Cabinet Supports Democratic Process towards Writ of Referendum

The Church’s effort to gather twenty thousand signatures in an attempt to trigger a writ of referendum on the Cannabis Bill is remarkable and good for democracy says Kareem Musa, the Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries. But, only a couple of weeks ago, Minister Musa suggested that the time had passed to trigger a referendum on the issue. Following the delivery of those signatures to the Governor General on Tuesday of last week, Cabinet praised the Church’s efforts. We asked Minister Musa if Cabinet has had a change of heart. Here is how he responded.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries

“When I said Cabinet was going to make a decision then, and I say again now, because Cabinet has made a decision.., is that we would give the church time. They were going through a very onerous exercise you know to get all of these signatures. We were supposed to sign the law on the twenty second. The Governor General was supposed to sign that into law. By that date the church had not come up with the signatures. But, you can’t just leave them out in the cold after doing all of that work to say we are still going to sign it into law. We are not the previous administration. We believe in democracy. We believe in the referendum act and if they are in compliance with the referendum act then we will have a referendum on this issue. So, Cabinet’s decision is realizing what the churches were doing, getting these signatures, we were awaiting for them to deliver it to the Governor General. That has been done, and then there is a vetting process a sixty days vetting process that is now being undertaken by the Elections and Boundaries Office. But, what I want to say is this, what has transpired over the last few months is absolutely remarkable and actually good for democracy. I have been talking about this thing for a year and four months, and yes I have had consultations with different groups, the Medical and Dental Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the churches.”