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FNM in spy bill change

ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel.

ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel.

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis Administration will amend its Interception of Communication Bill to ensure the Minister of National Security does not have the power to authorize use of listening devices, Attorney General Carl Bethel announced in the Senate yesterday.

Activists and the Progressive Liberal Party had criticized the administration not only for tabling a Bill it opposed in opposition just several months ago, but for modifying it to give the power to authorize wiretaps to the Minister of National Security and the Commissioner of Police. 

Unlike the PLP’s Bill, the FNM’s Bill encompasses the provisions of the Listening Devices Act, the controversial law that would be repealed if the Interception of Communication Bill passes through Parliament. 

The LDA gives the Minister of National Security power to authorize the use of listening devices for up to 30 days and for the Commissioner of Police, in consultation with the Attorney General, to do the same for up to 14 days.

“The Privy Council suggested that a mature Parliament in a modern state might wish to review (these) parts,” Mr Bethel acknowledged yesterday, adding: “We understand that so that power is out. The legal authority the present law has for the Minister of National Security to just himself authorize, that is going to be out. We’re taking out the offensive elements.”

However, the Minnis Administration may not yet be willing to go as far as the PLP contends it should, with Mr Bethel suggesting he favours keeping the provision that allows the Commissioner of Police to authorize the use of listening devices in consultation with the Attorney General without having to get a warrant. 

“The minister of national security has no further role to play in any form of Interception of communications,” he said.

“It will only be the Attorney General, the commissioner and the court. A case could be made that in matters of great urgency the police do need to have the ability in real time without preparing court documents (to intercept communications) and even though (the Bill) says you can go to a judge you still have to thereafter prepare court documents. (When you need) real-time, immediate voices on the communications, it is with that possibility in mind that those provisions (authorizing use of listening devices in the LDA) have been added in. The point is that there are situations of grave emergency where the police may need to move very quickly to hear a conversation. And so we will have discussions with civil society and we will see how far that goes. The important part about that already is based on comments on that which have already been received, the police will only be able to go to the Attorney General, get the consent from the Attorney General and use a listening device for 14 days. After 14 days they must go to court.”

Mr Bethel said the original Bill has been amended to ensure communications can’t be intercepted except when serious crimes are suspected.

“The PLP’s Bill would’ have given the right to obtain an interception warrant for any offence so if some employer decides that some employee is tiefin’ by reason of employment they would’ve had the right to go make a complaint and get the police to go wiretap some staff member,” he said. “Yes through a judge (they would get that power), but the point is that it applied to any offence and there are many, many minor criminal offences in respect to which (it could’ve been applied).”

“The first thing we did is we took that phrase out and limited the operation to the most serious offences, those that really count: murder, drug trafficking, terrorism and human trafficking. There was some reference (in the original Bill) to sedition and treason; they’re ridiculous offences, they’re going to be taken out after the consultative process. Any political offence like criminal libel, we in the FNM, in our history, we know about what appeared to us to be the abuse of the state’s power to charge people with certain offences for political reasons.”

On Wednesday, human rights activist Fred Smith, the fiercest critic of the original Bill, said the FNM’s Bill “is worse than the PLP Bill.”

While Mr Bethel reiterated yesterday the administration will have widespread consultation on the Bill before debate begins in Parliament, Mr Smith said yesterday the Bbill should be withdrawn from Parliament for proper consultations to continue. 

“The government should withdraw the Bill from Parliament and conduct a sensible consultation exercise with the public,” he said. 

The Minnis Administration has not responded directly to hypocrisy charges even though several elected officials, including Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, shredded the PLP for tabling the Bill several months ago.

Anthony Newbold, Dr Hubert Minnis’ press secretary, said Tuesday that Dr Minnis has indicated no regrets to him over statements he made months ago criticizing the PLP’s Bill.

Comments

Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 2 months ago

"The point is that there are situations of grave emergency where the police may need to move very quickly to hear a conversation. And so we will have discussions with civil society and we will see how far that goes.........

.......we..... limited the operation to the most serious offences, those that really count: murder, drug trafficking, terrorism and human trafficking."

Carl Bethel is once again much too cute and coy for his own disingenuous britches! Time being of the essence in any matter.....especially one that can fall under the limitlessly broad definition of "terrorism"..... should never ever trump the need for the independent judiciary branch to be involved in formally blessing (always beforehand) the reasonable grounds for the violation of our constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy among other rights. Many of us no longer trust Bethel and I'm surprised Minnis does not appreciate the serious political liability and other risks in keeping him on as AG. Minnis would be wise to never turn his back to Bethel or Symonette - these two have the longest daggers and will not hesitate to use them when they feel the time is right!

Reality_Check 7 years, 2 months ago

Repost: Can you just imagine for one moment how such a spy statute would have been used by the corrupt Christie-led PLP government???!!!! Crooked Christie and his evil wicked witch of an attorney general (Allyson Maynard-gibson) would have used the dangerous spying powers to serve their own very corrupt greedy purposes and at the same time crush the voices of all opposition to them, including the free-press. The change of government on May 10, 2017 would never have occurred and most of us who heavily criticized the PLP (including many bloggers to this website) would have probably faced trumped up bogus charges of one kind or another before being carted off to prison. "No!" we cannot afford for any government to ever have such dangerous and intrusive powers over us. It would result in the end of our constitutional rights and democracy no matter what the distinguished lawyers and politicians in our country may tell us. That's the harsh reality! The threats to our society are not such that we should be willing to allow our government to listen in to our most private conversations and surveil all our other communications (internet and otherwise). Simply put, the dangers of doing so far outweigh any possible benefits! If there is one matter that warrants a national referendum, it would be this proposed spy statute as it would definitely be challenged on many legal fronts eventually triggering the need for the proposal of certain undesirable amendments to our existing constitution. With this in mind, a national referendum should be held first as opposed to the Minnis-led FNM government trying to ram the proposed spy statute down our throats after informal public commentary on it. Do the right thing Minnis - call for a national referendum (not a public survey) on this most important matter!

Truism 7 years, 2 months ago

Paging Mr. Henfield. Damn! I forgot. We marched so we could sit.

ThisIsOurs 7 years, 2 months ago

"#The LDA gives the Minister of National Security power to authorize the use of listening devices for up to 30 days and for the Commissioner of Police, in consultation with the Attorney General, to do the same for up to 14 days.“The Privy Council suggested that a mature Parliament in a modern state might wish to review (these) parts,” Mr Bethel acknowledged yesterday,"

This is quite an admission. I'm beginning not to recognize these people. They aren't the sand people who campaigned for office in 2016. Maybe they should ask themselves if they'd want such a powers handed over to a PM Fitzgerald, DPM Mitchell and AG Maynard and have them say, "but it was y'all who implement this"...

This is not a messaging problem...tabling the bill was a deliberate action

sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago

Off course the FNM needs the Spy Bill ............ to track the ex-PLP Cabinet fellas and their cronies who are trying to duck Fox Hill and stash all of their ill-gotten gains ......... watsayu????

ThisIsOurs 7 years, 2 months ago

They need "a"bill, but they need a well thought out bill. Often times people implement rules without considering all the implications, because at the time of implementation, it won't affect them. They only foresee the scenario where they are in charge. Why table a bill then say "just kidding, of course this part has to be removed because a "mature" parliament should review that"??? It's almost unbelievable. It shows a level of sloppiness that has dogged them from the "dead people on boards"

ThisIsOurs 7 years, 2 months ago

They need to do better for all our sake

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