Archive for the ‘Justice’ Category
Thursday, September 27th, 2007 |
I am becoming increasingly worried about the things I’m hearing coming out of this impeachment tribunal against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma.
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| Attorney General John Jeremie |
The thing that worries me the most right now is the refusal of the Attorney General John Jeremie to allow himself to be cross examined by the tribunal. The reason for his decision being that he doesn’t think that he needs too.
The tribunal invited John Jeremie to testify in order to clear up allegations that he conspired to get Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls out of a financial problem and that he also conspired with the Chief Magistrate to “wreck” the Basdeo Panday integrity trial.
“I have not seen any evidence, even remotely, supporting the imputations which counsel for the Chief Justice has made. Indeed, the evidence before the tribunal contradicts any such imputations”, said Mr. Jeremie.
He added that, since he perceived that there was no evidence of the alleged conspiracies to which he could reply, he was unable to discern any way in which he could usefully assist the tribunal.
Who’s in charge here? Is it the members of the tribunal or the AG? I don’t know that it’s up to John Jeremie to decide which evidence trumps which. Obviously the chairman of the tribunal feels that he will be useful to the tribunal and is disturbed by the AG’s unwillingness to testify.
I have never before seen a man, self-admittedly standing in the right, accused of so many unethical actions refuse to be cross examined, choosing instead to rely on what he perceives to be the strength of a previous testimony. My experience has been that people who are wrongfully accused are very vociferous in their indignation.
Obviously chairman of the tribunal Lord Mustill smells a rat. Said he, “We’re not naive by his attitude…we’re not completely own-headed over here…his absence and attitude will be taken into account.”
After all this Chief Justice matter is no joke. The integrity of the entire judiciary rests upon it. And a matter of this nature is unparalleled in our system of justice and accordingly the outcome will serve as a precedent to other countries for years to come.
Now I am not making an assumption of guilt or innocence of either the Chief Justice, the Chief Magistrate or whoever else. After all the only two people who know for sure what happened in that room that day are the Satnarine Sharma and Sherman McNicolls. But I don’t understand how a person genuinely interested in seeing this matter resolved and having the power to help it along throws up their hands and proclaims, “I good dey”.
Posted in Justice | 3 Comments »
Monday, August 13th, 2007 |
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| TT Laws CD ROm Advertisement |
Icame across this ad while reading the Sunday Guardian. Holy crap! $5,000 for a CD ROM? First of all who is going to drop $5,000 on a CD ROM? Secondly, who was in charge of pricing? Thirdly, isn’t extortion against the law too?
The ad also says that you can purchase 10 CDs for $5,500 or 25 CDs for $6,500, but it stipulates that that is for server use only – whatever that means. The thing is you can find the revised laws already displayed on the Ministry of Legal Affairs website, so why charge $5,000?
Meanwhile, you can get the entire Encyclopedia Britannica Deluxe 2007 DVD-Rom for under $20 on Amazon.
I don’t care if I were the Chief Justice himself, here meh nah, I would burn a copy. Don’t be surprised if this is the next hottest item from the sidewalk DVD vendors.
Posted in Justice, Miscellaneous | 15 Comments »
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 |
Kenneth Valley. You know people, we have mango season, dry season, rainy season, carnival season and Christmas season, but it have no season for dotish. Dotish is one of those things that is all-year, all-season, all-weather and all-terrain. Exhibit A: Ken Valley. Some of you may be opposed to me calling the Leader of Government Business “dotish”, but after the Prime Minister refers to us as dotish, foolish, lazy and stupid, I’m sorry but the cup is in and the gloves are off.
Now, my boy Boysieringo warn meh, eh. He really try to tell meh I shouldn’t take on Ken Valley. He ask meh why I wasting space on my blog to talk about Ken Valley (his MP). Honestly I try to take the warning, but this time I just can’t help it.
Obviously, these people think that we are stupid. What else could have Leader of Government Business Ken Valley shout out across the floor that High Court Judge Amrika Tewarie-Reddy was a “UNC functionary” and and that the People’s National Movement regarded her as a “politician”?
Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath retorted, “She’s a judge, have some respect. You worse than Umbala”.
Let’s not be hasty to dethrone Umbala just yet. George Umbala Joseph is in a class all his own and has quite a few good years yet ahead of him. And if anyone is to be named heir of Umbala’s throne, it should be Wade Mark.
When questioned about the incident, Mr. Valley said his remarks were not recorded in the Hansard (as banter isn’t usually recorded) and he can only comment on what was in the Hansard. “Check the Hansard,” he says.
Dad: Son, I found this 9mm pistol along with this crack cocaine under your mattress last night. Do you want to explain?
Son: You going into my room is an invasion of my privacy. (Sticking nose into the air and turning head to the side) I’m sorry but I won’t comment.
He did apologise some time after however, but took a shot at “strangers regardless of office” who criticise MPs without referring to the Hansard record and described the journalist who reported the crosstalk as a politically-motivated columnist who made his statement without recourse to Hansard.
“Mr Speaker, neither commentator cited the official Hansard record as his source of information.”
“Indeed, Mr Speaker, for strangers regardless of office, to criticize a Member of this Honourable House as occurred without recourse to the official report is unfortunate at the very least.”
Is anyone else a little tired of this “Hansard” talk?
Instead of Valley owning up to what he says and taking the flak like a man, he decides to hide behind a piece of political machinery called the “Hansard” Report.
Speaker of the House Barry Sinnan has stated that the media should not have reported the statement. From the Guardian:
House Speaker Barendra Sinanan says while there are no prohibitions against reporting crosstalk in the Parliament, with a topic as sensitive as the one involving Leader of Government Business Kenneth Valley, “one has to be careful.”
“I have seen crosstalk reported, but something as sensitive as this should not be reported,” the Speaker said during a telephone interview, yesterday.
What is amazing to me is the cavalier and frivolous manner in which something so serious was being thrown around. What Mr. Sinanan fails to realize is that this incident did not occur in Mr. Valley’s rum shop or his own living room, this was in the Parliament no less. Our Parliament, not Mr. Valley’s. So with what audacity does Mr. Sinanan say it should not have been reported?
What is especially worrying to me is how easily the judiciary is attacked nowadays. There are UNC and PNM judges. It will be interesting to find out Kelvin Ramnath’s views on the Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls who without a doubt may have opened himself up for criticism.
I believe that the judiciary is indeed under attack and the participants don’t really care as long as they get the political mileage out of it that they want. If only they could take a lesson from Pakistan where the politicizing of the Chief Justice issue in that country led to dozens of deaths over the weekend. But that not we man, that eh go happen here. Trinidad too nice for that. Well everything must start somewhere and who knows where Pakistan’s problem began? Some call it a creeping dictatorship, and I find it increasingly hard to disagree.
Posted in Justice, Media, PNM, Politics, UNC | 5 Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007 |
I regret to announce that two nights ago, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service died. Their death was not for lack of amenities. It died when its last remaining scraps of dignity were traded for the machetes of the Tonton Macoute and the pistols of the SS. Its death was caused invariably by its very own irrelevance. I’m sure much more tragic ways to die, but sadder ones don’t exist.
It used to be a noble force that actually aided the citizens. Now it has been overrun by a gang of bullies. What is this police service that we have?
How is it that we have a Police Service that is comprised and headed by complete cowards – cowards in bullies’ clothing? Have you ever met a bully? Bullies are notorious for seeking and preying on the weak. Externally they exude toughness, but inside they are frightened children. They will never attack the strong or the powerful but seek draw their strength from taking it from others. For years citizens have spoken out against police brutality and I have to say that this is what police brutality grows up to be.
I have never seen anything more cowardly than what our police service, the Trinidad and Tobago Police service did on Wednesday night.
