St. Vincent opposition MP St. Clair Leacock, speaking at the NDP’s virtual rally on Thursday, said there comes a time in history and the life of man when they have to just call it for what it is.
Leacock said there are a mountain of issues affecting Vincentians, and St. Vincent (SVG) is at the point where it needs a very broad coalition of forces to stand against the evil that is upon the nation.
The Opposition MP said that 22 years or so ago, he happened to be in Grenada when there was a situation with the New Democratic Party, his party, and Sir James then facing the might of what was then the Unity Labour Party; however, what he is seeing today of that party is simply unbelievable.
“If you told me 22 years later that the same government or the ULP now in government that calls itself a Labour government would be waging war against the labor movement, I would have told you I don’t believe that.”
On March 13, Judge Esco Henry ruled that the vaccine mandate by the government was unconstitutional and found that the decision to deem the public servants to have resigned without giving them an opportunity to be heard was ultra vires, procedurally improper, and contrary to the rules of natural justice.
Judge Henry also issued a certiorari to overturn the decisions of the minister, police commissioner, public service commission, and police service commission, saying that the public servants never left their jobs.
“It is the reality, and it’s probably the first time in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines that the labor movement, the trade union movement, the workers’ representative, the poor, the downtrodden, and in the case of the teachers’ union, have taken the government to court on three successive occasions and won them every single time.”
The unions have been urging the government not to appeal the matter; however, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said the legal team has advised the administration that there is merit in appealing.
Leacock said any government that had a reasonable amount of decency among them would have demitted office.
“They would have come to the realization that it’s time to go,” Leacock said.
