Like many Kiwis, you may not even know who Candace Owens is.
A conservative commentator from the United States (formerly on the Daily Wire with Ben Shapiro), she has been accused of ‘far-right’ and ‘extremist’ views. For this reason, since she announced her tour of Australia and New Zealand, would-be-censors have been campaigning, like they did with Posie Parker, to have immigration officials block her entry.
They succeeded in having Australian officials do this last month. Now, the same thing has happened here.
A sophisticated country is able to deal with opinions that some find controversial, distasteful, or even dangerous. The most mature way to deal with these views is to challenge and rebut them, not to exclude them from the conversation.
Immigration New Zealand is arguing that section 15 of the Immigration Act requires them to exclude individuals who have been barred from entering New Zealand and who have been barred from entering other countries. “Nothing to see here, our hands are tied” is basically all they can muster.
Firstly, we think they are wrong. Our legal team has started burning the (almost) midnight oil, but we’re actively looking at challenging this decision, on the basis Immigration is acting unlawfully. (I’ll spare you the legal details, but it comes down to the technical definitions of ‘excluded).
Secondly, even if she was ‘excluded’, why on earth should we have law that automatically means we then barre others entry. Should we shut out Salman Rushdie because the Iranians don’t like him?
Every year hundreds, if not thousands of less well-known people who have been denied entry to Australia have been allowed to visit NZ.
This action by Immigration NZ is a smokescreen.
Public calls by Young Labour over the past few months to exclude Owens from NZ shores is the more likely reason for the action. Anyone who’s been following this story knows this.
But who at Immigration NZ would be willing to risk admitting that their refusal is based on Owens’ controversial opinions, right?
It’s easier for officials to fudge their reading of the legislation than to admit they’re vetting a person for expressing personal beliefs which, though highly controversial, are still permitted under section 14 of the NZ Bill of Rights Act.
But we know censorship has a nasty way of boomeranging back on censors.
Mark my words: Candace Owens will come to New Zealand eventually to hold public events. And when she does, many more people will attend than otherwise would have, as a result of these attempts to shut her out.
Here’s what we’ve done (in the past 2 hours):
1. We’ve written to the Ministers of Immigration (Erica Stanford is the Minister of Immigration, but Chris Penk, as the Associate Minister, is actually responsible for these decisions).
We’re calling on the Government to exercise discretion and allow Owens entry.
2. Our legal team is working to challenge this decision. In our minds, this isn’t about Candace Owens herself. It’s about the principle, that the Government blocking individuals from speaking in New Zealand because we dislike their opinions is a dangerous road.
3. We’ve contacted media: while some Kiwis will think it’s a ‘victory’ that Owens has been excluded, I’m confident that New Zealanders around the country are big enough to deal with others’ perspectives, whether they agree or not.
We need to ensure the public is aware of this decision and the Government is held accountable.
4. That’s where you come in! We need your help to put pressure on the Government.
Chris Penk (Chris.Penk@parliament.govt.nz), is the Associate Minister of Immigration who has the authority to use his discretion to allow Candace Owens is. Seeing as there is no legitimate argument to exclude her (other than ‘the Australians did’ — what, are we an Australian State now? :-), he should grant her entry. An e-mail from you, saying exactly that, will help get his attention.
Jonathan Ayling is the Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union. In between running his Wairarapa vineyard and being Zen with his bees, he enjoys standing up for the freedoms that make New Zealand the stunning country it is. This article was sourced HERE
13 comments:
Surely a woman of colour would be exempt from such laws? Oh, I forgot she leans right and right in NZ is not right and being left is all we have left.
We live in a clown world if debate can only occur among people who agree with you.....
Jonathan, consider it done. I will send him an email tonight. Thanks for fighting the good fight.
Activists need to cleaned out, I have little interest in Candice but we have a constant stream of Socialists coming to NZ and that has been the most brutal form of Government in the world for the last 100 years (arguably 200M dead) Should they also be banned?
We need lots of different views to identify what it is that we as a nation value.
The two main reasons that Candice is being denied an opportunity to visit and speak in New Zealand are :
1. She is a devout Christian
2. She is critical of “THAT” race who aren’t allowed to be criticised
I thought this bullshit would stop with a new government... jesus wept.
Sent Mr Penk an email telling him to hold accountable those people misusing their power.
And are pulling ALL the strings.
What's her "crime" here? It boils down to displeasing influential Jews. She got fired by influential Jew Ben Shapiro for not toeing the Jewish/Israel line, and pointing out the power they wield in the furtherance of their collective interest. Now she's been banned from entering New Zealand by the same influential people (or at least in an attempt to appease them and their fragility to critique) and for the same reasons.
It obviously doesn't matter if you are a woman and/or black (usually licence to do and say anything) because Jewry overrides this and uses its power to enforce acceptable views.
My.email.....
Hi Chris, I was hoping the National Party would eliminate ridiculous attempts by the government to silence free speech....
If we learnt nothing else from the adern era, surely we learnt that free speech (challenging the takeover of our media, and challenging the covid response induced financial and health disaster) is more vital than ever.
The national lead coalition are doing so many great things..thank-you, please don't taint your legacy by supporting Labour's ethos of silencing dissenting and challenging voices.
Pls allow Candice Owens and any other people with nonviolent political views into NZ.
Maybe the best way to thwart this is to still have the meetings, just live stream her in.
If Candace can do so-called harm with words, what on earth do they think te pati party are doing with all their words of division? And rewriting history is apparently ok if they do it? I really believe our country is falling apart.
To mark Hanley, great email.
Not in my opinion - you don't.
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