Jamaica Should Vote “NO” On CCJ

Speaking at a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Council One meet­ing in St Andrew Opposition spokesper­son on jus­tice Delroy Chuck cau­tioned oppo­si­tion sen­a­tors against embar­rass­ing them­selves by sup­port­ing the Simpson Miller Administration in mak­ing the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) the final court of appeals for Jamaica.

In address­ing the crowd of laborites Chuck said “If one, two, or eight [JLP] sen­a­tors make the error [and vote for the bills], not only would they be embar­rass­ing them­selves, but what they would do is cause the Labour Party to expend mon­ey to take these three bills to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, [and the] Privy Council,”.

Chuck argues fur­ther ‚“Let me make it even fur­ther clear. If one, two, or all eight of them go ahead and sup­port the bills, the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, the spokesper­son on jus­tice, and the Jamaica Labour Party will take those three bills to the Constitutional Court, right up to the Privy Council, to show that they are a mock­ery to the Jamaica Constitution,” “The only way the CCJ can be the final appel­late court is when we put it to the peo­ple and we say to the peo­ple ‘do you want the CCJ or you want a final Jamaican court’ and let the peo­ple of Jamaica make that decision,”.

I am no fan of Delroy Chuck but even a bro­ken clock is right twice dai­ly, the only way the CCJ should be rat­i­fied as the final court of appeal for Jamaica is to put it on the bal­lot and let the peo­ple decide. I have very lit­tle con­fi­dence in the abil­i­ty of the Jamaican elec­torate to make sound deci­sions but it is their coun­try they should own the decision.
I agree with Chuck on this and I have said so pre­vi­ous­ly it should be placed on the bal­lot so the peo­ple can own the decision.
I believe accept­ing the prison deal with Britain should also be a bal­lot issue. I know that some will be quick to remind us that lead­ers are elect­ed to lead . My response to that is that no one per­son or group of peo­ple has all the answers as such large deci­sions such as the Prison deal and the (CCJ) deci­sion should be the deci­sion of voters.

The Jamaicagleaner​.com is report­ing that one Jamaica Labor Party Senator is lean­ing toward sup­port­ing the Government motion>When asked about it Arthur Williams is report­ed to have said Chucks state­ments will have no impact on the way he will vote. Big sur­prise there [sic]
Delroy Chuck warned if the issue is passed the next JLP Administration would sim­ply reverse it.
If they put the CCJ in sec­tion 110 of the Constitution, the next JLP gov­ern­ment, which will be in pow­er lat­er this year or next year … when­ev­er the elec­tions are called, we are going to use a sim­ple major­i­ty to remove it,”

It is remark­able that the PNP would be seek­ing to push the CCJ on the Jamaican peo­ple in light of the con­di­tions of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem in the country.
One does not have to be a legal lumi­nary to rec­og­nize that what Jamaica should be work­ing on at this time is improv­ing the con­di­tions of court build­ings, upgrad­ing and invest­ing in equip­ment which will ensure bet­ter deliv­ery of ser­vice and most impor­tant­ly improv­ing the capa­bil­i­ties of the police so that a greater per­cent­age of crim­i­nals can be removed from the streets and placed where they belong.
I have not heard a mean­ing­ful argu­ment for the removal of the Privy Council as the final appel­late court beyond the one about sov­er­eign­ty and independence.
On that issue I say, look how well we have han­dled our affairs since our so-called independence[sic].

Since we have not heard any mean­ing­ful argu­ments for the CCJ beyond that, one is tempt­ed to ascribe sin­is­ter motives to the PNP’s push for it.
Less and less peo­ple have rea­sons to believe in the Government’s abil­i­ty to deliv­er fair and ade­quate jus­tice to them. One of the issues I have raised on this sub­ject is that part of the prob­lem with our sys­tem of jus­tice on the Island is that Prosecutors , Defense Lawyers and Judges all pret­ty much come from the same farm.
They are large­ly all part of the very same small club, from post­grad­u­ate to grad­u­ate stud­ies. Does any­one in their right mind believe phone calls are not made which have seri­ous impli­ca­tions on verdicts?

The CCJ which is based in Trinidad, does not have Trinidad as a mem­ber to date, that ought to say some­thing about the idea in and of itself.
Thus far only Barbados, Belize and Guyana retain the CCJ as their final court of appeals .
I am not sug­gest­ing by any mea­sure that the CCJ is cor­rupt or inca­pable. What I am say­ing is that for those with mal-intent it is much eas­i­er to get to, and I do not mean geographically.
Jamaica can­not afford to have any fur­ther ero­sion of trust in its abil­i­ty to deliv­er jus­tice to it’s cit­i­zens. The con­se­quences will be dire and far reach­ing if we go down this path.