Canada funds local justice system improvements

International support continues to pour in for Guyana. This time, the support has come from a Canadian non-government organization in the form of a $750,000 grant which is set to be used for the development of Guyana’s justice system. The Canadian non-governmental organisation is the Justice Education Society of British Columbia.

Attorney General Basil Williams and Canadian High Commissioner Nicole Giles

The announcement was made yesterday by Canadian High Commissioner, Dr Nicole Giles, during a courtesy call to new Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams. Williams said that a $750,000 grant had been approved by Canada as part of a development plan for Guyana. More specifically, he said, the plan will look at certain aspects of improving the justice system including legislative drafting, the training of judges and lawyers, and the question of how the courts are administered. Part of the Canadian grant will also assist in undue delays and the backlogs of cases, Williams said. He added that outside of the court systems, no other particular element was discussed. Dr. Giles added that the grant was provided to Guyana through Canada’s regional development programme for the Caribbean. She said there are two $20M regional justice programmes for the region. One of the projects, she said, will be implemented through the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), while the other is being done through the University of the West Indies (UWI). According to Dr. Giles, the project will strengthen the entire justice system, “from what you do when you arrive at the crime scene, to how investigations are done by the police, to how the cases are prosecuted, to how the judges hear the cases and render their verdicts.” She added, “We will be working closely with the Attorney General and the Chancellor of the Judiciary and the police to get that project moving in the next couple of months.” Additionally, Guyana is one of the key beneficiaries of the Caribbean programme. She explained that Guyana’s priority is due to the strong opportunities present to make a difference to the justice system. “I think that everybody accepts that the impunity rates are not acceptable at this point in time,” Giles said. She continued, “There’s also strong will on behalf of the police, the prosecutors and the judiciary in the courts to try to address that. So we have a strong partner to make a difference so that’s why we want to work with Guyana.” She said, too, that her country opines that it is important to activate all of its tools in pursuit of its international policy. Further, she said, development programmes should be working alongside commercial and foreign policy interests. “The justice sector is a great example of that. By working on development programmes to improve the justice sector, that actually contributes to the interest of Canadian companies to invest in a country like Guyana, and also works on some of our human rights priorities that are traditionally pursued by our department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development,” Giles said. The passage of the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill, was one of the issues discussed yesterday when Dr. Giles paid her visit to the AG’s chambers. She said that Guyana has the “full-hearted emotional support” of the Canadian government for the passage of the AML/CFT. This passage, she added, is something that Canada has been advocating for very rigorously for the past several years. “We have provided some support in the development of strategies and plans for how Guyana can best work through the development of legislation, and the implementation thereof, and that cooperation will continue with the Attorney General’s office,” Dr. Giles indicated. “But we’re very pleased to hear from the Prime Minister and the President and now the Attorney General that the passage of the AML/CFT will take top priority for this government. We applaud that.” Since 2011, Guyana was warned by international regulators about the importance of the country taking steps to ensure that the nation had strong financial regulations.