Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1305625
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS 'discrimination' There is a clear swathe of clauses that declare that "less favourable treatment" on the grounds of belief, creed, or religion are not discriminatory if they are based on (i) the internal workings of an institution (ii) the ethos of that institution is based on creed (iii) they are religious services (iv) and if such treatment is "a genuine and determining requirement" to reach a legitimate aim. Religious worship benefits from other important protections The Equality Bill, contrary to claims by its antagonists, allows faith schools to en- force policies "for teachers within educa- tional establishments, the ethos of which is based on a belief, creed or religion, and the requirement for teachers to act in good faith" with said policies. The only difference here is that the school cannot interfere with teachers' private lives. But the school would have to prove that such a policy is a genuine occupational requirement and a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim – that is, a physics teacher is still free to profess their faith during a physics lesson inside a faith-school. There is an exception for teachers of religion If it is a genuine and justified require- ment, institutions such as schools can adopt less favourable treatment on the grounds of religion in the case of the teaching of religion but also other educa- tional activities where the school's ethos is based on such belief. Religious symbols are not going any- where It is written black-on-white: the display of religious symbols in public places when such symbols are deemed to have a cul- tural value, or temporary display during religious events; and the display of con- tent relating to religion, is not discrimina- tory. (Neither is political messaging). Conscientious objection The government is opposed to a con- scientious objection clause, saying it could potentially leave thousands of in- dividuals without access to an unknown number of services. The Constitution already allows per- sons to refuse to serve as a member of a naval, military or air force if they have a conscientious objection to it; the Affir- mations Act allows persons to refuse to take an oath; and the Embryo Protection Act had a time-bound provision which al- lowed health care professionals to register their objection to perform any technique of medically assisted procreation within 3 months from the coming into force of that Act in 2013. Conscientious objection clauses in Mal- ta are few and far between, and when in- cluded, are very restrictive. But the Equality Bill guarantees non-dis- crimination for all in all spheres of public life, including healthcare services and a wide range of protected characteristics; inserting a conscientious objection clause would basically defeat the entire purpose of the law. The question is, which goods and ser- vices would be refused, and how many people would be refused jobs or services, on the basis of 'conscience'? Which pro- fessionals would be able to deny clients: would a surgeon be able to refuse to op- erate on a person on the basis of their conscience? Would a midwife be empow- ered to refuse their service on the same basis – for example on services which are legally available in Malta such as IVF treatment and hormone treatment? After all, a medical professional does not need 'conscience' to object to a service which is illegal at law such as abortion and eutha- nasia – which is why the claim that abor- tion would be imposed on professionals without it is completely false. "Those pushing for a blanket 'conscien- tious objection' clause to be included in the Equality Bill have been using the abortion red herring to push it forward. This is wrong, because the Equality Bill has nothing to do with abortion," say the pro-choice doctors' NGO Doctors For Choice. In any case – Doctors For Choice point out – the need for doctors to carry out abortions is being overstated. "Women can carry out their own abortions with pills up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and on- ly a minority of them may need to seek medical attention. "This whole issue is being blown out of proportion by those who simply wish to retain their right to discriminate." tion in the Maltese Constitu- tion, energising the Gift Of Life movement fronted by Vincen- ti, and rubbishing his critics as "the liberal elite". Since 2019 he has been protesting the equali- ty bills in newspaper columns, claiming they prevent Church schools from "advancing lessons on the beginning of life in biolo- gy or the definition of tradition- al marriage." Against the civil rights revolution It's daunting to paint the full connections of Malta's conserv- ative vanguard and its political allies in both the Nationalist and Labour Parties, as well as the far- right. Yet all seem to share traits of being anti-migration, oppo- nents of multiculturalism and all form of gay rights, mistrustful of mainstream media, and eager to latch onto the strongmen tropes of Trump and Bolsonaro, or the countries challenging the Euro- pean mainstream like Orban's Hungary and Poland. What is clear is that this great right-wing backlash took its fragmented shape right after La- bour's election in 2013. In 2011, the great divorce ref- erendum exasperated the Mal- tese Catholic Church. National- ist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, whose Mistra land deal risked losing the PN the 2008 election, had been left out in the cold de- spite having been weaponised to heckle Labour leader Al- fred Sant; in 2010, the Maltese bishops employed their over- weening power to prevent MPs who had separated from their spouses from attending Pope Benedict's high mass in Malta. Pullicino Orlando hit back two months later, rocking the politi- cal establishment with a private member's bill legislating for di- vorce. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi demanded a referendum, and Labour jumped aboard a coalition of liberals who went on to defeat both the conserv- ative PN establishment and the Church that backed it. It was the watershed moment for the secularisation drive that Joseph Muscat used to divide his adversaries from then on. From then on, backed with La- bour's massive majority, there was no recognisable opposi- tion to the legalisation of civil unions, gay adoptions, embryo freezing and wider IVF suffrage, the ban on gay conversion ther- apy, gender identity rights, and gay marriage. The Church had been caught on the back foot; the Nationalist Party was facing its own crisis. Suddenly, out of the woodwork came a variety of conservative and crypto-fascist outfits and religious zealots opposing Mus- cat's civil liberties campaign; their anti-immigration streak was shared by the far-right but they could not buy into Norman Lowell's belief in eugenics and euthanasia of the disabled, so 'softer' formations opposed to multiculturalism, asylum seek- ers, Islam and also virulently an- ti-abortion started taking shape: Moviment Patriotti Maltin took to the streets, and attempted to forge some form of understand- ing with Ivan Grech Mintoff's Christian right-wing 'party', the latter having been particularly close to the "ex-gay" campaign of Matthew Grech who thinks voting Labour "is a sin". Even Grech Mintoff ran his own an- ti-abortion tirade, losing thou- sands in defamation costs in favour of the Malta Gay Rights Movement. It is arguable that all these in- dividual movements were once 'hidden' inside big tent parties like the Nationalist Party. Even Labour's civil liberties agen- da pushed out antediluvians like former MP Adrian Vassal- lo, who once dubbed liberals 'pigs' and wanted hotels not to provide pay-per-view porn on their TV screens. Under the protection of respected types like Tonio Borg, extreme con- servatives were easily hidden in such broad churches: few credit Labour leader Alfred Sant for having single-handedly prevent- ed Borg's crusade to entrench abortion in the Constitution back in 2006 by refusing to sign the Paul Vincenti petition; less brave politicians were then scared of the pro-life backlash not to sign the petition. Yet since 2018, an unstoppa- ble debate on sexual and repro- ductive rights for women has been energised by the Women's Rights Foundation, young hu- man rights activists, and the first coalition of pro-choice doctors. As the debate on Malta's Equality Act today shows, this religious, right-wing and frag- mented opposition is dead set against enforcing the equality of access to goods and services, and meritorious employment practices, because it destabi- lises the privileges enjoyed by Church schools or religious or- ganisations. The 'anti-Marxist' legion: from top left, ex-gay activist Matthew Grech, Ivan Grech Mintoff, Miriam Sciberras and Paul Vincenti, and Tonio Borg. Centre: Fr David Mifsud and the evangelist preacher Gordon John Manché Out of the woodwork came a variety of conservative and crypto-fascist outfits and religious zealots opposing Labour's civil liberties campaign