CATEGORY:COMMENTARY
-------------------------


By Lloyd Noel, Attorney-at-law
Inside Grenada correspondent
November 10,2006


THOSE OF US who are saying that money is scarce in Grenada and people are catching their “nen-nen” to make ends meet - to provide the basic
necessities for their families - we may have to re-assess where we are coming from, and what priorities we are considering.

Alternatively, we clearly must come to the conclusion, that the powers-that-be are fooling the people when they say to them, inside and
outside the Parliament, that they do not have the funds for the most necessary facilities.

Yet the same people have to struggle and sacrifice to pay a three per cent levy, pay over eleven dollars a gallon for Petrol with more increases to
come, pay higher and higher prices for goods in the shops, borrow from Government to cover and fix back their leaking houses, or to start up their
over two years damaged little farm-holdings to try and earn a living - while the same Government is squandering money left, right, and centre - and
shamelessly doing so in the people’s name.

People are talking publicly all around the country-side about the hard times they are facing - and those that are not talking is because they
bawling out for sympathy and relief.

And whether they are NDC supporters, or GULP or PLM or NNP - it matters not, because the pressure has transcended political parties and all and sundry are feeling the heat.

And as if that level of hardship is not bad enough, and after all the wasted funds on Court Cases already on the books - here in Grenada and as
far away as the Privy Council in London - we are still being saddled with more and more court costs, because of the exploits of Government and its
Cabinet Legal Adviser and Advocate, Mr. Hugh Wildman. And according to him, the end is not yet in sight - because the Peter David matter is now going
before the full Court of Appeal, and if he fails there the way is now open to go all the way to the Privy Council with this matter.

Readers may recall, that after all the T/V debates and submissions,pertaining to the Parliamentary saga surrounding Peter David’s Canadian/Commonwealth Citizenship - the matter was then filed in the High
Court and actually heard in March this year.

At that hearing, the arguments from both sides, i.e. the Attorney General who brought the case, and the M.P. Peter David whose seat in Parliament was
being challenged - were centered around the objection by David, that the Court had no jurisdiction to hear or entertain the case.

The case was brought by an ordinary Claim Form that is usually used for Traffic Cases, or Land Cases, or Libel and Slander, and such like. But under our Constitution, when challenging anyone’s eligibility to be nominated and to contest a Seat in Parliament, or because he/she was not qualified to be elected as an M.P., or appointed as a Senator - there is a
Special Procedure laid down in the Constitution and by our Parliament.

In addition to the fact that Peter David qualifies as a Commonwealth Citizen, with Canadian Citizenship, the time for bringing a case after an
Election for whatever reason that time is limited to Twenty-one days.

Mr. Hugh Wildman, acting for the Attorney General, was trying to get around the time Limitation by using an ordinary Claim Form - rather than an
Election Petition.

His argument was that Peter David is sitting in Parliament illegally, because, according to him, Canada is a Foreign State or Power; and further,
that because the Constitution has been breached, he can come the Court by any other means - including a Claim Form.

His assumed ingenuity was that - by so coming to the Court, he can further Appeal to the Court of Appeal, and because it was not an Election Petition
per se, he can further Appeal to the Privy Council in London. The point being, that the Constitution lays down that in matters dealing with the
membership of Parliament - Lower or Upper House - there is no Appeal beyond the Court of Appeal.

The Defense team for Peter David, cited a number of cases to show that by whatever form one chooses to come to the Court for redress - in matters
dealing with the eligibility of membership of Parliament - the end result is going to be the same, and the method laid down in the Constitution and the
Law must be used. Strangely enough, Mr. Wildman could not, and did not cite a single case as precedent for his new method.

After about Six months deliberation, the Judge ruled that he had no jurisdiction to entertain a Fixed Date Claim Form, as the method for challenging the eligibility of an M.P. to sit in Parliament. He further ordered the Attorney General to pay Peter’s legal costs of $10,000.00 E.C.C.

Mr. Wildman filed two Notices of Appeal - one direct to the Court of Appeal and the other to the same High Court Judge for Leave to Appeal - because he (Wildman) argued, that the matter decided was not Final, but interlocutory, i.e. a preliminary stage that does not dispose of the matter before the Court.

The Defense team position was that the matter was Final, and that was that. But to show the Court that Mr. Wildman did not do his homework, or he did
not understand the Law as laid down in the Constitution - it was pointed out that under the same Section (37) of the Constitution, one can only Appeal a decision that is Final.

