40 Law Enforcement Officers Set to Complete Military Paralegal Course

Forty law enforcement agents are looking to complete a military paralegal course next week, adding to their professional development.  The 8-week course includes members of the Belize Defence Force, Fisheries, Customs, Coast Guard, and Police.  The course began on June 5 and has seen the participants engage in various areas of paralegal studies.  According to the Course Director, Lieutenant Colonel, Lionel Olivera, the course is one that began as a 3-week program some ten years ago.

Lionel Olivera, Course Director: “After having completed law school, we initiated the program and it has transitioned from three weeks to now eight weeks. Difficult program, but it’s an impactful one so within the past seven weeks thus far these students would have reached to a point where they had the opportunity to learn from the basic constitutional law, legal systems, understanding how to interpret statutes, presentational skills, improvements, writing platform speeches, impromptu speeches, Pecha Kucha presentations, but all of that was to culminate with what happened yesterday over court martial simulation.”

Just yesterday the training saw a highly realistic Court Martial Simulation held at the Family Association Building at Price Barracks. The simulation saw Justice Candice Nanton and her team presiding over the case, offering expert adjudication that illuminated the complexities of military law.  According to Director Olivera, the presence and contributions of Her Lordship Justice Nanton further elevated the proceedings with her unique insights into the importance of justice within the military framework.

Lionel Olivera, Course Director: “So essentially a court martial is a high court jurisdiction case. So it’s a matter that we in the BDF cannot try any at all. Just based on the nature of the offense that a soldier or an officer would commit it is essentially highlighted that it must go before the high court. And it goes before the high court in the form of a court martial tribunal. Essentially, it’s a high court trial only because it’s within a military setting, so to speak. So having one of the justices of the High Court being present was very much helpful because it also helps the judiciary in itself since it’s not a practice that we’ve had over a great number of years. The last court martial that we had in the BDF is 1992. So what we’re trying to do is to try to bring back that practice because sometimes we do have soldiers that commit offenses that falls within that category. Oftentimes, because the procedure is not set up correctly or there’s some flaw in administration we tend to bypass it and allow the time to expire and then that soldier is not taken to the proper procedures for disciplinary tribunal. So having done this or completed this process it gives it’s a symbiotic situation where the court gets to practice and understand the military tradition and equally, the military gets to practice a procedure that is enshrined within our defense act for disciplinary tribunals.”

Lieutenant Colonel Olivera has been a member of the Belize Defence Force for near three decades and is now the Force Legal Officer.