Marston Gibson, Chief Justice of Barbados Designate
Marston Gibson, Chief Justice

In the interest of sharing all information received about any matters which BU has reported on, we have been advised and updated on the issue of the Parris v BLP and Nation and Barbados Advocate as follows:

Mr Hal Gollop QC filed an action for defamation against the Nation which pre-dates the Parris action. The law firm of Carrington and Sealy acts for the Nation and Mr Vernon Smith QC is acting for Mr Gollop.

The essence of the complaint is that on January 07, 2013, the Nation captured and published the photograph which is the subject of dispute. Reasonable conclusion, the Nation was the author and the holder of copyright of the photograph. The BLP subsequently used the photograph and caption in their campaign. Thus, Mr Gollop has also advanced a claim of conspiracy against the Nation and the BLP.

At an election meeting at the Ivy on January 10, Mr Chris Sinclair made comments on BIPA that were responded to by the Nation with the picture at dispute. Mr Gollop immediately commenced the protocols (CPR)  against the Nation and, the time limit of the protocols having expired, Mr Gollop filed suit some time BEFORE Mr Parris filed his suit.

To date BU understands that the Nation has not filed an acknowledgement of the claim. Mr Mottley QC is representing the BLP in its defence of the Paris action.

How is it that Mr Gollop’s action is not proceeding, while the action of Mr Parris is proceeding with such haste? AND being heard by the Chief Justice? There is the inference which some have made that the Simmons appointed people in the court system are doing favours for the party that appointed them. The independence of the courts and of the judiciary from the executive must now be carefully examined.

115 responses to “Update: Leroy Parris v BLP, Nation and Barbados Advocate”


  1. Kevin…………..as far as I know and aside from the fact that the parent company can access funds from an offshore interest………….the only executives who were in charge of CLICO policyholders money in Barbados were Parris et al, with Thompson as CLICO attorney and lead adviser. I am sure Duprey will dispute what you are saying when he finally gets served and have to answer for his crimes, and also when the Trinidad government applies to the courts in Barbados for applicable discovery documents……………i wait in anticipation.


  2. @Kevin

    For CLICO to move money OUT of Barbados our Central Bank would have to approve the transactions.


  3. @Well Well,

    With regards to campaign funding why should it matter if its an executive from T&T or Bds? Its a PRIVATE entitiy, and if it got approval then so be it. Let the shareholders take it up with the powers that be if they were not happy about how their money are used and spent.

    @peltdownman

    You are just reiterating my point. The former PM did not had to gaurantee depositors their monies back. Also Government, whether it be B or D, doesnt have an ‘obligation’ as you put it. They did it because of the vast number of persons affected. When you put your money in financial instruments prominising high returns there is also high risk. Why should tax payers have to come and bail out your losses. There were two other financial entities that folded and close before Clico. I dont think persons who put their monies in those companies got back a cent.

    And there is no more need to spend tax payers money for additional investigations, thats what audits are for. Let the results of the forensic audit speak for itself.


  4. @Responsibility Please!!! I have now had a chance to study all your posts and you are clearly someone with insider knowledge, but you need to evidence that knowledge, not just come out with what is hearsay and demand apologies for most proper and responsible speculation. We have to deal in facts, not spin. The points in what you had to say that have struck me are:

    “You are blaming Mr Parris unjustifiably.”

    I have NOT blamed Mr Parris. Mr Parris has, from what I can see, a strong case for defamation, but that is subject to a finding of fact by the courts. The appearance, however, would suggest that Mr Parris has been defamed.

    “The application was brought by MOTTLEY & CO to have George Griffith removed as a party to the action.” Etc.

    You have not explained this properly at all, but I happen to know what you are saying, so let me go there and try to explain and you can correct me if you think I am in error.

    The Parris action is against the BLP, the Nation and the Advocate. Counsel for Parris sued the BLP through its secretary, as is right and proper. Mr Mottley QC, acting for the BLP, objected to Mr George Griffith, the BLP secretary, being sued AS SECRETARY and seeks to have the action against Mr Griffith discharged. However, Mr Griffith is not sued personally, but as secretary of the BLP, so I personally can find no law or precedent to support Mr Mottley’s contentions, but I wait to see what this senior silk will come up with.

    And you are 100% right. I DO question how Messrs. Mottley and Thorne managed to jump the queue at the courts, if it was they who engineered it in the first place. Now I could speculate (and do speculate) that almost all of the court officers and judges owe their appointments to the former BLP government and that is where their sympathies likely lie.

