Georgetown : Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr. Nicole Giles paid a courtesy call on the new Attorney General (AG), and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams at the AG’s Chambers, Carmichael Street, Georgetown.
In a brief comment, the AG pointed out that the courtesy call also entailed discussions on areas with which Canada can assist Guyana. The discussion included talks on the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill and a grant of CAN $750,000 to develop the justice system in Guyana.
This money will be spent on drafting of legislation, improving the administrative department of the courts and training for lawyers and judges among others. Dr. Giles pointed out that this money is a part of a project with the Justice Education Society of British Columbia, which is a Canadian Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), which aims at strengthening the justice system.
The reason for selecting Guyana as a beneficiary she explained is that “we believe in Guyana, there are strong opportunities to make a difference to improve the justice system.”
She added that, “I think everybody accepts that the impunity rates are not acceptable at this point in time, and that there is also very strong will on behalf of the police and the prosecution and the judiciary and the courts to try to address that, so we have strong partners and a strong opportunity to try to address that, and that’s why we want to try to assist Guyana.”
Additionally, she noted that there are also two, $20M Regional Justice Programmes for the Caribbean through Canada’s Regional Developing Programmes, of which Guyana is one of the key beneficiaries.
She added that one of the programmes will be implemented through the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) while the other will be done through the University of the West Indies.
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