While Jereth Kok may not be a household name to most folks, many Australian Christians at least would/should recognise it. As I have reported in a number of articles now, this Christian general practitioner lost his job some five years ago. This left him scrambling to find work since August 2019 as he seeks to provide for his family of four.
The Medical Board of Australia had given him the boot. Wow, he must have been one really bad dude. Did he steal funds from the medical practice? Did he molest a patient? Did he engage in gross medical malpractice? Um, no. He simply posted some general commentary in his own time on a few websites.
The sorts of things he said on his own Facebook page and elsewhere that caused the MBA to go apoplectic were along these lines:
- Children should have a mother and a father where possible.
- Men putting on dresses and growing their hair does not turn them into women.
- Killing unborn babies in the womb is a morally questionable practice.
- Marriage should be between a man and a woman.
- One can rightly discuss questionable medical procedures and practices.
For these views – which the majority of Australians would NOT find to be horrendously objectionable, Jereth lost his job. This is now my seventh piece fully or partially discussing his case. One earlier piece that provides more background on this is found here.
After a five-year wait he finally had a hearing in Melbourne last month. He was represented by the Christian legal group, the Human Rights Law Alliance. They did a terrific job, but the case continues. Here is what Sandy Fuller of the HRLA said about things so far:
After almost five years of suspension from practice, we are finally able to give you an update on the Medical Board of Australia (Victoria) vs Dr Jereth Kok, the devoted family GP. Last week, Dr Kok had his day in court when the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard allegations of misconduct brought by the Medical Board about Jereth’s internet posts dated between 2010 and 2021. For Jereth, his family, and supporters, this was the first chance for him to defend his right to speak publicly and freely about his personal religious and political convictions.
Dr Kok’s lead barrister, Stephen Moloney, said in his opening statement, “This is probably one of the most important cases that has ever been put to the Tribunal in the last 30 years. It goes to the democratic right of any practitioner in the State of Victoria to speak about matters of conscience, religion, and medical practice in the public square.” He added, “This is not about whether Dr Kok has practised medicine safely and effectively. This is about what he has said in the public square.”
HRLA is proud to represent Jereth in this continuing defence of his right to practice medicine and to exercise his freedom of speech. This important case was heard by a panel of three Tribunal members including two doctors. Evidence was given by the Medical Board, Dr Jereth Kok and five expert witnesses on topics such as:
- The rights of doctors to oppose abortion;
- The appropriateness of speaking about conscientious issues relating to vaccinations and the use of cells sourced from aborted babies;
- The rights of doctors to speak about transgender ideology and LGBTQ+ politics; and
- The boundaries of the role of a medical regulator to police personal religious and political positions on the internet.
Jereth conceded that, on reflection, he used inappropriate language in some of his internet posts and he will avoid such words in the future. However, he maintained that he should have freedom to speak publicly on issues that are important to him and rejected the assertion that his posts might undermine confidence in the health profession.
Mr. Moloney said to the Tribunal, “what is not conceded is the democratic right of Doctor Kok and any other doctor to stand in the public square and express their opinions on abortion, on gender dysphoria, on gender identity, on multiculturalism, on the pandemic and the regulations as to the pandemic, on the vaccination. The possession of registration under the national law does not stop a doctor from speaking on those topics.”
On behalf of Dr Kok, thank you for your generous support to get his legal challenge this far. We have been able to engage the best possible legal minds for the legal challenge, but it is not finished yet.
We are now preparing for the SECOND PHASE of the case; the opportunity for both parties to give their closing submissions to the tribunal, in mid-October. The second phase of Dr Kok’s case, even with pro-bono and discounted fees, is expected to reach $110,000. Can you please consider contributing to this second and critical phase of Jereth’s legal challenge? We would be very grateful for your continued generosity. Donations can be made via GiveSendGo.
If you go to that Christian crowd-funding page you will see that nearly $200,000 has been raised for his case, but more is needed. While HRLA often offers free legal help or discounted rates, they still have many costs to bear, and it is not cheap to offer expert professional legal assistance. So please consider giving to this important cause.
