Today's Newsday has a report quoting Kenneth Lalla, former chairman of both the JLSC and the PSC (Police Service Commission) and also a lawyer. Lalla reiterates the position that the Chief Magistrate must be suspended forthwith. He further states that the stance taken by the present JLSC (that the CM is sitting on high profile cases) has no merit.
“Suppose the Chief Magistrate dies or decides to go on vacation, what happens to these matters? If he dies they will have to be restarted,” he said.
“If he goes on leave they will have to be postponed. But to suspend the Chief Justice and allow to preside in court, the Chief Magistrate who made serious allegations against the Chief Justice and then refused to be cross-examined, is not even-handed justice and adds to the view that the Judiciary is under siege.”
He also criticised their reported decision to defer disciplinary action against McNicolls on the grounds that suspension would do more harm than good and was not in the public interest, describing the members of the JLSC as 'confused' (not a term I would use but appropriate in polite forums).
Lalla said he could not understand why the JLSC had failed to resolve the issue when they met. “Even if two members of the four-member Commission were against suspension and two others (the chairman and one other) were in favour, the Chairman has a casting vote and the matter could have been resolved.”
So will the JLSC suspend McNicolls in the face of this new criticism? Hardly likely. Trinidadians in positions of authority have thicker skin than a dead crapaud, and this will wash over their (JLSC members) backs like wet duckshit.
The worst of the damage is not the reputations or finances of the top involved parties. It is the scepticism which the ordinary man will view the justice system, the distrust he will have when he knows that an obvious wrong is not being righted, and spurious reasons given in support of playing the fool with the law. That's insulting, JLSC!
As a layman, watching these legal beagles making a mockery of the law, I wonder that any matter I may have that potentially arises, how would I be treated, since I have no 'clout' like these 'big men'? I wonder then that the violent criminal activities are rising, with more people resorting to 'sixgun' justice.
