‘Psychic fair’ prompts protest

Envoy Eric Alcock of the local Salvation Army and two soldiers from the Citadel passed out leaflets at the driveway to the East End Hall yesterday to protest what they termed “the dark powers” of the psychic fair being held there.
Their presence sparked a brief but testy confrontation when one of the fair’s clairvoyants, Juliette Mageau, came out to speak to them.
“Why are you here?” Mageau queried. “We are not doing anything wrong. We have every right to be here, we rent space to be here.
“We have a message [and] we have no hidden agenda,” she added.
“There are two spiritual powers–light and dark–and according to the scriptures, you are contrary to the Word of God,” retorted Alcock.
“What you are doing is forbidden,” he added tersely.
Jim Conrad, who heads up “ESP Psychic Fairs” out of Toronto, said this was the first time he’s witnessed such a protest at one of his events but admitted he wasn’t fazed by it.
“This is a small community and you are somewhat isolated and this is the first time we have been here,” he said briefly.
Judy McCoy, one of the Salvation Army soldiers who supported Alcock outside the East End Hall, said she had had first-hand experience with psychics previously and believed it turned her away from her Christian faith.
“I was dragged into this sort of thing once [and] realized it was the tools of the Devil,” McCoy charged.
“Hope, faith, love, and peace–you are not going to find any of [those] in that door,” she gestured. “I can’t be silent because I know what this leads to.”
Mageau, interviewed later at her fair booth, said she had been insulted by the remarks against her “gift” as a clairvoyant. She argued her work helped put people in the right direction and showed them how to get out of problems in their lives.
“Jesus was a clairvoyant,” remarked Mageau, a native of Gatineau, Que. and a member of the Worldwide Spiritualist Church Federation. “[Jesus] took one fish and made a thousand, one piece of bread and made a thousand.
“I am not at all [evil] and I am not going to put people in the wrong direction,” she stressed. “You are the only one who controls your destiny.”
In the meantime, Alcock said the Salvation Army’s “stand” would continue today until the fair wrapped up his second and final day here at 10 p.m.
“These people do not direct [others] to a faith in Jesus Christ,” he noted. “In their world, they are the ones who hold the answer.
“They won’t deny God but they leave God out of the picture,” he stressed.