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Shanique Myrie Goes to Court

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Shanique Myrie
Shanique Myrie

The Shanique Myrie matter is currently being heard before the Caribbean Court of Appeal (CCJ) and is being followed closely by BU. Frankly it appears both sides have been …  By showing itself to be an itinerant court it shows how the CCJ is configured to deliver justice in a region which may require such flexibility given our geographic and economic diversity.

Something however has bothered the BU household since the Shanique Myrie vs Barbados matter with  Jamaica subsequently given permission to intervene. While the CCJ has the jurisdiction to hear an original application dealing with the Treaty of Chaguramas, it does not have the jurisdiction to hear an original application dealing with the civil and criminal cases of assault. BU’s view of the matter is that the alleged assault took place in Barbados and therefore must be heard before the Barbados courts.

Unfortunately we do not get enough debate in the media about matters related to law and how it relates to the day to day life of Barbadians. BU has blogged several times on the subject of adding basic law to the curriculum in our primary and secondary schools. Seized with understanding basic legal concepts will instil our people with more confidence to understand and challenge simple agreements which have become a routine part of living our lifes.

The BU family is comprised of legal minds and the BU household is willing to learn and be guided on this matter from the likes of Jeff Cumberbatch and the gang.

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236 responses to “Shanique Myrie Goes to Court”

  1. Lemuel Avatar
    Lemuel

    David
    People’s body cavities are searched every day in the US. How can we continue after what J’ca did to the federation movement allow these asses to get away with this non sense. If you are bringing someone into a country for honorable purposes you do not have an old woman front for you. If Myrie had presented herself at any other port of entry in the world she would have been cavity searched and sent home, with J’ca keeping very very quiet.

  2. jeff Cumberbatch Avatar
    jeff Cumberbatch

    Caswell,
    It is not the matter of denial of entry of which Ms Myrie complains, but rather the treatment that she claims she endured at the airport. She might have come over “as a liar” to you, but but that does not mean that she will necessarily appear similarly to the trier of fact.

    There is no need to separate the issue of the alleged tortious conduct from the Treaty violation…it is up to the claimant to determine how she will seek redress. Unlike in constitutional law, there is, it appears, no concept of judicial restraint in international law, so that the availability of another remedy will negate the action before the court .

    @ Sargeant,
    Thanks. My reference to the “right thinking Barbadian” was decidedly tongue in cheek. I meant that some will say things so as to appear right-thinking. Since we are in Barbados, that is the nationality of the supposedly right-thinking man…

    @ Amused,
    “If we still had the JCPC instead of the CCJ…” -the JCPC is a court of final appeal, it does not have original jurisdiction as the CCJ does in international matters involving the RTC

  3. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Caswell……..I do believe if Harry Husbands and McClean had not tried to stonewall the Myrie attorneys and Jamaican government the outcome would be totally different.
    Lemuel……….If Lashley broke any international laws with regards to money laundering etc, the US government can send him packing and refuse him re-entry, even with diplomatic status………..we are yet to hear the Barbados government give out any information on what really transpired, I wonder why.

  4. Lemuel Avatar
    Lemuel

    Jeff Cumberbatch
    People are violated by immigration officials in the caribbean daily. What makes this myrie case so striking that the CCJ, with foot in mouth MUST be involved in its deliberations. I stood up one day in Trinidad and saw a Dominican national berated by the Trini immigration. The individual had to present every piece of evidence to support why they were in T’dad. This was followed by further treatment in the customs. What makes this myrie case of such interest; could it be the CCJ has nothing to do. J’ca immigration officials are making caricom nationals with diplomatic passports pay departure tax. Where are these case for the CCJ?

  5. David Avatar
    David

    @Lemuel

    See Jeff’s recent comment to Caswell. It is not that we don’t have the right to search but there is a process to follow which protects the dignity of the human being.

    It is not the matter of denial of entry of which Ms Myrie complains, but rather the treatment that she claims she endured at the airport. She might have come over “as a liar” to you, but but that does not mean that she will necessarily appear similarly to the trier of fact.

  6. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    In the jack Warner debacle playing out in the US, Trinidadians are demanding answers from the TT government, Kamla-Persaud is bending over backwards to get the information that the US is withholding until indictments are handed down……………Persaud knows what will happen if she acts the fool……………Manning was stoned when he lost the last election. By the way, can anyone tell what would happen in Barbados if a Trinidadian was ever mistreated, manhandled or any problem real or imagined is perpetrated by any authorities in Bim………..wait don’t answer that, i visit TT regularly.

