Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne is still not happy with Government’s move to amend the controversial Interception of Communications Bill, 2025, which was recently passed in the House of Assembly and amended in the Senate on Wednesday.
He was speaking in the House yesterday after Speaker Arthur Holder announced the amendments to the Interception of Communication Bill, 2025, the Criminal Proceedings (Witness Anonymity) Bill, 2025, and the Firearms (Amendment) Bill, and the Government side moved a resolution to effect this.
A passionate Thorne said it was the Interception of Communications Bill that deeply concerned Barbadians, charging that it was infringing on their constitutional rights.
“If the Government believes that it is a casual matter, the protest in public spaces ought to sensitise the Government at this stage that the public takes this legislative initiative very, very seriously, insofar as it collides with a constitutional right.
“But, of course, the legislation quite properly indicates that it is an exception to the Constitution and expresses itself as an exception to the Constitution, but the public still believes that the right to privacy and the right to conduct private telephone calls is a sacred right.”
The Democratic Labour Party political leader said he could not support the bill as drafted or the amendments.
“We that are here and in the Senate support police action in which there is interception of communications exclusively pertaining to criminal activity, but any legislation that gives powers to a minister or indeed any politician to participate in the practice of intercepting telephone calls, we must oppose it, we must resist it, we must object to it. I think the public is with us on that . . . . This is a matter of military intervention and not for political intervention,” he declared. (SG)
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