Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International
Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 3:18 am
At present the dominant anti-authority group in Canada is the Freeman-on-the-Land movement. That movement has two leading gurus: Robert-Arthur: Menard, and Dean Clifford.
However, both those leaders and the Freeman movement is predated by a less known group, the Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International [“CERI”], which historically has been largely restricted to areas in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. CERI’s dominant personality is minister Edward-Jay-Robin: Belanger, and he seems to be the only member who actively and publically promotes CERI concepts.
Both CERI and Belanger are identified and discussed in A.C.J. Rooke’s Meads v. Meads decision (2012 ABQB 571, paras. 134-139, 183-188, respectively), but neither are the subject of reported decisions.
The CERI website is here:
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/
It’s a bit of a mess.
“minister” Belanger now largely communicates via YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Owlmon
He is pretty active of late, adding home-recorded video rants in what are increasingly decrepit appearing surroundings. More on that later.
Conceptually, it seems Belanger and CERI are trying to escape from state authority by claiming to only be bound by Christian law, specifically the King James Bible. The CERI perspective is that Commonwealth governments are not valid where they engage in anything outside that prescribed by the Bible – this flows from the Queen’s coronation oath where she says she will uphold the Christian Bible and faith. They have other oath-related obsessions as well, particularly for judges. If something is not faith-law, then it must be commercial law, so we’re back with some well-established Sovereign Citizen concepts.
CERI also adopts the ‘double/split person’ motif, though the ‘Strawman’ is usually described as a “person”, or a “dead thing”. Interaction with a "dead thing" is, naturally, necrophilia. The usual all-capital letters name motif is identified to mean a “person”. CERI uses the A4V concept that the “person” is a method to enslave citizens for value, however it seems Belanger does not believe there is the classic A4V secret bank account. The “person” interacts with the state and its statutes, all commercial law, via contract. So far so good – this is largely familiar territory.
What I think may be the novel twist to this group is that Belanger and CERI argue that one can get escape state control by abandoning your “person” and becoming solely governed by religious law. And you really, really have to mean it – you need to restructure all your actions to follow Christian principles (generously re-defined), always cite the basis for your actions in Scripture, and defend your activities by calls to faith. And naturally don’t use postal codes.
Belanger has recently posted a set of three “how to” videos on his YouTube site which reviews his scheme, these are the April 22-23 videos with the ‘on getting agreements’ titles. That’s what has inspired me to write on Belanger, as it is probably the most complete and concise restatement of CERI’s concepts to date.
So how does one execute this? CERI members use “notice” documents to “private persons” (since they aren’t recognizing authority) that one has to rebut within a narrow timeframe or are deemed accepted. There are lots of examples of these on the CERI website, here’s just a few:
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/main0023.html
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/forumarc/108.html
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/dfagree.html
http://allcreatorsgifts.blogspot.ca/201 ... re-to.html
The last one is doppelled in its original format here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46829329/Eccl ... use-Notice
As was noted by A.C.J. Rooke, CERI materials are consistently a god-awful mismash, copy-pasted and crudely hacked together. The last document, the Ecclesiastical Excuse Notice, was bulk emailed to a very large chunk of the Alberta government employee pool, and it seems to do that Belanger by hand went through government directories, extracting any email address he could find. The fellow is persistent!
So, does it work? No. While there are no court judgments that illustrate CERI’s ongoing failure, some incidents have nevertheless been documented. For example, “minister” Catherine Flamond has unsuccessfully argued she is constitutionally exempt from motor vehicle registration, licensing, and insurance obligations because her vehicle of choice, a 1994 Mercury Sable, is an “Ecclesiastical Pursuit Chariot”:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/03/20/w ... ht-tickets
I understand that when this matter came to trial in the fall Flamond didn’t show up.
Belanger himself has had some failures. The AllCreatorsGifts homepage reports on his arrest and detention in 2010 for a mixture of motor vehicle and drug offences. Along with minister Don: Friske they suffered terribly:
Minister Donald: Friske did not drink the tap water for 5 days. We wrote a letter to the central MLA Laurie Blakeman telling her that they were being discriminated against because they believe their body is a holy sacrament for God and does not want anything dirty in it, which they have every right to have their faiths and beliefs.
