Posts Tagged ‘Public assemblies’
COMMENT: The Public Assemblies Bill: The quiet drift into witless authoritarianism
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
The draft Public Assemblies Bill is, at best, an unforgivably clumsy piece of legislative drafting, implicating all public assemblies, no matter how innocuous, spontaneous or legitimate, in a constrictive and disproportionate new regime ostensibly aimed only at curing recurrent problems involving “contentious parades”. At worst, it is an inexplicably insidious intrusion into the fundamental right of free assembly.
BY LORCAN MULLEN
Tags: Gown, Lorcan Mullen, newspaper, Public assemblies, qub, Queen's, queen's university, student, The Gown
Posted in Opinion | 7 Comments »
COMMENT: Why the Public Assemblies Bill is justified
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Abraham Lincoln once claimed that “A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations . . . is the only true sovereign of a free people.” As part of the Hillsborough Agreement, Northern Ireland’s two incumbent political parties agreed to undertake a review of public assemblies, parades and protests. Following months of consultation, 20th April 2010 saw the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister publish their consultation paper. This document included a Bill which they hope will become the new law governing such activities.
BY SEAMUS J. MULHOLLAND
Tags: Gown, News, newspaper, Public assemblies, qub, Queen's, queen's university, Seamus J Mulholland, student, students, The Gown
Posted in Opinion | 3 Comments »
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