Keltruthblog has suddenly appeared on the Wide World Web. We won’t discuss what is the agenda of the blog owner; what we can say is, all the articles it has posted appear to be very well researched. Whether it is the issue of the Kingsland Land deal which went South or the appointment of David Simmons to the post of Chief Justice so soon after holding the office of Attorney General, these two occurrences appear to be the pillar issues of the blog. Barbados Free Press has also been relentless in its pursuit of the truth behind the Kingsland Affair as well as exploring the ethical make-up of Simmons appointment. The BU household have read the developments with interest and continue to hope against hope that the mainstream media will make use of their resources to ensure that there is open and informed discussions on these and similar issues.
The recent article on the Keltruthblog and highlighted by Barbados Free Press questioning whether Chief Justice David Simmons violated the Constitution of Barbados by remaining in the job after passing the age of 65 years old, we find to be interesting. No doubt in the coming days and weeks we should have this matter clarified. Here is why we find the story interesting. By Sir David’s own admission he is not a supporter of judges having to retire when constitutionally due at 65 years old – see Nation article below.
![cj_david_simmons_lamented[1]](https://i0.wp.com/barbadosunderground.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/cj-david-simmons-lamented1.png)
So the question remains, has the Keltruthblog raised a valid issue?
As far as the ethical standpoint, I was jesting with a friend of mine saying that the honorable chief justice must have made a pilgrimage to the holy land and had a religious experience. CLEARLY a year was sufficient enough to ‘exterminate’ his prejudices and biases. What can you do? As far as retirement age, I was informed that the age of retirement was moved closer to death across the board so the chief justice SHOULDN’T be too old as far as the “constitution” of Barbados is concerned. MY concern is the fact that all these judges as old as dust, some older. How relevant and current are their views? Judges are to set precedents for social good not dribble on themselves.
Here is what I found in the constitution in section 84.1:-
person holding the office of a Judge shall vacate office when he
attains,
(a) in the case of a Judge of the High Court other than the Chief
Justice, the age of sixty-five years; and
(b) in the case of the Chief Justice and a Justice of Appeal, the age
of seventy years.
(1A) Notwithstanding subsection (l), the Governor-General,
acting on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, may permit
(a) a Judge of the High Court, other than the Chief Justice, who
has attained the age of sixty-five years, or
(b) the Chief Justice or a Justice of Appeal who has attained the
age of seventy years,
to continue in office until he has attained, in the case of a Judge of the
High Court such later age, not exceeding sixty-seven years and, in the
case of any other Judge, such later age, not exceeding seventy-two
years, as may have been agreed between the Governor-General and
the Judge of the High Court or other Judge.
(2) Notwithstanding that he
(a) has attained the age at which he is required by the provisions
of this section to vacate his office; or
(b) has retired or resigned before reaching such age,
a person may sit as a Judge for the purpose of delivering judgment or
doing any other thing in relation to proceedings which were commenced
before him before he attained that age or, as the case may be, retired or
resigned.
ss.83-84
Oaths to be
taken by
Judges.
First
Schedule.
Tenure of
office of
Judges.
1990-17.
Is this a family failure,I call to mind one of them doing a hit and run with some one’s money awhile ago.Have I the wrong one ?.
David..
Have you seen the Trindad Express this morning?
‘Cloud over New Minister’
‘Bank sues Mariano Browne for embezzlement’
Does this mean he will resign as Chairman of the Enterprise Growth Fund and just remind me who was a previous Chairman of Caribbean Commercial Bank and the Enterprise Growth Fund?
This is the means by which Browne extracted monies to make illegal cash payments to Owing Arthur and the BLP administration.
With a man as dishonest as he obviously was the Gov’t of Barbados entrusted him to oversee the monies of the Enterprise Growth Fund a gov’t owned outfit that as we are now seeing was setup to provide monies to party faithfuls under the guise of assisting manufactures.
With this man’s propensity for being dishonest and his love of money both the gov’t of Barbados and the gov’t of Trinidad and Tobago have set both themselves and himself up with the opportuinity to carry out more dishonesty against the taxpayers of the island.
The man obviously cannot be trusted but we witness both Prime Ministers being knowledegable of his style committing funds to allow him to contiue his stealing, wonderful MR PM I say just wonderful.
WOW!
Thank you Adrian!!
can any one confirm the resignation from the EGFL????