Templ Kung Fu / O.E. Simon Partial Discovery Transcript

[M.C. Busman]

Hello All,

This was sent to me by another keyboarder who wants to remain anonymous (thank you!!!). I have NOT independently verified it yet, BUT there is a case number here, names of parties and counsel. So as I was enjoined by the anonymous friend, enjoy...(scroll down)

If you know more, please help!

M.C. Busman
mc_busman@Bigmailbox.net
--------------
-------------

PART I:
------------

IN THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH OF ALBERTA

JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF EDMONTON
_________________________________________
NO. 9303 21120

BETWEEN:

RICHARD SHERGOLD AND ARGOLD HOLDINGS LTD.

Plaintiffs

- and -

OLAF SIMON, D. JUNE SIMON, VERITAS INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING LTD., TEMPLE KUNG FU STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL LTD., SEAMAC CANADA INC., DERECK PIERCEY, DERCAL HOLDINGS LTD., MARK SMITH, AND BRIAN STOKOWSKI

Defendants
_________________________________________

EXAMINATION FOR DISCOVERY of OLAF EMIL SIMON taken before J.B. Snow, Esq., Official Court Reporter/Examiner, at the offices of Shtabsky Tussman, 400 Oxford Tower, Edmonton, Alberta, on the 10th day of March, A.D. 1995.
_________________________________________

D.G. Groh, Esq., Q.C. Appeared for the Plaintiffs

A. Oshry, Esq. Appeared for the Defendants

P. Der Court Reporter


OLAF EMIL SIMON, having first been duly sworn at 2:06 p.m., examined by D.G. Groh, Esq., Q.C., testified as follows:

Q MR. GROH: Sir, are you the Olaf Simon who is named as a defendant in the Statement of Claim issued in Court of Queen's Bench Action No. 9303 21120?

A Yes.

Q And you are also produced this afternoon I understand as an officer of
the defendant Temple Kung Fu Studios International Ltd.?

A Yes, I guess so.

Q And your answers will be binding on that corporate defendant?

A Depending what you are asking me. Is that right, depending on your
question? Do you change from companies back?

Q What I am asking you is --

A In general.

Q What I am asking you is this. When you give evidence that the answers you
give will be binding on that particular corporate defendant, Temple Kung Fu
Studios International Ltd., and perhaps we can just have a break and Mr.
Oshry can explain to you what that means.

(Discussion off the record.)

Q MR. GROH: After discussing this matter with your counsel, sir, your
evidence will be binding on Temple Kung Fu Studios International Ltd., is
that correct?

A Yes, sir.

Q And you have just taken an oath. Is that oath binding on your conscience?

A Yes, definitely.

Q Now, are you the husband of the previous witness who is also a defendant
in this action D. June Simon?

A Yes, I am, yes.

Q Was she your wife also in 1988?

A All along.

Q How long have you been married?

A You got me. 27 I think. If it is 29 you wouldn't hold it against me?

Q No, sir.

MR. OSHRY: That is years?

MR. GROH: I was going to ask that.

A Yes.

Q Do you know what position you hold in the company Temple Kung Fu Studios
International Ltd.? Are you an officer?

A President is that what you are referring to?

Q That's it.

A Yes.

Q And you are now?

A Yes, I think, yes. Nobody replaced me.

Q And you were in November of 1988?

A All along, yes, sir.

Q Now, throughout this examination I am going to refer to some companies,
and I may refer to them by some short forms rather than their full name,
and I would like to run over those with you if I may. If I refer to either
Tim-Ed Ventures or Veritas International Published Ltd. simply as Veritas
will you understand who I mean?

A Yes. You allow me a question?

Q Please, go ahead.

A I was overseeing more the publicity side of it. I don't really know too
much about the individual companies. I think what transpired there unless
-- you can ask, and if I can oblige you I will, but the companies I knew
very little. I really didn't care about the companies. I cared about the
people who ran the companies.

Q You can only do the best you can in answering my questions.

A Okay, fine sir, gotcha.

Q I simply want to make sure that if I refer to Veritas you will understand
that --

A I know that is the Edmonton company, the Edmonton company, and there was
another one his Argold I know that.

Q Let me go through them one at a time, please?

A Okay.

Q If I use the term Veritas you will understand that I am referring to the
company who is a defendant Veritas International Publishing Ltd. which I
understand has had a name change to Tim-Ed Ventures?