Belanger has allegedly launched a tort action in the Canadian Federal Court to bring the state and errant judges to their knees. The “Plenary Statement of claim” can be viewed here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/97602634/Robi ... -of-Motion
What makes Belanger kind of interesting (beyond the peculiarity of his belief set), is that it’s pretty clear he absolutely does not believe any of the religious aspects of what he says, but has learned that he must maintain that façade with the utmost care to negate state authority. His primary focus, at least initially, was that he was a free marijuana use advocate, and claimed to be a member of the “Church of Reformed Druids”. He since has become a King James Bible literalist, presumably because then people laugh at him a bit less.
Another interest facet of this guru is that he is currently engaged in a doctrinal hissy fit with the leading Canadian Freeman-on-the-Land gurus, Robert Menard and Dean Clifford:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccd1_yBUTOY
The page upon page of comments to this video are a hoot, particularly where Clifford argues he was not photographed exposing his penis at a coffee meeting between the two.
Back to CERI; its membership does not seem to be particularly large (in the dozens or so?), and probably has been decreasing over the years. CERI members are either on welfare, assured income, and/or in subsidized housing. To say these persons are marginal is an understatement. Mental health issues appear involved. Belanger himself has noted in his videos that he receives AISH payments (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped), which suggests he has been diagnosed with significant mental impairment. Or at least fakes it well.
I tend to view these people as old hippies who still want to ‘stick it to The Man’, and this is their vehicle for that, and to feel self-important. A.C.J. Rooke reports members of this group have attempted to disrupt court functions, and Belanger’s videos indicate the same.
It will be interesting to see whether CERI fades away now that Canadian courts have clearly identified and are responding to OPCA groups such as this. Another possibility is a resurgence since the Freeman movement is in something of a state of disorder, and perhaps Belanger can now use the Internet to reach a larger audience with his ideas. They are well adapted to any Commonwealth country, and I have seen him and CERI referenced in Australian and British Freeman circles.
SMS Möwe
However, both those leaders and the Freeman movement is predated by a less known group, the Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International [“CERI”], which historically has been largely restricted to areas in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. CERI’s dominant personality is minister Edward-Jay-Robin: Belanger, and he seems to be the only member who actively and publically promotes CERI concepts.
Both CERI and Belanger are identified and discussed in A.C.J. Rooke’s Meads v. Meads decision (2012 ABQB 571, paras. 134-139, 183-188, respectively), but neither are the subject of reported decisions.
The CERI website is here:
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/
It’s a bit of a mess.
“minister” Belanger now largely communicates via YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Owlmon
He is pretty active of late, adding home-recorded video rants in what are increasingly decrepit appearing surroundings. More on that later.
Conceptually, it seems Belanger and CERI are trying to escape from state authority by claiming to only be bound by Christian law, specifically the King James Bible. The CERI perspective is that Commonwealth governments are not valid where they engage in anything outside that prescribed by the Bible – this flows from the Queen’s coronation oath where she says she will uphold the Christian Bible and faith. They have other oath-related obsessions as well, particularly for judges. If something is not faith-law, then it must be commercial law, so we’re back with some well-established Sovereign Citizen concepts.
CERI also adopts the ‘double/split person’ motif, though the ‘Strawman’ is usually described as a “person”, or a “dead thing”. Interaction with a "dead thing" is, naturally, necrophilia. The usual all-capital letters name motif is identified to mean a “person”. CERI uses the A4V concept that the “person” is a method to enslave citizens for value, however it seems Belanger does not believe there is the classic A4V secret bank account. The “person” interacts with the state and its statutes, all commercial law, via contract. So far so good – this is largely familiar territory.
What I think may be the novel twist to this group is that Belanger and CERI argue that one can get escape state control by abandoning your “person” and becoming solely governed by religious law. And you really, really have to mean it – you need to restructure all your actions to follow Christian principles (generously re-defined), always cite the basis for your actions in Scripture, and defend your activities by calls to faith. And naturally don’t use postal codes.
