The government’s contentious demolition of homes in Cane View/Mocha is now set for a court hearing.
On January 5, this year the Government deployed heavily armed police and heavy-duty equipment to demolish the homes of Cane View residents who rejected overtures to relocate. The community, which had more than 36 families, was flattened.
On Friday August 18, 2023, Attorneys-at-law Dr. Vivian Williams and Lyndon Amsterdam filed the first of a series of actions against the government.
Mark Gordon, his partner Shenika Simpson, and her mother Lucrecia George filed the Fixed Date Application seeking various orders against the government for the destruction of their homes and personal property. They have named the Attorney General, The Minister of Housing & Water and the Guyana Sugar Corporation as respondents.
The papers filed with the court show that Gordon is seeking more than $200,000,000.00 in damages for claims. He is also asking the court to declare that he acquired legal rights to 11 Cane View.
According to documents filed with the court, the government failed to respond to a request by the lawyers for the displaced resident, to resolve the matter through mediation.
The case filed by Gordon, Simpson and George is one of a series of cases that are expected to be filed. The matter is scheduled for a hearing on October 9, 2023, before acting Chief Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire S.C.
The applicants are asking the court to declare, among other things, the decisions and actions by Housing to demolition the homes unlawful and invalid, infringement of the right to natural justice and protection of the law as guaranteed and protected by the Guyana Constitution and International Bill of Human Rights; infringement of the protection from inhuman and degrading treatment guaranteed by the constitution, which placed a positive obligation on the State to prevent ill-treatment and debasement of a citizen of Guyana in resolving disputes over occupation and ownership of government or State land regardless of whether ownership of the land is resolved in the government’s favour.