A Yes. I don't know --

Q You will understand that I am referring to that company?

A To that, okay, yes. But if you would do me a favour and maybe tell me who
owned the company it helps me.

Q I will do my best.

A Okay.

Q If I refer to or use the term Argold will you understand --

A It is Richard's.

Q Pardon me?

A It is Richard's.

Q Yes, you will understand that I am referring to Argold Holdings Ltd.?

A Okay.

Q And that is okay with you?

A Yes, sir.

Q And if I refer to Temple Kung Fu Studios International Ltd. as TKI will
you understand --

A Yes, I would, sure.

Q That is all right with you?

A Fine, sir.

Q If I refer to Dercal Holdings as Dercal you will understand who I am
referring to as well, will you?

A Yeah, I got to -- this is no -- let me think. The company of Dereck,
right?

Q That's right. And, sir, if I refer to those and you have any question
because you can't remember which company is which please ask me.

A They changed them around, yeah.

Q Now, your date of birth is January 9, 1929, is that correct?

A No, my date of birth is January 20, '29.

Q January 20, 1929?

A Yeah.

Q Where were you born, sir?

A In the -- on the -- east Prussia.

Q In what is now Germany?

A No, it is Poland now. We lost that. It is gone. We lost the war. We lost
all kinds of things. I would actually be a Polish citizen if I would be
there.

Q I have seen references to you in which you are referred to as Dr. Simon?

A Yes.

Q Do you have a medical degree?

A No, I have studied in Gena University when I came back from war. After a
while I spent time in prison, and I studied in Gena and was given a
doctorate in Gena in 1949.

Q That was a doctorate in what area?

A It was a literary achievement.

Q And what was the name of the university, I'm sorry?

A Gena.

Q Can you spell it?

A G-E-N-A. It is the same university where Karl Marx studied.

Q Does that university still exist to your knowledge?

A It was in East Germany. It should still be existing. It change hands
after the --

Q Do you have a copy of your doctoral degree?

A No, sir, no.

Q You don't?

A No. May I make some reference to this?

Q Please go ahead.

[continued in PART II]

[M.C. Busman]

[continued from part i, PART II]

A At that time I was given the National Prize for Literature in 1949 and
was awarded the degree and shared the prize with 20 other people. And I
worked at that time in a student body in the underground against the
Communist government, and there were some extraordinary activity going on,
was some extraordinary activity going on. And I finally fled there. I had
to go to West Berlin before this silly wall went up.

Q Now, do you currently reside in Grand Forks in the Province of British
Columbia?

A Yes, sir.

Q Do you have any residence in Alberta?

A No, I used to live here.

Q But not currently?

A No, no, no present residence.

Q Would I be correct if I suggested that your current occupation was that
you were retired, would that be correct?

A Fair, yeah.

Q When did you first come to Canada?

A Landed immigrant 1960, Quebec City.

Q And did you come from Germany with a person by the name of Margie Hilbig?

A Correct.

Q And other than your native what is now Poland and in coming to Canada
have you lived anywhere else in the world?

A For a while I was all over the world. I was in Russia in a prison camp,
and I escaped from prison camp and surrendered to the British. Firstly, I
was in an American prison camp, was discharged home. When I crossed the
border I was already properly discharged. The Russians kept me the second
time.

MR. OSHRY: Mr. Groh, are you really interested in what happened in the
1940s?

A Oh, I can tell him.

Q MR. GROH: I was just wondering if you had lived anywhere else in the
world. If the witness feels this is a proper way to answer --

A I was in a prison camp. I don't know, it was not living really.

Q I understand your reference. What I am specifically interested in, sir,
is have you ever lived in China?

A No, lived in China, no. I travelled. I was escaping not through China but
through Mongolia.

Q Now, I understand that prior to your coming to Canada in approximately
1960 that you had studied boxing in Germany, is that correct?

A Well, you know.

Q On an amateur level?

A If you allow me to -- you phrase it -- studying is a -- I was very good
at it, but I didn't have a master to study boxing with, no. I was an
amateur boxer, yeah.

Q Were you a practitioner or a student of the martial arts prior to coming
to Canada? And let me clarify that. By martial arts I mean the oriental
martial arts?

