By *Jomo Sanga Thomas
(“Plain Talk” Feb. 13, 2025)
Last Wednesday’s decision of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal was devastatingly disappointing to the hundreds of public workers who depended on our courts and constitutions to protect us at all times, most notably during times of turmoil, distress and emergency.
No other court decision in Vincentian legal history was more eagerly awaited by citizens at home and abroad. If this decision is allowed to stand, it will radically enlarge the government’s power. It will, in turn, make a mockery of the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and case law whenever governments invoke emergency powers.
In her March 13, 2023 decision, Justice Henry found the COVID mandate invoked by the government to confront the Plandemic unconstitutional, unlawful, ultra vires, disproportionate, and procedurally improper. The appellate court’s decision, with Justice Ventose and Webster in the majority, agreed with the government and reversed every finding and order of Justice Henry.
In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Wallbank argued that the dismissed workers presented enough facts and law for the court to dismiss the appeal. The decision will be dissected in the weeks and months ahead, but after reading the judgment, I am convinced that the appellate court got it wrong for the simplest reasons. It grants too much power and authority to the government the moment it claims that there is an emergency.
Justice Wallbank sets the stage for his dissenting opinion with the following:
“It should also be recalled that Constitutions and legal safeguards of a State are important. They are typically expressed to embody the supreme law of a State already subject to the absolute rule of law. Constitutions have only one function: to protect the residents of a State from abuses of power and excess of authority by those who are supposed to serve them. Constitutions are not some pious symbol adorning the facade of an independent nation State; Constitutions are there to protect the residents of a State including and especially when times are difficult – and that includes in that period of recent history often referred to as ‘during COVID’. The magnitude and gravity of ‘COVID’, as perceived by many, including the decision-makers in government, did not, and cannot, trump the application of constitutional and legal safeguards. It would set an extremely dangerous precedent if governments can assume they will not be held by the courts to adhere to the demands of a Constitution or of the law if a situation is represented by the government and the media as sufficiently serious to warrant this. If a measure breaches legal or constitutional principles, then the gravity of a situation cannot save it. Constitutions typically contain mechanisms for dealing with emergency situations. As we will see, the Constitution of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is no different. Where, as in this case, such mechanisms have not been used, the full force of constitutional and legal protections continue to apply.”
Among other observations, Justice Wallbank noted that SVG was the only country in the Caribbean region to take such draconian measures. The government’s COVID policies were particularly noteworthy, especially when an analysis of the infection, hospitalisation, deaths, and recovery numbers was conducted. The dissenting justice also found that by its decision, the court was rewriting long-established law on what constituted abandonment of one’s job.
Having aggressively pursued, mocked, smeared and scorned workers who had genuine concerns about the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine with the mantra “No Jab, no Job”, the government has adopted a policy to encourage dismissed workers to reapply for their jobs. Prime Minister Gonsalves repeated his call within hours of the court’s division. No reinstatement; reapply and beg Papa for a bly.
The government’s plea to dismissed workers is not grounded in compassion or respect for human rights. The frantic call for dismissed employees to reapply for their jobs comes from a position of political necessity. Gonsalves and his clansmen knew the vaccine mandate was incredibly unpopular. He knows that his government has won the ire of not only dismissed workers but a large group of public employees and their families who were forced to take the vaccine and have since experienced serious health complications and death. Other citizens, including many party supporters who succumbed to a combination of blind loyalty to their leader and fear, have openly expressed “buyer’s remorse”. In addition, many party insiders openly fear that the COVID mandate and Gonsalves’ dictatorial implementation may be the “Achilles heel” in his bid for a sixth term.
Vincentians owe it to themselves not to be taken by Gonsalves’ newfound expressions of compassion. Even as workers move to appeal this decision to our highest court, the triumph handed to the government for its draconian mandate must be turned into a pyrrhic victory. This disappointing court decision must catalyse citizens to renew their commitment to remove Gonsalves from the seat of power.
