Openness for all : Decision makers including judges should declare Secret Society membership says new petition filed at Holyrood

A PETITION calling on decision makers from judges to tribunal members to declare their membership of all organisations including Freemasonry has been filed at the Scottish Parliament for consideration by MSPS. The petition, filed by transparency campaigner Thomas Minogue of Dunfermline, Fife, can be viewed online at the Scottish Parliament’s website HERE.

The Petition “calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the law or codes of practice to make it compulsory for decision makers such as sheriffs, judges, and juries at their courts, arbiters, and all panel members of tribunals that are convened and held in Scotland and governed by devolved legislation, custom and practice, to declare if they have ever been members of organisations, such as the Masons, that demand fraternal preference to their brethren over non-brethren, or organisations which have constitutions or aims that are biased against any particular sect, religion or race.”

The petition further states : “That a register of such membership is held by the various bodies that supervise such judicial and quasi-judicial tribunals and that access to these registers is given on demand to the defendant, litigant, or plaintiff wishing to exercise their rights to a fair hearing in accordance with Article 6 of the ECHR.”

Further details given to MSPs by the petitioner, Mr Minogue, state : “In 2000 I petitioned the Scottish Parliament with PE 306 which was in a similar vein to this petition. Then, after having been under consideration for over three years with the parliament the petition was dismissed without reason.”

“The Public Petitions Committee summary of the petition showed that the committee had closed the petition in December 2002 when in fact the terms of the petition were considered by the Justice 2 Committee on 04 March and the Public Petitions Committee on 18 March 2003.”

“The latter anomaly has recently been corrected and the meeting of 04 March can be found here:http://archive.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/historic/justice1/mop-03/j2mop0304.htm”

“The meeting of the Justice 2 Committee, of 4th March, was  not insignificant. The Justice Minister Jim Wallace was questioned by the committee on my submissions regarding membership of the Speculative Society of Edinburgh and the Masons among the judiciary. The Minister said he had not had time to  read my submissions but he would do and revert to the committee. There is no record of this having happened.”

“Furthermore despite the fact that the committee had asked me to provide examples of cases where there was a perception that freemasonry had influenced a court or tribunal the committee did not publish the submissions I made in this regard. I believe that this censorship was draconian given that details of own case, Stott v Minogue 2000 SLT (Sh Ct) 25, & GWD 36-1386, - which spawned the petition – and the decision by the Social Security Commissioner, Ref: CSI/136/02. are in part matters of public record, or have been reported widely in the press and legal journals and are the two most important Scottish cases that deal with the influence of freemasonry in the justice system.”

“Having sought to determine my rights to challenge the existing law which allows nondisclosure of (secret) membership of fraternal organisations by decision makers by the courts, my elected representatives, and the previous government (which subverted the public petitions process), I am now attempting to resolve this anomaly with a new government, which claims to be open and accountable to the people of Scotland.”

The Closing Date for signatures supporting the aims of the Online Petition is 29 October 2013.