‘Let the politicians change Trinity Cross’

CHANGING the Trinity Cross is a matter for the politicians, according to Senior Counsel Russell Martineau, who yesterday told Justice Peter Jamadar that the judge was duty-bound by oath to uphold the country’s law — which incorporates the Order of the Trinity. However, Martineau accepted that “things” have changed in Trinidad and Tobago, but told Jamadar in the San Fernando High Court that it was the citizens, through their elected representatives in Parliament, who must change the symbol of the nation’s highest award. “Or, we may very well have to abandon the Parliament,” Martineau quipped.

Hearing the lawsuit brought by the Maha Sabha and the Islamic Relief Centre — that the Trinity Cross offends their religion — Jamadar yesterday called on Martineau to reply to the case put forward by Queen’s Counsel Dr Fenton Ramsahoye, attorney Anand Ramlogan and English barrister John Horan. Martineau premised his argument that the Order of the Trinity was the constitutional law handed down by the Queen of England through Letters Patent. He told Jamadar that changing the Trinity Cross was not the business of the Judiciary. Martineau said the judge must decide the case on the law, even if he (the judge) was an advocate for the abolition of the Trinity Cross.

Martineau said that the applicants’ reference to international human rights covenants, to which TT was a signatory, was not binding on local courts. The Senior Counsel told Jamadar that he was not presiding in Rome or Geneva where human rights organisations sit, but in a court governed by a sovereign constitution. “You are in a court of Trinidad and Tobago, bound by a sovereign constitution. You must be faithful to your oath,” Martineau told the judge. Jamadar replied that while it was refreshing to be reminded of his oath as a judge, “I will always uphold my oath.”

Martineau reiterated that until international human rights conventions are incorporated into local law, the courts are bound to follow the law of the country. Tracing the Order of the Trinity’s incorporation into the laws of Trinidad and Tobago, Martineau said the Queen, in exercising her prerogative by Letters Patent, established the Trinity Cross. The independent constitution adopted all pre-existing laws. “So it is beyond doubt that Letters Patent forms part of the existing law of Trinidad and Tobago.” And the courts could not, he added, simply invalidate the Order of the Trinity by a perceived violation of Section Four of the Constitution — freedom of religious beliefs. Ramsahoye had argued that no law which violates Section Four could be incorporated into the laws of the country. Martineau will continue his submissions on Monday.