    However, it would be one-sided of me not to also speculate that Parris’ contacts within BOTH parties, but primarily latterly the DLP, did not decide to facilitate Parris on the motion by Mottley and Thorne which appears from that I have seen, to be frivolous and vexatious and, indeed, to be a matter of trite law (all of which is without having heard Mr Mottley’s supporting arguments). BUT, it maybe explains why the CJ has requested this case. High profile with a lot of press coverage, frivolous and vexatious. He can hardly make a mistake and he gets what he is likes – mucho publicity. And since that publicity will almost certainly rebound to the discredit of the BLP and, by ancestry, its leader, if, as everyone suggests that Parris is in cahoots with the DLP (except me because I have NEVER believed it, but have been known, as my friend Baffy will doubtless point out, to be wrong before), then an advantage politically accrues to the DLP.

    But none of this answers the central and most important question. How come the queue was jumped like that? Which functionary in the Registry accomplished this? As I keep on pointing out, there are many litigants the prejudice to whom is FAR greater than the prejudice to any of the parties in the Parris action, and they have to wait their turn. So what the hell do these idiots in the justice system think they are playing at – WHO is responsible? You have NOT answered that for us, my friend. And I hope you will assist us with what is clearly insider knowledge (and I don’t give a damn about the politics) by providing chapter, rhyme and verse. At the end of the day, the Registrar is responsible, but I want to know who in the Registrar’s office (or the Registrar herself) authorised the queue jumping.

    “I am sure after the facts are known DAVID will agree that an apology to the CJ and Parris would be the honourable thing .” I cannot speak for David, but for myself I see absolutely no grounds for an apology of any sort. You have not provided us, the BU family (or David) with FACTS. Merely your unsupported version that is open to question, since there are no clear lines of demarcation as to who benefits. And you have not said who done it. Name names, please. We the taxpayers pay these jokers. We want to know who is responsible.

    “It would seem that George Was made a party in his role as the General Secretary of the BLP.” Yes. Correct and proper procedure. Do you question it? If so, on what grounds?

    “I have done my own little bit of research and have found out that the matter has been adjourned on the application of Parris’ lawyer to some date in JULY. I am also informed that the application for the adjournment was stoutly resisted by Mottley . It was a matter in Chambers so the facts were not made public.”

    July being so very far away!!!!! That was sarcasm. I am not interested that the matter has been adjourned, but am astonished that it is not for a couple of years, like all the other cases. My interest is how the hell it was scheduled for hearing so quickly. I think we all want to know that FACTUALLY!! As you say, the matter is a Chambers matter and so to claim that Mottley resisted the adjournment is hearsay. And if he did, you must have enough court experience to know that often that can be tactics, without substance. Bree used to call it a “red herring”.

    @ Kevin | May 23, 2013 at 8:34 AM | You are, of course, as you know, 100% correct. BU has covered this matter time and again. My personal feelings are that I have enormous sympathy for the CLICO investors. ENORMOUS!!!! And tempered. There is, sadly, little or nothing they can do. And if Government does anything, it is because they want to, not because they are under any obligation of any kind, as you so correctly pointed out. Sadly, it is like going to the race track, asking for a tip on a horse, putting all your money and life savings on the one horse, the horse losing and then you trying to get your money back by suing the owner, the trainer and jockey and likely the horse itself. You can even broaden that analogy to say that the horse was an outsider and, had you won, the odds were terrific. I am also forced to reflect that at the time that CLICO was offering its pie-in-the-sky interest rates, there were treasury bills on offer at an extremely desirable rate of interest, but not nearly as high as CLICO, that would have been a secure and prudent and relatively high-yield investment.

    I also want to state that CLICO, in exchange for a certain time period on investments, was offering to repay capital and interest OUTSIDE of Barbados (and let me tell you that this was NOT during the tenure of office of the DLP) that would have effectively negated the measures put in place during the government of Erskine Sandiford (when DT was MoF) that ALONE are responsible for Barbados not being as badly hit as it might have been by this ongoing global recession. So, my sympathy for the CLICO investors is tempered by this knowledge.

    But back to the case in point and back to you, Responsibility Please!!! I think it is high time that Bajans came to realise that blinkered political affiliations are just plain stupid. We hire people to govern us and their responsibility is to govern ALL of us, irrespective of our political beliefs. We have laws that are supposed to create and promote a little thing called EQUALITY. Something our forefathers fought and often gave their lives for and which we are the inheritors of. Therefore, it is high time we started to work for the good of the COUNTRY and to ask questions and insist on answers from those who use political clout to obtain an advantage, whether it is in the courts or the legislature, to which they are NOT ENTITLED!!!

    So, Responsibility Please!!!, as you are clearly in a position to have an insider’s knowledge, would you be responsible to your brethren of the Country of Barbados and let us know WHO set the case down for hearing jumping the lists and WHY the CJ decided to allow it and to preside (and please don’t say that it was because another judge was not available – remember there are appeal court judges working only 3 days a week, any one of which could have been co-opted for what is certainly on the face of it a matter of trite law). And while we, not you my friend RP, but the rest of us, are at it, maybe it could also be explained why the Hal Gollop case is not on the same fast track. Remember, the Parris case is now before the CJ, including for the substantive hearing. He has started the case and must now finish it – sitting as a judge of the High Court. And that too is trite law.

    @David | May 23, 2013 at 9:55 AM |Indeed. See my comments to Kevin. And that arrangement with CLICO came into force, to my CERTAIN knowledge, in about 2004. And it was not under a DLP government.


  5. Kevin…………..have you ever heard of false advertising, insurance companies in the islands do it all the time, there should be a penalty on the statute books for such fraud, I don’t know if CL Financial was offering the same pie in the sky lies to it’s policyholders but you can guarantee that in the real world under fair trading rules, this is FRAUD and THIEVERY at a gigantic magnitude and executives, ceos and all the other liars and thieves pay the penalty. Because Trade Confirmers and the other company was allowed to get away with it in the 80s, does not mean CLICO under Parris’ former leadership should be allowed to get away with fraud in 2013.


  6. As I have said before, Bajans should now realize how vulnerable they are when believing and putting their monthly hard-earned salaries into insurance companies in the Caribbean that are self-serving and have no conscience when it is time to pay out or repay money to policyholders, people need to find another way to hold on to their cash and shut down these thieving companies. To add insult to injury the CLICO policyholders, i am told. are still paying monthly premiums. Some of yall need to be living out here.


  7. @Kevin. What you said, although absolutely correct, is going to be unpalatable to many. But what can you do?


  8. I would never put a penny of mine into any insurance company in Barbados and will always advise others never to do the same, it’s time to shut down these band of thieves.


  9. agree with Kevin timely and well said comments. ………………unfortunately there are those who still belives that govt supposed to solve all their personnal problems that includes the rich and poor……..investment is a risky businesss and those who dare venture into such unchartered waters must do their homework weighing the risk vs. the benefits..No one wants to lose anything fartherless they hard earnedmoney for retirement.


  10. Rawdon Adams used to blog pun this site … David used to hang on pun every word dat he write … David, ya brown noser … HA HA HA


  11. Leroy Parris can destroy thousands of lives by his blatant “thiefing” but he has the gall to sue people because of a picture and an ad during an election? Give me a break!

    If he wins,I hope he gives it all to the policyholders he has robbed. Thiefing jackass!


  12. Prodigal

    It is a pity that I can’t rate comments na more


  13. @ Dummy
    A by-election in one of the current 6/7 DLP weak seats and Parliament skin up. Therefore If I were you I would not be so pompous in talking about 57 months far less 2023.


  14. Enuff

    You realise that Owen has officially said he done with politics and therefore the first by-election will be in St. Peter. You also realise that despite Benn’s complaints the DLP has not yet declared who it plans to run down there later this year against Rawdon Adams?

    The DLP will win the St. Peter By-Election and it will be 17-13 in Parliament. The BLP cannot return to office before 2018 or 19 earliest by more likely to be 2023? Look at the facts Enuff, this politics thing aint about wishing and praying and hoping.


  15. I don’t know where they got the idea that they got time put down somewhere. They are clueless to what is unfolding in the real world, not paradise island, did i say paradise?, yet are able to predict what will happen next. Ha! HA!


  16. Enuff

    You didn’t one of the ones bout here in January and February this year saying the BLP could not loss the elections? You, Just Asking, Prodigal Sona and Onions was already to send the packers to Ilaro Court to move out Freundel Stuart……………..but wunna ass get JUMP.


  17. Um is 57 months or 10 more years wunna have to wait before the people of Barbados forgive wunna sins. Wunna do nuff shoite bout here between 1994 and 2008, you how much million and million get squander?


