I listened to the video yesterday and I must say... looks like the court is scared of impeding over religious freedom. Yes, religious freedom is very important, but to the extent that they can deliberately keep silent about pedophiles? Really?
To me, the clergy rule works only in the context of how it is applied by the Catholics. A pedophile goes to see a priest in the secret of confession and gets advices from the priest who will not retaliate and won’t share the story with anyone, including other priests. This procedure is meant to provide spiritual guidance to someone that, otherwise, would have none. Without this guaranty of absolute secrecy, the sinner/criminal will never confess and will loose on the opportunity of receiving valuable advices. It’s similar to a shrink. In fact, most priest actually go through university studies, crossing over into psychology, specifically for this purpose.
Jehovah's Witnesses is not about this concept. People who confess to an elder will land in a judicial committee. Along the way, details of the confession will be shared with various stakeholders. In this context, what is the incentive for a criminal/sinner to confess? Considering he will have religious consequences, why not add legal as well? This scenario should not be protected. However, the court seems to be afraid of defining the limits of the proper scenarios and I would not be surprised to find that this will go nowhere.
If the JWs win this particular battle, politicians will need to pass laws that are more precise.