Montague suggests broad-based commission on CCJ Bills
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Opposition Senator Robert Montague has suggested a broad-based commission, co-chaired by former prime ministers Edward Seaga and PJ Patterson, to resolve the political stalemate over the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Bills.
Montague told the Senate on Friday that the commission, which should also include representatives from all political parties, academia, the trade unions, civil society, the church, the legal fraternity and other stakeholders, should be allowed to sit for a year to sort out the issues, answer all the questions and lay out a public education campaign leading up to a non-binding referendum.
Montague, who is also chairman of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), said the party, if assuming government after the next general election, would cooperate with the ruling People’s National party (PNP), in holding a referendum to make the people decide the issue.
Montague was making his contribution to the debate on three Bills, tabled in Parliament by the Government in 2013 and already passed in the House of Representatives, proposing to replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London with the regional court, the CCJ, as Jamaica’s final appellate court.
Balford Henry