.

The land was zoned for agriculture when it was sold to developer John Edwin Allen Scott for $797,000 in 1987. Scott gained approval from the Caledon Town Council to rezone the property for 10 country estate lots, which real estate agents in the area said could have been sold for about $270,000 apiece, or a total of $2.7 million.

Instead, Scott sold it to the NSC in 1988 for $5.3 million.

The NSC submitted a development proposal to town planners for a 37,000-square-foot center for religious activities and conferences, a nature research institute, an 80-room lodge and a caretaker’s house. A remodeled 1920s house on the property would become a temporary residence for Soka’s President Daisaku Ikeda and other visiting dignitaries.

The center would be used primarily for worldwide Soka Gakkai events several times a year, said NSC spokesman Tony Meers.

“Its significance may not be realized for another 20, 30, 50 years,” Meers said as he sat on a picnic bench near a lake on the property. “As the Soka Gakkai’s role in peace and education takes on greater significance, a lot of important events will be held here.”

Soka Gakkai--the phrase means “Value Creation Society”--was founded in 1930 to spread the teachings of the 13th-Century Buddhist monk Nichiren. With 10 million members, it is Japan’s largest religious group. It is also a substantial financial force, with major assets in the publishing industry and real estate.

While it is credited with many good works in Japan, Soka Gakkai has drawn fire from critics on a number of fronts, particularly its involvement in several major financial and political intrigues, and for its aggressive recruitment techniques. Critics say it functions like a cult, with promises of material rewards and happiness in exchange for unquestioning allegiance.

Many residents in and near Caledon question why the NSC chose Caledon when there are only about 1,500 sect members in the area. From dinner tables to the Town Council candidate debates, they air fears that the land might just be a foothold for a cult to seize control of their community.

The proprietor of a small antiques store in neighboring Alton poses the question: “Do they really want world peace or do they want world domination?”

Residents also fret that the sect could influence local politics, perhaps by bringing money into the country tax-free as support for the sect’s religious and educational programs.

NSC spokesman Meers dismisses the residents’ fears as unfounded.

Still, concerns continue to grow as Reid and others share news clippings from around the world: The Japanese media report that Komeito, a political party founded by the Soka Gakkai, continues to be controlled by Ikeda. In Los Angeles, the now-defunct Herald-Examiner once reported the Nichiren Shoshu of America (NSA) had donated $2,000 to Mayor Tom Bradley’s campaigns in the mid-1980s, even though as a tax-exempt religion it was barred from making political contributions.

(Campaign finance reports show Bradley actually received $16,700 from NSA in 1985 and 1986. Bradley’s press deputy, Bill Chandler, said last week that at least part of the money was returned to the NSA after the newspaper’s disclosure, although he said he could not immediately determine how much.)

At a community meeting organized by Reid last month at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall in Alton, longtime Caledon resident John Van Beek said he thought the questions alone should be grounds for barring the project. “We don’t want the risk,” he said.

Reid, who lives with his wife and four children across the street from the NSC property, said he became alarmed about his new neighbor when he saw the NSA criticized for practicing mind control in an episode of the tabloid television program “Inside Edition.”

“When I first heard ‘destructive cult’ I have to admit I didn’t even know what it meant,” he said of his reaction to the television show. “But it didn’t sound too good, and I thought as a neighbor I ought to look into it a little.”

Reid has become increasingly frustrated with the Caledon Town Council’s unwillingness to deal with the cult-related issues. But sorting fact from phobia is a monumental challenge for any politician, especially when religious freedoms are at issue.

“The word cult has got in there now, but to get the facts and try to prove that seems to be very difficult,” Caledon Mayor Emil Kolb said. “The question is, does it bring difficulties with it if it comes to your community? That’s very hard to put your finger on.”

Faced with mounting public pressure to oppose the project, the Town Council in mid-October unanimously voted down the NSC’s rezoning application, leaving the ultimate decision to the Ontario Municipal Board, where local rulings are appealed.

Town Councilor Lorraine Alexander is troubled by the hostility the issue has created in the community. “I wasn’t sure if I was in Salem, Mass., or Alton,” Alexander said of the meeting Reid held. “If you tell a story long enough and loud enough, people believe it’s true.”

Alexander and others blame the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network for legitimizing the opponents’ most irrational fears. The network is a nonprofit organization of parents and friends of cult members and former members themselves, formed in the wake of the 1978 mass suicide by members of the People’s Temple at Jonestown, Guyana.

Reid contacted the network after learning through Canadian cult watchers that it considered the Soka Gakkai a dangerous cult because of its charismatic leader--Ikeda--its coercive recruitment techniques and its emphasis on chanting for material gain, which the network describes as brainwashing.

In the United States, Soka Gakkai representatives flatly deny most of the cult network’s charges, and they say recruitment efforts were toned down last year after members complained. In Canada, the NSC blames the U.S. wing of the group for some of the bad publicity.

“They were really kind of overdoing it,” Meers said, describing the U.S. recruitment techniques as overzealous.

Even some of those who side with Reid think he has gone overboard, and they question whether his approach is effective. Sonia and Paul Circa, who also oppose the NSC development, said they split from Reid’s group when they sensed town officials were not taking them seriously.

The Circas, who live in Toronto but plan to build a house on a lot they own next to the NSC property, found that their efforts to find environmental hazards of the project turned up little of consequence.

Most of the problems they identified were quickly addressed by the NSC, which had hired two private environmental consultants who previously held positions with a government conservation agency charged with protecting the region.

The Ontario Provincial Police is looking into concerns about the NSC and Soka Gakkai, but is somewhat hamstrung by the country’s constitution, the Charter of Rights, which largely prevents investigation of religions.

“These are not criminal things, so we cannot go get search warrants,” said one of the investigators, who asked not to be named. “In many ways these are questions about what are the social implications of this. . . . And every question leads to other questions.”

One charge made by NSC opponents initially perplexed police investigators. NSC defender Alexander was appointed to the Caledon Town Council after the death of her councilor husband, John, a year ago.

The Reids and others charged that the NSC bought Lorraine Alexander’s allegiance through two donations of more than $1,000 made to memorial funds for her husband.

John Alexander, a strong environmentalist, had raised numerous questions about the project, but no vote was taken before he died. Lorraine Alexander frequently defended the NSC, but ultimately voted against the project.

Although the investigation into that situation continues, the police investigators interviewed said they are nearly sure that no illegal activity took place because Alexander received the money before she accepted the council seat.

Regardless of the outcome of the investigations, it is increasingly clear that the NSC will never be welcome in Caledon. But it is equally clear that the group is determined to stay.

Meers said he would wait until after Tuesday’s Town Council election to announce whether they will appeal the council’s decision to vote down the group’s rezoning application, but he indicated that NSC has no intention of selling the land.

“I really feel it will eventually all be worked out,” Meers said. “We’re being patient because even if it does take time, this is something we believe in.”