Judicial tyranny! - Church group weary of judges' liberal views on buggery
Published:Friday | May 18, 2018 | 12:00 AMRomario Scott/Gleaner Writer
A conservative Christian group has issued a warning to bleeding-heart judges in Jamaica that they would not sit by and allow them to impose their world views in sensitive cases without being called out.
The warning comes against the background of two court rulings, to date, that have struck down the controversial buggery law in the Caribbean. Conservative groups fear that Jamaica could be the next battleground for the next hearing of the constitutional challenge.
But The Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, through its controversial chairman, Dr Wayne West, is weary of the liberal wave and has contended that the buggery law is being struck down through judicial activism.
QUESTIONABLE LAWYERS
Speaking during a forum on the issue at the St Andrew High School for Girls on Thursday, West said that the war being waged against the buggery law was being carried out by a network of questionable lawyers and legal luminaries.
"We are witnessing the advance of a political ideology through the courts because of judicial activism, and, in fact, judicial tyranny," West said. "That is why we in the Caribbean, starting in Jamaica, should knock heads on how we preserve the important role that judges play but take into account that judges are not independent and neutral persons," he charged.
West's comments followed an alarming claim by noted attorney Wendell Wilkins that judges are being influenced by North American and European liberals.
"They say that these are democratic societies [where] people are free to have same-sex intimacy as part of a 'free and democratic society'. What is happening is that the judges are being influenced by external factors that prevail in Europe and North America," Wilkins posited.
"Therefore, they are importing alien and foreign principles that prevail in these countries into our local jurisprudence and say that in a free and democratic society, they cannot have laws that say same sex [and] anal intimacy is a criminal offence," the attorney said.
However, West has vowed not to leave the issue hanging and has made it clear that the group would be moving full speed ahead with raising the issue in the public for it to be addressed.
"We need to recognise that judges are like politicians. They come with ideology," argued West. "The question is, how do we orgainse our political system in order to allow, entertain, account, or compensate for the fact that particular judges are going to rule a particular way, consistent with their ideology?" he said.