THE consultants responsible for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposed Dolphin Cove facility in Hanover, have lost their bid to have the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) remove from its website what they claimed was a defamatory EIA review.

The company, Environmental Management Consultants (Caribbean) Limited (EMCC), as well as one of its principals, Ravidya Burrowes, earlier this year sued the JET for damages and sought an injunction for them to remove the EIA assessment from their website.

But in a July 31 decision, Justice Marva McIntosh refused to grant the injunction, ruling that EMCC had not satisfied the required legal standard. She said that they had failed to prove that the words used by the JET in its EIA assessment were defamatory and therefore, had no reasonable defence. McIntosh also ruled that they did not satisfy the court that JET was motivated by malice.

"This means that our EIA review remains on our website," said Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer (CEO) of JET in a press release. "This is an important case for civil society groups, who review EIAs as a service to the public and now apparently have to contend with potential legal action, if they make critical statements in the course of that review."

In response to the lawsuit brought against them, JET had also filed an application asking the court to determine whether the words used in the EIA review were "capable of being defamatory".

The judge in her ruling said the words used in the EIA were capable of being defamatory, but that that was for a trial to decide, making no judgments on the matter herself.

Attorneys representing the EMCC said they will now go ahead to trial.
In its review, the JET had objected to the establishment of another captive dolphin facility in the island, outlining certain concerns, including an obvious conflict of interest, whereby Burrowes - a senior member of the firm - was related by marriage to the owners of the proposed development.

The environmental lobby agency also questioned the establishment of a captive breeding programme, using wild-caught Caribbean dolphins, claiming that no research had been done to determine whether the forced removal of the animals from Caribbean waters would affect the survival of the species.

Earlier McCaulay had charged that the suit was nothing more than what is known as a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) designed to intimidate the civil group.

- Keril Wright

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/

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