Home Affairs Minister Dr. Virginia Albert-Poyotte has expressed concern over the number of Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) inmates on remand awaiting closure of their cases in court.
“We have over three hundred, about three hundred and forty-one inmates at Bordelais who are on remand. They haven’t had their day in court to decide their fate,” the Babonneau MP told parliament on Tuesday.
“I understood there is one inmate who has appeared before the court for thirty times and he has not had a judgement,” she disclosed.
The Minister’s remarks came during the debate on the constitutional amendment to make the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Saint Lucia’s final appellate body, ditching the London-based Privy Council.
She declared that accession to the CCJ would see the wheels of justice turning faster.
In addition, Albert-Poyotte declared that the move to the CCJ was part of the decolonisation process.
She noted that Saint Lucia sought independence, a process rather than a one-day affair.
“We are looking for our own court of justice to ensure our people get their rights – their rights are protected, this is what we are speaking to,” the Minister told the House of Assembly.
Albert-Poyotte asserted that the CCJ is for the ordinary man to access justice in this country without the expense of taking their case before the London-based Privy Council.
She explained that the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) government was promoting everyone’s rights, regardless of financial status, colour, class, religion or creed.
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The courts systems you inherited. Nothing meaningful has been done in 18 months. In Vieux Fort going to be a year no trials can be heard. Are we to blame the Former PM. Guys on bail commit more offences cause their day in court is so far away. Victims are less likely to follow through. Instead you go spending millions on one man. When those millions can fix the potholes, the justice system, buy the equipment so elective surgery can be done at St. JUDE. And we call ourselves intelligent. Not even a blind man can see what the colours have divided the country.
Time will tell whether the move to the CCJ is good or bad. I understand there are several benefits to our alignment with the CCJ but can they be trusted. Personally, I trust the Privy Council to hand down fairer judgements,for many of our justices have proven time and time again to be incompetent, politically tainted or out right, corrupt. Were it not for the Privy Council, a Jamaican police officer would have been languishing in prison for the alleged killing of his girlfriend. Our Judges missed critical facts in this case; such as the size of the washroom where the deceased female was found was too small to allow the suspect sufficient time to stage the scene, get rid of all critical evidence and rush out to his mother in law less than a minute after the explosion was heard. The judges failed to acknowledge that the female committed suicide, despite all the evidence to the contrary. In the end it took the Privy Council to set the record straight. This is only one of a string of bad judgments delivered by some of our judges. So how can we trust them when in some instances, based on the judge who delivered the previous decision, an appeal judge would never contradict, no matter how flawed the decision.
I have always argued that justice in our parts of the world is for those with money and as long as it remains that way, we as a people will never be FREE no matter how far we go from our colonial masters and the Privy Council. For example, if Allan Chastanet was poor, he wouldn’t have had the capacity to get justice in the case involving he and the house speaker. This shouldn’t be but unfortunately, is what we are forced to settle for as JUSTICE.
Everyone (désert) a ‘last’chance ,even the criminale on the cross had déserved a last chance ❗
The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power ;in his justice ⚖️and great righteousness’,he does oppress…
but call everyone to repentance…
Therefore,men revere him, for he has regard for those who are concrite in 🖤 heart…
If his soul draws near to the pit and his life to the messangers of death
“Yet if there is an angel on his side as a médiator ;one out of a thousand,to tell him what is right for him ,to be gracias to him and say,
‘Spare him from going down the Galloway’
Then he prays to God and finds favor with him ;he sees God’s face and shouts for joy…
He comes to men and says,
‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved.
He redeemed my soul from going the Galloway’ and I will live and enjoy the light.’
GOD does all things to man_
twice,even three times_
to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him ‼️
The Privy council is a white mans court and is criminal Defence court ,The CCJ is the way to go and need to get away from this colonial court .
In my opinion if someone appears before a judge or magistrate for 30 times and no resolution to the matter, that is pure abuse of power, incompetence on the police part, more so the judge and magistrate is also supporting the investigator for their sloppy work. mary francis needs to do more charitable work for these remanded individuals.