CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Barbados
Rastafarians in Barbados will soon
be permitted to use cannabis for sacramental
purposes.
Attorney General,
Dale Marshall made
the announcement in
Parliament during the
debate on the medical
cannabis Bill (2019).
Marshall admitted change have to
be made to the way Government treats
religious use of cannabis considering it
does not fall into the category of recreational
or medicinal
He also pointed to the legal precedent
based on cases it was an infringement
on the constitution rights of Rastafarians
to criminalize them for using
cannabis.
Marshall said the Bill is being drafted
and should be presented in Parliament
in the coming weeks.
Members of the Divine Order of the
Nyabinghi Theocracy Reign recently
delivered a position paper to Prime Minister,
Mia Mottley calling for government
to pass legislation to address their
religious use of cannabis.
Cayman Islands
Citizens of the Cayman Islands are
being urged to exercise their right to
vote in a referendum scheduled for
December 19, on the controversial
cruise port project.
Governor Martyn
Roper, who says the
poll will be a “historic
moment” for this British
overseas territory
expressed confidence that this will continue
the territory’s track record of
holding “free and fair” elections and
referendums.
Roper said a large turnout of voters
would be good for democracy.
The nature of the referendum rules,
outlined in the Constitution and the bill
for the poll, which was debated in the
Legislative Assembly recently, means
that more than half of Cayman’s registered
voters must turn out and vote
against the project for it to be halted.
Those who don’t show up at the polls
will effectively be counted as a vote in
favor of the cruise port.
The Governor said come countries
make it compulsory to vote, seeing it as
a civic duty, but the Cayman and the UK
do not adopt that practice.
Grenada
The Director of Public Prosecution
(DPP) office has advised the police to
appeal a case in which a magistrate
ordered a church elder to pay a fiveyear
old child EC$600 after pleading
guilty to sexually molesting the child.
Magistrate Nevlyn John, presiding
in the Grenville Magistrate’s court also
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216th anniversary of Battle of Vertieres in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. See story on Page 38.
fined Trevorsen Roberts
EC$1,500.
The ruling angered
child rights advocates
and others, who
expressed disbelief and shock over the
sentences given the increasing number
of child sexual abuse matters before the
courts.
DPP Christopher Nelson said he had
instructed the commissioner of police
to file an appeal.
He noted that indecent assault as a
criminal matter is not covered in the
new sentencing guidelines developed by
the courts in the Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States (OECS).
The new guidelines went into effect
on Oct. 1, 2019.
According to the Criminal Code, a
person who indecently assaults another
person commits an offence and is liable
on summary conviction to a term of
imprisonment not exceeding five years.
If the matter is heard as an indictable
offence, the maximum term of imprison
should exceed 10 years.
Caribbean L 4 ife, NOVEMBER 22-28, 2019 B
Guyana
The second annual Guyana Petroleum
Business summit (Gipex) summit
will be held in the South American
country later this month, as the country
prepares for oil production in the
first quarter of 2020.
The event, scheduled
for Nov. 20-22,
is aimed at promoting
the country’s up
and coming petroleum
sector.
Director of the Department of Energy,
Dr. Mark Bynoe, stated that Gipex
provides the opportunity to establish
“partnerships, alliances, associations
and joint ventures.”
He said this is an exciting time
because as the country seeks “foreign
direct investment that can both expand
job opportunities, investment opportunities
and further economic growth
for our country, we continue to seek
to ensure that the private sector is
integrally involved in everything that
we do.”
Bynoe said GIPEX 2019 will be an
Associated Press / Dieu Nalio Chery
event that has accommodation not only
for international partners but also for
partners from the region and nationally.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia Police Commissioner, Severin
Moncherry said while he is not
calling the judgement of the courts
into question, he believes the judiciary
also has a role to play in combatting the
crime problem in St. Lucia.
Speaking on a radio
program in Castries,
Moncherry said while
in the past few weeks,
police had been successful
in taking several firearms off
the streets, the battle against crime
must be approached holistically.
“The police can do all they do but
if we don’t have the support of other
agencies and other unites in the criminal
justice system, it makes very little
sense. We must have the support of the
judiciary,” he said.
The top cop also expressed concern
Continued on Page 24
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