The Court of Appeal has ruled 2-1 upholding the government’s appeal in the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Case and amended the High Court judgment.
This means that the government has won on appeal.
Justice of Appeal Eddy Ventose handed down the decision moments ago in a virtual sitting of the Court of Appeal.
Justices of Appeal Eddy Ventose and Paul Webster were in the majority while Justice of Appeal Gerhard Wallbank was in the minority.
Justices of Appeal Ventose read the judgment, saying that the government had succeded in persuading them that then High Court judge Justice Esco Henry (now a justice of appeal) was wrong in making most of the orders she made in her judgment.
He set aside the orders that the judge had made in her March 2023 decision when she ruled against the government on 11 of the 13 grounds.
The Court of Appeal made no order for costs in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
There were no immediate reaction from either the government or the public sector unions in the case.
However, both had suggested ahead of the judgment that they would consider appealing to the London-based Privy Council if the judgment went against them.
In 2022, the Teachers’ Union, Public Service Union, and the Police Welfare Association sponsored a lawsuit after hundreds of public sector workers were fired in December 2021 for failing to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
Former public sector workers Shanile Howe, Novita Roberts, Cavet Thomas, Alfonzo Lyttle, Brenton Smith, Sylvorne Oliver, Shefflorn Ballantyne, Travis Cumberbatch, and Rohan Giles were complainants in the matter.
The Minister of Health and the Environment, Public Service Commission, Commissioner of Police, Attorney General, and Police Service Commission were the respondents.
In her March 2023 ruling, Justice Esco Henry held that the mandate breached natural justice, contravened the Constitution, was unlawful, procedurally improper, and void.
(More details to follow)
SVG people love getting their asses kicked hard over and over again. The country will soon be run from Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua. Wait until Donald Trump start to deport illegal Vincentians. What a joke.
How could this Judge get this so wrong? For someone to get this so wrong and be now sitting on the appeals bench really makes you wonder about the quality of our jurists. I don’t believe she did. This case was always about the cost to the government to rule in the people’s favour. Those judges were always going one way. Let the privy council hear it.
This was something I long predicted would happen based on my reading of the Constitution and the relevant emergency legislation which clearly spells out the right of the government to protect the health and welfare of the people of SVG as it sees fit.
Now the three unions will bad-spend even more of its members’ dues to appeal this rightful and righteous opinion to the Privy Council where they are sure to lose again.
Meanwhile, this verdict will ensure a six-in-a-row Labour Party win in the next election.
C.Ben-David your statement that the constitution gives the government the right to protect its people as they see fit is misleading at best. How about the right of the person?. What if the laws passed by the government is in violation of a person constitutional right? How about natural justice and procedural fairness?
If I were to follow your logic it means that the government has the right to pass any laws that could ultimately affect the lives of its people whether negativity or not.
How are you sure that appealing to the Privy Council will have a bearing on an election result? I see no correlation between the two. As a reasonable prudent man, I do not believe that the Ulp has a chance of winning the North Leeward ( NL).It is a bona-fide marginal constituency. They may win the North Windward but not the NL.This is not even a done deal.C.Ben David as the old rendition of the song says , only time will tell. Certainly time will tell.
Well he got the people on their knees..was his end game. Remember people this PM is and has always been your master. If you didn’t know, now you know.
Well done Mr Gonsalves, hope the people would some day realize that you’re a winner and not a leader.It must be exhilarating to win this one? Again congratulations to you and the judiciary for putting the working class poor in their place.
As far as your son succeeding you Mr PM ,rest easy, it’s not gonna happen. Vincentians don’t want a Ralph 2.0. The opposition needs to drive that home to the people. A vote for this pm is a vote for his son.. whom the father
thinks should be heir to the throne. Vincentians, run from that.
Some ppl can see, but they are blind.
History has proven that the ‘experimental vaccine’ was not “efficacious” as purported. It killed and injured more than it prevented from dying or getting sick. Those are the facts !
Further, international convention states that no experimental treatment can be forced on anyone, and passing a law to make it mandatory is WRONG !
The hypocrisy of the government was laid bare when they admitted in parliament recently that while they passed a law to force others to take the vaccine, they excused themselves! A bunch of HYPOCRITES !
Ecclesiastes 3:16
Moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
Imagine a govt is fighting against its citizens , , it’s my opinion that’s exactly what happening. Something is so wrong with my people, it’s like a curse, a blight on the country. but it seems to me that the people love it so.
amazing
who would’ve thought!! [img]https://cdn.iwnsvg.com/uploads/2025/02/iwn-developing-story-w-700.png[/img]