Opposition senator attacks surveillance bill as govt ‘rush job’

Opposition Senator Andre Worrell accused the government of creating a “police state” on Wednesday as he launched a blistering attack on the Interception of Communications Bill, warning that it is poorly drafted, lacks consultation and risks criminalising law-abiding citizens.

On the floor of the Senate he predicted: “This piece of legislation, the way how it is drafted, the way how it is crafted, and the way how it is being foisted upon the people of this country will go down, just like the tint legislation, as being rather ineffective in terms of combating crime in this country.”

Emphasising that while the opposition supported wiretapping as a crime-fighting measure, he said it must be properly drafted and used only to target criminal elements, not private citizens or for political gain.

According to Senator Worrell, there had been a glaring lack of consultation on the legislation, including from the legal fraternity and the social partnership.

“Adequate consultation would have allowed the members of the social partnership enough time to go over the information in this legislation, seek advice from professionals who may know and come to the social partnership with questions, with recommendations so that they can add to the process,” he argued.

Senator Worrell recommended that the bill be referred to the Joint Select Standing Committee of Governance and Policy Matters, to allow for wider consultation, rather than be “rushed” through Parliament.

Accusing the Mottley administration of throwing legislation at the island’s crime problem – while pointing to the forthcoming tint regulations – the senator said that if the government were serious, it would have brought forward anti-gang legislation.

He said: “Barbadians are generally law-abiding citizens, but we do not need a government creating what Barbadians see as a police state, bringing legislation which will criminalise Barbadians. You have it with the tint legislation. The tint will not solve crime in this country when the persons who are conducting the crime are on foot or on motorcycle. The tint will not bring anything to this.

“This Interception of Communication Bill, if the agent operating it spends more time trying to intercept the communication of law-abiding citizens, as opposed to the actual criminals, they would do nothing to change the face of crime in Barbados. If this government wanted Barbadians to believe that there was serious about their fight against crime, they would have introduced anti-gang legislation, and if that legislation had met all of the checks and balances, the Democratic Labour Party, in opposition, would gladly support it.”

He also identified several inconsistencies in the bill compared with other jurisdictions, citing section 13, which allows judges to request a progress report, as an example.

Senator Worrell said: “We do not have enough information to determine whether or not the Monitoring Committee is completely able to actually perform their functions. You have a recommendation of 120 days for a progress report, whereas in other jurisdictions, it is 90 days. In Jamaica, 90 days; in Trinidad, 90 days; in Guyana and in other jurisdictions, it is far less than that, 60 days. So why do we need 120 days to do something that other places would do in 90 days? All of these things need to be taken into consideration.” (JB)

The post Opposition senator attacks surveillance bill as govt ‘rush job’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

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