  7. Lemuel Avatar
    Lemuel

    Jeff
    My position on this is that cavity searches are the norm in drug control measures; thus myrie was subject to the norm as it stands right now, and that is for all caribbean countries and the US.

  8. TO THE POINT Avatar
    TO THE POINT

    @Caswell

    i am in total agreement wih you.

    @Jeff andwell

    point out where Barbados has lied or strecthed the truth in this matter.

  9. ac Avatar
    ac

    I believing that that Jamica is also seeking remedy on the issue of profiling and discrimination of Myrie based on the evidence that Myrie passport was first stamped for entry but rescinded two hours afterwards.

  10. Gabriel Tackle Avatar
    Gabriel Tackle

    Given the reaction to the Myrie issue,one wonders whether it was 1)wise to leave the association with the JCPC and 2)whether certain protocols of the Treaty of Chaguaramas should not have been publicly aired and accepted by the electorate.I am of the view as expressed by Amused that Barbados as a country governed by laws has been compromised,hence our failure to attract those investment opportunities going elsewhere.

  11. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    As far as I know passports can be stamped and rescinded if the information given is investigated and untruths detected.

    TTP……..I happened to be in Bim when this drama occurred, and harry Husbands did jump in front of a camera and said Myrie was known to the authorities there, he was backed up by McClean………so yes there are lies and half-truths on both sides.

  12. jeff Cumberbatch Avatar
    jeff Cumberbatch

    @Lemuel

    If that is so, then IF there was indeed a cavity search, Barbados acted properly. But is a cavity search the norm under any conditions?

    @TTP,

    This is the matter to be established, is it not? Where did I say that Barbados had lied?

    @GT,

    As I said before, the JCPC would have had no jurisdiction in this matter at this stage, even if there was no treaty.

  13. Lemuel Avatar
    Lemuel

    Jeff
    I would agree that the cavity search would not proper in all conditions; however, where is the cry and hollerin when the US does it every day. What is the caribbean afraid of. Furthermore, shall we see a number of tit for tat case flooding the CCJ because of this legal wedge.

  14. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Lemuel at 9:34 a.m. “When shall the Freundel Stuart administration lodge the case to restore Minister Michael Lashley’s “right” to travel to the US”

    Why you putting my boy Stuartie in this for?

    Mikey can full out a visa application form just like anybody else, pay he fee, turn up for the visa interview, come back fa he visa, and take the first flight out to Miami or New York or whatever.

    Nabody ain’t stopping he.

    Or is it that wunna telling lies pun my Mikey?

  15. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    @Amused ”Which appears to prove my contention that, despite the undoubted excellence of the judges of the CCJ, the final court of appeal being the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council confers on us the same status as those “established developed nations”.

    Would you agree?”

    ——-

    That appears to be logical. Yes.

  16. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Ok is was Shanique’s first visit, but isn’t the public health inspector a know whore monger?

    Stupssseee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I can’t believe how my tax money does get wasted?

  17. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Colonel Bugg “Yet time after time we select 12 persons to serve on various Juries,in Barbados ,many of whom have no knowledge of the basic laws of the land. Their only qualification is that they are on the electoral list and of a certain age.”

    But Colonel, people are supposed to be judged by a jury of their peers.

    And if our peers are just like us, an ignorant r@ss, that is what we get. That is justice. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    But it is the best we can do for the time being.

  18. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Caswell ….. hearing about your penchant for under-age girls, perhaps you are one of those men who paid big bucks to mothers to drop all charges. You have the cart in front of the donkey, first go to Cave Hill to study Law instead of coming here to play a Bush and cutlass lawyer.

  19. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Every country has a right to refuse anyone entry to their country. Be polite and be firm, BUT they do not have the right to violate nor assault those they refuse. That Jamaican lady who came in to visit her daughter at university stood her ground and I totally agree with her. After being allowed to enter the island, her baggage would have to be examined at customs before exiting and not asked to go to an interrogation room with two men before she got to customs. Customs, Police and Immigration should be trained on how to properly assess people.

    Because other countries are violating peoples rights that does not give us a right to do so. Many years ago a Bajan businessman enter the USA with a large amount of funds to purchase car parts for his business. He was taken to a room to be interrogated by the FBI, there he was badly beaten by agents so bad that he had be hospitalized and lost sight in one of his eyes. He got hold of a lawyer and sued the US government and won. They had to apologize and compensate him. Now they are very careful how they handle people, be polite and firm.

