Constitution amendment passed in Lower House

The House of Assembly has passed a constitutional amendment to allow the swearing-in of two new government senators.

As its first order of business, the new Parliament yesterday sought to address provisions which were discriminatory to Barbadian citizens holding dual citizenship.

The issue arose when Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced Kay McConney, who has been named as Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, and Rawdon Adams, son of the late Prime Minister Tom Adams as two government senators in her parliamentary line-up.

While both are Barbadian by birth, McConney also holds Canadian citizenship, while Adams holds French and British citizenship.

Under the Constitution, Barbadians who have sworn allegiance to another country are immediately precluded by sections 38 and 44 of the Constitution from becoming a member of the Senate and becoming a member of the honourable House of Assembly:- a discriminatory provision according to Mottley.

“What makes it even more egregious for us is that they hold the citizenship of the country of their children’s birth and in each instance their children are still minors, so that in order for them to serve in the country of their birth, they would have to choose to give up the citizenship of the country of their children’s birth while their children remain as minors. That is an extraordinary request of anyone,” she lamented.

Assuring persons that her government intended to keep its promise of constitutional reform, she said this was necessary due to the fact that the country had significantly changed since the document had been penned 52 years ago.

“We have also as a country given clear voice to the fact that we want Barbadians wherever they are located whether they are in the 166 square miles or wherever they are in the world to take up their rights and responsibilities as Barbadian citizens to treat this country in the way that citizens ought to treat it by way of contribution of service, (and) investment,” Mottley added.

She pointed to a similar amendment made by Father of Independence Errol Walton Barrow, noting that such changes were therefore not uncommon.
The PM also announced that with the Upper House set to debate the amendment today, John Williams and Delisle Bradshaw will sit in senate in the interim to allow for the completion of the bill’s passage in both houses. (JMB)