PM, Chuck tangle with Golding as amended SOE law passed
Published:Wednesday | October 27, 2021 | 4:13 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The amended Emergency Powers Act 2021 will go to the Senate for approval after passing muster in the House of Representatives on Tuesday despite Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s strong objections to the wording of a section of the legislation.
However, Prime Minister Andrew Holness vigorously defended the effectiveness of states of emergency (SOEs) in reining in crime, insisting that “we can’t be tiptoeing around the legal issues and the niceties”.
Golding also called into question the constitutionality of the law, at one point describing it as “premature and presumptuous” and likening it to the ill-fated original National Identification System (NIDS) bill that was declared null and void by the court.
The opposition leader expressed concern that the Government had brought the bill to Parliament at the time when the constitutionality of the detention of five men under SOEs had been challenged in the courts. The Government has appealed the ruling.
Pushing through with the amendment, said Golding, showed a lack of respect for the separation of powers and the role of the judiciary as guardians of the Constitution.
“The matter of the constitutionality of the use of states of emergency as a crime-fighting tool is fundamentally intertwined with the regulations made under the Emergency Powers Act and that is squarely before the courts at this time,” Golding, who is an attorney-at-law, told colleague lawmakers.
“Parliament should first see what the Court of Appeal has to say about this important matter and, indeed, what the Constitutional Court has to say about in the other case I referred to.”
Golding further argued that the use of ‘public disaster’, as a blanket term to also include periods of public emergency, was too broad. He preferred for both terms to be specified in the legislation.
In response, Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck suggested that much of Golding’s argument was not relevant to the amendment.
“You have completely misinterpreted the case of Douglas that Justice Bertram Morrison emphatically said that he cannot rule on the constitutionality of the state emergency because only a tribunal of three can consider the consider the constitutionality … . You are wrong on both counts,” said Chuck.
When Chuck asked for the bill to be read a second time, Golding signalled his intention to object, at which point Holness intervened. The opposition leader rose on a point of order and accused the prime minister of mischaracterising his statement.
Holness, however, defended the use of the SOEs, declaring that the country was in the grips of a crime epidemic. He said that even if SOEs were imperfect tools, they had accounted for a significant reduction in murders.
“The SOEs have saved lives and there is not a person who has died whose death could be attributed to the implementation of the SOEs. Not one!” he said.
The prime minister continued: “The duty of the Government is to protect the citizens of this country and someone has to stand up and say the victims count, the victims matter, and that we must move with speed and alacrity to put in place the legislative framework to enable our security forces to bring this murder pandemic under control at some time.”