A It wouldn't apply because there were no places to practice. This wasn't
known. At that time there were none but Judo was there. The other arts were
really not known. They were not, if I may use the word, they were not on
the market. So that wouldn't apply. But I was well trained in especially
Japanese hand-to-hand combat which is not the martial arts as we understand
it today.

Q But your training in Kung Fu came after 1960, did it?

A No, before.

Q Where did you receive that training?

A And that was not training as we understand it today. Uncle Yen was a
friend of our family. He taught us or me especially some of the moves. He
made me a bow and arrow and helmet and this, so I got introduced in the
rudiments of the Shaolin concepts.

Q Was that when you were a small child?

A Six years old, yeah.

Q Did that continue for any length of time?

A Well, yeah, for quite some time off and on. We lived in the diplomatic
quarters in the Tier (phonetic) Garden, near the Tier Garden. And the
Chinese embassy was not too far away so that would -- I would think to the
-- three or four years I would think from there on in but with
interruptions, sir. I mean to me this was not a training but a play thing.

Q And was that the extent of your exposure to oriental martial arts before
you came to Canada?

A Correct, yes.

Q Now, you mentioned Uncle Yen. I was going to ask you if you could
identify a person by the name of Master Yen. Was that the same?

A Well, I think.

Q Are we talking about the same person?

A Well, it would be the same person. If you are talking about the -- I
don't know where master comes from, but I think all these people were
masters without having them to qualify as being that. To me I think or to
anyone you see an old person you would think he is one especially if they
are Chinese.

Q Did you ever train in the martial arts in China?

A No.

Q Did you ever attend the Shaolin monastery?

A Attend the monastery? You can't attend it, sir.

Q Have you ever been to it, sir?

A To the monastery, no, no.

Q I have heard --

A There is nothing left. It burnt down.

Q I have heard references to people referred to as the Lee brothers. Does
that ring a bell with you?

A Lee brother. I know a Frank Lee, but I don't know a Lee brothers. There
was an Edmonton person Frank Lee, and I helped this man to get on the
international tournaments here. He had no access to the United States so I
introduced him to the tournaments. And at one state in this era, the very
end, I think '72, I owned the world's largest tournament in Long Beach. I
was the owner of it.

Q Did you and this Frank Lee did you study together or train together?

A I think we exchanged knowledge, yes, but you know studying, there is a
lot of envy in this field. So he was a very ambitious person, rather
friendly guy, but he stayed away from me quite a bit. He liked to hit, and
I didn't like to take it. I didn't like getting hit.

Q And I understand that. So you and Mr. Lee were not training partners on
an ongoing basis?

A No, you couldn't really say, no, I think it wouldn't be a fair statement
that we were training partners. We exchanged knowledge, knowledge at
lengthy time. Lengthy, maybe how many hours, maybe 100 hours or so all
together in the whole lifetime maybe.

Q Now, I understand that when you came to Canada you first came to the
province of Quebec. Then you stayed there for about six months, and then
moved to Toronto?

A No, no, I landed there only. It was an affair of four hours. You had to
leave the boat -- first the citizens left. The immigrants had to stay. And
then the immigrants finally were allowed out for processing, and then back
on the boat to Montreal the same day.

Q So you went to Montreal, and did you stay in Montreal for about six
months?

A No, sir. I had $2 left I remember, and I had to go quickly to find a
place to sleep. The last money I used was a plane ticket to Toronto. I had
$14. I arrived at night and I had $2 left. Midnight I arrived.

Q Did Ms. Hilbig also go to Toronto with you?

A Yes, yes.

Q And did you and Ms. Hilbig stay in Toronto for about a year?

A Pretty fair to say, yes.

Q And then the two of you moved to Calgary?

A Yes. Well, we didn't move. We left in a car. We drove by car. We had no
moving or anything.

Q And in Calgary a house was purchased, and you stayed in part of the
house, and she stayed in part of the house, correct?

A Correct, yes. We bought a house eventually. We first rented.

Q Now, in approximately 1961 is that when you first started to study
oriental martial arts in earnest?

A Well, this wouldn't be misleading. I worked privately and studied the art
quite seriously because once a person knows sets or skills one can repeat
them without any instruction. As a matter of fact if I may give you a valid
concept, this young man if he is a master in his own right if he is a
master and the master degree is that of a Fifth Degree, not higher, there
are no higher masters after that. They are prestigious degrees. They have
nothing to do with mastery any longer. He is master in his own right. And
if he chooses to go on his own he could call himself rightfully master. He
could change, add whatever he sees fit. That would be a fair assumption.

