In 2006, the Bracks state Labor government of Victoria, Australia made controversial amendments to the already controversial Religious and Racial Tolerance Act of 2001.
David Palmer, a columnist for The Age newspaper wrote at the time that the legislation “make[s] the judiciary the referee over religious debate”, and that “instead of its stated aim of protecting religion and securing harmony and tolerance, the act has created both religious disharmony and the censorship of sincerely held religious beliefs by force of the law.”
November of the same year saw the Act’s contentious civil and religious aspects put to the test. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) heard a case brought by members of an occult secret society (considered by the tribunal to be a religion), the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) against a prominent campaigner against child sexual abuse, Dr. Reina Michaelson and her Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program (CSAPP).
The Tribunal hearing found that a document written by Dr. Michaelson religiously vilified members of the OTO, and ordered that she act to remove the document from the internet. While she may have made valiant efforts to do so, she was sufficiently unsuccessful that the two publishers of a website hosting the document were later found in contempt of court and currently both reside at Her Majesty’s pleasure in State correctional facilities.
As if this story were not interesting enough in its own right, each of the stakeholders are surrounded by webs of claims and beliefs more alarming than the next.
Central to the case were Dr. Michaelson’s allegations that the OTO is a satanic cult guilty of an ongoing campaign of child abduction, sexual abuse and murder.
Like other secret societies modelled after the notions of 19th century occultists, the OTO seems to be a group of people who believe it’s possible to obtain supernatural powers (such as astral travelling, ESP etc.) through the use of ritual, costume and hierarchical intitiation. While these beliefs and practices aren’t so far removed from the more popular versions of Christianity, the notion that the OTO are satanic has some currency among conspiracy theorists and the kind of Christians who also regard Catholicism as satanic (who are probably the only groups to have taken much of an interest).
Though she identifies as a Christian, Dr. Michaelson is not obviously a member of either of these camps. Indeed, were it not for the associations generated by this document, she would seem a highly credible witness - she holds a PhD in psychology, her work has won awards from both Victoria University and the Commonwealth government and she has been awarded both Young Victorian and Young Australian of the Year Awards. At face value, she doesn’t seem like someone prone to fundamentalist Christian or extremist conspiracy belief.
While her claims of satanic murder against the OTO and Illuminati (another supposed secret society) are perhaps the most extreme of those made in her document, they are not the most controversial. She also levelled claims of the sexual abuse of children, and the production of child pornography against prominent public figures apparently including Bert Newton and Jeff Kennett. While she seems to recognise and head off the threat of defamation proceedings by employing fairly transparent pseudonyms to name these people, the same does not apply to the OTO.
She further claims endemic corruption on the part of the authorities responsible for investigating her claims, the State Education department, the Police Force, right up to and including the Commissioner, their investigative organisation the Ethical Standards Division, the Office of Police Integrity, and the Ombudsman responsible for any further investigations. Not only have her attempts to pursue matters through these agencies been fruitless, but she claims she and her family have been subjected to ongoing harassment by the police and possibly others. Her attempts to have the matters investigated further by a Royal Commission have been enduring, tireless, well-documented, and so far, unsuccessful.
Though VCAT found in the OTO’s favour against Dr. Michaelson, she apparently failed to effect its removal and her story remained publicly accessible online. In response, the OTO filed proceedings against the publishers of the website hosting the document, Dyson Devine and Vivienne Legg.
While the claims and beliefs of the OTO and Dr. Michaelson are alarming enough, they pale in comparison to those put forward by Devine and Legg in their now defunct website gaiaguys.net. While it seems to have started as a site documenting an administrative dispute involving the ecology of their country property, it seems to have burgeoned into a cornucopia of conspiracy theories, including free energy, masonic handshakes and weather machines. Like many conspiracy theory websites, it seemed prone to both verbosity and unmanageable design. Not the most authortative context for such grave claims.
The OTO’s proceedings against Devine and Legg resulted in an order to remove the controversial document, and on the 28th of June 2005, the Australian Capital Territory Magistrate's Court ordered them to pay almost $30,000 to the OTO.
On the 28th of November 2007 Judge Harbison of VCAT found that their failure to have removed the offending document was deliberate comtempt of court and sentenced both Devine and Legg to 9 months prison, which they are now serving.
The case begs many serious questions. Dr. Michaelson’s claims that the official investigation of her claims has been compromised certainly seem true. As regards the claims regarding Bert Newton for example, an article in The Age from November 16, 2004 confirms that a rape investigation against an unnamed TV personality was dropped under circumstances sufficiently dubious as to require further investigation by the Ombudsman.
Despite the Office of Public Prosecutions ordering that charges be laid and the investigation proceed, the police decided to drop the case. The victim of the crime complained to the Ombudsman that police ignored evidence, failed to investigate and pressured him into writing a letter exculpating a second offender.
The case poses an administrative paradox – the authorities against whom the allegations are levelled, are the ones who decide whether the investigation will continue. You would think that false claims of serious crimes and misconduct against celebrities and the police would be thoroughly investigated and strenuously defended. While the failure of the relevant authorities to do this does not prove the charges, it certainly lends them some credence.
Like the uncertainty pricipal in physics, which says that the action of investigating subatomic behaviour affects its outcome, this case leaves us wondering who we can trust to watch the watchmen.
