Dear Editor,
I am a smoker. Any member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force who decides to arrest me for smoking in a public place could be charged with making a false arrest and for being a public nuisance.
Not only is the ban on smoking in public places not gazetted, the Minister of Health has no authority, I repeat, has no authority to take onto himself outside Parliament the right to impose a permanent non-tariff barrier on products imported from a sister CARICOM state without consultation with the Minister of Industry and Commerce and without tabling the matter in Parliament.
The Minister of Industry and Commerce has no right to take any action which significantly affects trade, distribution and commerce, while imposing institutional discrimination between business providing identical services on the basis of the location according to postal zones and political constituencies. No minister of government has any such right.
The Minister of Health has taken on to himself either the rights of Pharaoh or the rights of God. The police, who would decide to take steps to arrest me under such a ban, not only would have a lot of questions to answer on behalf of the minister in a court of law, but in my view, would be an individual in need of psychiatric care.
Basil Fletcher
Kingston
The rights of Pharaoh and God
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I am a smoker. Any member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force who decides to arrest me for smoking in a public place could be charged with making a false arrest and for being a public nuisance.
Not only is the ban on smoking in public places not gazetted, the Minister of Health has no authority, I repeat, has no authority to take onto himself outside Parliament the right to impose a permanent non-tariff barrier on products imported from a sister CARICOM state without consultation with the Minister of Industry and Commerce and without tabling the matter in Parliament.
The Minister of Industry and Commerce has no right to take any action which significantly affects trade, distribution and commerce, while imposing institutional discrimination between business providing identical services on the basis of the location according to postal zones and political constituencies. No minister of government has any such right.
The Minister of Health has taken on to himself either the rights of Pharaoh or the rights of God. The police, who would decide to take steps to arrest me under such a ban, not only would have a lot of questions to answer on behalf of the minister in a court of law, but in my view, would be an individual in need of psychiatric care.
Basil Fletcher
Kingston
The rights of Pharaoh and God
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