So there was no instrument on the market which identified skills. The
Chinese had no belt system. The Japanese had a belt system. We had a real
problem in North America to adopt the Chinese art to a certain regiment. So
the Chinese didn't give belts like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The Japanese were rather
very orderly. So we tried to copy the Japanese as best as possible for
obvious reasons. If they could produce a person with a Fourth Degree, well,
Six is higher than Four, and One is Three.

So if Kung Fu -- a master by his own right is a master who can if he is
challenged or-- somebody else challenges this person in the Chinese concept
then he better be trained. He could call himself actually a master. It
would decide whether or not he was -- could hold his own or not. Like in
the old standards if he calls himself a master and salutes wrongly and he
is attacked and he is knocked out he is not a master. He is a has-been.
That is a rather primitive system, but in the modern day time we try to
one had to actually make a name for himself I think if that would help you
to get an idea of the cult you are dealing with.

Q You have referred to it as a cult. Are you talking about martial arts generally?

A You know, I am not raised in this language. Cult, you know, there are so many kooks. Cults as I see religious cults not. Since they have so many different styles, many different styles--different styles, many different styles I myself loosely
refer to it as a cult. They surround against a person. They identify with a
certain person, and they differ in their outlook and approach. They can
differ quite significantly amongst one another by dress, by promotional
standards or outlook. I guess this is about the best thing I can offhand
come up with unless I have more time to think.

[continued in PART III]

[M.C. Busman]

[continued from part ii, PART III]

Q When you use that term in your own context the term cult are you talking
about martial arts as a whole the way it is practiced, or are you talking
about a style of martial arts?

A No, but martial arts this is a collective thing. Firstly Kung Fu is not a
martial art. It is induced into the martial art and it is called one
because they have slug outs. It is a philosophy of longevity, and we appear
under martial arts because if we would be registered under philosophy
surely we would deprive ourselves of the market if that would be a fair
statement.

Q Let me come at it in a different way. From what you have told me when you
were a young child for about over a period of about three years with some
breaks you learned some basics of Kung Fu from the person you referred to
as Uncle Yen, correct?

A Yes.

Q And then you didn't do any more of that until you came to Canada and is
it correct that in about 1961 you again started to practice Kung Fu?

A Yes. May I give you -- I don't know.

Q Let me just ask you one more question, if I might?

MR. OSHRY: But, Mr. Groh, I believe he also said he was doing some stuff in
between there as well if I understand.

Q MR. GROH: I didn't understand that, but I will come back to that. What I
am trying to get a handle on is this. Many years ago I lived in Calgary,
and I remember seeing your ads, and at that time correct me if I am wrong
it was advertised as Simon Karate?

A Correct.

Q Is that correct?

A Yes.

Q And the reason I am interested in that is when you first started working
again at Kung Fu or whatever you were working at in about 1961 in Calgary
were you studying Karate at that time or was it Kung Fu?

A In the beginning it was Karate.

Q And any particular style?

A Actually I don't know how you say, you got to think here. I had a -- I
started -- I started -- what I did was a concept which I started. But the
reason mainly why I used Karate was because Karate was known. Kung Fu was a
total unknown entity. So I went into Karate, and I was rather good at it,
but compared to Kung Fu I most likely would have looked clumsy.

Q Did in fact you and Margie Hilbig start to teach yourself Karate from a
book?

A There were no books out. We didn't have a book then.

Q I understood that you studied Shotokan, and it was in the initial --

A No, I don't think ever Shotokan, no, no. I had a man who went to
Winnipeg, and there was a tournament, and he was saying that his Shotokan
people were so good, and I went there, and I worked with them, and they
weren't good at all.

Q Do you have any recollection of learning Karate or basic Kung Fu from a
book with Margie Hilbig in the period around 1961?

A No, I only know that I wrote a book, but I didn't learn out of a book.

Q Did you --

A There were no books around. The recollection, there was a book from some
silly man there. He was at the Bay, and I think his name was Bruce Tegner
(phonetic) if I am not mistaken, and that man had books on the market, but
he had it on Aki Do. He had a smorgasbord on everything, and I looked
through that book, and it was really silly because this is a book which one
would use how not to teach -- actually how not to commit suicide. It was a
silly book.

