标签： Barbados

A key constitutional lawsuit filed by a retired jurist against the country’s Attorney General and a former chief justice has moved one step closer to trial after a High Court judge dismissed nearly half of the original claims for lacking reasonable legal grounds, while clearing the path for the remaining allegations to advance to a full hearing.

Retired judge Dr. Sonia Richards launched the suit against former top judiciary head Sir Patterson Cheltenham and the current Attorney General, alleging multiple violations of her constitutional and employment rights during her time in judicial office. In a comprehensive 76-page judgment delivered Friday, Justice Shona Griffith outlined her rationale for dismissing four of Dr. Richards’ core claims, ruling each failed to meet the basic threshold of demonstrating reasonable legal cause for action.

The four dismissed claims included allegations that the two defendants violated Dr. Richards’ right to personal security, her right to protection from inhuman and degrading treatment, her right to fair consideration for a tenure extension, and her right to only be removed from office in line with Sections 84(3) and 84(4) of the national Constitution. These allegations will not proceed to trial.

Despite the dismissals, Justice Griffith preserved multiple key claims that will now move forward. Dr. Richards will be permitted to argue that her right to security of tenure was unlawfully breached, a claim that does not involve allegations of unlawful removal from office. She will also be allowed to pursue her claim that the defendants violated her right to equal protection under the law, though the court ruled she must first formally re-plead the specific circumstances of this alleged breach to clarify her case.

Three separate defamation claims brought by the retired judge against the defendants were also cleared to proceed, with an order that each be argued individually before the court. Two additional private law claims — that Dr. Richards’ employment terms and conditions were breached, and that the defendants failed to uphold their duty of care to her during her tenure — will also move ahead.

To keep the case on track, Justice Griffith issued strict procedural deadlines for both parties. Dr. Richards, as the claimant, has been ordered to file and serve an amended statement of claim that clearly outlines her remaining causes of action and the remedies she is seeking from the court by no later than September 30. Justice Griffith ruled that the claimant’s affidavit submitted in support of her original fixed-date claim on May 7, 2025 will remain valid as evidence for the remaining constitutional and private law claims, unless the court issues a conflicting future order.

Following receipt of the amended statement of claim, the defendants have been granted six weeks to file their formal response and defence. Any reply from the claimant to the defence will follow the timetable set out in existing civil procedure rules. The judge issued a clear warning that failure to meet any of the court-ordered deadlines could result in the non-compliant party having their case dismissed, or being ordered to cover the opposing side’s legal costs.

The case has been adjourned for ongoing case management, and a next hearing will be scheduled before a different judge at a later date. Legal teams for both sides have retained the right to make submissions on the awarding of legal costs related to the pre-trial applications that led to Friday’s ruling.

In her original claim, Dr. Richards alleged that multiple constitutional protections guaranteed to her during her judicial tenure were breached by the defendants. She further claimed that Sir Patterson Cheltenham defamed her through both words and actions during his time as chief justice, and that the state’s treatment of her amounted to professional negligence as well as breach of her employment contract. Dr. Richards is seeking financial damages for the alleged constitutional violations, as well as additional damages for the claimed breaches of her private law rights.

Dr. Richards is represented by a legal team led by Georgia Gibson-Henlin KC, with support from Lalu Hanuman, Lemar Neal, and Stepenie Williams. The defendants are represented by Roger Forde KC, assisted by Nicole Boyce and Rene Forde.

In a landmark constitutional ruling that balances religious accommodation with public welfare priorities, a High Court judge has dismissed a legal challenge brought by a Rastafarian practitioner seeking to expand the rights to sacramental cannabis use in private homes. Paul Ras Simba Rock, represented by attorney Lalu Hanuman, argued that key provisions of the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act (DAPCA) were discriminatory, and claimed that location restrictions on permitted Rastafarian cannabis use outlined in the Sacramental Cannabis Act (SCA) unlawfully infringed on his constitutionally protected religious freedom.

Delivering the final judgment, Justice Michelle Weekes rejected Rock’s core discrimination claim against the DAPCA, noting that the legislation applies uniformly across all populations, and that the SCA already creates an explicit carve-out that benefits Rastafarians rather than targeting the community for adverse treatment.

Justice Weekes acknowledged in her ruling that Sections 6, 8, and 11 of the DAPCA do, on their face, interfere with constitutional protections enshrined in Sections 11 and 19 of the national constitution — including the right to home privacy and freedom of conscience — and that these restrictions carry disproportionate weight for Rastafarians, for whom cannabis holds central sacramental importance in religious practice. However, she emphasized that this superficial interference does not automatically render the contested provisions unconstitutional.

“On the evidence before the court, the state has demonstrated that the restrictions imposed by the DAPCA are reasonably required to protect public health, maintain public order, preserve public safety, and prevent criminal activity,” Justice Weekes wrote. “The claimant has failed to overcome this public interest justification, or prove that the provisions are not reasonably justifiable in a democratic society.”

The judgment clarified that the SCA already establishes a limited, legal exception permitting Rastafarians to use cannabis for sacramental purposes exclusively in officially approved places of worship. Justice Weekes stressed that the fact the exception does not extend to private home use or private cultivation, as Rock requested, does not make the underlying legislation unconstitutional. “It is not this court’s role to create new statutory provisions or rewrite existing legislation that Parliament has enacted,” she noted. “That legislative authority rests exclusively with the elected parliamentary body.”