David Palmer, a columnist for The Age newspaper wrote at the time that the legislation “make[s] the judiciary the referee over religious debate”, and that “instead of its stated aim of protecting religion and securing harmony and tolerance, the act has created both religious disharmony and the censorship of sincerely held religious beliefs by force of the law.”
November of the same year saw the Act’s contentious civil and religious aspects put to the test. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) heard a case brought by members of an occult secret society (considered by the tribunal to be a religion), the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) against a prominent campaigner against child sexual abuse, Dr. Reina Michaelson and her Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program (CSAPP).
The Tribunal hearing found that a document written by Dr. Michaelson religiously vilified members of the OTO, and ordered that she act to remove the document from the internet. While she may have made valiant efforts to do so, she was sufficiently unsuccessful that the two publishers of a website hosting the document were later found in contempt of court and currently both reside at Her Majesty’s pleasure in State correctional facilities.
As if this story were not interesting enough in its own right, each of the stakeholders are surrounded by webs of claims and beliefs more alarming than the next.
Central to the case were Dr. Michaelson’s allegations that the OTO is a satanic cult guilty of an ongoing campaign of child abduction, sexual abuse and murder.
Like other secret societies modelled after the notions of 19th century occultists, the OTO seems to be a group of people who believe it’s possible to obtain supernatural powers (such as astral travelling, ESP etc.) through the use of ritual, costume and hierarchical intitiation. While these beliefs and practices aren’t so far removed from the more popular versions of Christianity, the notion that the OTO are satanic has some currency among conspiracy theorists and the kind of Christians who also regard Catholicism as satanic (who are probably the only groups to have taken much of an interest).
Though she identifies as a Christian, Dr. Michaelson is not obviously a member of either of these camps. Indeed, were it not for the associations generated by this document, she would seem a highly credible witness - she holds a PhD in psychology, her work has won awards from both Victoria University and the Commonwealth government and she has been awarded both Young Victorian and Young Australian of the Year Awards. At face value, she doesn’t seem like someone prone to fundamentalist Christian or extremist conspiracy belief.
While her claims of satanic murder against the OTO and Illuminati (another supposed secret society) are perhaps the most extreme of those made in her document, they are not the most controversial. She also levelled claims of the sexual abuse of children, and the production of child pornography against prominent public figures apparently including Bert Newton and Jeff Kennett. While she seems to recognise and head off the threat of defamation proceedings by employing fairly transparent pseudonyms to name these people, the same does not apply to the OTO.
She further claims endemic corruption on the part of the authorities responsible for investigating her claims, the State Education department, the Police Force, right up to and including the Commissioner, their investigative organisation the Ethical Standards Division, the Office of Police Integrity, and the Ombudsman responsible for any further investigations. Not only have her attempts to pursue matters through these agencies been fruitless, but she claims she and her family have been subjected to ongoing harassment by the police and possibly others. Her attempts to have the matters investigated further by a Royal Commission have been enduring, tireless, well-documented, and so far, unsuccessful.
Though VCAT found in the OTO’s favour against Dr. Michaelson, she apparently failed to effect its removal and her story remained publicly accessible online. In response, the OTO filed proceedings against the publishers of the website hosting the document, Dyson Devine and Vivienne Legg.
While the claims and beliefs of the OTO and Dr. Michaelson are alarming enough, they pale in comparison to those put forward by Devine and Legg in their now defunct website gaiaguys.net. While it seems to have started as a site documenting an administrative dispute involving the ecology of their country property, it seems to have burgeoned into a cornucopia of conspiracy theories, including free energy, masonic handshakes and weather machines. Like many conspiracy theory websites, it seemed prone to both verbosity and unmanageable design. Not the most authortative context for such grave claims.
The OTO’s proceedings against Devine and Legg resulted in an order to remove the controversial document, and on the 28th of June 2005, the Australian Capital Territory Magistrate's Court ordered them to pay almost $30,000 to the OTO.
On the 28th of November 2007 Judge Harbison of VCAT found that their failure to have removed the offending document was deliberate comtempt of court and sentenced both Devine and Legg to 9 months prison, which they are now serving.
The case begs many serious questions. Dr. Michaelson’s claims that the official investigation of her claims has been compromised certainly seem true. As regards the claims regarding Bert Newton for example, an article in The Age from November 16, 2004 confirms that a rape investigation against an unnamed TV personality was dropped under circumstances sufficiently dubious as to require further investigation by the Ombudsman.
Despite the Office of Public Prosecutions ordering that charges be laid and the investigation proceed, the police decided to drop the case. The victim of the crime complained to the Ombudsman that police ignored evidence, failed to investigate and pressured him into writing a letter exculpating a second offender.
The case poses an administrative paradox – the authorities against whom the allegations are levelled, are the ones who decide whether the investigation will continue. You would think that false claims of serious crimes and misconduct against celebrities and the police would be thoroughly investigated and strenuously defended. While the failure of the relevant authorities to do this does not prove the charges, it certainly lends them some credence.
Like the uncertainty pricipal in physics, which says that the action of investigating subatomic behaviour affects its outcome, this case leaves us wondering who we can trust to watch the watchmen.
1 comment:
Reina wouldn't have written that article if it was fiction. She obviously discovered a crimes sindicate involving powerful people in high up places. So high up that they're above the law because these crooks are in the police force protecting these pedos
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