Senators Warned — Chuck Predicts Embarrassment For Opposition Members If They Vote For CCJ

The par­lia­men­tary Opposition has ratch­eted up its resis­tance to the Government’s push to have the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) installed as the nation’s final appel­late court, declar­ing yes­ter­day that it is pre­pared to mount a con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom.

And if that fails, Delroy Chuck, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on jus­tice, has warned that the par­ty would “use a sim­ply major­i­ty of Parliament” to ditch the CCJ if it wins State pow­er in the next gen­er­al elections.

“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,” Chuck vowed yes­ter­day dur­ing a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Council One meet­ing in St Andrew.

Chuck, who is also an attor­ney, warned that if any JLP sen­a­tor broke ranks and vot­ed with their gov­ern­ment coun­ter­parts, they are going to be embarrassed.

“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 cautioned.

“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,” he said.

Members of the House of Representatives have already vot­ed by a two-thirds major­i­ty to pass three bills that are aimed at hav­ing the CCJ replace the Privy Council as the coun­try’s final appel­late court. The bills are now being debat­ed in the Senate and will need the vote of at least one oppo­si­tion sen­a­tor and all 13 gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors for them to be passed.

But, accord­ing to Chuck, the JLP’s pend­ing legal chal­lenge is based on the view that the bills “do not sit well with the Jamaican Constitution”. He pre­dict­ed that none of the eight oppo­si­tion sen­a­tors would vote in favour of them.

However, for­mer Justice Minister K.D. Knight dis­agreed, argu­ing that the move to have the CCJ entrenched through a two-thirds major­i­ty would sat­is­fy the scheme of the Constitution as well as a pre­vi­ous Privy Council rul­ing on the issue.

Knight, who is an attor­ney-at-law, also took aim at calls by the par­lia­men­tary Opposition for a ref­er­en­dum that would make the CCJ deeply entrenched in the Constitution.

“This request for it to be deeply entrenched real­ly has nei­ther a log­i­cal foun­da­tion nor a legal one,” he told The Gleaner yesterday.

Opposition Senator Arthur Williams, who many believe is like­ly to break ranks and vote in favour of the bills, said yes­ter­day that his col­league’s com­ments would have no bear­ing on how he votes.

Knight also chimed in say­ing Chuck’s asser­tion “does not have the log­i­cal force that would cause any­body to change an opinion”.

With JLP del­e­gates urg­ing him on, Chuck also made it clear that if the JLP’s legal chal­lenge to the CCJ bills was unsuc­cess­ful, that would not be the end of the issue.

“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,” he emphasised.

“Mek all the con­sti­tu­tion­al lawyers in Jamaica tell us we can’t do it. I, as one con­sti­tu­tion­al lawyer, say we can do it and we will do it,” he insisted.
Story orig­i­nat­ed here : Senators Warned — Chuck Predicts Embarrassment For Opposition Members If They Vote For CCJ