Petition calls for Speaker to pay court bill out of pocket
A petition launched by Bunchie Wheatley today, October 28, 2021, is calling for persons to support the call for Speaker Honourable Julian Willock to pay his legal fees recently incurred out of his own pocket.
The petition came soon after Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon Andrew A. Fahie (R1) made it known at the 12th Sitting of the 3rd Session of the 4th House of Assembly (HoA) being held at Save the Seed Energy Centre, Duff's Bottom, Tortola that he was bringing a motion to exempt Hon Willock from having to pay legal fees in the Court case against the three CoI lawyers.
Injunction
The Speaker and Deputy Hon Neville A. Smith (AL) had filed an injunction against Bilal M. Rawat, Andrew King, and Rhea Harrikissoon, who were found to be working for the CoI while not being called to the Virgin Islands Bar, a violation of the Legal Profession Act 2015.
However, Hon Willock subsequently withdrew his application after it was found that Attorney General Dawn J. Smith did not grant consent for him to move forward with an injunction that had already been filed in the court.
Justice Adrian Jack had then ruled that the Speaker needed to pay the court fees incurred out of his own pocket.
$77,472.59 court bill
According to court documents, the defendants are claiming $71,388.59 in court costs and the Attorney-General is claiming $6,084.
The petition is also being aggressively pushed by known opponent of the Virgin Islands Party Government Rosemary Cindy Rosan-Jones, who has publicly shared she will work to bring down the sitting government.
‘Cindy’ aggressively pushing petition
Rosan-Jones shared the numbers of all the elected members of the House of Assembly on social media, urging persons to call their representatives to discourage the motion and threaten them with a demonstration if their wishes are not met.
“Call every single elected Member of the House of Assembly. Let them know the tax payers will NOT foot this bill. The taxpayers will NOT. Call, WhatsApp, text, whatever it takes. Ask your District Rep and AT Large Rep to vote NO! Failure to follow the people’s wishes, will result in a demonstration,” Rosan-Jones said.
As of publication time there were over 600 signatories of the 1000 requested.
Petition gets support
A Gillian Stoutt said: “Get our children and teachers in a proper learning facility…….. build back the dammmm school let my tax paying dollars go to that.”
Toni Francis wrote: “THE SPEAKER NEEDS TO PAY OUT IF HIS POCKET If he is man enough to take that action, he should be man enough to do the honourable thing and pay for his actions.”
Matthew Maduro said: “We the people of the BVI did not elect or select Mr.Willock to represent us in any capacity and since he doesn’t seem to be governed by the same laws as us and can’t be controlled by the VIP administration who put him in office we shouldn’t be held liable for anything he does.”
Aldrin Rabsatt wrote: “This action was taken without any public consultation or discussion. When the cause was deemed to be an un-winnable matter, it was dropped but the costs were already incurred. Now "we" are being asked (once again) to cover for the unsanctuoned, reckless and irrational moves made by an unelected member of the House (backed fully by the elected members).... anybody remember when he sued to prevent Hon. Mark Vanterpool from sitting? Guess who is also paying for that?
Nah man... enough is enough. Either our leaders listen to the voice of the people, or feel our wrath... this cannot wait... our children's inheritance is being destroyed and squandered!”
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35 Responses to “Petition calls for Speaker to pay court bill out of pocket”
Tax payers are not suppose to pay.I will sign the petition.
talk that
Seven million gone down the flush toilet and all is well .The speaker incure a two cent bill every person now talking sh*t uall needs to close uall back door and lick your child and shut to hell up.
shocking....!!
pay the bill wilock
this is the very thing the COI is here to find out. no government oversite on things that cost tax payers money.
bad news.
pay the bill mr. speaker
Cindy is just bitter for what she feels the VIP gov did to her late sister. Lets be real. She's never been this vocal about any other administration. Let it go. You'll never win. You are just cutting yourself into an deeper hole. Lol..get it??.
To show how insignificant and petty she is it’s a petition to hurt willocks pocket, not to help the people of the territory who need all the people willing to fight for and uphold our good reputation at this time.
Most of the taxes come from tourist passenger head counts and international financial services. If England gets there way there will be no financial services and no tax money.
Taxes is a hot word similar to democracy and fighting terror. It sounds good and necessary but as it’s said the road to hell is paved with good intentions.