While the heart of the nation was still bleeding from the outrageous grenade attack on Mayflower Street on Sunday night, Senators joined together in condemning such acts of violence, while urging immediate attention to the crises facing our youth – both the street crimes that are robbing them of their lives far too quickly, and the sexual crimes that are brutally scarring many more for life.
Even as some Senators spoke in legalese about a wad of Bills laid before them for the Sitting of the Senate, others were vocal in making poignant statements on these pressing issues, as they raised questions about the adequacy of the crime bills in really getting at the heart of the problem.
One Senator went so far as to imply that much harsher punishment needs to be meted out to those who have destroyed the nation’s peace.
PUP Opposition Senator, Hector Silva, Sr., of San Ignacio, said that the community has forgotten three effective weapons for weeding out crime: “One, the tambran whip – you all don’t remember that, maybe you were too young. The tambran whip was the weapon that rectified any person that thought he was a little man before his time… Secondly the cat-o’-nine tail that I see they have it at the House of Culture in a glass case. That was also a weapon that stopped any rapist or abuser. And the last one was the noose – maybe it’s rotten already – at the prison. And those kept Belize peaceful all the time.”
Aiden Salazar, of San Pedro, condemned the grenade attack that killed a 16-year-old boy and injured 11 other young people on Sunday night.
Crime is a national problem, he said, one that does not distinguish based on race, religion or party colors, and it is not just a problem in Belize, but all over the world.
He said the crime situation requires the Government of Belize’s urgent attention.
Crime became a major issue because of two Bills that sought to amend the Crime Control and Criminal Justice Act and the Firearm Act.
Private sector Senator, Godwin Hulse, cautioned that the amendments being proposed could amount to a travesty of justice where the innocent – and in particular blameless students – are erroneously hauled off by police, with people who hold illegal arms without their, the students’ knowledge, due to new clauses that deem persons to be in “joint possession” if they are with someone who had illegal weapons, but more than that, new clauses which put them at risk of spending time in detention while placing the burden of proof on the accused.
Educator Debbie McMillan, UDP Senator, raised serious concerns about the protection of our male children. She noted that while amendments to the Crime Control Bill would “send an unequivocal message to monsters that prey on our children and on their very own,” no allowance is made in law to make it a crime for an adult to have sex with a male who is not of age to consent to sex.
“While there are sick men in our society, there are also sick women,” she commented.
Carnal knowledge is defined only for girls, and she pointed out that even though those clauses are good for dealing with the “sugar daddy” syndrome, we cannot ignore the reality that there are “sugar mammas” who stalk under-aged boys for sex.
The Senator raised the concern that, “the criminal code as it now stands does not protect our sons from women who sexually abuse them, and continue to do so. I think we, as senators, must do something about this…”
The Senator urges that the law be modified to make it gender neutral.
Senator Hulse said that where boys face such sexual abuse, alleged perpetrators are now charged for “a mischievous act.” It’s a broad definition, he says.
Senator Eddie Webster, Opposition appointee, pointed out that even homes are sometimes not safe for children.
“After you go back to Social and give them all your problems, you have to go back to the same house and live with the same abuser,” he noted, underscoring the need for protecting young boys from heartless abuse.
He questioned whether the community has been given adequate opportunity to have their input in the Bills which were being considered for passage, adding that it is very important to get the wider community on board.
While there was much talk about crime as it affects young people, a hotly debated issue in the Senate was the amendment to the Referendum Act. Some senators of the Opposition echoed concerns raised by Opposition members in the House of Representatives over the 50% threshold – the percentage of the voters required to participate in a referendum before it could be considered valid.
However, some also noted that there is no binding provision, and Senator Godwin Hulse, representative of the business community, said that such a provision is needed for the exercise of holding a referendum to be worth the while.
In the face of opposition to the changes in the Referendum Act that would delete the section, stipulating that a referendum is required when legislators want to change the constitution in a manner that would derogate from people’s fundamental rights and freedoms, ruling party Senator Juliet Thimbriel said that this was not a valid argument, since the Constitution, which is the supreme law, already sets out a different procedure for such changes.
The ruling United Democratic Party’s defense of the amendment is that the section has to be removed because it is unconstitutional and should not have been in the Referendum Act in the first place.
The Senators debated and passed the amendments, even though there is an injunction by Chief Justice, Dr. Abdulai Conteh, barring the Attorney General from passing the legislation over to the Governor-General for him to sign and make it law.
Senator Hulse recommended that the legislators make changes to the Constitution, to enshrine in that superior law provisions to reflect the intent of the deleted portion of the Referendum Act, which requires a referendum to be called when the Government proposes to take away from fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.
Bills the ruling party claims are meant to toughen up on criminals also received much attention in the House.
In speaking on the amendment having to do with the Firearms Act, private sector Senator, Godwin Hulse, pointed to a scenario where an innocent person is caught in the net, such as a case where a student boarding at a home is taken into custody for illegal firearms he or she would not even know are being housed at the premises, or where a member of parliament such as he, might catch a cab to a Senate meeting in Belmopan, only to be caught on the wrong side of the law for being in a cab with a driver who is found with an illegal weapon.
In such scenarios, bail would not be granted, and on the first instance, one could face detention for seven days. Such events would be a travesty of justice, he cautioned.
“In that dragnet…let us not sweep up the innocent,” Hulse warned, noting also that the burden of proof has been shifted on the accused person.
And even though the scenarios present sound arguments for legislators to err on the side of caution in pushing through the amendments to the Firearms Act, the Bills were approved without amendments.
Hulse argued that the legislators should reintroduce the proviso that empowers magistrates to grant bail based on the plea of the accused person, especially students.
Senator Pulcheria Teul announced at the Senate that on Wednesday, a public consultation is slated for Punta Gorda to give people in Toledo the opportunity to voice their opinions on some of the amendments that have been tabled and proposed, but she noted that that consultation would not be good enough for grassroots people who live in rural settlements.
Today’s Senate meeting was over 6 hours long, but the only unfinished business at the end of the day was amendments presented for the Freedom of Information Act, for which there was wide cross-sectoral support. The Senate gave its stamp of approval for a series of Bills, including the Pensions Bill, Firearms (Amendment) Bill, the Crime Control and Prevention (Amendment) Bill and the Referendum (Amendment) Bill.
Even though much of the debate surrounded the specific bills tabled, some Senators took the time to address the urgent crime situation that is now affecting the nation’s youth – specifically violent street crimes and sexual abuse against children.
The Senate approved the appointment of Adalbert Tucker as Belize’s Ambassador of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and it appointed a new Elections and Boundaries Commission, to be chaired by Star newspaper editor, Alberto August.