It must follow, therefore, that since Mr. Wildman was claiming that the Judge’s decision was only preliminary - he had no right of Appeal to any
Court. And the Judge ordered another losers cost of $1000.00 by the Attorney General to Peter David.

With money to splash about by Mr. Wildman - and no doubt with the approval of the Attorney General and the Government as a whole (Cabinet collective
responsibility) he filed another Appeal against Judge Benjamin’s decision, to throw out of court his Application for Leave to Appeal.

A Judge of the Court of Appeal, directed both sides to file their arguments in that Appeal - and last week Tuesday that Judge ruled, that the decision
of the High Court on the question of Jurisdiction was Final, and no leave was required to Appeal against it. The said Court of Appeal Judge further
ordered costs against the Attorney General in the sum of $2000.00 (costs to-date $13,000.00).

Mr. Wildman was on T/V boasting that he had won, and the Court of Appeal had overturned Justice Benjamin’s Ruling on the issue of Leave to Appeal. As one lay person put it to me after listening to Mr. Wildman’s outbursts on T/V - how can the Court of Appeal award costs against Wildman and the Attorney General, when they had won the case. I had no answer for that puzzle.

But to make bad matters even worse, the “wild one” said he has a bombshell for the Defense team, and he was sure we so worried we cannot sleep. Lord help us to survive!!

On a more serious note though - in these ‘groo-groo’ days where people catching so much hell for money, and the very Government that Wildman advising themselves moaning that things are so bad, and the growth in the Economy that was predicated to be above Six percent (6%) is now down to just
over one per cent - how can those guys/gals sit in Cabinet every Monday morning, and allow Wildman to go around squandering the people’s scarce funds?

I find it very hard to believe, that no one in that Cabinet team can see the folly in that costly pattern of behavior; and further more, that none
of their advisers, other than Wildman, are able to bring some measure of common sense to their attention - to help them open their eyes and their
minds, to face the reality of what is taking place in their names as their responsibility.

And now that the publication of the Cabinet members photos are on Billboards soon to be all over the Country - those persons cannot be heard to say later on down the road, that they were not involved and they did not know what was taking place.

But then again, because of the general carelessness about spending money, or not prudently managing the spending of the people’s money - I suppose those cats may be seeing nothing wrong in wasting those few thousands, and may even be thinking that distraction takes the spot light away from them
and puts it on Wildman as their adviser, and the Judiciary.

I see that the front walls of the Stadium, facing the River Road area, have already been re-painted as the scaffolding are still standing there. So
money being no problem, when the Government agents are squandering the borrowed sums on propaganda trivia, I suppose we will soon see the colour of
Gold or Cream, or whatever the original was, replaced by the new colour at the front of the building.

Moving away from our own backyard to look at the Region and further afield,I have noticed that the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in Trinidad
and Tobago have found that the complaint to that body, by the suspended Chief Justice Sat Sharma, was without merit and the Magistrate McNicolls has
been cleared of the alleged wrong doing. The Chief Justice’s Appeal to the Privy Council is still awaiting that Court’s decision.

And further afield in the embattled Middle East, the not un-expected decision of finding Saddam Guilty of Murder has been handed down.There will be some process of Appeals to whoever, and then the issue of
implementing the verdict of death by whatever means will be faced.The genocide already taking place in Iraq is sadly so terrible, executing Saddam will almost certainly make it worse.

The mid-term Elections in the U.S.A. last Tuesday, would perhaps tell the World how the American people view their Government’s continued involvement in that hopeless mess.

But what is also of wider and deeper concern to the rest of the Global Village - is the very possible adverse impact on happenings elsewhere in the
“Village;” and we in this sunny part thereof, had better pull out all stops and take all manner of precautions - as we come up to CWC 2007 in the Region - because all the “Sunset Legislation,” duly passed in all our Parliaments, will not be anywhere nearly enough to safeguard our people and their
visitors.

Whether on our doorstep, the wider Region, or the World beyond our shores - the tension is not getting any better or less expensive.

And talking about tension, and expenses, and money in general to do with Court Cases - I have seen a Suit filed in the U.S. Southern District Court
of New York, involving RSM Production Corporation, Jack Grynberg and Petroleum Company, against Three Russian-named persons, and Gregory Bowen as
the Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries, Public Utilities and Energy for Grenada, for damages in excess of $500,000,000.00 (U.S.)
The Claim arises from Breach of an exclusive Contract between RSM and the Government of Grenada for exploration of Oil in Grenada Waters, and the role played by the Minister in the process.

The problems keep multiplying, and further investigation is un-going.