By Robert Hart, Parliamentary ReporterTHE FIRST of three Bills related to the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was approved during yesterday's sitting of the Senate after a marathon six-hour debate and an Opposition walkout at Gordon House.
The walkout was spurred when Government Senator Delano Franklyn, the sixth speaker in the debate on the CCJ (Constitutional Amendment) Bill, questioned the rationale of the participation of a constitutional lawyer, whom he did not name, on the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC).
The RJLSC is responsible for the selection of judges for the CCJ, and the Bill being debated provides for the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council.
OTHER TWO BILLS
But yesterday Senator Dwight Nelson, one of three Opposition members in the Chamber at the time of the walkout, told The Gleaner that he could not say if the Opposition would participate in the debate on the other two Bills as scheduled for today.
"We think the debate was going well since this morning (Thursday). For Senator Franklyn to now relegate the discussions to aggression, personal attacks and character assassination is unacceptable. It's disgusting," Senator Nelson said.
Dr. Carolyn Gomes, executive director of human rights lobby group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), was in the gallery and expressed her own disgust at the turn of events. "I think that what was done by Senator Franklyn was extremely undesirable," she said. "Parliamentary privilege was used to impute someone's integrity."
At the same time Attorney-General Senator A.J. Nicholson, who piloted the Bill, told The Gleaner that the walkout was "quite unfortunate, but not unexpected."
Senator Franklyn's reference to statements made by the constitutional lawyer, of "an origin very close to this (Gordon House) Chamber," was an apparent slap at Dr. Lloyd Barnett who was last year selected to the RJLSC. Dr. Barnett, a former Senator, also has been critical of proposals for the CCJ and the lawyer for several individuals and groups (including the JFJ) still challenging the constitutionality of the CCJ in the courts.
"I would have thought that a person with such strong views on the CCJ would have taken a principled and professional position not to be associated with the process," Senator Franklyn said.
Leader of Opposition Business Senator Anthony Johnson then interrupted the Government Senator on a point of order, accusing him of playing dirty politics. "We are hearing a discourse attacking the character of a person who is unable to defend himself or herself," Senator Johnson barked. "I don't know who the person is, but I do not think that it is the place where we have been discussing this matter in terms of the ideas, the philosophies, the principles and above all the history."
He added that the debate should not be aimed at quoting individuals and using statements they may have made to "lay claim that they are accepting jobs and so forth and so on."
A seething Senator Johnson said: "That is the kind of dirty politics that people look down upon politicians for."
In the ensuing furore, the Opposition members walked out of the Chamber, leaving Senator Franklyn to look across at an empty Opposition bench, and the Government Senators to pass the Bill with three amendments and 13 affirmative votes.
