The Supreme Court bench will have two new judges sitting on it soon. The Senate today approved the appointment of judges Herbert Lord and Minette Hafiz. They are both to serve for a year in the first instance. Hafiz will deal with the backlog of civil cases, where she will be joined by Justice Michelle Arana who will be brought over from the criminal section. And that position, hearing criminal cases will be taken up by Herbert Lord, currently Chief Magistrate.
Lord's appointment attracted a good deal of controversy. First, sections of the Bar were reported to have objected to the appointment, and then, there emerged a very highly sourced rumor which said that the U.S. State Department had a problem with Lord's appointment. That stalled everything, and it was enough for UDP senator Diego Bol to cast a dissenting vote at today's confirmation. As he left the Senate meeting, Bol told Alfonso Noble that he didn't have enough information to make a sound decision, while the leader of government business Richard "Dickie" Bradley conceded that there were rumours about the Lord appointment.
Diego Bol, UDP Senator
"...Ratify the appointment of a Justice, I would like to make a decision based on solid information that would be provided to us as Senators. However though, we were only given a CV of the persons being nominated. I needed more character references. I needed for example the recommendation of the Bar Association. I needed to see the recommendation of the Judicial Review Committee. Based on
_those, then I would be able to determine whether the persons being appointed are people of integrity and that they will be able to do justice to the Belizean peo_ple."
Alfonso Noble,
Are you at all calling into question Mr. Lord's character?
Diego Bol,
"Well I have heard allegations being made and in introducing him as a possible appointee to the post, they did not tell us whether there were allegations against Mr. Lord until when I brought it up, then Senator Eamon Courtenay began explaining all these allegations and trying to indicate that there were no grounds to the allegations being made."
Alfonso Noble,
Does that satisfy you?
Diego Bol,
"Well those are words and I would prefer to see the documents, verifying what he had said in the House."
Richard "Dickie" Bradley, Leader of Government Business
"The issue which was fully discussed and debated was the appointment of Mr. Herbert Lord as a Judge of the Supreme Court. As you know they had been some rumor mongering as it turned out in the Senate that the United States government is opposed to the appointment. This matter was officially clarified today by Minister Courtenay, who spoke with the United States Embassy, reported to the Senate and officials of the government sought to find out from whence come this information that Mr. Lord did this or...that matter has been entirely clarified, that there is absolutely no truth to the whatsoever to the rumor that was being spread that somehow Mr. Lord had done something which the United States government, represented by the Embassy here in Belize, is not pleased with. There is absolutely nothing to that matter.
The appointment of a judge to the Supreme Court is such a serious matter that Senators would want to satisfy themselves that in fact there cannot be a situation where we individually are receiving information of such heavy weight and import and pretend it doesn't exist; Senators wanted to be satisfied.
I don't think any appointment to the post of a Judge of the Supreme Court has received this kind of thorough scrutiny, thorough public debate and discussion. And at the end of the day, and I would want to leave with you for the benefit of the public, because it is important that a person who gets appointed to be a judge of the Supreme Court, that there is absolutely no cloud over that appointment."
Bol was the only senator who opposed. The other UDP senators Abstained from voting.
