Thanks to all for your supportive and encouraging replies. For those who don't know, we have a legal entity called the Colour Vision Defective Pilots Association (CVDPA)which was set up primarily to act as a focal point for CVD pilots, would-be pilots and others who would want to support the cause. As an entity, we collected about $80,000 from all sources. However, the vast bulk of that has been spent supporting the legal fees for John O'Brien's appeal to the AAT. The money spent made it possible for John's appeal to even happen, and for the successful outcome to become a reality. John is now going ahead in leaps and bounds towards the dream of being an airline captain. While the outcome was a success, it isn't the end-point of the project, just a very big advance towards the ultimate goal. That goal is to end the immoral and unscientific discrimination against a particular group that has a trivial variance from what is considered "normal". In aiming for that goal, we seek to hold CASA accountable for its flawed logic, its misrepresentation of evidence and its flagrant disregard for the law of this country.
The fact that we can even try to achieve these goals is a great reflection on our legal system. In no other country in the world is there the opportunity available to challenge the blind bureaucracy that is behind the Aviation Colour Perception Standard (ACPS). We are unique in our access to independent and expert review of bureaucratic decisions, and that is the full explanation of why the Aussie version of the ACPS has led the world on the topic, at least until June 2014, when the "Empire" struck back.
Whatever money is or was raised, serves solely to finance legal challenges. No one takes any payments for services. There are small outgoings for accounting services and for court related witness expenses. I personally keep the records for the CVDPA, and those records are supervised by an independent accounting firm in Geelong. All financial records are available to subscribers upon request.
As discussed in an earlier post, our current target is to raise about $200,000 to enable the CVDPA to support a challenge to the lawfulness of the CAD test, under Australian law. It is vital that we raise the bulk of the money before we can engage lawyers to do the detailed preparation for taking this challenge to the Federal Court of Australia. If the appeal fails to reach its target, meaning the case can't go ahead, refunds will be made available to the original donors.
At the CVDPA website (
www.cvdpa.com) individuals or groups can contribute by subscription or by donation and there are a number of means available to make the transactions happen.
You will understand that it is probably unwise to discuss legal strategies in detail in a forum such as this one, but very easily done through a subscription website such as the one the CVDPA has.
Keeping in mind what I have indicated earlier, the donation of $200 by only a thousand pilots would achieve our goal, but that doesn't confine any donor to that amount. All donations, large and small will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Arthur Pape