  20. ac Avatar
    ac

    there is no doubt that Myrie lied. So far her onlyb evedience to suopport her charge of “fingerraped”was that of knowing the details make up of the bathroom of the alleges incident but on rebutal the police officer said that all the bathrooms were identical.

  21. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    islandgal246 “Customs, Police and Immigration should be trained on how to properly assess people”

    Dear Island:

    There is no fool proof way to assess people. Look and learn from this story in today’s Toronto Star:

    http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/04/01/battling_child_sex_tourism_case_of_83yearold_retired_lawyer_highlights_legal_loopholes.html

    The government of Grenada granted a Grenadian passport to Matthew Sheard [the Canadian Sherd’s Canadian passport had been revoked by the government of Canada] Sheard a propertied, multimillionaire, retired 83 year old lawyer from a distinguished family [Ontario] whose lineage flows from an early Toronto mayor to one of the city’s first medical officers of health to contemporaries who include a respected physician brother and a cousin who sat on the bench of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

    So why not grant Sheard a Grenadian passport, or a Barbados one?

    Because “Sheard’s string of convictions for creating child pornography featuring young boys overseas provides a case study in how sexual predators can exploit the justice system and leave behind a trail of victims. “He’s got every creepy aspect behind him,” says Det. Const. Jeff Kidd with the Toronto police’s child exploitation unit, who led the Sheard investigation. “He didn’t have any issues about what he was doing.” On four occasions between 2000 and 2010, while in his 70s, Sheard was convicted for various offences related to sexually exploiting young boys and breaching his probation.

    Yes indeed Mr. Sheard too is one of our rich white tourists who “deserve” a special court.

    Has Sheard ever been to Barbados?

    Do we know?

    Do we want to know?

    If the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association knew about Mr. Sheard would they tell us?

    Do any of our rich white tourists do this nastiness to our Bajan children?

    Do we know?

    Do we want to know?

    Does the BHTA know?

    If the BHTA knew would they tell us?

    Has Mr. Sheard ever been cavity searched?

    Do any customs officials anywhere search the cavities of rich old white men?

  22. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @jeff Cumberbatch | April 1, 2013 at 10:44 AM |
    “If that is so, then IF there was indeed a cavity search, Barbados acted properly.”

    Can a “cavity” search of a person’s sexual or alimentary organs be performed without the express permission of the person to be searched whether a citizen or an “alien”?
    If a cavity search is to be conducted because of overriding concerns about the person possibly carrying illegal or contraband substances inside that person’s body, shouldn’t a court order be obtained and the ‘examination’ performed under clinically approved circumstances by the appropriately trained and qualified personnel permitted to carry out such invasive procedures?

    Knowing Barbados it must have signed on to all the UN conventions on Human Rights and the rights to the protection of the human body from physical violation and desecration without due process of law.

  23. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    There no aliens.

  24. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Simple Simon…I agree that there are no foolproof ways to assess people and people lie about everything and anything. There are many white tourists who have been visiting here for many years have been luring under-age girls to their villas. I remember a maid told about a particular villa where a wealthy couple rented for several months a year. The man would get/pay the security guard to bring him school girls while his wife was out playing golf. I told her that she should call the police when this occurs. She said that the villa manager called the police and the police responded that they can’t do anything unless they catch him in the act. As far as I understand he is still coming to spend the winter season here.

  25. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Except the big,l big, green persons from Uranus, and we are free to cavity them anytime and without due process, and without a court order, but since they are 30 feet tall, very, very smart, and hugely agressive we won’t be searching their cavities any time soon.

  26. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Saw one last night, right outside my window.

  27. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Dear Island: Then if he is Canadian or American or American she should call one of those police forces and they will catch the rascal when he returns home. Since our own police seem to be a bunch of eunuchs.

    She can call Crime Stoppers and inform on him, anonymously of course and in the meanwhile she should ALWAYS, ALWAYS spit in his food,especially if she is young and has a bad flu and he is old.

  28. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Or British.

  29. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    There have been many elderly tourists, males as well as females over the years who used Barbados as a sexual playground for decades, including sex with young boys and girls, the like of the BTA, BHTA, Mottley, Dass and Springer, the government, et al will never in a million years acknowledge that this occurred or is still occurring today. There was one old guy from Boston who preyed on young black males until he got too old to travel to Barbados. So when Dass et al are setting up their courts for crimes against tourists, hope they also set up a court to convict the pedophile tourists who prey on children on various islands around the world, Barbados included. I remember vividly how many young men and women in Bim succumbed to the AIDS virus after their sexual interactions with tourists. Tourism a double edged sword..