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| Commissioner Trevor Paul |
Yesterday was National Shutdown day. Prior to this IBN owner Inshan Ishmael passed around flyers to draw attention to the action. The day before the planned action our of a Commissioner comes on the television to say that anyone preventing another person from moving freely will be dealt with according to the law(or some other out-of-timing, out-of-the-blue statement like that). Just as a point of order, who said anything about preventing anyone from doing anything? If Mr. Trevor Paul had read the flyer instead of depending on word of mouth (he can read right?) he would have seen that this was a peaceful stay-at-home protest. There was nothing in the flyer or e-mail to suggest otherwise. I guess though that those desirous of media attention and those who love the show of authority and force will do what they will. You can see the flyer on Taran Rampersad’s blog here.
Last night like a gang of kidnappers, the Gestapo and the Tonton Macoute all rolled into one, four carloads of plainclothes officer descend on Inshan Ishmael’s house to apprehend him. They swooped down on his house and from the sidewalk where he’s standing, they bundle him into the car and whisk him away without ever announcing they were police officers.
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| The Schutzstaffel |
The lawyers had a hard time getting any information as to why Mr. Ishmael was detained. Some officers were saying that Inshan was going to be charged in accordance with the anti-terrorism act. What terrorism you ask? When you find out let me know. Eventually Mr. Ishmael was strip searched and then charged with (get this) not putting the name of the printer on his flyers. He was subsequently released.
Where do the police in Trinidad suddenly get this abundance of manpower and vehicles they can’t seem to allocate when a gunman is kicking down your door? Pauline Lumfai called the Couva Police Station to say her son Sean Luke was missing. Did they even send one car to help her look?
How is it in this country you can’t get an officer to come to your house if you’re in mortal danger yet they easily locate five carloads of officers to go arrest the negligent flyer man?
There is something very obscene about that. The bullying exhibited by the TTPS is even more glaring when one juxtaposes how soft a target Mr. Ishmael is with how enthusiastically the police pursued him. Is that the focus of the Police Service to go after sitting ducks? To spend the most amount of resources on Trinidad’s least wanted?
A man speaks out against crime and the government and has his IBN show pulled by Columbus over “questionable content” (by the way this is the same cable company that sells us what Sprangalang calls “the slack channel” and the same company that steals HBO, Cinemax and Showtime). He is arrested for no putting the name of the publisher on his flyer. How can we not think this is political victimization taking form?
The obvious question is why aren’t the killer, rapists, bombers and drug dealers sought with the same gusto that Mr. Paul used on Mr. Ishmael? When you consider that this is the same man who has taken such bold, authoritative stands against protesters, the Chief Justice and babies, his modus operandi is no mystery.
How in the world can Trevor Paul and the TTPS remain relevant in light of all of this? I find it hard to believe. I have no regret in saying I think he should resign at once; if not for his irrelevance then for his cowardice.
Posted in Crime, Justice, Politics | 29 Comments »
Thursday, November 30th, 2006 |
News coming out of London this morning is that the Privy Council has ruled against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma. The Privy Council who heard the case over two days in early October delivered the judgment only this morning sometime after 6am T&T time.
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| Sat Sharma |
In their ruling they confirm the decision of the Court of Appeal that paved the way for Sharma to be arrested on criminal charges alleging that he attempted to sway the decision of Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the case against former prime minister Basdeo Panday. They even went as far as to say that the Judicial review that Sat Sharma applied for should not have been permitted as Judicial Reviews are not granted for cases such as those.
However the Privy Council Added that they cast no aspersions on the character of the man who is to be presumed innocent till proven guilty.
Now I don’t know what any of this means, but it doesn’t sound too good for the Chief Justice. In fact it sounds like this clears the way for the Chief Justice to be charged.
However you may feel about the CJ’s guilt or innocence, or the PNM or UNC for that matter, it’s still a sad day in T&T – not because I don’t think he should be charged, but because it’s just another sign that our Judiciary is in trouble. And surely by the time this trial is over, our legal system would have already taken a massive hit.
This blasted news just brings me down from my 10% inflation euphoria.
