Editorial

Evidence is emerging that the Keith Mitchell government is playing nothing but pure and simple political games on the issue of the right of Peter David to contest General Elections in Grenada due to holding dual citizenship with Canada and his native homeland - Grenada.

This newspaper was able to obtain the copy of a legal opinion that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lawrence Joseph had sought and got from an outstanding legal mind in Trinidad and Tobago and which is being hidden away from the public.

It is only a fool who would think that the Speaker kept the seven-page document only to himself and did not share it with the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Dr. Mitchell. After all, Speaker Joseph owes his appointment to the house to the current government.

In addition, he is also a former Chairman of the ruling party and is suspected of being an integral part of the current Screening Committee set up to select candidates for the upcoming general elections. The government must be aware of the existence of the document and clearly is not prepared to bring it to light since it is not aiding and abetting them in their ridiculous, nonsensical and foolish attempt to seize the St. George's Town seat.

The legal opinion which Speaker Joseph obtained as shared with this newspaper by a government insider who is not happy with the manner in which his own administration is handling the issue. He is flabbergasted at the way in which the so-called legal heavy-weight from Jamaica, Hugh Wildman is continuing to have his way with the administration on the Peter David issue.

This newspaper openly challenges Prime Minister Mitchell and Speaker Joseph to come clean with the Grenadian people and release that legal opinion that was submitted by that outstanding Caribbean son with links to the Spice Isle.

It can be argued and with some merit that Wildman is not even fit to lace the booths of that legal luminary whose scholarship and familiarity with the law have been sought over the years by so many Caribbean governments.

Even Mitchell's NNP tried to recruit the service of that top-notch and eminent Caribbean jurist to lead the State Team in the Re-sentencing Hearing for the Bernard Coard Gang of Prisoners who were convicted in 1985 for the murder of Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop.

It is our understanding that it was only after this internationally-recognised lawyer declined the offer on account of a heavy work load in and out of the region that the NNP regime then decided to turn to Ramesh Maharaj to take part in the proceedings.

The document from which this newspaper can quote indicated quite clearly that the government had asked this outstanding Caribbean jurist for his opinion on both Peter David and Nazim Burke being eligible to sit in Parliament on account of their Canadian citizenship.
And this is what Speaker Joseph and by extension the NNP government was told by this legal luminary a few years ago: "I have been asked to advise the Hon. Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the State of Grenada on a question concerning the qualification of certain persons sitting as members.

"As advised, certain persons elected to and sitting in the House of Representatives are citizens of countries other than the State of Grenada. "The question therefore is whether such person are disqualified from membership of the House of Representatives by virtue of the provisions of the Constitution of Grenada or any other law.

"At least two (2) elected members of parliament who have been sitting as such hold passports of the Dominion of Canada. Both members were born in Grenada prior to the coming into force in 1973 of the Constitution of Grenada. "No instructions have been given as to the circumstances in which the members acquired citizenship of Canada.

CONCLUSION

"I am of the opinion that the two (2) members in question are not disqualified from being elected to the House of Representatives by reason only of their holding citizenship of Canada.

"This is so if even they were required to renounce Grenadian citizenship as a condition to obtaining Canadian citizenship since this merely meant taking the citizenship of another Commonwealth century. And I advise accordingly".

GRENADA TODAY calls on Grenadians to understand for themselves what this legal brain was advising our own law-makers in Parliament on the issue of the eligibility of Peter David and Nazim Burke to sit in Parliament.

There is no excuse for the government to continue to spend already scare taxpayers money pursuing a court matter which only the blind can see that they will lose in the end. Those who are bent on squandering the funds in the Treasury should be made to pay a heavy and high price whenever there is regime change in Grenada.

Any emoluments owed to Prime Minister Mitchell, the other members of his Cabinet and Hugh Wildman as Special Advisor to Cabinet should be held back and used to pay whatever cost is owed to Peter David at the end of the day.

It is already over $20, 000.00 and like attorney-at-law, Anslem Clouden stated so eloquently, "The public purse continues to be haemorrhaged" by an administration that is very insensitive to the state of the nation's finances.