  30. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @islandgal246 “There are many white tourists who have been visiting here for many years have been luring under-age girls to their villas”

    island ya lie?

    Does the BHTA know this?

    Are you going to tell them?

    What will they do when you tell them?

  31. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Simple Simon…..This is one of Barbados’ best kept secret, everyone knows and many don’t care to know.

  32. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    First fella to die of AIDS in Barbados was a young fella who lived and worked at the bottom of Holder’s Hill.

    HIV/AIDS was introduced to Barbados re the sex tourist industry.

    The Ministry of Tourism knows this.

    The BHTA knows this.

    The BTA knows this.

    How much money has it cost us to look after the sick ones?

    How much did they and their families lose in wages?

    How much have we Bajans lost in unpaid taxes and National Insurance?

    How many elders were deprived of care and of money as sons and daughters were lost to HIV/AIDS and could not care for their elders?

    How many children were deprived of the earnings of their parents

    How many orphaned children do we the Bajan taxpayers have to support because a sex tourist satisfied his/her lust for small change?

    Are we ready to talk about these things?

    Is the BHTA ready?

  33. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Is there any member past r resent of the BHTA who knew or reasonably ought to have know about predatory sex tourists?

    Some of the victims are dead but not all.

    Not all.

    Is the BHTA and the RBPF cooperating with foreign agencies who are trying to catch the sex tourists?

    And if not why not?

  34. jeff Cumberbatch Avatar
    jeff Cumberbatch

    Mr Miller,

    You have taken my statement out of context. You notice that it was conditional -“if”. It was in reply to Lemuel’s assertion that cavity searches are the “norm…”. However, as you suspect, they are not – see sections 232-234 of the Customs Act, Cap 66

  35. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    There is a reason why there is Interpol (International police) but our governments and immigration never check the backgrounds of wealthy white tourists, just allow them to slither in and out of the islands committing crimes to their hearts desire.

    Just imagine how much damage Beard did to the young males in Grenada, he was even allowed to buy a passport.

    The name playground for the rich and famous is in reality playground for pedophiles, drug and sexual addicts with more money than sense of what to do with their millions. I am a little surprised it took this long for the sex tourism information to be exposed. Maybe Mottley’s economic terrorism statement and Dass’ court for crimes against tourist reply will allow the people who actually have morals and ethics to call for background checks on the wealthy and severe punishment and exposure when they practice their pedophilia on the island’s children.

  36. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Many years ago a Bajan businessman enter the USA with a large amount of funds to purchase car parts for his business. He was taken to a room to be interrogated by the FBI, there he was badly beaten by agents so bad that he had be hospitalized and lost sight in one of his eyes.

    Heard about this one years ago from my relatives over and away.

    Except island t that said businessman had a “funny eye” from childhood. But it seems that the interrogation may have “aggravated” the injury and the agency for which the beaters operated had to settle.

    Thing is I don’t think this businessman has ever drunk a beer in his life nor smoked a spliff nor bought or sold either.

    Profiling plain and simple.

  37. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Many sexual predators of children from Europe and North America who used Thailand, Maldives and quite a few other destinations have been banned from traveling to these areas……………Barbados being so tourist dependent and all would want to think twice about contacting authorities, would not want to lose their bread and butter at the expense of endangering their children………………that is what happens when you sell your soul to the devil. The countries these pedophiles belong to are looking for them, time to hand them over.

  38. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    But said businessman had high ranking relatives both here and there, and high ranking relatives advised that he should not let an injustice stand. Because if you tolerate one injustice then you can only expect to get more of the same.

  39. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ jeff Cumberbatch | April 1, 2013 at 1:51 PM

    How else can a simple layman win an argument wit an legal eagle other than “borrowing” a well-honed technique from the old kit bag of successful lawyers arguing before a jury of blindly impressive ignorance of the law and techniques of unfair debating and being guided by a judge some of whom might have been under your academic guidance but failed to take your instructions seriously (LOL!!).

    So what are you going to do about your Cave Hill contemporary who although academically scintillation Rhodes scholar and all is a square peg in a round ‘practicing’ hole called CJ as eruditely pointed out by our wicked amicus curiae Amused mutually admired from all sides of the intellectual divide?