*Addendum
(1:47pm) – Reports are that in the company of his wife, lawyer and two plainclothes fraud squad officers, the Chief Justice has surrendered to the Fraud Squad. Details are still a little sketchy though.
(4:00pm) – The CJ appeared before a magistrate charged with attempting to pervert the course of public justice. He was in court for about 10 minutes and was granted $250,000 bail.
Posted in Justice, PNM, Politics, UNC | 21 Comments »
Thursday, July 27th, 2006 |
*First of all I want to apologise for my lack of blogging over the past weeks. I’ve been working on my template which has been fighting me back at every step. I’m not done yet, but at least I have a better sidebar to show for it.
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| Sat Sharma |
The truth is I don’t know whether the Chief Justice is guilty or innocent. I find myself these days not caring very much about it either. I do, however, find myself feeling very tense about the whole situation. It doesn’t help that the people embroiled in this matter and those who are trying to become embroiled don’t instil any confidence in me. I don’t know the Chief Justice from Adam. He’s not my uncle, my lawyer or my next door neighbour. In Trinidad however, that doesn’t disqualify anyone from offering a half-baked, uninformed opinion on what he should do. Right now, everybody and their barber is an expert on the criminal justice. And my question is why?
The only two people who really know all the facts of this case are Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nichols and the Chief Justice himself. As far as I’m concerned, everybody else is a day late and a dollar short. All the Johnny-come-lately experts are pitting one man’s word against another and deciding for themselves what is truth, irregardless of due process. But in Trinidad, dat eh stopping nobody. Who doh say he should resign, say the Government persecuting him. Meanwhile, I sit here jealous of their telepathic abilities. Honestly, I’m in awe. There is no “wait and see”, there’s no “due course”. I guess we should thank Mr. Patrick “resign or be charged” Manning for that.
As know the facts of the case, but the very last thing I call for is for the CJ to resign – unless of course he knows that he is guilty. All the people who are saying, “yeah he should resign, he making the office look bad” probably haven’t stopped to consider the possibility that the man may be innocent. Resign for what? The man hasn’t been convicted of any crime. What if he were to go to court only to be found innocent? Then what? Who’s going to give him his job back? Are those same people going to be so vociferous in calling for him to be reinstated? Unlikely.
And of course there are the polar opposites to those mentioned before who say that he is being persecuted and the Government should back off him, which is equally as asinine. A few weeks ago I accused another Trinidadian blogger of jumping to conclusions and alluded that she was allowing race to cloud her thinking. Apparently she didn’t see it that way and subsequently (or not) she chose to delete her bog or at least move it to somewhere where rational thinking wasn’t required. I wish she had stayed around to duke it out with me. I could always use a good argument. In the blogosphere you have to be prepared to defend what you say and well, as it turns out, not every position is tenable. Ah well.
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| Basdeo Panday |
Joining the call to stop the alleged persecution of the Chief Justice is none other but the Pied Piper himself, Basdeo Panday. In case you haven’t read the Internet Express this morning, Mr. Panday is in pre-conviction blabber-mouth form. When asked what he thought of the President’s statement, said he, “His speech was a shame and a disgrace”. (Wow). In any case, its hard to recall anyone ever ripping into a president the way Mr. Panday has. But wait, there’s more. The Express reports:
Asked what he thought Richards should have done, Panday said he (Richard’s) should have kept his “mouth shut in the first place”.
Panday said if Richards wanted to say something, then he should have met with Prime Minister Patrick Manning and told him to stop the persecution of Chief Justice Sat Sharma.
He said the Government was trying to attack the public justice system in a process that “reeks of racism”…
…He noted though, that Richards was “part and parcel” of the Government that wants to control the judiciary, as they have done with respect to the police force. 
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| Comissioner Trevor Paul |
By the way, this comes from the man who knows disgrace. So all you nay sayers out there who think Mr. Panday is getting on his high horse, you should shut your mouth too. Mr. Panday knows everything there is to know about disgrace. He’s gone from Prime Minister to jailbird-on-bail. Mr. Panday is even an expert on keeping one’s mouth shut. Who else but Mr. Panday knows how much better it is to keep his mouth shut that to be successfully sued for libel? Don’t hold back Mr. Panday. Tell us how you really feel.
