Uproar over Pope protests
| Uproar over Pope protests |
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GLBT and civil liberties advocates are up in arms over new emergency powers, which last for the month of July, that give police the right to fine anyone who causes ‘annoyance’ to World Youth Day participants. Police and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service will be able to hand down fines of $5,500 to protestors simply for wearing anti-Catholic t-shirts or attempting to hand out condoms to pilgrims – as planned by the No to Pope coalition of groups spearheaded by Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH). Cameron Murphy, President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said the measures were worse than those introduced during the Olympics or APEC summit. “They are extreme and, excessive,” he told SX. “It’s so broad allowing police to fine you if you’re engaging in annoying or inconvenient behaviour. That could mean almost anything and it’s clearly designed to target people who intend to protest. By their very nature protests are annoying and inconvenient but part of a healthy democratic society.” Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon weighed into the debate, branding the powers “over the top”. “These draconian measures reflect poorly on the World Youth Day event, the Catholic Church and the NSW government,” Rhiannon said in a statement. “This is about shutting down protests and quarantining the Pope and visiting Catholics away from messages that World Youth Day authorities don’t approve of.” The No to Pope coalition is still awaiting a response to its notice of intent for a peaceful protest that was submitted to Surry Hills police station on June 26. In addition to a kiss-in at Taylor Square at 3pm on Saturday July 19, organisers plan to march along the Mardi Gras route from midday, starting at Taylor Square to Moore Mark where they will attempt to “engage in friendly dialogue” with pilgrims, handing out condoms to those who will take them, spokesperson Rachel Evans told SX. “We won’t force anyone to take a condom. There will be dancing queers showing that it’s ok to be at one with your sexuality and celebrate the joys of life.” The coalition plans to defy the new measures and is calling on the GLBT community and other rights groups to take part in the protests against the Catholic church’s anti-condom, anti-abortion and anti-gay doctrine. “We are going to challenge this law,” Evans said. “There is no other option for people in Australia who want to defend their right to protest over anything, but to come out against these types of laws.” Superintendent Donna Adney, the Surry Hills Local Area Commander, said she was unaware of the new powers when contacted by SX but added that handing down fines would be “up to an individual officer at the time depending on what the person is doing and what the person who makes the complaint to officer is doing”. Visit www.notopope.com for more information on protests.
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written by Daniel j blackburn , July 07, 2008 Religion is the source of all evil and it has done nothing for the world that can outweigh the damage they cause from wars and discrimination and their outrageous views that are pushed on to people and enforced by some governments. The worst is that they all claim to "love all of god’s creations" except if you’re not like them and don’t believe what they believe. What a bunch of delusional idiots. report abuse
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written by Brendan of Wollongong NSW , July 03, 2008 Certain people want secular pluralist society to exclusively subsidise their personal politico-religious belief system. People are entitled to believe whatever they want so long as they fund their purely religious activities themselves. Fed up with public funds being wasted and civil liberties being pointlessly curtailed in the name of promoting religion. report abuse
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written by Scott , July 03, 2008 The Daily Telegraph has not been reporting this issue. A strange omission for the Terror. Especially with something to have a go at the government at. Have they done a deal with the Catholic Church? I want the same crowd control laws that apply for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to apply. Crowd control does not seem to be much of a problem for them. report abuse
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written by angry canberran queer riot boy , July 02, 2008 This is purely yet another double standard set by Christians, do they not protest at sex celebrations, do they not hold placards at gay funerals, do they not chant vile homosexual slogans and tell us that AIDS is god's punishment? And we are also insulted by having to fork out 89 million dollars propping this fiasco. Here I was thinking Australia was a secular country. I guess not. report abuse
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written by JohnQ , July 02, 2008 A criminal conviction and massive $5,500 fine if one or more Catholics feel offended by a simple T-Shirt slogan. Welcome to Police-State NSW. We are all equal, but some are more equal than others. Not a good look for the Church or for the authorities. report abuse
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written by Barbou , July 02, 2008 Sounds like we have a similar government here in Canada,Harper is castrating our rights and powers to protest or review proposed legislation. Is this an indication of the planet's future?Democracy for and by the rich. report abuse
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written by Rudi Messina , July 02, 2008 Certain people want the right to protest only to create mischief. People are entitled to protest or march if they wish to without protesters pushing their own agenda. But when it comes to protest for the sake of protesting you deserve what you get. Fed up with protests that accomplish nothing positive. Rudi Messina report abuse
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