DEMONSTRATION RIGHTS SOUGHT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31802, 5 October 1968, Page 24

DEMONSTRATION RIGHTS SOUGHT

The Christchurch City Council, particularly as this was the United Nations Human Rights Year, should assist rather than restrict the right to peaceful demonstrations in the city and the right to meetings in public places, a meeting organised by the Canterbury Council for Civil Liberties decided.

The meeting agreed to a deputation to the City Council asking it not to implement the policy on street marches adopted on August 19, says a report from the council. Mayoral candidates would be approached to see if they were prepared to advocate recision of the policy, the report says. “The meeting objected to the whole tenor of the policy, but was particularly emphatic in its desire that the rights of citizens should be extended rather than restricted,” the report says. “The prohibition on the use of Victoria Square, the former market place of Christchurch, for public meetings was considered an extremely retrograde step. “Attention was drawn to the need for a free-speech corner in the heart of the city—not merely in Latimer or Cranmer Squares. “The argument that distribution of free literature would interfere with the anti-litter campaign was considered an aburd attitude. Freedom of speech and information should at all times have precedence over such matters as anti-litter campaigns.” The report says the meeting had also objected to the

restriction of demonstrations to off-peak hours. Demonstrations in Christchurch in the past had been peaceful and restrictive measures were liable to result in disturbances of the peace.