BREAKING: Perth cop loses vaccine mandate challenge in Supreme Court decision
BREAKING: Perth cop loses vaccine mandate challenge in Supreme Court decision
Unvaccinated West Australian police officers to face disciplinary action
A vaccine mandate challenge brought against the West Australian Police Commissioner has been quashed by the Supreme Court in a decision handed down this afternoon.
WA Police officer Ben Falconer and Police staff member Les Finlay, both unvaccinated, sought to challenge whether the Police Commissioner had the authority to infringe on employees’ bodily integrity by ordering them to be vaccinated against Covid as a condition of employment.
However, the Supreme Court today found that the directive made by then Commissioner Chris Dawson was “valid and lawful,” dismissing Falconer’s appeal of a 2022 court decision which determined that the WA Police vaccine mandate was justified due to the “extraordinary emergency” of the Covid pandemic. Falconer and Finlay were not ordered to pay costs.
The decision comes after the Queensland Supreme Court ruled in February that the Queensland Police Commissioner’s direction for mandatory Covid vaccination was unlawful under the Human Rights Act. However, WA does not have a Human Rights Act.
Today’s Supreme Court ruling will have repercussions for unvaccinated WA Police officers and staff who were stood down when the WA Police Covid vaccination directive came into force in December 2021. In a statement released after the hearing, WA Police stated, “Disciplinary action against 12 serving police officers and five police staff will now resume.”
Falconer, a Senior Constable who describes himself as “pro-choice,” said the decision to dismiss his appeal is “disappointing,” and that it will serve as a “cautionary tale” of what happens to Australians who “pursue justice and bodily autonomy.”
“The purpose of the litigation was to discover what rights we have over our bodies in the workplace, and the judiciary and the government have given their perspective on that today,” Falconer told Dystopian Down Under after the decision was handed down.
“For me, I’m going to be torn to pieces by my employer, and I’ll be sacrificing my career. I welcome that, it’s a necessary good. I want people to carefully observe what happens now, and what happens to my colleagues.”
Falconer said that he now expects “a rapid dismissal” from the Police Force, as the Supreme Court decision brings an end to an injunction he had previously secured to prevent WA Police from firing him until legal proceedings were resolved.
Falconer said that he and his legal team will regroup in the coming days to decide their next move.
Senior Constable Lance French, who was stood down from the Police Force in December 2021, said he is “not surprised by the decision,” but that “it doesn’t feel right.”
“What rights do you have over your own bodily autonomy? You can be told to undergo a vaccination, which is a medical treatment - how far will that extend?” asked French outside the Court.
“Say there’s a shortage of hospital workers, it’s an ‘emergency.’ What if hospitals want to make nurses have IUDs [intrauterine contraception devices] inserted to stop them going on maternity leave? Where does it end?”
French said that he has informed WA Police numerous times over the past several years that he wants to return to work. He anticipates that he will now be dismissed.
Falconer said that concerned Australians should consider the impact that can be made at upcoming elections and “vote carefully.”
“Sadly our legislation is riddled with such dormant threats to our individual liberties,” he said. “This is not a time to be complacent.”
Ben Falconer spoke with Max Freedom Media in the Supreme Court Gardens after the decision was handed down.
Edit 30 April 2024: This article was updated to add information about the Queensland Supreme Court ruling on vaccine mandates, and to add the WA Police statement confirming disciplinary proceedings for unvaccinated employees.
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Apart from political proclamations (which I do not regard as sufficient) what is the evidence that an ‘extraordinary emergency’ was involved or that an injection with an unsafe and ineffective drug would lessen it?? An astonishing claim …
Meanwhile…
I suggest none of the people who have been injected have given valid voluntary informed consent.
Because the community was deliberately terrorised about a disease it was known from the beginning wasn’t a serious threat to most people.
People were coerced, intimidated, and even MANDATED to submit to the COVID-19 vaccine products under threat of losing their jobs and participation in civil society.
I suggest the vaccinators - doctors, nurses, pharmacists - who injected people they knew were under duress to comply did not obtain valid consent for inserting the needle and contents.
This is the sleeper issue that is yet to emerge in the mainstream.
For more background see:
- Coercion, intimidation and mandates preclude voluntary informed consent for vaccination. There has been no valid consent for COVID-19 vaccination: https://elizabethhart.substack.com/p/coercion-intimidation-and-mandates
- The destruction of voluntary informed consent via mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. “A political decision, not a health decision": https://elizabethhart.substack.com/p/the-destruction-of-voluntary-informed