JLP Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte suspended over Privy Council letter issue
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Senate today suspended Opposition senator, Marlene Malahoo Forte, for failing to produce a copy of the letter from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), which in 2010 offered to sit in Jamaica on certain conditions.
The suspension was carried by the government majority, while Senator Malahoo Forte and two of her colleagues sat in the lounge at Gordon House, having lunch.
Leader of Opposition Business, Senator Tom Tavares Finson, who had returned to the chamber from the lounge in time for the adjournment, pointed out that she had not been given a chance to explain her failure to deliver the letter, but he was ignored by the President of the Senate, Floyd Morris.
It was unclear why the letter was not delivered to the President, as Senator Malahoo Forte had confirmed to OBSERVER ONLINE that she had the letter and would be presenting it to Senator Morris.
OBSERVER ONLINE confirmed that it was the same letter which had informed Wednesdays lead story in the newspaper, indicating that the JCPC was willing to serve as an itinerant court in 2010, if accommodated by the Jamaican Government.
Senator Morris told the Senate that he had sent the marshall, Kevin Williams, to inform Senator Malahoo Forte that he was about to adjourn the sitting, and that he needed the letter. He said that the senator told the marshall to inform him that he should go ahead and adjourn the sitting, as she had already given a commitment to provide him with a copy of the letter. But, Senator Morris said that was not good enough.
“I am not going to be accepting that from the member,” he told the Senate.
“I believe it is disrespectful. I believe that it is contemptuous…I am certain if that behaviour was conducted in the court, the individual would be cited,” he said, in reference to the fact that Senator Malahoo Forte is an attorney-at-law.
He then asked Leader of the Senate, A J Nicholson, to move the motion for her suspension. Senator Nicholson moved that she be suspended until she produces the letter. The motion was approved.
However, Senator Tavares Finson insisted that she should not be suspended without being given a chance to explain why the Senate had not received the letter.
But, his argument was drowned out, as the senators left the chamber.
Balford Henry
