House of Assembly Speaker Dr. Kendal Major speaks outside Assembly yesterday. (Photo: Ahvia J. Campbell

House of Assembly Speaker Dr. Kendal Major yesterday urged haste for the House's Committee on Privilege to probe matters related to a recent ruling handed down by Supreme Court Justice Indra Charles involving Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald.

At the start of the House sitting, Major announced that Mount Moriah MP Arnold Forbes has been appointed chairman of the committee, replacing South and Central Eleuthera MP Damian Gomez.

Gomez resigned from the post to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest as the matters before the committee are indirectly linked to one of his clients, Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard.

"I would implore the member to meet with the committee forthwith," Major said. "Be circumspect in your deliberations and investigation, and deliver a report back to this honorable House in the shortest possible period."

Outside the House, Forbes said he plans to get to work immediately.

Charles ruled that Fitzgerald breached the constitutional right to privacy of members of the environmental group Save The Bays (STB) when he read their private emails in Parliament in March. She granted them a permanent injunction against Fitzgerald disclosing their private information and awarded $150,000 in damages.

The applicants in the matter were the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save The Bays); Zachary Bacon, the brother of hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon, a resident of Lyford Cay; STB Director of Legal Affairs Fred Smith, and lawyer Ferron Bethell.

Bacon and Nygard have been locked in legal proceedings for years.

Charles said Fitzgerald's disclosure of STB's private information in Parliament, which he claimed he got from his "political garbage can", was a "deliberate act made to avoid scrutiny by purporting to hide behind the cloak of parliamentary privilege".

The government said Charles' decision was "wrong on the facts and the law". The Office of the Attorney General appealed the decision. Following the ruling, several parliamentarians expressed outrage about the decision, insisting the judiciary was interfering with an independent and self-governing branch of government.

Major previously called the ruling a "violation of the separation of powers".

The applicants applied and were granted an ex parte injunction in April to prevent further disclosure of their emails ahead of a substantive hearing.

Fitzgerald moved a motion for the matter to be sent before the House's Committee on Privilege. He suggested that the judge be made to appear before the committee to answer questions, but that suggestion was not adopted by Major or Gomez.

In her ruling, Charles acknowledged the tension between the branches of government.

Major expects Parliament to be "vindicated".

Royston Jones Jr., Guardian Staff Reporter

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