In his original challenge, Rock alleged multiple violations of his constitutional rights, including the right to personal liberty, privacy, equal protection under the law, freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association, freedom of religion, and protection from discrimination based on creed — violations he claimed ran counter to both domestic constitutional provisions and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The court accepted that the DAPCA’s prohibitions on cannabis possession, cultivation, and non-medical use engage the rights outlined in Article 11 of the constitution, and that the law intrudes on home privacy because its prohibitions apply even to private, personal use within a person’s own residence. It also formally acknowledged that cannabis plays a central role in Rastafarian worship, meditation, healing, and spiritual observance.

Supporting the state’s defense, witness testimony from senior law enforcement and mental health experts — including Deputy Police Commissioner Erwin Boyce, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist Brian MacLachlan, and senior psychiatry lecturer Dr Maisha Emmanuel — outlined compelling public health and crime prevention justifications for maintaining strict cannabis regulation.

Addressing the challenge to the SCA’s limited scope, Justice Weekes explained that the SCA does not itself criminalize private home cannabis use: that prohibition comes from the DAPCA, while the SCA acts to relax the general ban by creating a permitted regime for sacramental use, possession, cultivation, preparation, storage and disposal in approved settings. “The question is not whether the SCA itself criminalizes the claimant’s preferred religious practices, but whether the accommodation it creates is so narrow or burdensome as to amount to unconstitutional interference,” she said. “The court is not satisfied that this is the case.”

She added that while the claimant may be disappointed the exemption does not extend to private homes, that disappointment does not turn the existing accommodation into an unconstitutional ban, and the court has no authority to expand the statutory exemption beyond what Parliament has written into law. On the claim of violated religious freedom under Article 19, Justice Weekes ruled that the state had sufficiently justified the DAPCA’s limitations by linking broad prohibitions to core public health, public safety and crime reduction goals, and that Rock had failed to prove the limitation was unreasonable in a democratic society.

The judge also dismissed the discrimination claim brought under Article 23, noting that Rock had not presented evidence showing Rastafarians receive less favorable treatment than followers of other faiths in comparable circumstances. “The DAPCA’s contested provisions apply generally to all people, regardless of religious creed,” Justice Weekes explained. “Any disproportionate impact on Rastafarians arises because cannabis is sacramental to their faith, not because the law targets or classifies people based on their religion. And as we have found, this impact is justified by overriding public health, public order and crime prevention priorities.”

She further emphasized that the SCA explicitly prioritizes Rastafarians by creating a statutory accommodation that is not available to followers of other religions or the general public. “A limited benefit is not the same as less favorable treatment under anti-discrimination law,” she concluded.

Barbados is set to expand domestic food production and reignite public interest in agriculture through a landmark new community farming program that will directly benefit 600 households across the island starting next month, Minister of Agriculture Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight confirmed in a formal announcement Friday. Unveiled during the closing ceremony for the Ministry of Agriculture’s annual Hearts and Minds summer camp, the initiative will operate under the government’s existing One Family Programme, kicking off with three strategically designed demonstration farms before a nationwide rollout to participating households and local communities.

Dr. Munro-Knight emphasized that the demonstration sites are intended to hand agricultural innovation back to local communities, arguing that Barbadians will rekindle their connection to farming when given the space, resources, and autonomy to lead small-scale growing projects. One of the three demonstration farms will be dedicated exclusively to showcasing cutting-edge modern agricultural technology, designed to introduce community members and young people to advanced, sustainable growing methods that challenge outdated perceptions of farming work.

Under the program’s household-focused component, participating families will receive all the core resources required to establish their own backyard growing operations at no cost, including starter seedlings, portable grow bags, raised grow boxes, chicken coops for small-scale poultry production, and ongoing on-demand technical support from Ministry of Agriculture specialists. The program does not limit production to small herbs and leafy greens; participating households are encouraged to grow staple crops including sweet potato, raise poultry for meat and eggs, and even pursue small-scale aquaculture, tailored to their household’s needs and available space.

This community farming push forms a central pillar of the Ministry of Agriculture’s broader Hearts and Minds strategy, a long-term policy agenda designed to re-engage Barbadians in the agricultural sector and boost participation, especially among the nation’s youth. Currently, nearly 200 post-secondary students from leading local institutions – including Barbados Community College, the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology, and the University of the West Indies – are completing structured internships across different departments of the Ministry of Agriculture to expose them to the full scope of career opportunities in the sector.

Dr. Munro-Knight noted that these internships are a key step to dismantle the persistent myth that agriculture only consists of manual farm work, highlighting the wide range of specialized professional roles in the sector, from veterinary services and animal nutrition to tissue culture research, soil science, and plant protection – all critical components of a functional, resilient national food system.

To further expand youth access to industry exposure, the minister also announced a suite of international training scholarships for young Barbadians interested in agricultural careers. Approximately five full scholarships will fund study and placement in Europe to focus on agribusiness, with additional scholarships available for training programs in Canada and Florida targeted at addressing skills gaps in the domestic sector.

Dr. Munro-Knight framed investment in youth agricultural training as a non-negotiable priority for Barbados’ long-term national development. “Agriculture is critical for our national development, and if we say that, then we need to invest in the future of that national development,” she explained, adding that engaging young people today creates a ripple effect that will strengthen the sector for generations to come.

In the coming weeks, Ministry of Agriculture officials will launch a series of statewide consultations with existing small-scale and commercial farmers to review the ministry’s new strategic plans, listen to on-the-ground challenges facing local producers, and incorporate farmer feedback into policy adjustments. Dr. Munro-Knight reaffirmed the ministry’s deep, foundational commitment to transforming Barbados’ agricultural sector and scaling up domestic production to meet the nation’s long-term food security goals.