OCEANA tells P.M. to take criticism to court

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

Matura-Shepherd also commented on the prime minister’s open objection to the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Oceana during his quarterly press conference last week.  P.M. Barrow described the judgment handed down by Justice Oswell Legall as both egregious and aberrant.  According to Matura-Shepherd, as a matter of ethics, the prime minister’s protest should have been presented before the Court of Appeal and not ventilated before the court of public opinion.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Vice President, Oceana in Belize.

“I feel most embarrassed to have to comment on anything the prime minister says, not only because he is an attorney but because he is the prime minister of this country and as someone of very high legal acumen, and I think that he of all people would know how to measure his comments about the judiciary.  I wouldn’t feel that it’s in my place to comment about his behavior because I think as a learned person he knows very well where he crosses the line or doesn’t cross the line.  I can speak for myself, as a person who, we all did a legal course named Legal Ethics and Conduct.  There are certain things, and we have a legal professional act that many people don’t know about.  There are certain things that they tell you you cannot do and definitely one of them is that you do not publicly thrash a judgment nor a judge.  You should settle your disputes in the court, a higher court.  You have to understand that there is a principle of law which we keep fighting for, for people to understand and it’s called separation of powers wherein the judiciary’s job is to interpret laws and the executive or the legislature, of which the prime minister a part, there job is to pass laws.  If they are not satisfied with an interpretation of the law you don’t go to the court of public opinion and thrash the judiciary, you let them do their job.”

The government has announced that it will be appealing the Supreme Court verdict.