Bowen was a champion of landowners’ rights

Sir Barry Bowen

Meanwhile, a memorial service was held for Sir Barry on Monday in his hometown, San Pedro where the islanders deeply loved and respected the man who contributed immensely to the development of the town. The mass took place at the Island Academy, a private primary school which Bowen started in the 90’s.  There were around five hundred students, businesspeople, family and friends in attendance.  The service was a celebration for his life, rather than a somber occasion as that was the location Sir Barry was heading last Friday evening when his private plane crashed.  The school was having a fundraising event which was immediately cancelled for a yet undetermined date.  As some of the pictures show, the decorations that adorned the school were intentionally kept for the service. Sir Barry was widely known across the land for many reasons. Perhaps one of the most meaningful was his effort in 2008 to challenge the current government in the Supreme Court over the Sixth Amendment Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives and then by the Senate. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in cases brought by Sir Barry and the Landowners Association.  The bill was brought back to the House by way of another amendment, a provisory to the sixth amendment, to satisfy some of the concerns that were raised by the court. Here are Sir Barry’s comments when he appeared on News Five’s Open Your Eyes almost a year ago on March eleventh, 2009.

Barry Bowen, Deceased   (File – March 11, 2009)

“Let’s take an issue with this one simple point; can or should someone change the basic right, the basic choice of the individual, abate your access to courts if you have a grievance and fortunately, the case that my very good friend here presented and very capably presented, the Chief Justice agreed that this was correct. So now in reality, he has said that the constitution says that you have the right to address the courts if you have a grievance and this is a very basic right of every Belizean. So we’re very, very happy.”