Thanks everyone above for the above comments.
It truly was a benchmark moment. The EXJW community met with, and talked with, everyone they could on Monday at Parliament in Canberra, Australia. They drove the issue. They pushed the issue. They represented us all. They represented the children, all 1800 of them, and they let everyone know. They raised our concerns and gave the right answers and solutions... to the Australian Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, senators, politicians, CARC commissioners, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, media, dignitaries, lawyers, and other activists.
We personally met with and thanked Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister, for initiating the Child Abuse Royal Commission (CARC). We personally met with and thanked Justice Peter McClellan AM, commissioner for the CARC, for his worked. We personally met with and thanked commissioner, Justice Jennifer Coate, for her work with the CARC. Earlier we had personally thanked Angus Stewart SC for his work on Case Study 29 into Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In the lead up to the National Apology representatives of the EXJW community, Lara Kaput and Steven Unthank, had also met with officials over a six month period from all relevant Australian government departments and organisations, so as to highlight the systemic and systematic problems within the JWs and Watchtower. These were your concerns, that everyone had raised on the Jehovah’s Witness forum and the EXJW forum on Reddit.
We met, we talked, we presented, we workshopped, to every government department we could. They listened. We also traveled to the UK recently. We traveled throughout Europe, meeting after meeting. Both Lara and myself. Six months we worked tirelessly to bring this event together. We gave media interviews. We gave speeches. We gave presentations. Not only to Australian government officials and departments, but also to those departments in the UK and across Europe. We also contributed to investigations and actions in the USA.
During the National Apology on Monday (22 October 2018) at Parliament we also also gave media interviews from early morning to late afternoon. This was a flow on from the media engagements we had commenced the previous Friday.
We financed this ourselves over 10 years. We hope you, your family, and all the children withi the JW community benefit.
This is now our 11th year. Thanks everyone for your support.
You can follow our efforts through our dedicated website Say Sorry: https://saysorry.org/
Our pleasure and our gift to you,
Steven Unthank & Lara Kaput