Attorney at law, Ralph Francis has come out in support of the call by Vincentian prime minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves for Antiguans and Barbudans to vote positively for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the upcoming referendum.
“I have no difficulty with him …. I don’t see why anyone should have a difficulty in him putting forward his views on this matter in Antigua,” Francis said in a telephone contribution to the Voice of the People programme on OBSERVER Radio.
Francis stressed that he has the greatest respect for Dr. Gonsalves, whom he first saw when he came to an African Liberation celebration and was refused entry into the country.
He said that his next encounter with Dr. Gonsalves was when he was reading law in England and Dr. Gonsalves was doing “his Bar” and they coincidentally met on three consecutive occasions and as president of the Afro Caribbean Society, he requested of Dr. Gonsalves to give a lecture to the society and Dr. Gonsalves readily agreed.
According to Francis, he introduced Dr. Gonsalves as the future prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the lecture, and his words turned out to be prophetic.
Francis said that he had been listening to the various views on radio and he is not impressed with any of the arguments proffered against Antigua and Barbuda making the CCJ the country’s final court of appeal so he thought it was time that he “jumped into the fray”.
He said that he was not concerned about the CCJ being able to dispense justice, rather, he is concerned about people’s emphasis on trust and “cleaning up our yard first”.
Pointing out that the Privy Council is “our highest court”, Francis said that “we hear people speaking about all of the problems we have in our judicial system, the Magistrates Court, the High Court, and the Court of Appeal. He then asked, what has the Privy Council done to eradicate the problems that we have?” before answering, “Absolutely nothing.”
Pointing out that Antigua and Barbuda is a member of the CCJ by virtue of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, Francis noted that the country is committed to take legal matters to the CCJ. He, however, noted that, so far, Antigua and Barbuda has not been required to take any case to the CCJ.
He further stated that he is aware that the CCJ has introduced and proposed programmes that have been beneficial to the court system of Antigua and Barbuda but he has not heard anyone mention that.
He added that he is not aware of anything that the Privy Council has done to improve the efficiency of the local court system.
ANTIGUA OBSERVER