Attorney Clement Joseph challenges President Savarin’s Statement on 7th February Unrest in Roseau2/24/2017 Dominican Attorney Clement Joseph is challenging President Charles Savarin’s Statement on the 7th February 2017 Unrest in Roseau. Joseph, who is now working as a senior public prosecutor in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Turks & Caicos Island, took issue with some aspects of the President statement. On his Facebook page, he wrote a piece entitled “A civics legal/ lesson for the President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, in reference to his statement released today” (22nd February 2017).
Joseph referenced the events of May 29, 1979, which led to the downfall of the Patrick John regime saying, “This is the same person, who as President of the then Civil Service Association (CSA), led the violent demonstration of our young nation and the ultimate downfall of the democratically elected government”. According to him, Chapter 15:01 of the Public Order Act of Dominica does not ever require anyone to apply for permission to keep a public meeting, and Section 7 of that Act speaks to the power to prohibit a public meeting. Joseph said “The law only authorizes the Minister to issue an order that can prevent a meeting. To date, since our Independence, only one such order was issued by Edison James as Prime Minister, to declare that no public meeting could be held in Mahaut on 26th August 1996. For weeks the Opposition had advertised their meeting and if the Minister wanted to prevent it, he should have issued an order”. He explained further that the “Public Order Act” gives the Chief of Police “no powers to set time and place of a meeting. So if he purports to do or have done so, it would be null and void in law”. He added, “The very President in his statement said that ‘permission was given by the Chief of Police for the holding of a public meeting’ when the law does not give the Chief of Police any such power, much more to dictate terms and conditions. To date no one has been arrested and or charged for breach of these so-called conditions”. He questioned how is it that the President can say “it is ultimately for the courts to determine whether the terms and conditions agreed upon for the holding of the meeting were adhered to? Is there something he knows that we don’t? Has he given directions for the arrest and charge of persons for failing to adhere to those bogus unlawful conditions?”. Meanwhile, Attorney General Levi Peter has said, that as a nation we need act more responsibly when we take decisions. He stated that although permission is not needed for a public meeting, both parties agreed to start and end the meeting at a certain time, and the agreement should have been kept. On 7th February 2017, opposition parties, namely the United Workers Party (UWP) and the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), held a public meeting in Roseau calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. Several hours after the peaceful meeting had ended, unrest erupted in Roseau, and several businesses were vandalized. The organizers of the meeting have distanced themselves from the unrest, saying it began several hours after their meeting had ended, however Prime Minister Skerrit has insisted that the unrest was part of a plan to overthrow the DLP Government, and blamed the opposition parties for the unrest.
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