Opposition files suits over protracted SOEs, St Catherine evictions

Jamaica’s parliamentary Opposition has filed a lawsuit in the High Court challenging the legality of the Government’s repeated use of states of emergency (SOEs) as a routine crime-fighting tool.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding disclosed, too, that his People’s National Party (PNP) has filed another lawsuit in the Supreme Court on behalf of 65 families in Pleasant Hill, Lluidas Vale, St Catherine, who were served with eviction notices last October.

The PNP is also “well advanced” in the preparation of a claim to be filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of residents who lived on lands on the outskirts of Clifton, St Catherine, whose homes were demolished by the State last October, Golding revealed.

“The Opposition will continue to be vigilant when it comes to the hard-won rights of the people,” he said during his contribution to the 2023-2024 Budget Debate in Parliament on Tuesday.

Hours before Golding disclosed his party’s legal challenge to the Government’s use of SOEs, the Office of the Prime Minister announced that two more had been imposed in Clarendon and St James.

Between January 1 and March 11 this year, the police say 21 murders were recorded in Clarendon, a 91 per cent year-on-year increase, and 36 in St James, a 20 per cent year-on-year decline.

Separate SOEs imposed in several parishes weeks apart last December were allowed to expire after the initial 14-day period, without any attempt to have them extended by the Jamaican Parliament.

The repeated use of SOEs by the Andrew Holness-led administration began in January 2017 to help tackle runaway murders and other serious crimes.

“We will use this tool as long as there is a threat to life and property and communities ... on so extensive a scale that it will deprive citizens of their rights and freedoms and the situation is over and above the capacity of our regular law enforcement,” Holness, the prime minister, said during a news conference last December.

The PNP initially supported the use of the emergency measure which suspends citizens’ rights, but in recent months, voted against several extensions.

Golding said the PNP’s lawsuit seeks a declaration that the manner in which the Holness administration has been using SOEs violates the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and was, therefore, unconstitutional.

“I advised the public [last December] that this was such a significant matter to the future of the country that we’ll be seeking the guidance of the court on it. Well, in the public interest, an action has now been filed,” he said.

He disclosed, too, that the families occupying State-owned lands in Pleasant Hill and Providence districts in Lluidas Vale have been shielded from any action until that lawsuit is settled.

According to Golding, the lands were purchased for the residents by the Michael Manley-led Government in the early 1970s.

But he said they were “unceremoniously” served with notices to vacate their homes.

The notices, which were issued by the National Land Agency on October 6 last year, gave the residents until December 6 to vacate the lands or face forceful removal. Only some of the more than 100 occupants were served.

“When our lawyers were not provided with clear and firm assurances that we requested of the Government, an action was filed on their behalf in the Supreme Court,” Golding said.

“I am advised that an interim injunction has been granted by the Supreme Court to prevent any action being taken against those residents until the matter is finally determined by the court,” Golding said.

In October last year, several informal settlements on the outskirts of Clifton were demolished by the State.

Holness, in announcing the planned demolition in Parliament, said a criminal gang had captured land there and was fraudulently reselling it in parcels.

Sue-lyn Ward-Brown, a school principal, has since been arrested and charged with several fraud-related crimes arising from the allegations.

But Golding signalled that the Opposition will be going to court to seek compensation for the “vulnerable” families subjected to the demolition “in what can only be described as the most cruel and inhumane acts by agents of the State”.

That effort, he said, is well advanced.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com