Saturday, October 2, 2010

What Volney said - verbatim from Hansard

This is the offending statement from Justice Minister Herbert Volney, taken from Hansard:
"From the bench of the Supreme Court, your Minister made a cry for help, known first to his boss, and then to the Government by way of ex cathedra statements and other intercessions. The message: The laws governing criminal justice are Victorian, and by then, had clearly outlived their usefulness".

"Mr Speaker I am here today for the reason that I grew to discover that speaking to the one in the exalted office was akin to speaking to John Jeremie; the then Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr Speaker, it seemed to me as though the two were the same. 

"During the period leading up to "Kamla Day" - that day of redemption...it became clear to me that the then Attorney General was involving himself more and more in the business of the Judiciary, in a way straddling the line of the Montesquieun concept of the separation of powers and covertly undermining the independence of the Judiciary.

"All I wish to add on this occasion of pleasantries is that the occupation of the mansion at Goodwood Park became the quiet subject within the Judiciary of discontent, given its cost to taxpayers. 

"That the preceding Chief Justices had the great humility to live in their own residences, thereby saving taxpayers the cost of supporting opulence in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year at a time of thrift for the nation. 

"And the rest of the pack grumbled at the housing pittance allowed them. That was a sweetheart deal, Mr Speaker, between the then Attorney General - and do not tell me that the members opposite, including the Member for San Fernando East, was unaware of the sharing of opulent ways at a time of thrift in the nation".

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Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai