What Eees Deesss?

What Eees Deesss?
This week in Parliament some of the more-than-usual gems were put on display for out viewing and listening (dis)pleasure by the occupiers of honourable positions which are supposed to be representative of the best interest of we, the people.
I can suppose it was because David Rudder was celebrating his 6.5 (3 score and 5) birthday with a show featuring “Dis is Not a Fete in Here” and “Welcome to Trinidad” among some of his more satirical pieces on our colourful socio-political landscape.
The bards at the Waterfront were also belting out their own ditties concerning the horrendous state of our criminal situation. None was to escape. Reminiscent of the old Reggae hit “Police and Thief”, the lyrics were remarkable in both directions.
Answering a question about the recent gunfight at the Ruby Tuesday Grand Bazaar gunfight, the National Security Minister, with little or no word of comfort for the patrons who had to be rushed upstairs to avoid the flying pieces of lead, dutifully announced that the ‘incident’ was being investigated.
With 2 emptied magazines, shells aplenty and bleeding bodies of men-in-uniform scattered on the ground, the Minister sincerely promised that an ‘Urgent Investigation was Ongoing” subsequent to which ‘the Necessary Disciplinary Actions will be taken”.
Shooting with intent, discharging firearms in a public place, are only some of the possible criminal offences committed by the trigger-happy duo of a reputed love triangle. And what does our Minister of Public Safety assure our Parliament – The Necessary Disciplinary Actions will be Taken!!!
One is left to wonder. Will these shooters suffer the same fate as those men in blue and grey who lost large amounts of cocaine en route from Icacos to a police station up North? Or will the necessary disciplinary actions be like those imposed on the officers at St Joseph who hid a stash of weapons in the station ceiling? Or the officer, travelling in a squad car, who narrowly missed a schoolgirl on Edward Street wounding her father in the hand that was not holding hers?
Think about it. What ever happened to all of them? Transferred to another District after urgent ongoing investigations by the Professional Standards Bureau or the PCA perhaps. No dismissals, No criminal charges. So, what can we expect, Mr. Minister??
Then, its debate on the Senate amendments to the Anti-Gang Amendment Bill.
Now, it’s the turn of the acting Attorney General (Minister in multiple Ministries) and ex officio Titular Head of the Law Association.
Saying his piece on the Bill, he found it necessary to announce repeatedly his astonishment, as a member of the Bar for 20 years, that he was “saddened to learn” that “persons at the Criminal Bar have been facilitating gang members in gang activity. And who have been participating in (il)legal communications with their clients and actually assisting their clients, it appears, in running their criminal empire”.
Whaaaaat! Lawyers who practice in the Criminal Courts helping in the running of ‘Criminal Empires’??
Did he just say Lawyers involved in criminal activity? Sounds so to me.
But, speaking under the cloak of Parliamentary Privilege, the man in the position of Titular Head of the Bar, even if for a 10-days, uses that opportunity to suggest that he knows (has learnt) of other Lawyers practicing in the Criminal Courts also involved in crime themselves.
To make a statement to at least one other person (publication) suggesting criminal activity on the part of another person (who is NOT) is to utter a defamatory statement. The Ag. AG suggested that it was a fact (he learnt) that Lawyers at the Criminal Bar (a whole class or group of lawyers including those who do criminal cases as part of their practice) are Criminals. It is what is called inuendo in the law of Defamation against a class of persons.
So, what was his EVIDENCE of this alleged Criminal Activity of his fellow Lawyers? Something he heard at the National Security Council.
Ole Talk, NOT Evidence. No mention of any Lawyer facing charges or even being investigated. But, a broad-brush attack on Lawyers with criminal practice. Wuhloss!!, as our Bajan cousins would declare.
The sad thing is that Lawyers like me, part of whose practice has been at the Criminal Bar are painted with the Ag. AG’s broad brush, but, we cannot sue him for denigrating our characters. Why? Because he said that wholly unnecessary diatribe in the hallowed halls of the Parliamentary Chamber, not on the pavement outside, where another Parliamentary colleague of his had invited others to join him recently.
Parliament is an occasion of absolute privilege. So, defamation suit is hopeless.
So, I have done the next best (the only thing really) that any citizen can in these circumstances, I have asked my Law Association of which the Ag AG, though momentarily, is the Titular Head to write him and the Speaker of the House to condemn his reckless action against his colleagues at the Bar.
The Police in a mess – gunfight endangering the lives of the public, lingeried beauty posing in their uniforms and murders running at 2,3, 4 a day.
The Judiciary in a mess – guess we have lost the CJ issues in the 5-day news cycle wonderland, case backlog bordering on lock jam.
Now the Legal Profession in a mess – thrown into odium and disrepute by the wholly-unsubstantiated statements of the temporary Titular Head of the vey profession (the Bar).
Are we still wondering about the state of our institutions, particularly those which are to guarantee our Right to Safety and Security?
As we record, 4 murders in 14 hours, now 8 in 24,  home invasions and killings in districts across the island and murder, murder, murder, these are the antics that we must endure from those elected officials who represent us only in their failure to Guarantee our Right to Safety and Security.
Happy birthday, Dr. Rudder……Dis is Not a Fete in Here, Dis is Madness!!! Welcome to Trinidad, the Country where Half de People Mad.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Who Refuses to
Give Up the Fight for
Democratic Renewal of
Our Society
 
5 May 2018

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