KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Parliament has approved legislation making it an offense to consume alcohol in a funeral procession but stopped short of preventing the consumption of alcohol at a cemetery because the government said the boundaries of cemeteries are not clearly defined.
The 13 government lawmakers, including Attorney General Grenville Williams, who was present, voted in support of the law, which could see violators arrested and fined up to EC$200 (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents).
The opposition did not support the bill, arguing that while it does not support alcohol consumption in funeral processions, the law will create more problems than the one it proposes to address.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who piloted the bill, asked for a division of the House when it was time to vote. Opposition Leader Godwin Friday, who had argued against the bill, was absent when the vote was taken.
In his contribution to the debate, Friday, a lawyer, questioned the law’s rationale, noting that Gonsalves had suggested that it, like many other similar pre-existing laws, would not be enforced.
Gonsalves, Minister of Legal Affairs, presented the Public Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024, for debate and described the legislation as “straightforward.”
“It creates an offense of unlawful possession or consumption of intoxicating liquor while being part of a funeral procession through a highway, road, or another thoroughfare,” said Gonsalves, a lawyer.
He said the penalty for the offense, on summary conviction, is a fine not exceeding EC$200, adding that under the new law, intoxicating liquor means the same as in the Liquor Licence Act.
The prime minister pointed out that an offense is committed only if the unsealed alcohol container is used.
“… and the powers of the police officer, in addition to being able to charge you for that offense, for having possession or consuming the intoxicating liquor, that you may be arrested without a warrant, if, in the opinion of the police officer, it is necessary to do so for the safety of any person.”
He said the law has become necessary because of “the factual situation where, increasingly, in funeral processions, people are seen with beers, rum drinking and shouting and not involved in anything concerning the solemnity of a funeral procession or even the celebration in song of the life of the person whom we are burying.
“This is just a matter of drinking rum and treating the funeral procession as if it’s a mas band, that you are having a carnival,” Gonsalves said.
“And there’s something which offends the sensibility of our people and the solemnity. Yet joy, music, and all that is part of our way of celebrating and commemorating the life of somebody who has died and whom we are burying.”
Gonsalves said, “Right-thinking persons consider, and they’ve made the complaints, and the churches have made complaints to me — pastors — that, look, we have to do something about this. This drinking rum in a procession, beers”.
The prime minister told Parliament that there are situations where people have carts in funeral processions selling beers for three for EC$10.
Gonsalves dismissed the suggestion that the new law would consume a lot of police resources to enforce, noting that there are several pre-existing offenses related to drunkenness and religion that “the police don’t take up a lot of time with it.
“But if somebody is doing something, the part of the thing for the police and for other citizens is not to say to you, “Well, we going lock you up.’ Is that, ‘Look, man, you’re doing something which the law of the land says you shouldn’t be doing. This isn’t a big thing. Enjoy yourself, but don’t defile the place’,” Gonsalves said.
“Because there are several offenses under chapter 18 of the Criminal Code, nuisance and other offenses against the public in general, there’s a whole rubric of this…
“Madam Speaker, have you heard any time anybody bring somebody in court for a common nuisance? But that’s an offense. And it’s there from the common law, and it has come down through statute law,” Gonsalves told Speaker Rochelle Forde, a lawyer.
He noted that the law says any person who does an act not authorised by law, who omits to discharge a legal duty and thereby causes a common injury, danger, or annoyance, or which obstructs or inconveniences the public in the exercise of common rights is guilty of an offense and liable to imprisonment for six months.
He said he had received a letter from a Spiritual Baptist Church complaining about the owner of a vehicle refusing to move it after the church complained that it was hindering a hearse from using the accessway.
“… they will say to them, ‘Move what? Carry the body somewhere,” Gonsalves said, adding, “How can you carry the body? Well, there are common rights there. You will create a common nuisance if you stop people from passing there.
“But if the police can charge somebody, they wouldn’t charge them. They act sensibly and say, ‘Okay, move the vehicle. Go about your way.’ In the same way, they meet somebody drinking rum in the funeral procession and say, ‘Listen, man, you’re not supposed to do that. Close the bottle, … put it away, keep it in the container, close it up.’ Then you’re okay.”
The prime minister said it is not that the court will be flooded with matters of this kind.
“This is going to take up excessive time on the part of the police. It’s a simple matter of helping to control egregious conduct, which, generally speaking, most right-thinking persons will say, ‘No, you shouldn’t be doing that.’
“By all means. When you have your repast, have as much drink as you want if that is how you want to deal with this matter concerning the funeral.”
Gonsalves said solemnity at funerals “doesn’t mean that you don’t sing, play steel band, play music, beat drums, dance, going down the road.
“All that is perfectly in order, or most right-thinking persons would say, and that has been done from time immemorial, but this new thing has come about.’
He expressed hope that the entire Parliament would support the law, adding that the religious community had been asking about this, and the Parliament was responding.
“There was in the original bill, which has been excised, extending it to the cemetery. The problem with that, the way the cemeteries are located, is difficult,” he said.
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