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Colin John, seen here in a Dec. 11, 2023 photo, has been appointed chief magistrate.
Colin John, seen here in a Dec. 11, 2023 photo, has been appointed chief magistrate.
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Senior Magistrate Colin John has been appointed chief magistrate.

The appointment became public on Monday and was confirmed to iWitness News at the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, John accepted counsel Grant Connell’s congratulations on his elevation.

The lawyer noted that the two immediate past chief magistrates in St. Vincent and the Grenadines —  Sonya Young and Rechanne Browne — are now High Court judges.

He expressed hope that John would join them in a few years.

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John did not respond to that element of the lawyer’s comments.

John’s appointment, retroactive to Dec. 1, 2024, comes after a two-year stint as a senior magistrate.

AS chief magistrate, John will continue to preside over the Serious Offences Court, which deal with the weightier magisterial matters, including preliminary inquiries and drug and firearm offences.

John was appointed a senior magistrate in December 2023 after obtaining early retirement as commissioner of police in August of that year.

John has filled the chief magistrate post which has been vacant since Browne was appointed a High Court judge on April 1, 2024, after a three-month acting stint.

On Nov. 30, 2023, one day before John was appointed a magistrate, President of the SVG Bar Association, Shirlan M. Barnwell aka Zita, wrote to the St. Lucia-based Judicial & Legal Service Commission (JLSC) saying his then impending appointment was “of deep and urgent concern to the Bar”.

She said the Bar Association was only reliably informed one day before her letter of John’s swearing-in the following day.

Among the concerns that the Bar Association raised was that John is the immediate past commissioner of police who served in that position from Dec. 31, 2018 to Aug. 31, 2023.

“We estimate that over 95% of criminal matters brought in the Magistrate’s court involve the Commissioner of Police as complainant. Given the delays in the system, most of the matters brought over the last four years will still be pending,” Barnwell wrote.
She said the public, like many members of the Bar, carry the perception that the magistrate’s court is a police court.

“This impending appointment will further cement that perception,” Barnwell said in the letter, which stated that two out of the then four sitting magistrates were former senior police officers, both of whom are male. 

“Mr. John’s impending appointment means that three out of the four sitting magistrates will be male, and former senior police officers.”

There are now two male and two female magistrates in addition to the president of the Family Court, who is also female. 

In response, the JLSC had said it would “investigate further” the SVG Bar Association’s concerns.

In a response on Dec. 6, 2023, Jodi-Ann Masters-Singh, secretary to the JSLC, writing on behalf of then Chief Justice and chair of the commission, Dame Janice M. Pereira, said the commission noted the concerns “and intends to investigate the matter further for a suitable resolution.

“To that end, the Commission will be liaising with the Public Service Commission in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, from which the Commission received the recommendation for Mr. Colin John’s appointment to the post of Senior Magistrate,” Masters-Singh had written.

She had said the commission appreciates “the sensitive nature of the Bar Association’s concerns and, accordingly, would require time to conduct its own investigations.

“Once those investigations are complete, the Bar Association will receive a more detailed response from the Commission as timeously as possible,” the letter said.

The status or outcome of the JLSC’s investigation is not known to iWitness News.

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