Court ruling does not affect citrus deliveries

When we caught up today with Attorney Eamon Courtenay, who is attorney for the Citrus Growers Association, we also asked him about a decision handed down on Thursday in the Supreme Court by Justice Minnet Hafiz.  The judge ruled in favour of the C.G.A. that the Citrus Processing and Production Act as it stood contravened the Constitution.  It came after six growers who sell and deliver citrus to the Citrus Products of Belize, took the Attorney General, the Citrus Control Board, the Citrus Growers Association and the C.P.B.L. to court last year in August on the grounds that the Act hindered them from exercising their right to freedom of association and denied them the opportunity to gain their living.  This was after they had resigned from the C.G.A. and wanted confirmation that since they no longer belonged to the association, they could still continue selling and delivering citrus to the C.P.B.L.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for CGA

“I think it is clear that the provisions of the Citrus Control Act were unconstitutional.  The Citrus Growers Association, our clients, had no doubt about that and therefore we did not oppose the application. This matter, as you know, has already been determined.  Freedom of association people have had since the Constitution came in 1991 so in many ways it’s a piric victory.”