My connection
So why write so much about this one doctor? There are of course others in a similar position. But it should be obvious to any fair-minded person that this was a case of gross injustice, censorship, persecution and an assault on free speech, among other things. If a doctor in his spare time can lose his job for discussing vital issues of the day on his own social media page, then none of us are safe.
However, there is a more specific and relevant reason why I have a keen interest in this case. His “objectionable” personal opinions were not only found on his Facebook page but on my website. He had made a number of comments over the years on various articles of mine, whether on marriage, or pro-life issues or human sexuality.
So indirectly at least I have been dragged into this witch-hunt. Those seeking to destroy the career of Jereth even used forensic IT investigators from an auditing and advisory firm to trawl through my website! So they spent countless hours and countless dollars carefully scrutinising my whole site to find any “incriminating” evidence they could use against Jereth.
One document they made available to Jereth said this in part:
We have examined the relevant website and identified that the website contains 239 pages with each page containing 20 articles. We will need to preserve these and then examine for comments made by Dr Kok. We will then screenshot any relevant posts and compile into a report. This will also be undertaken on the relevant racebook pages. We estimate this to take 12.15 hours of time which will equate to $4800 — $6000 (ex GST) in fees.
Those in the know about all this have said this was likely a big underestimate of all the money that was finally charged by these guys to get the dope on me. Hey, it woulda been cheaper if they just asked me! But I am glad at least a few of these super-sleuths were exposed to a whole lotta truth as they went through all these pages of CultureWatch.
But still, this is scary stuff, isn’t it? Why are we reminded of what the Stasi did to innocent civilians in Communist East Germany, or what the Nazis did, or what any totalitarian society does? You will NOT be allowed to have any opinions that conflict with the powers that be, and if you dare to express them you will be punished. Thinking your own thoughts is now VERBOTEN! Shut up and go along with your masters’ dictates, or else.
Years ago when we read dystopian novels like Nineteen Eighty-Four we never imagined that the West would so quickly start to resemble all the horrific scenes found in these books. One quote from his 1949 classic is worth presenting here:
“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power”
Sure, the State is not yet resorting to torture and the like to quell dissent and to enforce its grey uniformity. But having the power to destroy people’s careers at the drop of a hat and turn you into a social pariah and public enemy No. 1 is getting pretty close to that. It is just as effective.
When a much-loved Christian doctor who spent years in training so that he could help others can be booted out of his career simply for having non-woke opinions, then the horrors of Nineteen Eighty-Four are now just about fully upon us.
Brief interview with Jereth
I just asked Jereth a few quick questions, and here are his answers:
Are you confident about the outcome of this case? Are there any grounds for optimism – or pessimism – at this point?
It’s hard for me to know at this stage. The legal arguments from both sides still have to be written and submitted in October. I am cautiously hopeful that some of the Medical Board’s flawed and false allegations will be thrown out: for example, that I promoted “genocide” by leaving a comment on your “Aid Money Means Killing Money” article. At the July hearing, the Medical Board’s barrister effectively admitted that they had misconstrued the meaning of that and several other comments.
IF you end up with a win, a successful outcome, and the medical authorities allowed it, would you go back to your former work as a GP?
Another hard question to answer. I have a new job which I enjoy, and where I have built relationships. There will be many administrative hoops to jump through to return to medical practice, and after 5 years all my patients will have found new doctors and I would have to start totally from scratch. I expect that my social media would be under close surveillance for the rest of my career, which would be unbearable.
If you win, would they be up for financial compensation? Should they be liable? Maybe backpay for five years of lost income?
As far as I know, there is no mechanism by which I would be able to claim financial compensation. It is possible that I might be able to get a limited apology: for example, for being inaccurately accused of promoting genocide, and for being kept in legal limbo for 5 years. Personally, I think it would be nice if my legal costs were reimbursed, but I don’t believe that is likely to happen.
Many thanks for that Jereth. Please keep praying for him and his HRLA team. And please keep contributing to his important and much-needed legal defence.
