Judge says “Bruk down de wall”

Never in Belize’s history have a few feet of concrete resulted in so much judicial acrimony. But with millions at stake in the highly competitive cruise industry, the warring parties in the dispute over access to the Tourism Village are as determined as Obama and Clinton to end up on top. Today one side was declared victorious … at least for now. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has more.

Christian Riveroll, Brown Sugar Marketplace/Habourview
“The walls have to come down. We are going to make sure this time that the walls come down. There is no more leniency, no more friendly, they played hard ball with us, we’ll play that with them. Starting now, the walls have to come down.”

Martha Williams, Michael Colin Gallery/ Habourview
“They betta bruk down the wall because otherwise they seh dah wah decertify the port right? So it’s one or the other.”

Janelle Chanona
“Do you feel that there’s a genuine risk of the port being decertified?”

Martha Williams
“Oh no, that’s the big bad wolf. It’s a shame, but I’m so happy now.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
There were high-fives in the courtroom of Justice John Muria this morning after an application for a stay on the decision of the Chief Justice to have the walls on the boardwalk along the Haulover Creek removed was refused.

Fred Lumor, Lead Counsel, Brown Sugar Marketplace/Habourview Companies
“When the Chief Justice say remove the boardwalk, it means remove it forthwith. As a result of agreement and discussions, we gave them fourteen days to do so. So Justice Muria is saying that that is an agreement and this court cannot stay it.”

Martha Williams
“You know, they did everything in the books to frustrate us, that wasn’t necessary. They had this thing going on with Major Lloyd Jones who at one point said we’re okay, we’re ready to open the gate and on the other point, said that no you are not ready for ISPS compliance. It was just back and forth unnecessarily. And it’s all about money, everybody knows that.”

Janelle Chanona
“I was just going to say, from a money point of view, what does this mean for your business?”

Martha Williams
“Well hopefully we’ll start doing some business now because we’ve lost fourteen million dollars in the whole course of this.”

Fort Street Tourism Village’s General Manager James Nisbet declined to comment on the case but maintained that, “My faith in the justice system has been diminished but we will do everything in our power to make sure the cruise industry is alive and safe”. Nisbet is of course referring to his company’s repeated claim that if the walls are removed, the Tourism Village will be decertified as a port of entry for cruise passengers.

Fred Lumor
“The effect of what they are saying is that you need to go and seek permission of the President of the United States in order to remove the impediment in order to remove the impediment. That is ridiculous.”

With their request for a stay refused, Lead Counsel for the F.S.T.V., Rodwell Williams, is now concentrating on formulating his arguments to the Court of Appeal to have the Chief Justice’s ruling reversed.

Rodwell Williams, Lead Counsel, F.S.T.V.
“Declaration was found against the government, a declaration of right against the government. But the government has—there’s no consequence for the government, you see. The court then ordered private law of consequence against a private party which is unheard of in my humble opinion. And that is what, in my view, is fundamentally wrong. I can’t breach your constitutional rights; only the state can breach your constitutional rights. So a private party is incapable of breaching, only a public authority could breach constitutional rights of private parties … but yet you have an order, sticking it so to speak to a private party.”

While Lumor had indicated he was prepared to give the F.S.T.V. forty-eight hours to comply with the court’s ruling and tear down the walls, demolition began late this evening.

But when the jackhammers started up, the work crews didn’t target the walls; they focussed instead on the boardwalk, leading us to believe the story at Haulover Creek is far from over.

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

The Fort Street Tourism Village is owned by Diamonds International and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. It was originally developed by Belizean Mike Feinstein, who still retains the property across the street.