CCJ? Anyone?

Let me start this little discussion by making this disclaimer: I am no legal scholar. On the other hand, I do know quite a few exceptional legal scholars. I had hoped to be wishing Mr. Bayliss Frederick a happy 100th birthday but instead I am offering my sincere condolences to his family on his passing at 100 years old. He was indeed one of the very best legal practitioners ever to have graced this region.

There has been an ongoing debate in this region for decades concerning the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as our final court of appeal. Some jurisdictions in the Caribbean have already gone that route, now using the CCJ as their final appellate court. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has not chosen to go that route and rightly so in my opinion.

The chief proponent argument has been that the Caribbean has legal practitioners who are just as exceptional as in any other region in the world, and, we, as Caribbean people, need to exhibit a certain level of patriotism and move away from the justice system of our colonial masters — finally shake off the shackles of colonialism and have a justice system uniquely our own. We in SVG have never accepted this argument and, “God willing”, should never even entertain it.

In March 2023, the High Court in SVG gave a legal victory to hundreds of public servants in the “Vaccine Mandate” case. I am one of those public servants. I am not going to discuss the merits of this case; I believe that the judge (Justice Esco Henry) gave a comprehensive breakdown of those merits in her written judgement. Our wicked government signalled its intention to appeal that judgement even before the full judgement had been released. And so, they did. I have listened to many legal scholars, locally, regionally and, indeed, internationally state that in their legal opinions, this judgement on the merits of this case has set the bar too high for an appeal to be successful.  Yet, here we are, five months after the case was heard by a panel of three justices in the OECS Appeal Court 20 months after the original decision was handed down without a conclusion to the matter.  This cements, in my mind, the death of any idea of having the CCJ as our final court of appeal in SVG.

Remember that I am not a legal scholar, so permit me to explain. The Caribbean, as a region, is very small when compared to most, if not all, of the other legal jurisdictions in the world. This is where our problem starts. The Caribbean is practically a village and our institutions are largely responsible for this. Specifically, our institutions of higher learning like the University of the West Indies. I and many tens of thousands of Caribbean people have alumni family in “every nook and cranny” in this region. We have people we can call on who, at the drop of a hat, will go out of their way to assist us however they can. It is the same way in both private and public life. Many of our politicians and medical practitioners and legal practitioners and civil society practitioners do reach out to colleagues/friends whenever they need help whether in private or public life.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation but I promise I’ll get there soon. Bear in mind, however, that we are dealing with people in the legal profession and I am not giving any of them the opportunity to bring me before the court. If I were a judge on any court and a case came before me where my former lecturer at law school was bringing an action against another party, I would recuse myself because if I gave any favourable judgement to my past lecturer, then not only my integrity but the integrity of the court would then be placed under the microscope. I have seen in many other jurisdictions where this would have been the grounds for overturn of that judgement when brought before any other court. ALL JUSTICE SYSTEMS HAVE TO BE INTEGRITY-BASED. Sadly, in the Caribbean, this is not always the case. There is a word for that, it is called CORRUPTION: it is the opposite of INTEGRITY.

When you raise VULTURES among EAGLES, they both can fly but they are very different species. The Caribbean is blessed with exceptional professionals in every walk of life. The University of the West Indies has produced many of them. Many EAGLES have been produced by the UWI but sadly so have many VULTURES. Many of us can attest to living on one of the halls of residence on campus in whichever territory and buying your food and putting it in the common kitchen.  Very often, you go to prepare a meal and someone has helped you with the consumption of your food, in other words “somebody teef your food”. This was a normal occurrence all throughout hall life. VULTURES in training. When they go into their professional fields and clients miss millions of dollars from their accounts, you think that behaviour just materialised? They had been in training for years — probably even before UWI.

My difficulty is that VULTURES very often seem to rise to or are fast tracked to the leadership of their respective fields. Not because they are better than the EAGLES but because they become a part of a community of VULTURES who smooth the way for their advancement, at the expense of the EAGLES. We have seen what the VULTURES are capable of all over the region. In the financial field, we have seen in Jamaica world class sportsmen lose millions of dollars at the hands of those charged with managing their money. In the political field, we have seen in the BVI and other jurisdictions, politicians charged with drug crimes. And, most recently, we have seen hundreds of medical professionals abandon their oath to “do no harm” and promote a COVID-19 vaccine that has been responsible for so many deaths and continues on a daily basis to add to this tally.  For me the worst example is in the Justice system, when a legal giant at the very summit of the profession, one charged with actually selecting the justices who would serve on the CCJ is disbarred for corrupt practices. Am I supposed to have trust and confidence in such a system? For each VULTURE that has been exposed, I can guarantee you that there are many more at play.

Living on hall at UWI there were many that stole from you, there were some that took advantage of you in other ways but I can guarantee you that the majority of students were hard working, dedicated, highly-motivated to do good things and most importantly, excellent leaders. This leads me to my next point. I am sure we all are familiar with the statement “evil triumphs when good men do nothing”. The VULTURES are but a very small percentage of every field. Unfortunately, whenever VULTURES are exposed, every single EAGLE is painted with the same brush. All politicians are corrupt, all doctors and lawyers just want to rob people. I am sure you can fill in the rest. EAGLES, you have to take back your professions.

Let me stop rambling and get back to the “vaccine mandate” case. I noticed a very interesting phenomenon as this appeal progressed. It’s a good thing the registrar in our High Court is a hundred percent on the up and up and cannot be manipulated or one would have assumed that the government went shopping for the justices they wanted to preside in this case.

Firstly, on the day the appeal is to be heard back in February of 2024, one of a panel of three judge were absent from court because he/she was unable to sit as part of the panel. Then the appeal was heard by a panel that was completely different from the one that had announced a few months earlier that the hearing had to be adjourned because one of the justices of appeal was unable to sit as part of the panel.

Interestingly though, one of the justices on this second panel was the justice who had granted the state a stay of execution of the original judgement and who had already indicated that the government’s appeal had a “more than reasonable chance of success”. Should such an individual have been allowed to sit on this panel? Wait, I know, I am supposed to trust the integrity of these learned gentlemen.

Sir James Mitchell had to take his case to the Privy Council to finally have the merits of his case adjudicated on the law. As he would famously say, “If I, as a former prime minister, went to every court in the Caribbean and couldn’t get justice, what about you?” The judiciary sits or is supposed to sit as the arbiter between the state and the citizens. When interference is introduced then democracy no longer exists.

I would end this discussion as I started it. I could ramble on some more but I think you get the point.  If the EAGLES of the justice system of this Caribbean region do not vociferously advocate for justice to not only be done but to be seen as being done then they are just as guilty as the VULTURES. I will never advocate for the CCJ to be the final court of appeal for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I will advise all who seek justice to take their case to the Judge who “don’t know them from Adam” and who was not a student of a politician at law school and especially those who are not VULTURES and would negotiate the judgement of their case outside of the confines of the court and the merits of the LAW.

Caleb L. David

The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].