NSW police have backed away from an attempt to ban an LGBTQ+ campaign group from marching on the street outside George Pell’s funeral, ahead of the cardinal’s service at St Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday, The Guardian's Rafqa Touma reports.
Instead, an “alternative route has been agreed,” barrister Sebastian De Brennan confirmed to the supreme court on Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Josh Pallas, said the NSW police court order was “not a genuine attempt to preserve public safety”.
“In reality, this is a case of the NSW police trying to do tone-policing,” he said.
Informing protest organisers “only the day before a planned protest” is “completely unacceptable”.
“It is a blatant misuse of the court process, by seeking to overwhelm protest organisers through the obvious disparity of legal resources, and practically limit their ability to defend the proceedings,” Pallas said.
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