The very same Supreme Court Justice that put an injunction in place to prohibit the demolition of shanty towns and illegal structures now has removed it.

“Green light given to clear shanties– Judge says policies to demolish unregulated communities is lawful” – The Nassau Guardian; February 13^th 2023

Excerpt from this article;

“The decision of Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson that the Minnis administration’s shantytowns eradication policy and its actions in seeking to execute it were legal, clears the way for the Davis administration to carry through on its own stated plan to address the vexing and long-standing issue of irregular communities across The Bahamas.

In a ruling that had been highly anticipated, Grant-Thompson rejected the claims made by a group of shantytown residents that the government acted illegally in issuing notices for them to vacate land and violated their constitutional rights on multiple fronts, including their right not to be deprived of their property, their right not to be treated in an inhuman or degrading fashion, and their right to freedom from discrimination.

“The policy and the subsequent decisions were constitutional,” stated Grant-Thompson in the ruling handed down on Friday.

“Any interference with any right was justifiable and applied reasonably to obtain a legitimate aim/purpose. It was further submitted that such policies were not discriminatory in their effect. The applicants were not unlawfully deprived of their property.”

As such, the judge discharged the injunction she granted on August 3, 2018 which restrained the government from demolishing buildings in shantytowns on New Providence or elsewhere in The Bahamas.

The judge also cleared the way for the disconnection of utilities illegally connected, though she said the actions of the authorities ‘should be humane and sensitive to the needs of this potentially vulnerable community’ and in full compliance with human rights conventions.”

On Friday past in her ruling the Supreme Court Justice says; “The Court is satisfied that the Minister has the authority to remove or require the removal of dangerous or dilapidated buildings even to the point of demolishing them.  Such structures would obviously pose a risk to the health and safety of the public. As a result of this ruling, the injunction which was in place covering the ‘shantytowns’ is hereby lifted.”

The first and most obvious question that I have is when did the Supreme Court Justice come to the realization that these structures would “pose a risk to the health and safety of the public”? 

Now we must not jump to the conclusion that the decision was compromised by politics, but it is curious that only now the Supreme Court Justice finds “The policy and the subsequent decisions were constitutional,” what has changed since the Minnis administration initially put the policy in place?

There has been no referendum to change the constitution.

Are we playing politics with the lives of persons that we claim to be concerned about?

Are we playing politics with policies which, if implemented when they were first issued, would have move the country that much further along in “the plan to address the vexing and long-standing issue of irregular communities across The Bahamas”?

Now the New Day government claims a “victory” in having this injunction overturned, when they we sympathetic to having it put in place in the first place.

Just shameful or is that shameless?

Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is their nature.END