Belanger has recently posted a set of three “how to” videos on his YouTube site which reviews his scheme, these are the April 22-23 videos with the ‘on getting agreements’ titles. That’s what has inspired me to write on Belanger, as it is probably the most complete and concise restatement of CERI’s concepts to date.
So how does one execute this? CERI members use “notice” documents to “private persons” (since they aren’t recognizing authority) that one has to rebut within a narrow timeframe or are deemed accepted. There are lots of examples of these on the CERI website, here’s just a few:
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/main0023.html
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/forumarc/108.html
http://www.allcreatorsgifts.org/dfagree.html
http://allcreatorsgifts.blogspot.ca/201 ... re-to.html
The last one is doppelled in its original format here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46829329/Eccl ... use-Notice
As was noted by A.C.J. Rooke, CERI materials are consistently a god-awful mismash, copy-pasted and crudely hacked together. The last document, the Ecclesiastical Excuse Notice, was bulk emailed to a very large chunk of the Alberta government employee pool, and it seems to do that Belanger by hand went through government directories, extracting any email address he could find. The fellow is persistent!
So, does it work? No. While there are no court judgments that illustrate CERI’s ongoing failure, some incidents have nevertheless been documented. For example, “minister” Catherine Flamond has unsuccessfully argued she is constitutionally exempt from motor vehicle registration, licensing, and insurance obligations because her vehicle of choice, a 1994 Mercury Sable, is an “Ecclesiastical Pursuit Chariot”:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/03/20/w ... ht-tickets
I understand that when this matter came to trial in the fall Flamond didn’t show up.
Belanger himself has had some failures. The AllCreatorsGifts homepage reports on his arrest and detention in 2010 for a mixture of motor vehicle and drug offences. Along with minister Don: Friske they suffered terribly:
Minister Donald: Friske did not drink the tap water for 5 days. We wrote a letter to the central MLA Laurie Blakeman telling her that they were being discriminated against because they believe their body is a holy sacrament for God and does not want anything dirty in it, which they have every right to have their faiths and beliefs.
Belanger has allegedly launched a tort action in the Canadian Federal Court to bring the state and errant judges to their knees. The “Plenary Statement of claim” can be viewed here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/97602634/Robi ... -of-Motion
What makes Belanger kind of interesting (beyond the peculiarity of his belief set), is that it’s pretty clear he absolutely does not believe any of the religious aspects of what he says, but has learned that he must maintain that façade with the utmost care to negate state authority. His primary focus, at least initially, was that he was a free marijuana use advocate, and claimed to be a member of the “Church of Reformed Druids”. He since has become a King James Bible literalist, presumably because then people laugh at him a bit less.
Another interest facet of this guru is that he is currently engaged in a doctrinal hissy fit with the leading Canadian Freeman-on-the-Land gurus, Robert Menard and Dean Clifford:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccd1_yBUTOY
The page upon page of comments to this video are a hoot, particularly where Clifford argues he was not photographed exposing his penis at a coffee meeting between the two.
Back to CERI; its membership does not seem to be particularly large (in the dozens or so?), and probably has been decreasing over the years. CERI members are either on welfare, assured income, and/or in subsidized housing. To say these persons are marginal is an understatement. Mental health issues appear involved. Belanger himself has noted in his videos that he receives AISH payments (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped), which suggests he has been diagnosed with significant mental impairment. Or at least fakes it well.
I tend to view these people as old hippies who still want to ‘stick it to The Man’, and this is their vehicle for that, and to feel self-important. A.C.J. Rooke reports members of this group have attempted to disrupt court functions, and Belanger’s videos indicate the same.
It will be interesting to see whether CERI fades away now that Canadian courts have clearly identified and are responding to OPCA groups such as this. Another possibility is a resurgence since the Freeman movement is in something of a state of disorder, and perhaps Belanger can now use the Internet to reach a larger audience with his ideas. They are well adapted to any Commonwealth country, and I have seen him and CERI referenced in Australian and British Freeman circles.
SMS Möwe