ACTION CAUSES reaction. Already in America, since the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers, we have seen laws, long hallowed in the protection of civil liberties, being eroded in the name of security under the eagle eye of the US Attorney-General John Ashcroft. However the American manoeuvring in the war against terrorism plays out, Jamaica faces no such crisis and any attempts to whittle down our laws in protection of civil rights must be cause for concern. Such laws express the universal imperative that the liberty of citizens is the raison d'tre of governance.
In America in 1878, the Posse Comitatus Act was passed with the intent of removing the military from domestic law enforcement and the historical wisdom of such legislation has been more than justified. In Jamaica, there is a bill before Parliament to give soldiers the same powers of arrest and seizure as the police and this is still being debated in committee. If passed, it could set a dangerous precedent and given the reasoned objection of the Opposition, we think the Bill should be withdrawn.
We note, also, the frightening development of a Jamaican magistrate issuing a writ for the police to raid a lawyer's office and remove files in an extradition case in which the attorney's client is wanted to stand trial in Canada. Unless it has been proven that the attorney is in a conspiracy with his client, this is a clear violation of the attorney-client privilege, the oldest privilege for confidential information recognised at common law and dating back to the Elizabethan era. It has been held as sacred as the seal of confession and remains a bastion of American and English jurisprudence despite attempts to dilute it on grounds of expedience.
Attempts to justify what took place by reference to the Mutual Assistance (Criminal Matters) treaty, cannot be justified if the treaty violates our Constitution and settled law. If a mistake has been made, it must be publicly acknowledged so that trust in our legal priorities can be restored. We need to hear from The Director of Public Prosecutions on his role in the matter and it might be helpful in the circumstances for the Canadian High Commissioner to make a statement setting out the position of his Government.
These and other rumblings are worrying signs of a shift in State power.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
