Home Law The Committee of 23, Part 1: Introduction

The Committee of 23, Part 1: Introduction

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(L) Mary Maxwell at US District Court, New Hampshire, (R) Book of Federal Rules, Photo: walmart.com

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

Many things that are occurring in the 2020 “pandemic” are criminal.  Genocide, murder, treason, and fraud, to name just the biggies. My recent book, Grass Court, expressed the view that today’s governments — around the world – won’t punish the relevant criminals. I believe that’s because all the governments are under the sway of some intimidating global rulers.

My book suggested that some neighbors get together and run a court on their front lawn (a “grass” court), like a real

trial. Today’s article is NOT about the grass court. It is about a new entity that I am founding, called the Committee of 23.  At the end of this article, I will specify how the Committee of 23 differs from the grass court.

Announcing the Committee of 23

I propose a committee of 23 persons. We will more or less imitate a Grand Jury – which traditionally has between 16 and 23 members. Typically, members of a grand jury are handed some files by a District Attorney and are asked if they think the suspect (or “the person of interest”) should be indicted. Is there “probable cause” that a crime was committed by him or her?

The police may already have arrested the person based on receiving a complaint, such as “Ann Smith embezzled our company’s funds.” Or, cops may have apprehended someone while on patrol: “Harry Jones, being drunk, was seen stabbing a man with his umbrella.”

The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of rights guarantees “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury.” The grand jurors must decide if there “is a case to answer.” They operate secretly so the accused will not suffer a loss of reputation in the event that it was a false alarm.

In the early days, the matter was not administered by government. Rather, the citizen-led panel of 23 would look around and see if crime was happening. In colonial Massachusetts, the 23 were obliged to do so and to bring to the attention of the government any general troubles they identified.

The Committee of 23 that I propose is of that old-fashioned type. We will nose around. As much as we durn well please.

Authority of Grand Juries

In 2015, the Congressional Research Service – the CRS — wrote a report (number 95-1135) about the role of the federal grand jury. Charles Doyle at the CRS, summarizing the Report, noted that:

“The federal grand jury exists to investigate crimes against the United States and to secure the constitutional right of grand jury indictment. Its responsibilities require broad powers. [It is] an arm of the U.S. District Court which summons it, upon whose process it relies, and which will receive any indictments it returns.”

There isn’t much jurisprudential philosophy on the subject of grand juries, but US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, writing a dissent in US v Williams (1992), stated:

“The grand jury ‘can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even because it wants assurance that it is not.’ It need not identify the offender it suspects, or even ‘the precise nature of the offense’ it is investigating….”

For reasons in which I am not well-schooled, (which have to do with the Fourteenth Amendment and the concept of “incorporation”), the right of a citizen to a grand jury indictment, quoted above in the Fifth Amendment, applies to federal, not state, crimes.  According to Frequently Asked Questions at the American Bar Association website, only 22 states require grand juries, but most of the other 28 do still use them.

I live in New Hampshire, specifically in Merrimack County. The issues that are grist for my mill are national, so I envision that my Committee of 23 will be of the federal type.  Perhaps the appropriate US District Court is the one in Concord, New Hampshire, to which we should report our findings. But that is open to discussion.

The Law of Grand Jury Procedure

Importantly, I am calling the proposed new entity a Committee, not a grand jury. Since it is not an authorized body, it has no powers of summons or subpoena. But it also won’t have to abide by Federal Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Procedure.

A famous aspect of the grand jury is its secrecy. Rule 6 (e) “Recording and Disclosing the Proceedings” describes the right, or lack of a right, of various parties to gain access to the grand jury’s information. For example, 6(e) 2 (B) v says that the court person who is recording the testimony may not divulge it.

Although secrecy does not bind our Committee’s work, I believe it will be wise to comply with any government rule on classified information so that we do not find ourselves in Julian Assange’s unhappy position.

It is heartening to note that Justice Scalia wrote, in the 1992 Williams case mentioned above:

“Thus, citizens have the unbridled right to empanel their own grand juries and present “True Bills” of indictment to a court, which is then required to commence a criminal proceeding. Our Founding Fathers presciently thereby created a “buffer” the people may rely upon for justice, when public officials, including judges, criminally violate the law….
“The grand jury is an institution separate from the courts, over whose functioning the courts do not preside….” [Emphasis added]

Will the “accused” have a right to due process? No. This is not a court. The Committee has a duty to investigate crime.  I humbly invite any input into the creation of our “procedure.” It is natural to want procedure. But let’s keep in mind the law maxim Apices juris non sunt jura. “The niceties of the law are not the law.”