Q You don't have any recollection of you and Margie Hilbig practicing and
learning Karate or Kung Fu from a book, correct?

A No, firstly Margie Hilbig didn't know anything.

Q I just want to establish that you don't have any recollection of doing
that?

A No, not, sir. So you mean how do you learn? You put the book down and
then you say, let's see and then you go and practice? What do you mean
learning out of a book?

Q That is essentially what I thought --

A No, no, no, sir, no.

Q Did you and Ms. Hilbig travel to Los Angeles to study under Ed Parker?

A No.

Q Did you ever study with Mr. Parker or train with him?

A Mr. Parker was an associate of mine, and for some time we were partners
in the Long Beach International Tournament. I didn't have to study under
Parker. Mr. Parker awarded me an Eighth Degree Black Belt at the time as a
courtesy simply due to the fact that I lectured in all of his classes for
quite some time, and when I visited there I think sometimes three or four
days in a row with about two or three hundred students there.

Q When was that that Mr. Ed Park awarded you an Eighth Degree Black Belt?

A That was mainly in the end. I think '71. I just can't -- but since I am
under oath you are putting the gun to my head.

Q What I would like to do is focus on the period back in the early 1960s?

A Sir, sir, I went about from '63 on with every year to the States, and I
have to explain to you. I owned clubs. My clubs were Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. I owned that with about two or three hundred students.

In '65 or 6 I owned the Chicago De Paul club with about 400 students. I
also owned a club in Kansas City, Kansas. And I also had shares and
ownership of 13 other clubs in and around LA and Bozeman, Montana was one
also.

Q My understanding is that you opened your fist studio in 1961 in Calgary?

A That is in Canada, yes.

MR. OSHRY: Mr. Groh, what is the relevance of the stuff going back to 1960?

MR. GROH: This witness's background.

MR. OSHRY: You are entitled to ask some questions.

MR. GROH: I am going to come up to date.

MR. OSHRY: I am not sure you are entitled to go into all this detail that
you are going into.

A May I help you. If it at all helps me I am a self-made man. I did not
rely on any past training or anything. I had to go out and make a name for
myself. I was at that time not a Canadian citizen. And there was a
tournament in the United States I wanted to go to, and I couldn't enter the
States. And Justice Schnorr (phonetic) who made me a Canadian citizen in
private chambers, I went to him and said, Justice, so and so, I would like
to go, but they wouldn't let in the States. He got me a they call it waiver
or something from Ottawa flown by military jet to Penhold so I could enter
the tournament in the United States which I won the Collegiate Tournament
for Canada.

Q MR. GROH: When was that?

A Gee.

Q Approximately?

A '64 or '66. I am not too sure.

[continued in last part, PART IV]

[M.C. Busman]

[Continued from part iii, PART IV]

Q Do I understand you correctly that while you opened your first Karate
studio in Calgary in 1961 that you were involved in studios in the United
States before that?

A No, no, that came later, sir.

Q That came later?

A Yes, sir. About a year or so it began later I would think.

Q When you first began to train students in your Calgary studio in
approximately 1961 did you have a Black Belt at that time?

A Yes.

Q And who did you obtain that from?

A Gee, the Black Belt I just tied around I think.

Q Now, I understand that you opened a studio in Edmonton in 1964, is that
correct?

A Yeah.

Q And had you by that time had you become involved in studios in the United
States?

A Yeah. It was '62? No, must be '63.

Q 1964 was Edmonton opening I understand?

A No, that is 50 or 40 years back, but somewhere in there I went to
Philadelphia and entered a tournament, and I got a Seventh Degree Black
Belt from Shima Bokuru (phonetic).

Q Do you know when that was?

A '63 I think to the best of my memory, sir.

Q And that was a Seventh Degree Black Belt?

A Seventh Degree Black Belt. It is a Red Belt in Karate, not Kung Fu,
nothing to do with Kung Fu.

Q This was a Sixth Degree Black Belt in Karate?

A Seventh. In Sibukan (phonetic) Karate, you can write the name down, House
of Holy Alliance.

Q And did you by 1964 have any interests in any studios in the United
States?

A We are all amateurs. You are looking at a business thing. Like what we
did later was professional. No, I lost my shirt there actually. They were
amateurs.

