HARASSMENT of people with physical or mental disabilities will become an offence under legislation currently being drafted. The Health and Welfare Branch will seek advice from the Executive Council this month on the scope of the legislation before the bill is drafted and tabled in the Legislative Council early next year. The Secretary for Health and Welfare, Elizabeth Wong Chien Chi-lien, consulted anti-discrimination concern groups on the legislation about two weeks ago. The legislation was sparked by protests against the setting up of facilities for recuperating mental patients in Lam Tin. Mrs Wong told the anti-discrimination groups that video-taping or taking photographs of disabled people would be considered harassment and punishable under law if evidence proved that the disabled were disturbed. Residents of Lam Tin's Laguna City have insisted that the Kwun Tong Amity Centre, which provides training for former mental patients, should be moved out of their Kwun Tong estate. They say the estate already has a mental patients' clinic and they fear their lives would be at risk if too many psychiatric patients went to the estate. Since the centre opened in mid-March, some residents have been waiting almost each morning for the coach taking clients to the centre to take pictures or videotapes of the former mental patients. Some residents say they want to identify the patients so they can keep away from them in the estate. At present there is no law to stop them taking pictures of the former mental patients. John Tse Wing-ling, from the Movement Against Discrimination, said he welcomed the legislation and urged the Government to enact the law quickly.
