Recent searches
Search options
Administered by:
So, it's okay to destroy #Indigenous heritage sites, pollute the planet, and appoint corporate lackeys to advisory boards -- but if you protest and cause disruption, you could face arrest?
The Australian #climate #protesters cast as extremists
By Hannah Ritchie, BBC News Sydney, July 19, 2023
"In May, after several #ExtinctionRebellion protests, the South Australia government introduced a A$50,000 maximum fine and three months jail for anyone 'recklessly' obstructing public spaces, while laws passed in New South Wales last year created a two-year maximum prison sentence for acts disrupting major roads or facilities.
"#England, #Wales and parts of #Canada and the #USA have also adopted similar laws aimed at blocking disruptive climate activism.
"In Western #Australia, climate protesters say they have been 'disabled' by intimidating raids, strict bail conditions and orders which give authorities access to their devices and ban them from communicating with peers.
"According to Ms Grix, these tools were originally intended to deal with gangs and drug dealers.
"'To apply [that]... to climate defenders, who are protesting about environmental concerns, seems to be a massive overreach,' she says."
"'Protest takes many forms, sometimes disruptive. But that's why it's effective, because it disrupts the everyday to demand attention for a cause," [David Mejia-Canales, a lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre] said.
"'As citizens of a democratic society, we should exercise a level of tolerance for disruption if the right to protest is going to have its full value.'"