Comparison of the Committee of 23 and the Grass Court

Let me compare my new proposal to another one that I recently adumbrated.  In September 2020, I published the book Grass Court: How To Use Law To Deal with the Pandemic.  Its purpose is to encourage people to reject the notion that “officials” can’t be charged with crimes. (No, they do not have immunity!)

I noted that putting on a mock trial would empower citizens. You can conduct a mock trial of persons who are acting against the Constitution by, say, forcing vaccinations or establishing curfews. The book, Grass Court, contains a general introduction to sections of the US Constitution that a litigant or prosecutor can use, and it quotes the federal statutes against genocide and treason.

In 2017, I produced a stage play in Adelaide that consisted of a moot court trial for a wrongly convicted (and still imprisoned) Australian, Martin Bryant. Moot courts are used in law schools competitively, for fun and for skills training. The cases are usually fictional or historic ones.

For the Australian play, it was shocking to see how easy it was to create a trial that favored the innocent Bryant, even though all the material used in the playscript came straight out of the official file of the prosecutor!

I imagine the people who run a grass court trial will be similarly taken aback by their power to locate truth. Sure, it’s a daunting idea, but it can be done. Note, if you are worried about being sued for defamation, just use the name John Doe or Jane Doe for the accused.

By comparison with the grass court, the Committee of 23 will not be trying any criminals. We will merely be finding “probable cause” that a crime has (or has not) been committed. All of this depends on my being able to recruit 22, or at least 15 persons. By law, a panel of grand jurors can also have alternates if desired.

Will the “accused” have a right to due process? No. This is not a court. The Committee has a duty to investigate crime.  I humbly invite any input into the creation of our “procedure.” It is natural to want procedures galore. But let’s keep in mind the law maxim  Apices juris non sunt jura. “The niceties of the law are nor the law.”

Referring again to Charles Doyle’s summary of the Congressional Research Service’s 2015 report on the grand jury: “Its investigation is not fully carried out until every available clue has been run down and all witnesses examined in every proper way to find if a crime has been committed.”  Don’t worry, the Committee of 23 is not in that league.

Finally, to quote Scala again:
“The grand jury is an institution separate from the courts, over whose functioning the courts do not preside, we think it clear that, as a general matter at least, no such ‘supervisory’ judicial authority exists.

Oh happy day.

Dear hearts, if you are interested in participating in the Committee of 23, please contact me by email (not via the Gumshoe Comments section)  MaxwellMaryLLB  @gmail.com.

Muchos gracias. (Ah, yes, we should be bilingual if possible.)

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47 COMMENTS

  1. So far there are 52 Yes votes, more than enough, for the final confirmation of Amy Barrett as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.

    There are 45 No votes (still counting). So there we have it: Justice Barrett. I hope she will help us.

  2. Here are a few of the vital issues that have not been ‘acted’ upon by the Australia populous:
    1.The Corporation Act
    2. The Australian Act
    3. The Lima Treaty
    4. The Unidroit Treaty
    5. Ever wondered why a private citizen cannot win a trick in an Australian court? https://cairnsnews.org/2016/08/02/ever-wondered-why-a-private-citizen-cannot-win-a-trick-in-an-australian-court/
    6. The Port Arthur Massacre
    7. The suppression of the Balbo 5 murder by the Australian government
    8. The lies of the Bali bombing
    9. The lies of MH370 and MH17 by the illegal corporate-government entity
    10. The lies of 9/11 by by the illegal corporate-government entity for the Fascist US Imperial Empire
    11. The lies of the premeditated torching of Australia
    12. The lies of 5G
    13.The lies and suppression of geoengineering by chemtrails, HAARP and doppler radar
    14. The suppression of pedophilia in Australia and of the Parliamentary Privilege Pedophile suppression Orders
    15. The fraudulent lies of Covid 19 and the fraudulent PCR tests
    16. Freemasons in Parliament despite it being in sedition, misprision and treason

