The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court judge will tomorrow determine if a standing injunction, which bars the government from evicting shanty town residents and disconnecting services in their communities, will be extended to cover unregulated communities in Abaco.

In 2018, the government announced plans for an initiative to remove unregulated and unsafe buildings in shanty towns. As a result, officials gave shanty town residents in most areas of New Providence until August 10, 2018, to leave before demolition. Persons residing in shanty towns in Abaco were also set to be given until July 2019 to vacate their properties.

However, just days ahead of the government’s August 10 deadline, Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson granted an interlocutory injunction blocking evictions and service disconnections in these communities pending a judicial review centred on their demolition.

Last month, attorneys representing the shanty town residents and non-profit group Respect Our Homes Ltd in the judicial proceedings, filed an urgent appeal asking the courts to vary the injunction as they feared it was a “real possibility” the government would destroy or seize the homes of applicants in Abaco before the proceedings were heard and adjudicated upon.

Their appeal came a few weeks before the government launched a joint sting operation on shanty towns on the island.

Just last week, the Ministry of Works spearheaded the demolition of 45 “incomplete and unoccupied structures” in The Farm shanty town in Abaco. Earlier this month, law enforcement also descended upon the shanty town, confiscating generators, food supplies, personal items, illegal contraband and arresting several residents for various alleged infractions.

At the time, officials said “illegally constructed” access roadways were closed and signs written in English and Creole were erected. Signs were also posted on illegally erected buildings which warned inhabitants of the legal prohibition of any new construction, and of the intention of the government to demolish all of the illegally constructed buildings, the ministry said earlier this month.

Yesterday, Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson said when she was reviewing the interlocutory issue, she discovered that it was “actually deeper than it appears on the surface”. For that reason, she said while she recognised the matter was “material and urgent” for the applicants, she would not be able to rule on it until April 30.

However, during the virtual hearing, she did deliver her second ruling in which she denied the application of an Andros man who was seeking to have local government added as a third-party applicant to the judicial review.

Counsel for Gregory Bowe of San Andros had initially submitted a summons seeking to have the judicial review set aside after arguing the “substantive action filed by the applicants should not be against the minister, but rather against the local government in accordance with the Local Government Act”. He further contended that “any buildings, materials or enforcement pursued under the Building Regulations Act should be strictly enforced by the local government”.

However, Justice Grant-Thompson noted that the man’s request to join the action and have the commissioner of police added as a respondent was refused in an earlier ruling, as she believed the party “that would ultimately be tasked with representing the commissioner” would have been the appropriate party to make such an application.

“Similarly, if the local government was to be added as an essential party to this application, in my view the respondents and not the intended applicants should be the party seeking to have them joined,” she stated. “In any event the intended applicants have not satisfied the court that the judicial review application that is presently before this court should be set aside. The application is hereby dismissed.”

The government’s plans to eradicate shanty towns in the country has received much opposition from Fred Smith, QC, the lead counsel representing all 177 residents in the judicial hearing.

Over the course of the proceedings, Mr Smith, who has been critical of the government’s recent sting operations in Abaco, argued that the government was embarking on a “dictatorial” policy to completely eliminate ethnically Haitian-Bahamian communities in the country.

On the contrary, Crown attorney Kayla Green-Smith asserts the government’s initiative is not driven by ethnic cleansing and will be executed in a “humane manner”.

She is set to complete her submissions when the matter resumes tomorrow.

Justice Grant-Thompson is also scheduled to deliver her substantive ruling on the judicial proceedings on June 30.