And I had no money. I had to travel there, and I made my money from the
sale of uniforms. I also got travel money. But sometimes they had money.
Other times they didn't have money. They would tell me -- they would send
me money. In most cases it wasn't true. They themselves didn't have much
money either really.

Q You had told me earlier, and I am just trying to get a time frame here
that you had the studios in -- a studio in Harrisburg in which there were
several hundred students, a city in Chicago in which there were
approximately --

A No, it was the university of Chicago, De Paul, a medical institute.

Q And a studio in Kansas City?

A Kansas City, Kansas.

Q And there was another one in Manitoba, and you said you had interest in
13 others?

A No, I didn't have one in Manitoba, sir.

Q I intended to say Montana if I didn't.

A Okay, yes.

Q What time frame are you talking about when you had these interests?

A You really got me over the barrel because I would think five years or so.
You mean from the beginning?

Q I am trying to find the year. And that is why I was tying it into Calgary
or Edmonton to see if that helped you?

A Well, you are looking at it in a clinical way. The martial arts do not
really function -- basically if you talk about Tae Kwan Do, Karate, or Kung
Fu it is a hat with different brims of a different shape but still it is a
hat. They are all interrelated. Sometimes a Karate style is very little
discernible or different very little from a Chinese style. They are all
actually -- basically they are all Chinese styles which have been altered
if that will help you.

Q I understand that. What I am trying to find out is when you had these
interests in the Harrisburg studio, the Chicago studio at the university,
the Kansas City studio, and the other American studios?

A Well, I still have a friend here. He is a medical doctor. He is down in
Idaho. And I would think it was six -- I just don't know, sir. I got to
find out if that is when I had them. I didn't have them -- of course I
didn't in succession gave them to you, but I didn't have them right away
all at the same time. So this evolved. Harrisburg was a place, a studio
they wanted to belong to my group. So if I say this was my studio which I
owned that would be false or misleading. These were people. They had a
certain style, and they didn't like what they saw, and they saw me perform
somewhere, and they wanted -- they threw all the other people out, and they
wanted my style or what I knew. They wanted to learn from me.

And I think there was a Japanese teacher there they didn't like, and they
just wanted to be taught by me because when I entered the Philadelphia
Tournament I took the fourth place there. They were very interested, and
they approached me as to that fact, and I said you want to belong to my
that is the word association, okay.

Q So you didn't own clubs or have an ownership interest in clubs in
American cities, but what was happening was your style was being taught in
those clubs, is that correct?

A Yeah, yeah, eventually, yes. This is true, but truly they were only after
a performer who had by that time a rank or a name or made a name for th

[ends here abruptly...I'll try to find out all I can on this. If you know more, please help!!! You can contact M.C. Busman at: mc_busman@Bigmailbox.net ]

[Mr.Sleazy]

Thanks for posting this Mr. Busman.

Do you know what the nature and basis of the suit was? And do you know what the judgement was?

If you have this information will you post it too?

Thanks.

BTW I love this part of the transcript:

Lawyer:
"When you first began to train students in your Calgary studio in
approximately 1961 did you have a Black Belt at that time? "

OE Simon: "Yes."

Lawyer: "And who did you obtain that from?"

OE Simon: "Gee, the Black Belt I just tied around I think. "

Very funny!

[KungFuGuy!]

That's the one :D

[Skarbromantis]

Yes !!

[Reima Kostaja]

from the temple kung fu site:




As an aid to understanding this man and the spirit of the organization which follows his ideals, we thought we would share this story with you: In 1970, he appeared on live national television where he broke just under one ton of solid ice with his bare arm in one blow. The studio and crew were in silence after the devastating break, then this small man who had just commanded everyone's attention with this powerful act, quietly put his jacket on and walked over to a grand piano that was hiding in the darkened corner of the studio. No one had even noticed the piano there until he sat down and proceeded to play a most beautiful piece of Chopin. That was and is the man and those who follow in his footsteps.



His Holiness the Dalai Seng Shih (the artist formerly known as Grand Master Simon) the modern renaissance man...

[anton]

The guy is a rambling fool - he can't answer a question directly, even under oath.

[Skarbromantis]

I posted an question about the dali sing song on Kempo Net this is the reply i got:

V In response to your message titled "Grandmaster simon???"