    Causal Links to Treason and Misprision of Treason

    a) The Australia Act 1986 Section-6. Manner and Form “means Referendums” In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    b) The Australia Act 1986 Section-13. Amendment of Constitution of Queensland.
    Subsection (1) The Constitution Act 1867-1978 of the State of Queensland is in this section referred to as the Principal Act. In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    c) The Australia Act 1986 Section-14. Amendment of Constitution Act of Western Australia.
    Subsection (1) The Constitution Act 1889 in the State of Western Australia is in this section referred to as the Principle Act. In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    d) The Commonwealth Constitution Section-128. In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    e) The State of South Australia Constitution-Section-34. In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    f) The South Australia Australia Act (Request) Acts 1985 No. 95 – Section 51. In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    g) The 1999 6th November Referendum 63% said No. The Criminal Offence of Fraud. Working Against the instructions of the Australian people in that Referendum and the operation of your Fraudulent Grant of Power.

    h) Acts Amendment and Repeal (Courts and Legal Practice) Act 2003, Enacted 1st January 2004.

    Part 8 Amendments about the Crown. (61 Amendments)

    Crown x 42, Her Majesty x 7 Our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors x 5, Council for the Crown x 4, Queen x 1, Subjects x 1. Royal Arms x 1 (Changing the Royal Arms is an act of war on the people of the Commonwealth of Australia)

    And

    By deleting “Crown” and inserting instead “State or the Commonwealth” at sections 121(4), and,123(5) and (6b) and (7). In this particular activity the Referendum had a statutory and mandatory Constitutional requirement that was omitted, formulating and enacting a concealed fraudulent Grant of Power upon the people of South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia.

    i) The Election Writs, Senate and House of representatives, spread this Criminal Activity throughout Australia. Criminal Offence of Fraud. Referendums omitted – operating your fraudulent Grant of Power.

    j) Allegedly, the Swearing of a Foreign Oath to Freemasonry. “Conceal and Never Reveal.” The Warrant for Freemasonry came out from the United Kingdom, “Sue v Hill” Illegally declared the United Kingdom a Foreign Power, but, in so doing actually declared that the Masonic Warrant to form Masonic Lodges within Australia did make this particular Warrant, the Warrant of a Foreign Power, it breaches PART IV – Both Houses of the Parliament, Section 44 Disqualification, subsection 1 of the Commonwealth Constitution in relation to Commonwealth politicians. This Offence is to be Discovered by either a Jury trial or Grand Jury trial.

    • We went 200% on the Lima treaty, that’s why all the kids are on checkouts
      Trouble with law, it’s piled on top of itself like religion
      They just do whatever they want

  3. In 1824, Francis Forbes was appointed first Chief Justice of New South Wales (and van Deiman’s Land, too, I think). He had to agree to certify that each piece of legislation to be signed was “not repugnant to the laws of England.”

    Believe me, I am not suggesting that we try to get our judges in US and OZ to act like sieves in that way, but it would be nice for an “Academy” to check the constitutionality of a bill before it passes. As regards the Federal Reserve Act, passed 107 years ago, no case has yet caused SCOTUS to “review” it.

    Doesn’t Canada have a procedure to look at each bill and run it past the Charter of Human Rights for compatibility ?

  4. Anything is worth trying MM. I have never been a fan of committees but of one is required to plug the plug on the swamp, then my views of committees might change

    • If Dee thinks I am aiming to clean the swamp, I must not have expressed my plan correctly.

      I think we are all the swamp. We are disgusting, the whole lot of us. What I am hoping to do is turn the Lockdown around AND deal with the Bozos who started it, frickin decades ago.

      See what you’ve made me do now, Dee. You made me break the fricikn dress code.

      Help! Nedski, help!

      • Mary, In the beginning, God formed a committee of angels to create the world and inhabit it with life.
        After billions of years in committee the angels came up in a concensus for the first animal,
        That is how we have the tortoise.
        Hopefully Mary, Dee will put up a video soon to demonstrate to you that all your hopes and plans may as well follow the tortoise.
        Tv will have a heart attack as to how we may improve on the tortoise concept.
        Btw, God sacked the tortoise committee and took over the office of creations…… but her design for one animal in her dreams was a creation too far…… thus the mess we have now.

