Pilgrims can be annoyed: court ruling
Michael Pelly; 16/7/08
Student activists were given the green light to annoy World Youth Day pilgrims yesterday when the Federal Court ruled that special laws for the event restricted the freedom of speech. In a 3-0 decision, the court said the attempt to regulate public conduct was beyond the scope of the World Youth Day Act and therefore invalid. However, the judges knocked out only the “anti-annoyance” clause, leaving open the possibility that protesters could still be fined up to $5500 for causing inconvenience to pilgrims. The controversial laws, passed via government gazette on June 25, said people could be directed to “cease engaging in conduct that is a risk to the safety of the person or others, or causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants, or obstructs” a WYD event
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24027384-5013404,00.html
Condoms all round as annoying law dashed
Malcolm Brown;16/708
Rachel Evans and Amber Pike handed out condoms on the steps of Sydney’s Federal Court yesterday - flushed with a ruling that struck out a World Youth Day law that made it a crime to annoy participants in the Catholic event. The NoToPope Coalition protesters object to several Catholic moral teachings and Ms Evans - emboldened by the court triumph - immediately went and handed more condoms to Catholic pilgrims posing for photographs outside a nearby church. Wearing an anti-Pope T-shirt, for which she might previously have been fined as much as $5500, Ms Evans called it a “major victory for the protest movement”.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/condoms-all-round-as-annoying-law-dashed/2008/07/15/1215887631157.html
Stealth the weakness in attempt at ban
Tim Dick; 16/7/08
Thinking the best of politicians can be annoying, even to them. In allowing protesters to annoy World Youth Day pilgrims, three Federal Court judges assumed Parliament did not intend to trample on people’s fundamental rights, unless it explicitly said so. It’s an arguable assumption given that (a) the government that made the anti-annoying regulation is the same that controlled Parliament when the act supposedly authorising it was passed; and (b) governments regularly find it difficult to resist nibbling at fundamental rights. The Queensland doctor Mohamed Haneef had some experience of this, as did Aboriginal activists planning to print T-shirts to protest against the bicentennial celebrations in 1988. The Commonwealth reserved to itself the sole right to combine, on goods such as T-shirts, words such as bicentennial, Australia and Sydney, with the figures 1788, 1988 or 88. (That law, in part, was struck down by the High Court for going too far.)
See: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/stealth-the-weakness-in-attempt-at-ban/2008/07/15/1215887631160.html
Australia, Christianity, WYD,Human Rights
Visitors locked up after revealing asylum plans
Connie Levett; 16/7/08
Four African pilgrims who said they had valid visas for World Youth Day were detained at Sydney Airport and taken to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre after they told immigration officers they intended to seek asylum, said refugee advocates. The five men, two from Cameroon and three from Nigeria, arrived on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week. One of the men from Cameroon, 36, was leading a group of pilgrims when he was detained. The brother of one of the pilgrims was also detained. However, the Department of Immigration said it had only three World Youth Day travellers in detention at Villawood.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/visitors-locked-up-after-revealing-asylum-plans/2008/07/15/1215887631178.html
Australia, Migrants & Refugees, WYD
Tags: Australia, Christianity, Human Rights; Migrants & Refugees, WYD