What should have been a straight-forward procedural issue , the deportation of a law breaker, will now be portrayed as "political".
It appears that James Cameron was due to appear in the High Court the same afternoon to represent Angie Heffernan in her case against the authorities for restricting her movements.
Lets just break it down a little bit shall we:
1. If Person X arrives in Fiji on a visitor visa and then proceeds to work without a legal work visa, that person is breaking our laws.
No doubt about that. James Cameron as a lawyer should have known better.
Get a work permit, work to your hearts content, pay your taxes, ITS ALL GOOD.
2. James Cameron has been in Fiji on numerous occassions in the past few months. He has represented other clients in that period.
Inevitably the question will arise, WHY DEPORT HIM NOW?
Now, this case will be played out in the media, local and international for days to come.
No Fijian wants people from overseas working here without a permit, breaking our immigration laws. But very poor timing will now make this guy look like some sort of victim, instead of the violator of our laws that he was.
And one more things, there are people out there posting instructions on how to make BOMBS and attack tourists.Numerous Fiji Islanders have been named as "POTENTIAL SLAYING TARGETS".
Go after the real HATERS and INCITERS, lets let people like Angie get on with their lives. Not only does it play our poorly in the media, it detracts from the REAL culprits.
INDEPENDENT,BALANCED,IMPARTIAL.
7 comments:
Great post.
Luuuvvv reading your blog.
LF, totally agree. Could have been handled better.
Now the law -breaker will be seen as a victim...
The IG needs to find better advisors.
Now the Aust and NZ media which are just itching to put the boot into the IG, will have a field day.
Bad timing.
Thank you for the very fair comments on Angie.
You are as you say, INDEPENDENT AND HONEST.
The land has eyes....and it sees..........
Dr Cameron is a member of the FLS for the last 30 years. He is an extremely well respected law abiding lawyer. He was a magistrate in Fiji for a number of years. He is retired and has been undertaking pro bono work for the Legal Aid Commission since it was formed in 2002.
Cameron is over 70 years old for goodness sake....he is not about to want to go back into full time employment.
Section 9 of the Immigration 9 has a 14 day provision that cameroon has been using and which the Immigration dept has been approving him to enter and "work" on short term legal cases. two weeks ago naupote was on TV , when Cameron expressed in Court that he may be prevented from entering Fiji, that Cameron had nothing to worry about!!!.
The Hearing before President of the Fiji Court of Appeal (Heffernan's case) was adjourned to yesterday by Ward to allow Cameron to make a submission before him. It is extremely suspicious that on this extremely important hearing where Cameron is seeking the President to set aside orders that Brynes made in favour of the militray, he is prevented from entering the country!!!
Let us not kid ourselves....Dr Cameron is not a fool to break the laws of this country...the fact that the decision to deport him is because the junta is sacared of Cameron and his legal prowess....he is aslo representing the FLS on their case against Judge Shameem, Gates and Rishi Ram
What I find interesting is that the Fiji Law Society President is so wishy washy on his response to the media on Cameron...says much doesn't it
Good words.
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