  5. I looked up the Esperanto word for tenacious, it’s tenacious.
    Mary’s idea is compelling in the context of atrium(my moot Latin).
    Justice Scalia’s interpretation is awesome use of constitutional(US, not Oz that we copy ad hoc then ignore) precedent, though he has no honour that I would bestow.
    Long story short, Mary you prevent the outright taking of the high ground(law) in logic and even statute. Onya

    • Wow, Simon, I never heard the term “anti-association laws” before; I quote:

      “Public Service Orders last only 72 hours so investigators are taking their fight to court to apply for Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPO) which last up to five years.

      “It will prevent them from associating with other criminals, it will prevent them from utilising weapons of crime, it will prevent them from having encrypted communications,” Detective Superintendent Critchlow said.

      “We can control what telephones they use, we can control who they bank with, we can stop their movements overseas.”

      Recently they prevented my phoning Dee but now it is back on. The whole thing is sick.

      • Muslims have been nothing but trouble out of all the different cultures and nationalities that have migrated to Australia. They set up areas that people cannot walk down,in the neigbourhoods, they gang rape Caucasian females. The police have a special operation for the the Eastern European gangs that are involved in drugs, prostitution and criminal activities. They want to bring in Sharia law and behead anyone that does not want to convert to the Muslim man-made religion.

        As far as I am concerned any violent act they get transported back to where they came from family and all. Then the family may help to keep them in check. Australia the once Christian country has been flood gated with all sorts of man-made religions that create controversy and division in their so-called “multiculturalism’ agenda

        • thats not muslims doin that Arlyn…

          its moronic criminals.

          Australia was once a dreamtime country… started going backwards as soon as the “christians” lobbed… then again… hardly real christians either..

      • There is so much corruption and criminality in the state police force, the Australian Federal Police, the judiciary and with the politicians in their schemes

          • Yes Ned–see my comments end of last article. Here is a real opportunity for Gumshoe to support US and the likes of Shane–Fiona- Rachel- Karen plus plus –whistle blowers –a collaborative supportive committee
            stand up and be counted
            we are a force to be reckoned with
            stand up and be counted

            oh well
            Anyway
            Hang in there

          • I’m in Diane and Mary! Not sure how useful I will be – I know nothing of the law except telling right from wrong. Someone will have to translate the latin for me 🙂

          • That US is us -OZ us not US America them
            —Oz is the laboratory–for the great experiment–

            am posting below re a Barrister John B. Lawrence –he knows all about the law and like you Rachel knows right from wrong

    • Simon’s post, quote,“crime groups using our streets and our homes as shooting ranges”

      And the respective guns are being sourced from?
      The same “grey” market from whence Haron Monis obtained a shotgun ?

  8. Family Court and Covid ??– a nightmare scenario

    “While all agreed there is no catch-all solution to protect every citizen who enters a courtroom, the judges say they are seeking to avoid what has been described as a “ nightmare scenario” in which a single confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis of a participant or juror would likely throw a case into a state of paralysis.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/social-distanced-justice-courts-restart-trials-with-covid-19-precautions/ar-BB15ey2d

  9. They are all in it together…What a bunch of crock! Just another excise from another quarter of the criminal organisation called ‘Government” to con tiunue this medical lockdown hoax which is unwarranted, unscientific, unhealthy, unsound, irrational, illogical etc…

    The made up “social distancing” was by a 15 year old girl in a competition in which she got third place. No country in the world has had this as a health policy.

    Dr OFFERS $5000 FOR PROOF THAT THE CV19 EXISTS This needs to be uploaded before they remove it like they have all others. It is removing evidence!

