Candace Owens had scheduled a speaking tour in Australia, but was denied a visa. On Wednesday, the Australian High Court agreed with the decision. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo
The High Court of Australia on Wednesday upheld a decision to deny a visa to conservative political commentator and author Candace Owens, who had planned a speaking tour there.
The court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s denial did not infringe an implied constitutional freedom of political communication.
Owens’ conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic rhetoric did not pass the “character test” for a visa under Australia’s Migration Act, Burke said at the time of the denial.
Owens fought the denial in court arguing that a section of the act was invalid or that Burke had misconstrued the law. Her lawyers said the character test was more likely to exclude atypical political views that sparked division.
Owens’ lawyer Perry Herzfeld said that “inciting discord” as a reason to reject a visa was too broad and could include debate that was “very much in the eye of the beholder,” The Guardian reported. Herzfeld argued in May that this kind of denial will include people who “will stimulate debate … the minister doesn’t like.”
The decision said the judges of the court “unanimously held that, reading the minister’s decision fairly and as a whole, the minister did not misconstrue [the act] in deciding to refuse to grant the visa.”
“This is a win for social cohesion. Inciting discord might be the way some people make money, but it’s not welcome in Australia,” Burke said of the ruling.
Burke had argued that Owens had made “extremist and inflammatory comments towards Muslim, Black, Jewish and LGBTQIA+ communities, which generate controversy and hatred.”
Burke said in October: “From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about [Nazi doctor Josef] Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction. Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”
Burke also considered Owens’ “influence on the perpetrator of the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque terrorist attacks, who described the plaintiff as ‘the person who had influenced [him] above all,'” ABC (Australia) reported.
The court said Owens was not entitled to any relief and ordered her to pay the defendants’ costs.
Owens is also facing a defamation lawsuit from French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte. Owens claims Brigitte Macron was born a man.
