Old Harbour strongly represented as 62 JPs are commissioned

Ten notable figures from the community of Old Harbour were among the highlights at a commissioning ceremony held at the Portmore Holiness Christian Church.

Veteran politician and Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Western Everald Warmington; Old Harbour High School Principal Lynton Weir; South St Catherine Chamber of Commerce President Treacha Reid; Manager of the Old Harbour Tax Office Carline Ellis; retired educator and former principal of Davis Primary Loraine Spencer Jarrett were all conferred as Justice of the Peace. Joining them also from the Old Harbour community are businessman Douglas Golding, who is the son of Custos Golding; registered nurse and pharmaceutical consultant Alaphiah Byfield; businesswoman and entrepreneur Rochelle Williams Butler; Senior Education Officer in the Ministry of Education and Youth Shellion Dillion Burrell and Customer Care Manager, Jamaica Public Service Company Debronette Dixon.

The latest batch of freshly minted JPs in the parish represent the government’s continued thrust, through the Ministry of Justice, to increase the quantity and quality of its service pool at the community level.

Delivering the main address, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck charged the new recruits to serve with the highest level of integrity, as it is paramount that they see themselves as part of the solution to the problems faced as a nation.

“Each of you I expect can make a difference. Not only make a difference at home but in your neighbourhood, in your community and across Jamaica. But in doing so I expect that you will discharge your obligations with not only professionalism, with not only integrity, but you do so with empathy, with humility and you do so with civility and decency that is expected of you as a good citizen of your community and Jamaica,” said Chuck.

“As a Justice of the Peace, people will be looking to you; and as they look to you they’ll look to you for not only information and guidance but they’ll look to you as the embodiment of the citizen that they would like to emulate. And that is why in the beginning I urged you to be humbled in your calling. Humility is a great virtue. Far too many justices of the peace believe that because they are now a JP that others must look up to them. Yes, you deserve respect but you must not demand respect, you must earn respect. And you can earn respect by the way you think, by the way you speak and the way you conduct yourselves across your communities. I hope, justices of the peace, that every single one of you, regardless of your background, that you see yourself as a new person, a person that you would like others emulate.”

A Justice of the Peace, is defined as a person of unquestionable integrity who seeks to promote and protect the rights of individuals.

Under the Justices of the Peace Act 2018, JPs are now able to deliver their serve across the country rather than being restricted to their parish of residence.

This has further empowered JPs to perform services of various needs of civilians on a broader scale. Justices of the Peace can serve as a Justice in petty court sessions, attend juvenile court sessions, issue summonses, consider applications for bail, sit on licensing panels, and give counsel or advice.

Karen Campbell-Bascoe, director of training and academic affairs at the Justice Training Institute, the training arm of the Ministry of Justice, said the cohort underwent an intense three-week period of learning the nuances of the field spread across several months.

Campbell-Bascoe, a justice of the peace herself, said the course served as an eye-opener for the participants as they were taken through the gamut of a qualifying training programme that entailed a historical review, the general functions of the office of JPs, and a detailed review of the Justices of the Peace Act.

“We particularly spent hours in ensuring that the members who will be commissioned appreciate the need to maintain a high standard of decorum in the office of the JP,” she said.

For Carline Ellis, who spends a lot of her time mentoring youth, it has always been a passion for her to become a JP.

“I have seen too many times where young people are turned away because they are told that nobody knows them, so because I’m a part of a lot of clubs and community organisations I find that I know a lot of young people and therefore I [want to] extend my service to help them,” Ellis tells Old Harbour News.

“One of my passions is to work with the youths as I see them as the agent of change. They have a different way of thinking and therefore we need to nurture them in such a way that they are able to come to their full potential.”

Alaphiah Byfield grew up in Wood Hall, Brown’s Hall in northern Old Harbour, and was always inspired by the service given by the Justice of the Peace in the community.

“From that early age I wanted to be someone like that; someone that the community members can go to for assistance, resources. It’s not just about signing documents. It’s somebody who can say ‘come let us talk if you have a problem, we can explore it together, we can identify the challenges and the solutions’,” said the Marlie Mount resident. “I’m solution-oriented and so being able to be a member in a community to provide persons with information, persons with resources, persons with assistance, have always been a passion for me. It’s a passion and a purpose for me and I am just happy that I have been commissioned to be a JP so that I can launch out and be of service in another capacity in a more organised way, in a more recognised way.”