  40. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Mr. Sheard became a multimillionaire when he was 17 in 1947 do we really believe that he has never come to Barbados? when so many Canadian tourists have always come to Barbados.

    We are only hearing now about what he did after age 70, but do we really believe that he was celibate between 17 and 70?

    Were any of us celibate between 17 and 70?

    And was he a regular visitor to Barbados between 1947 and 2000? Do BTA or BHTA officials know of him and if they do would they tell us, or are they waiting for the RCMP to come and cavity search them?

  41. MacGyver Avatar
    MacGyver

    I just have one question, who has the authority to do a cavity search if such is to be done?

  42. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Just imagine how many crimes Sheard committed between 1947 and present, how many young males in countries all over the world was victim to this predator………………………I would be shocked if he never visited Barbados and practiced his sickness there, it is one of the easiest islands to infiltrate if you are white as well as wealthy. He is still very much alive maybe the authorities in Bim might want to check their records, this would keep him permanently in Toronto, in case he has a little life left in him. I know a a local lawyer in his 80’s in Barbados who is still a vicious sexual predator of young girls…………………..we know that nothing will ever be done with that lowlife.

  43. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Simple Simon | April 1, 2013 at 2:16 PM |
    “Do BTA or BHTA officials know of him and if they do would they tell us, or are they waiting for the RCMP to come and cavity search them?”

    You can bet that our funny friend Fractured BLP will be at the front of the queue for such invasive operations. But that would be like routine for that he/she fella; just another day on the anal job for that loose pooch Fractured!

    Just feeling wicked after Fractured’s broadside at OSA and some IMF assignment.
    Should such an assignment materialize- and in the eyes of the DLP- it would be most retributive for OSA to be put in charge of facilitating the devaluation of the Bajan dollar and the long deferred restructuring of the economy to drag this country into the 21st Century.
    How can Bim sustain a situation in which the currencies of its main regional trading partners are way below par of its own currency?

  44. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Lemuel

    “The question that has not been clearly articulated is why should a court of appeal be hearing this case seeing that no other court has peered into the substance of Myrie’s allegations.”

    This is the question that I have been asking over and over as well and no one wants to answer it.

  45. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Is Myrie really a “woman”?

    JUST ASKING……….

  46. Lemuel Avatar
    Lemuel

    CCC
    Fro the first time we have intersected; I can use that word with you but not with your friend Fractured. Is Myrie a female or a remade female. If she was remade where did that finger go. Without a vagina what was raped?

  47. Lemuel Avatar
    Lemuel

    CCC
    Jeff Cumberbatch said that the RTC allows the CCJ to hear this case. Apparently, the concern is about the treatment meted out to Myrie who was trying to trick her way into Barbados.

  48. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Jeff Cumberbatch out of some sense of loyalty to the legal profession and the concept of the CCJ, refuses to be totally frank with BU. This Myrie case has absolutely nothing to do with any treaty violation. She was not picked upon because she is Jamacian. Initially, she was admitted to Barbados. Thereafter, it was discovered that she lied to gain entry. She should have been arrested and charged with lying to an immigration officer and sent to jail or deported. The officers took a short cut and that is why we are at this point.

    The CCJ is severely underemployed and they were trying to find work for themselves. This case is more about an intellectual sleight of hands than any real violation of a treaty. Imagine you were a lady and someone forced his/her hand in your vagina without your consent, and all you could come up with is that my right to free movement under the treaty has been violated. A normal person would want to have the culprit jailed. She alleged a criminal offence against her: why were no criminal charges filed?

  49. ac Avatar
    ac

    barbados is easy pickings for other carribbean islands most of time the bajans take a one sided approach to an issues always taking the side of those claiming allegations against the country without the facts. now what is apparent is that Jamaica is trying to send a message to other carribbean nations that if they insist and persist on singling out jamaicans for searches and immigration interrogation which the perceive is tantamount to discrimination and racial profiling that they will take those carribbean countries to court.
    AS far as the finger raped goes it cannot be proven but it reaches out into the area of search and seizure a clear and vivid point that Jamaica is trying to prove one that its citizens have consistently complained about making the cavity search on face value seems real and helping to boost allegations by others wether there was a cavity search of Myrie or not.

  50. ac Avatar
    ac

    island gal .”a bush and cutlass lawyer” now that is truly a stinging indictment against Caswell. Could there be apossible lawsuit filed against you by Caswell for such harsh words here on BU.

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