    There is only a few methods for testing Covid-19:
    Numbers – testing
    People were being tested by ‘symptoms only’ the precise presentation of the seasonal flu are the symptoms that created this phenomena that has brought the world to halt
    The second way of testing for Covid-19 is anti-bodies test by blood. Big problem with this and not accurate! Medicine has turned this around 180 degrees compared to what it should be.
    Remember medicine keeps changing the terms of diseases to confuse and confound the public. The same with testing as they did not differentiate between viral or bacteria for start.
    Any sort of debris was counted as positive which is not science
    The PCR test which is completely unverifiable test
    Next the test kits came out by CDC (who else) was sent to hundreds of hospital and clinics across the US to ‘supposedly’ screen out people for Covid-19
    The problems is when you look on the CDC website “For experimental use only not for diagnostic purposes. The CDC is making no claims of their validity” So false spikes were recorded!
    Next is the Onsite test kits are ‘supposedly’ able to screen Covid-19 in 5 minutes. The good doctor says this is completely ludicrous as its impossible and scientifically untenable. They will not work at all. No one even claims that they can validly differentiate anything let alone Covid-19. They are completely unapproved and untested. Ye the positive results from these unreliable tests are being included in the running total of Covid-19 cases being reported everyday on the news. These are the main tests used in this country today to count the number of positive cases we see enumerated on the daily scoreboard. Not for diagnostic purposes These are the only tests that are driving the daily numbers. The fact remains that none of these tests are scientifically verifiable and reproducible as a valid differentiation for Covid-19 specifically. They are all flawed just estimates.

    Polymerase Chain Reaction Test aka PCR was created by Dr. Kary Mullis in the 1980’s and he received a Nobel prize for it in Berkeley California. It is touted by the medical profession then and now as the “gold standard for disease” for diagnosis microbial diseases in patients. They ‘claim’ it can differentiate any viral disease by sequencing the RNA and DNA. This claim is constantly made even today which is completely insupportable and untrue. No one was more critical of the PCR test than its inventor Dr. Kary Mullis. It was disavowed from the very first. This is what he said, “Quantitative PCR is an oxymoron. PCR…by its very nature is unsuited for estimating numbers. A common misimpression that the viral-load tests actually count the number of viruses in the blood, these tests cannot detect free, infectious viruses at all; they can only detect proteins that are believed, in some cases wrongly, to be unique to HIV. Tests can detect particles of viruses, but not the viruses themselves.” He was embarrassed and exasperated for decades of the ‘claims’ that organised medicine was making (I say corrupt and criminal as racketeering of organised crime. Just a bunch of gangsters) for his test. It does not do what they claim. The amazing thing is no improvement for 40 years! Such extravagant claims have been made over the last 40 years by the PCR test by organised medicine. No other technology has been devoped over the last 40 years of claims to make any improvement on the ability of the PCR test to identify to sequence viruses and bacteria. He has since died and the doctor wanted to interview him. Lets ask this question where is the science?

    Is it closer to science or science fiction? the claims are that it can identify the exact RNA sequence of a disease virus of ‘any virus’ and they can print that sequence out then compare sequence viral samples from patients with that master sequence looking for an exact match up. The exact match up would determine if it is appositive test. Did this patients sample have the exact same disease out of the master sample. That is what they have been claiming all these years a little research we find out i does nothing of the sort. The PCR test does nothing of the sort. Everybody is making these same false claims about this magic golden box of the PCR test. It is the epitome of junk science.
    And yet this is the pitch used today test:
    Doctors
    Hospitals
    Everyday media
    Medical literatureTV news
    Bureaucrats

    This is how the PCR test works by getting a DNA cleaved or separated and you keep doubling the strands exponentially on and on…Coronavirus is RNA so that is converted to DNA by reverse transcriptase: RT -PCR. Each doubling is a cycle. The best counts how many cycles until RNA is detected, and how many before it disappears. It just gives you a range of numbers the tis all the PCR test does.

    Does Coronavirus 19 exist?
    “The coronavirus test is based on PCR, a manufacturing technique. When used as a test it does not produce a positive/negative result, but simply the number of cycles required to detect genetic material.” No new virus was ever purified (isolate sequenced) by the Wuhan scientist. The same is true in America no novel virus for Covid-19 has never been purified by any scientist in the US. The PCR doesn’t isolate and indemnify viruses. It doesn’t provide RNA sequences of pathogens. It offers no baseline for comparison with patient samples. It cannot determine an infected from non-infected sample. We are looking at a device for marketing and promotion of testing

