KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Senate is scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday at Gordon House, to continue debate on the three Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Bills.

However, when the debate resumes and how it will proceed may depend on the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate’s Privileges Committee.

The debate has been halted since the suspension of Opposition member, Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte on October 23, for failing to hand over a copy of a 2010 letter from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) to the Government of Jamaica, offering to sit in Jamaica.

The Privileges Committee is discussing a motion brought to the Senate last Friday by Opposition member, Senator Arthur Williams, which seeks to determine a number of issues, including the entitlement of a member to cite documents, which are not before the Senate.

Senator Williams’ motion also questioned: Whether there is a convention of the Jamaican Parliament that the presiding officer has the authority to direct members, who are not ministers, to hand over documents from which they have cited; whether the Standing Orders of the Senate contain any provision dealing with contempt shown by a member to the president; and whether, if a senator gives an undertaking or promises to hand over such document and does not, that amounts to contempt within the meaning of the word as used within the Westminster system.

Deputy President of the Senate Angela Brown Burke moved an amendment to Senator Williams’ motion, which argued that the Senate should condemn the portrayal in the public domain “by some Opposition Senators” of the final stages of the circumstances which led to the Senator’s suspension. The amendment was approved by the Government majority on Friday and is included in the motion being debated.

The Senate had been debating three CCJ Bills seeking to replace the JCPC with the CCJ, as Jamaica’s final appellate court when the suspension occurred.

Balford Henry