Stormont committee has 'little regard' for freedom of speech and religion - Timothy Gaston
Timothy Gaston says the the committee charged with probing gaps in equality legislation in Northern Ireland has “little regard” for freedom of speech and religion.
The North Antrim TUV MLA was responding to the appearance of the Christian Institute at the cross-party Executive Office committee this week. The group faced probing questions from a number of MLAs, and support from the DUP and TUV.
Mr Gaston told the News Letter there was “resistance” to the Christian Institute being called to give evidence in person.
“Tellingly, none of the points which they made at the round table event made it into the working draft of the committee report, this is something which I will ensure changes now that they have appeared before the committee.
“It says a lot about the desire of some to steer the committee’s agenda to a predetermined outcome that it was only on the last day of in person evidence that anyone questioned the need for additional equality legislation and pointed out that legislation of this type can bring with it difficulties.
“While there have been attempts to say that the lived experience of witnesses should not be challenged when it comes to other witnesses there was clearly no such concern for the Christian Institute. On one level that is welcome because witnesses should be challenged rather than simply have everything they say accepted but it would be nice if all committee members took this responsibility seriously when it came to all witnesses.
“One of the things which stuck me on Wednesday was the lack of appreciation of the fact that respect for freedom of religion and tolerance of belief is something which doesn’t appear to be recognised by some in the Assembly. To express shock and disgust that homosexuality would be incompatible with someone volunteering for a church as happened during the evidence session shows how little respect some on the committee have for Biblically based beliefs.
“Importantly, freedom of speech and religion were two of the corner stones of the modern world and went hand in hand with many of the political freedoms we enjoy today”, Mr Gastion said.