While this doesn’t “reek” of racism, it does reek of Mr. Panday attempting to re-unite the UNC. What bothers me most about that statement (without surprising me) is how this matter has turned into an issue of race. In Trinidadian politics, the easiest way to rally supporters is to insist that there are some people who hate them, but you are not one of them. It has worked before and I guess it can work again.
Even though I have no real opinion on the CJ’s guilt or innocence, there are some things that bother me, though. Call them “nagging questions” if you will.
- I am bothered by the gusto with which the Government is tackling this issue. If they decided to tackle vagrancy, crime, the drug scourge and infrastructure problems with the same zeal, man, Trinidad would be a much nicer place. Just imagine how it would be if the Police Commissioner launched a no-holds-barred offensive against crime. Could you imagine what our crime rate would be like now? Imagine if the Commissioner were to say that there was “nothing that could stop him” from doing his duty to rid Trinidad and Tobago of crime and drugs. I get goose bumps thinking about it. By the way, did you know the T&T Police Service has a website?
- If the Chief Magistrate is innocent, why is he afraid of going before the very court that he presides over. Is he saying that the court is inherently corrupt and there is no way that he can get a fair trial? This is his court. Why is he reluctant to be tried in it? Surely he doesn’t think that injunctions are going to make the whole issue just disappear. If he’s afraid, then what about the average man in the streets? If I were an innocent man being wrongfully accused, I would dust of my calculator and invite my lawyer over for dinner so he could help me calculate damages. All in all it sounds like a bad version of The Minority Report
At the end of it all I just wish that the CJ submits himself to the course of justice just like everyone else sooner or later has to. If he’s innocent, then I hope he fights tooth and nail to expose his oppressors, and if he’s guilty, well….
Posted in Justice, PNM, Politics, UNC | No Comments »
Monday, July 17th, 2006 |
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| Click to Enlarge |
Acting on a tip-off from a source deep inside the Trinidadian underworld, Police Commissioner Trevor Paul rallied scores of brave policemen to the Maraval home of wanted embattled Chief Justice Sat Sharma. The fearless policemen armed with assault rifles and shaking in their police-issue boots descended on the abode aware that a single mistake could spell death for their comrades. The underworld informants revealed that Sharma was at the time situated on his couch in his living room dressed in boxer shorts eating a bowl of strawberry ice cream (sans sprinkles). The tension was high. Although most of the officers had been in the service for years, this was the first time they had been on an actual raid.
“Dread, this feeling jus like in dem movie and dem,” one officer remarked to another. “I hope I get shot in the vest,” he added while pulling the vest’s velcro straps tighter.
Sadly it was not to be. Entry to the house revealed that the CJ was wearing his lucky T-Shirt. Sat “Single Blow” Sharma had tricked them yet again. It was all lost. The policemen wept bitterly in the hands and with their tails between their legs, went back to the station to resume lives of inaction.
Is it just me or is it a little suspicious when you bring down half the police service to arrest the Chief Justice at home? Considering the guy doesn’t have a criminal record, is not considered a dangerous man
and has an injunction granted to him by Justice Judith Jones restraining all police officers from taking steps to institute criminal proceedings against him.
Yet when Sean Luke’s mother requested the officers at the Couva Police station to help her locate her missing son, they sat on their hands. When you call a policeman because someone is in mortal danger, the police say they have no vehicles. Instead the saunter over hours later while tent pitching on your front yard.
But for Sharma they bring the cavalry equipped with assault rifles and bullet proof vests, mind you. Former Energy Minister Eric Williams, I figure, must be a little jealous since he was allowed to arrange the time of his surrender and waltzed into the police station on his own accord. His poor ego must be shot to see Sharma given the outlaw treatment.
Is something wrong with this picture?
Posted in Crime, Humour, Justice, PNM, Politics | 3 Comments »
