‘Not a confrontation between lawyers and the State’

Advocates’ Association of Jamaica President Tamika Harris on Friday rallied colleague attorneys to “remain resolute” ahead of next week’s planned withdrawal from courtrooms islandwide to press for changes to the 2022 Firearms Act while insisting that their protest “is not a confrontation between lawyers and the State”.

The week-long strike, which Harris on Friday confirmed will begin in earnest on Monday, September 28, comes after last Wednesday’s ‘silent protest’ outside the Supreme Court on King Street in downtown Kingston which was followed by an emergency meeting Thursday with Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Delroy Chuck.

During that protest, placard-bearing members of the Jamaican Bar Association and the Advocates Association, in collaboration with Bar associations across the island, demanded that their concerns about the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022 and its impact on “justice, due process and the rule of law” be taken on board for reform.