The people can vindicate themselves whenever the next elections are called. Every honest Vincentian knows that apart from the deadly gun violence that kills primarily young men annually, the COVID-19 injection created a new and dangerous situation where never in the history of this country has so many parents buried their children. There is now an explosion of aggressive cancers that are occurring mainly among the vaccinated.
Dismissed workers have suffered with their jobs and livelihoods. Vaccinated citizens have experienced deteriorating health and other strange occurrences in their bodies. Others have tragically died.
The crisis of confidence confronting this government is profound and fundamental. This problem runs deeper than ULP and NDP. This sad reality calls for a reset and recharting of our national trajectory.
This government deserves to be punished in the next elections. Only the people can fail themselves. All of us concerned about SVG must use our influence to ensure that our nation delivers a decisive defeat to the ruling Unity Labour Party.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].
We all must come together and remove the ULP in the upcoming general elections.
Let’s make the change.
I am suffering with my health after been force by the government to take the vaccine.
Anti-Ralph, anti-vaxxer Jomo Thomas could not be more wrong when asserting with no evidence that “the COVID-19 injection created a new and dangerous situation where never in the history of this country has so many parents buried their children. There is now an explosion of aggressive cancers that are occurring mainly among the vaccinated.”
Yes, in retrospect, schools should not have been closed except to the few vulnerable children who could easily have succumbed to the virus because of certain medical preconditions, a fact unknown at the time they were shuttered, but the COVID-19 vaccines have been proven to have saved countless lives around the world.
As for SVG, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court acting in appellate mode ruled that the country’s COVID regulations were constitutionally and otherwise valid.
Let us move on, as the Comrade has suggested, by finally putting this issue to rest.
Do you have any scientific medical evidence to prove this assertion? I’m sure your answer would be “no,” making your claim anti-vaccine propaganda.
This government has successfully used a certain level of criminality under the guise of good governance and misused the constitution for purpose of control. The question we have to ask ourselves after this devastating judgment on our working class,is,have our efforts as a people to rid ourselves ,of the invisible chains of physiological slavery worked?
We’re still being ruled over by a leader ,who ,apparently has a bit of African blood cursing through his veins. Don’t, for a moment think that his mentality is that of an African. I firmly believe that if this leader and some of our leaders in Latin America were to lead a country such as the US,the polices of the US won’t change under their leadership.It would be the very same as it is present day or even worse.In other words, our leader would play victim ,to suit his agenda, but don’t think for a moment he doesn’t have have the same ambitions as a European imperialist, which is total domination and control. Remember, he calls himself world boss. He’s gonna call for reconciliation and unity when it suits his agenda. Vincentians, don’t be fooled,this man has single handedly dominated you and intends to continue dominating you perpetually .His European DNA makes him think he’s entitled to rule over you.His ministers( puppets) aren’t ever supposed to question anything. They’re akin to house
slaves .This kinda thinking is what gave birth to the Atlantic slave trade. This has always been a one man show. Wake up.
mooneeee passed ?
JUSTICIDE! JUSTICIDE! Justice has been shamefully murdered by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal. I have always contended that the judiciary in the Caribbean is not independent. I call upon whoever succeeds the current regime in SVG, to remove SVG from the court and establish its own supreme court of justice. When would our leaders muster up the courage to take their stand and control their own destiny? When would our people come to the age of taking control of their own autonomy? We suffer today with the legacy of slavery, fighting for so-called reparation, because our fathers were too compliant in dealing with the slave masters and colonialism. It is very obvious that the men who gave the majority decision have no sense of moral justice. When would men who sit in judicial robes learn that there is something call moral justice. It is higher than any law of man. Moral justice is human rights
The Opposition party was asleep and weak. When the PM and his weak ,pliable yes men introduced the code to put the mandate in place. Why wasn’t it challenged in court by the Opposition party? What the PM did was a Constitutional lynching. He knew his mandate could not stand on its own in a court of law. When the Court of Appeal made the decision. I wonder if those men realized what message they have sent to generations to come. Did they consider the legacy of that decision? As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said ,they are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. Such men should not adorn themselves in judicial robes. They have disgraced the profession. .JUSTICIDE! JUSTICIDE!