Persad-Bissessar calls on Archie to step down

“Do the honourable thing. Save the country from further fracturing, from further trauma. Do that thing.

Do it now,” she said.

She said she can understand and sympathise with Archie who would want to balance his own interest, his career and to take care of his family.

However, she said, she believes the interests of the country and the justice system outweigh whatever disadvantages may accrue to the CJ in these circumstances.

Speaking with the media during the tea break of yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, Persad- Bissessar said the decision taken by the members of the Law Association expressing no confidence in the CJ was a “a historic development in Trinidad and Tobago” calling on the CJ to demonstrate transparency and accountability.

In the past, a previous government attempted to run out a chief justice, she said, “with respect to Chief Justice Sat Sharma, but we have never seen this.” Countries where a vote of confidence by the law association in a chief justice are usually taken, she said, are “fourth world countries” with strong dictatorships where there are serious violations of the rule of law.

The unfolding of events each day, she said, seems to get worse.

“When you think it was bad enough, by Monday we are told of a meeting having been convened and where no decision was taken about restarting all these cases,” she said.

The situation, she said, “is a very sad state of affairs for the administration of justice where the Chief Justice now has this major cloud hanging over his head with respect to presiding over the justice system in Trinidad and Tobago, the Judiciary.” Noting that the issue involved constitutional matters, she said, the Prime Minister can initiate proceedings for removal of a CJ.

To avoid “further entanglements and trauma the country may go through should it reach to the point where a tribunal is established or proceedings are taken to remove the Chief Justice from office,” she said, the Chief Justice should “do the right thing, and of his own volition resign.” She continued, “I do believe that the JLSC (Justice and Legal Services Commission) and the Chief Justice have a lot to answer for in this whole impasse that has transpired.”