    Crowe’s conclusion
    “The coronavirus panic is just that, an irrational panic, based on an unproven RNA test, that has never been connected to a virus
    And which won’t be connected to virus unless he virus is purified. There is very little science happening.” (It’s no science) So this is the best kept secret that you will ever hearing of this in the media. This is just an introduction with the problems of the PCR test and is much worse than I am describing here. So the other test that we mentioned here are less reliable as:
    Symptoms only
    Blood tests unreliable
    Hospital test kits experimental only not for diagnostic purposes
    On-site 5 minute kits these are less scientific

    Best kept secret
    The symptoms of Covid-19 are symptoms of the flu
    You can find no research, no evidence, no description of how these test kits are ‘supposed ‘ to work.
    Its a forbidden topic of discussion – corporate media
    Emergency USE Authorization (EUA) from FDA allow use of all the unproven experimental test kits which are UNLICENSED, UNTESTED and UNPROVEN
    But it allows the use of the experimental test kits

    “No time to see if they work”

    • OK, Ned, I found that the High Court decided in Novermber, 2019 that at least one anti-consorting law is constitutional, namely in NSW re bikies. I quote ABC News:

      “Under the SCPO the men would be restrained for two years from associating with any motorcycle gang members or attending any premises associated with them, banned from travelling in a vehicle between 9:00pm and 6:00am — except in the case of a medical emergency — and forbidden from possessing more than one mobile phone.”

      I think there was a similar case in SA which was won by the bikies, but can’t stop to look for it. Even so, this newer one would overrule it.

      It is in the nature of a “crime preventative” of which I am very suspicious.

  11. Oz judicial system is a syndicate ruled by oligarchs.
    They choose the compromised slavemasons who protect the demons that roam and murder with impunity. Survival of the greediest is the only law here, hidden hand just ice.
    “Strong doing what they can and the weak suffering what they must” where “Money talks and bullshit walks.”

  13. a must read—
    Genocide Torture Deceit and Fraud Mind Control of the Masses -The Chosen Land

    https://arena.org.au/the-aboriginal-gulag-the-northern-territory-criminal-legal-system/

    a ‘cult of forgetfulness’ practised on a national scale”.
    25 Oct
    “A depraved jailing machine consuming Aboriginal men, women and children at an ever-increasing rate.”
    Barrister John B. Lawrence on the deterioration of the NT legal system, the shameful state of Indigenous incarceration, and the need for systemic change.

    A couple of paragraphs pertinent to my knowledge and experience.

    “Representative groups such as the Criminal Lawyers’ Association of the Northern Territory (CLANT) and the Northern Territory Bar Association (NTBA), and publicly funded service providers such as the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) and the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission (NTLAC) have become mere enablers of this disgraceful status quo. There is no longer any real opposition, protest or dissent from anywhere. No one in the NT legal world seems capable of saying; ‘No, I disagree’. The main explanation for this deplorable state of affairs, which of course will be strenuously denied by all, is racism.”

    I know Gumshoers have other “big picture” explanations and opinions for “this deplorable state of affairs” –but just read his testimony and support his efforts against the machine

    “The White/Gooda Royal Commission, set up by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in July 2016 to investigate the horrors exposed by the Four Corners program ‘Australia’s Shame’, confirmed the abuses that were being inflicted upon Aboriginal children in Don Dale and Alice Springs detention centres. Four Corners revealed, through graphic film, boys being tear-gassed, beaten, held down, spit-hooded, shackled, hosed and unlawfully placed in isolation. It showed what is now the unforgettable symbol of the NT legal system: Dylan Voller in a cell, bound to a chair, hooded, catatonic. The Royal Commission discovered unequivocally the individuals who were responsible for these unlawful and barbaric acts, and yet no one was charged.”

    ” That silencing of Australian history was first articulated by Professor W. E. H. Stanner in his groundbreaking Boyer Lectures in 1968. Entitled ‘The Great Australian Silence’, the lectures reminded listeners not only of the historical injustices and massacres committed against Aboriginal people but how that history was deliberately buried and forgotten. Stanner explained that Australia’s sense of its past, its very collective memory, had been built on a state of forgetting that couldn’t ‘be explained by absentmindedness’. He called it a ‘cult of forgetfulness’ practised on a national scale. He also described white Australia’s ‘sightlessness’: the aversion of our eyes from the facts”

  14. Dee maybe a submission re Child Abduction the Family Court–just a thought

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