Police Corporal Eldon Arzu, the former Chairman of the Police Association, has been in court with Police Commissioner Chester Williams for months now.
Arzu is complaining that the Commissioner displayed bias against him. He asserts to the court that before the June 2020 elections for the Police Association executives, the Commissioner arbitrarily extended the nomination process, which allowed for Sergeant Jane Usher and her team to enter elections, long after the deadlines set by the Police Association's election rules. Usher's slate won those elections, and she was selected as the 2020 Chairman.
But, it turns out that Corporal Arzu has a separate lawsuit against the Commissioner, and it focuses on a dispute over the leadership of the association from 2019. We are told that in the January 2019 elections, Corporal Arzu slate won 4 seats on the Police Association's central board, and Inspector Usher slate won 3. The 7-member board agreed that Usher should continue leading the association as chairman. We understand that on the day of the 2019 Police Association elections, the Police Association's constitution was amended with a statutory instrument, which disqualified any chairman from serving more than 2 terms.
The Commissioner's amendment was supposed to be retroactive to 2013 when Arzu first became the Association's chairman. He then refused to recognize Arzu's presidency after the 2019 election, and re-assigned Arzu to a different police unit away from the Police Association.
This retroactivity issue was heard before Justice Westmin James, who ruled today that the SI, which was used to stop Arzu from retaining the chairmanship, was not retroactive.
The outstanding issues of the Commissioner's decision to transfer Arzu out of the Police Association to another unit and other issues are still before Justice James. We understand that judge has indicated to the litigants to discuss these issues to see if an out-of-court resolution can be arrived at since the retroactivity dispute has been resolved.
And while this outcome was described to us by the Arzu camp as an important win, the other side is disagreeing that it's anything significant.
One government attorney tells us, quote, "He [The ComPol] didn't lose. It was a preliminary point of law, which did not dispose of the issue before the court." End quote.
That attorney tells us that this first lawsuit will still proceed to trial.
