A Death Valley hiker gave an interview as temps soared to 121°F. Hours later, he died.

I was sitting in my office on a quiet Saturday afternoon in January when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID: “SCIENTOLOGY MISSIONS INTERNATIONAL.” I sighed and answered the phone. On the other end of the line was David Bloomberg, an executive in the secretive church and head of media relations for its sprawling religious-corporate empire. And I knew exactly why he was calling. In that morning’s edition of the Toronto Star, I had a column decrying the Canadian government’s wrong-headed approach to fighting hate crimes. Ottawa had decided to emulate Germany and the United Kingdom...