Court backs WYD activists’ right to annoy is good news for any Australian concerned about the creeping erosion of civil liberties in this country.
Two student activists have won a court challenge to special World Youth Day laws that allowed police to detain people or fine them $5,500 for annoying or inconveniencing Catholic pilgrims.
No To Pope Coalition members Amber Pike and Rachel Evans took the New South Wales Government to the Federal Court, arguing the laws were unconstitutional because they would make their peaceful protest illegal.
The Government passed the rules two weeks ago without discussion or debate.
The Full Bench of the Federal Court ruled the definition of ‘annoyance’ was too broad and the scope of the laws was uncertain.
It found that in giving the World Youth Day Coordination Authority the power to set the regulations, the Government would not have intended to infringe on freedom of speech.
The court said the law was intended to encourage policing and public safety but could be misused to infringe on people’s rights.
Not of course freedom to be downright offensive, or, as some have chosen to do, scrawl anti-Pope graffiti over the Hyde Park War Memorial. But you can wear that shirt! Oh, and condom distributors may go about their business, even if it is just a reminder to visiting pilgrims of the reality of the world out there and the inadequacy of the Catholic Church in this area. On the other hand, it isn’t really all that smart proffering said condoms to under-age pilgrims, is it? Zeal can be unfortunate at times, whatever side of the fence one might be on.
And whatever the Catholic Church officially teaches, on the ground here in Sydney Catholic institutions such as St Vincents Hospital and the Hospice are second to none in their practical help in the area of AIDS, and much the same might be said for initiatives like the Kings Cross injection room for drug users, even if on the surface it is the Wayside Chapel and the Uniting Church that have most been associated with that important venture. The fact is that St Vincents at some levels has supported the idea, though church politics — i.e. Pell and company — made direct association difficult.
Similarly, it is ironic given what parts of the Catholic Church do for Sydney’s homeless and down-and-out that WYD has not exactly played the Good Samaritan role: Homeless ‘removed’ for WYD.
An advocacy group says up to a 130 homeless people have been removed from Sydney during World Youth Day celebrations.
Kevin Simpson from Homeless Voice says men and women who normally sleep in the city or the Domain have been moved out by authorities.
“I am a little bit surprised they haven’t taken more care of the actual people who Jesus came for and that’s the disadvantaged, marginalised broken people,” he said.
Homeless Voice says people who slept on the streets were offered accommodation in motels during APEC last year, but not so during World Youth Day.
ABC TV spoke to homeless man, Shane, who normally sleeps in the Domain car park.
“Since the Pope and that’s been in town, we’ve had to relocate to this open park and if it rains we’re sort of buggered,” he said. “We’ve got no wind block.”…
Balance that with some earlier entries here, for example: Cana Community on Radio National.
On another note: a friend who works in a gay sauna here in Sydney tells me WYD has led to a considerable number of fresh faces from a variety of backgrounds, especially North American…
Posted by AV on July 16, 2008 at 10:19 pm
On another note: a friend who works in a gay sauna here in Sydney tells me WYD has led to a considerable number of fresh faces from a variety of backgrounds, especially North American…
LOL!
Posted by ninglun on July 16, 2008 at 11:03 pm
True story, AV.
Posted by Incredulous on July 17, 2008 at 5:29 am
“Gay saunas?” What is this, ancient Rome? I highly doubt pilgrims looking for a place to get cleaned up realize that “gay saunas” even exist in the 21st century.
Posted by ninglun on July 17, 2008 at 8:27 am
“Gay saunas?” What is this, ancient Rome?
I very much doubt you would have found such a thing in Ancient Rome, though every Roman town had its bath houses. I do know you can find gay saunas in Sydney, and have been able to for many years. Check this.
I highly doubt pilgrims looking for a place to get cleaned up realize that “gay saunas” even exist in the 21st century.
Point one: the story I told is absolutely true. The person who told me is one of the most trustworthy people I know.
Point two: I doubt the visitors my friend refers to are looking for a place to get cleaned up.
If you think that of the thousands here for WYD none just might be closet cases, or maybe not even closet cases, you would be very naive. I don’t think anyone would suggest that Sydney is hosting 125,000 + virgins and saints at the moment. I am not of course suggesting that anything other than a minority of visitors have availed themselves of Ken’s, King Steam, Bodyline, or any of the other facilities of a similar nature, but it is a fact that some have.
Not to mention facilities of other kinds, no doubt.
The flesh is weak, perhaps.
By the way, just as a matter of history, I am always amused when people evoke Ancient Rome as an example of a civilisation destroyed by immorality. Certainly I would not want to have lived close to a Caligula or Nero, but the fact is the Roman Empire fell only after it had become officially Christian under Constantine, and continues in certain essentials to this day as the organisation, structure, and even the dress codes, of the Catholic Church. Anyway, in its political form it continued for four centuries after the time of St Paul or St John the Divine, and in its Eastern manifestation for many more centuries after that. The “decline and fall” of the Roman Empire, then, lasted longer than the entire history of the British Empire, and four to five times longer than the current US hegemony has lasted so far. Cartoonish versions of Roman History serve no-one’s argument.
It was not the purpose of this entry to mock either WYD or the pilgrims as a whole — that should have been clear from my reference to some of the good work the Catholic Church does in this city, but facts are facts, and what I reported was utterly factual.