Jim Kiddoo has replied (with title "Olaf"):

hehehehe, Been there. Olaf was partners with Mr. Parker in the
Seventies and did work with him. Ed Parker Jr. remembered him when I talked to
him on the phone once. His schools teach good basics but it is just
basics for many years and you have to be there a long time to learn alot
and give a lot of money. It was a better school in the eighties and
produced some good martial artists, but now it is pretty fast food. They
are very much cultish because they are told not to talk to other martial
artists. He even calls what he does white tiger kung fu and it isn't
but try telling them. This is all coming from first hand experience. They
are not too well liked due to the fact they don't want to hear the
truth. You can contact Richard Shergold at www.shaolinkungfuacademy.com .
He started a lot of the schools and know the whole story probably better
than most. He has gone on to learn from the real white tiger masters as
well as some other highly skilled kung-fu practioners. So he kn!
ows the difference and has some amazing skills to back it all up.
Sincerely
Jim Kiddoo

[KC Elbows]

MC, good to see you're broad ranged in your debunking efforts.

It amazes me how these organizations operate off of the same sort of mediocrity and ignorance.

Good job.:)

[Mr.Sleazy]

It is interesting that old OESimon refers to kung fu as a cult. There are a number of cult-like aspects to TKF. Those posters (skarbro, KFGuy!, Dragon, neito etc.) who are former members will know exactly what I mean:

1. Defensive and suspicious attitude towards outsiders.

2. Calling members by a different name - everyone at TKF is called Mr.**** or Ms.**** whatever.

3. Reverence for an individual religious leader (GMSimon).

4. TKF style is referred to by instructors as a "physical religion".

5. Rules about ratting out other students for certain behaviours.

I could think of more, can any of the former members add to this?

[KungFuGuy!]

That about sums in up.
Unless you count the sacrificing of virgins and the drinking of cow blood...

[Skarbromantis]

www.templekungfu.com

The mentor, who would have a profound influence upon Grand Master Simon, was Fu Yen. This Celestial Master resided in Chuan Chow Shaolin Temple, near the East Buddhist village.

the originator of his White Tiger (Pai Hu-Shih) style and his White Priest (Pai Seng-Shih) style.


Now retired, teaching only Master Classes, fulfilling his duties as the Dalai Seng Shih of the Neo Ch‘an Buddhist Temple, he is succeeded by his followers who strive to maintain and continue his philosophy and his style—the Temple system, a synthesis of his Pai Hu Shih, White Tiger and Pai Seng Shih, White Priest styles.


His Holiness the Dalai Seng Shih, formerly Grand Master Simon, is still writing and lecturing throughout North America, still refining the art, always promoting the good. He is succeeded by Master Jones, 5th Degree Master Black Belt of the Modern Day ranking, in the United States of America, and Master Weber, 5th Degree Black Belt of the Modern Day ranking, and Master Sparrow 4th, Degree Black Belt of the Modern Day ranking in Canada.

[dre]

Reminds me of a Chung Moo Quan , if anyones ever heard of that. Although CMQ is a bit nuttier.

[neito]

note: i was never a member of simons. i barely escaped from my interview with my wallet , but it ended there

[Dragon]

If anyone wants to claim that was an invented or hoaxed copy of the court case, i would just like to point out that I am completely convinced those are his words.
I know the man, have spoken with him and that is exactly how he is, the same manorisms and he insists on talking. He likes being the center of attention and it shows in his court proceedings.
I think he took some of the questions very literally, for example, if you look up the deffinition of cult, its (don't quote me) something like; "Any organization which follows a single leader."
In modern times we ussually use cult with religious conatations.
My thanks to M. C Busman for finding this for me/us.

As for the statement about having to train there a very long time before you get into anything beyond the basics, that I would say is absolutely true. They restrict their instructors in what they are allowed to teach based on a belt level, mostly with a saying like "He hasn't paid for that knowledge yet."
Anyhow, thats all I wanted to see, I have no doubts about its validity.
Thanks again.

[KungFuGuy!]

What a strange man. He has enough honour to tell the truth under oath, even though it would drive his business under if it was made too public. Yet, he has no problem tricking thousands of people into believing a series of lies and forking over enormous amounts of money. Very strange...

[Mr.Sleazy]

My mistake neito sorry.

I wish I had the foresight you did and got away with my wallet intact.

However I am trying to repair my wallet by demanding my money back.

I hope at some point to learn the foundation of that suit, and the judgement. It may help me in my case.