  18. @ Sea Gram’s
    I thought Owen said he wasn’t running again. You are now telling me he plans to resign from is seat? I wonder what name you were blogging under before? Hope you don’t get jumped by the IMF *whistles*

  19. Smooth Chocolate Avatar
    Smooth Chocolate

    @LOOK | May 22, 2013 at 6:45 PM |
    ” I have common interest, art work collected by John David Rockefeller from all over the world”

    READ THE INTERNET, WHAT U HAVE ARE FORGERIES… i am embarrassed reading ur comment, u obviously have not yet acquired a taste for quality, take a trip to Paris visit the Louvre, it will help u determine as it did me, fact from fiction…

  20. Smooth Chocolate Avatar
    Smooth Chocolate

    @LOOK | May 22, 2013 at 8:28 PM |
    ” …My boyfriend, a French-Canadian, resident of Montreal Quebec, Canada often calls me a bad girl.”

    at ur obviously old age, u have a BOYFRIEND? don’t u think u should have a husband? and he calls u a ‘bad girl”? obviously no man has yet found u marriage material…ur still hanging on at the périphéries? do something good for yourself, move from ‘girlfriend’ to wife


  21. @ Smooth Chocolate

    You’re embarrassing yourself – REALLY. Ms. Know it all, you know know me, don’t know a thing about me, baby you don’t know a thing about me, how old I am and if ever I was married.


  22. @ Well Well

    The 2013 Montreal Jazz Festival is 06/29/13 – 07/09/13. Hope I see you there. Cincinnati in Ohio often does a good jazz festival; they have scheduled theirs 07/26/13 – 07/28/13. I enjoyed an evening with Saxaphonist Kenny G, just before Christmas. He was just awsome.


  23. Alvin……………don’t know if you are keeping up with the news in Toronto today but it’s fireworks.


  24. Look…………………ok, that’s next month, as long as I am still in Canada. I don’t see any immediate changes to my plans.

  25. Alvin Cummins Avatar

    @Well Well.
    Didn’t know you liked jazz. Interesting!. Jazz at Nathan Philips this sunday. do you listen to Jazz FM. 91.1?


  26. Alvin……………where is Nathan Philips located?, I hardly ever get to listen to radio, too busy sometimes.


  27. Waaait…..some people have no manners AT ALL. Mekking all kinda conversations bout dem French menz, dem Jazz musik, dem business wid each udder. I wish dem cud go on messenger or FB and have their social conversation instead of using BU to socialize! This blog is a serious blog bout serious tings affecting dis country.


  28. Smooth Chocolat……LOLL yuh right bout LOOK, she only trying to impress people dat she can get a “French Boyfriend”! As eff we care wha tonge he cud spoke in. I hope he does tie she up and whip she good! LOLL


  29. Nathan Philips Square in directly in front of the Toronto City Hall. I’m not far from that site but not in Toronto (Canada).


  30. Look……..thanks, just off Queen and Bay, thanks.


  31. Island………………a little Jazz will help you ease the tension that is mounting in Bim, stress kills you know.


  32. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULWZH9U_DF8&w=420&h=315%5D

    The Maputo Jazz Music (David Sanborn & Bob James) and a good glass of wine will calm you down. If not, you’ll need someone to tie you up and whip you real good.


  33. and to kick it up a notch from the smooth jazz.


  34. Kicking it another notch.


  35. Hants & Look……………..thanks, nothing like a little Jazz to calm the spirit.

  36. Alvin Cummins Avatar

    @Well Well
    Spoken like a real jazz afficionado. My radio is permanently set at 91.1FM.
    @Islandgal try listening to some smooth cool jazz that will keep you from being so hyper.


  37. The Court has a backlog of cases. Barbadians are urged to seek recourse to the Courts to resolve issues if they must yet…


  38. @David. Have you noted the deafening silence on the parts of BU’s legal eagles on this and the Compensation Fund issues? Not so much as a SQUEAK!! But let me assure you that the fun with the justice system is only just beginning. Even now the ducks are being lined up for shooting…..or is it sacred cows. The fall-out is going to be cataclysmic. Just hold tight.


  39. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vgn7fBI0dI&w=420&h=315%5D

    Dressed to Chill (Saxaphonist, Marion Meadows) might also keep her quite, islandgal246, Smooth Chocolate too. BU does not need to know that she (islandgal246) likes and allows men to tie her up and whip her, buttttttt what else would you expect from the ghetto in BIM.


  40. @LOOK | May 24, 2013 at 10:52 AM |

    i do not like to offer my opinion on certain matters but your comments has left me wondering about your maturity and level of education. i hope i am not embarrassing you but i thought this blog was for serious commentary, about issues affecting us. i don’t know if this is your first time using social media but they all vary, what you are putting here is something that would better fit Facebook. i also gather from you comments that you might be trying to suggest to others that you are living a higher quality of life. but are you. i have live among all kinds and i will tell you a secret, the poor love boasts about how much they spend, while the rich about how much they saved. i could go on but i would say that you seem to be a financially limited person who believes that certain genre of music and men iare signs of taste…but i get the impression that you are unable or unwilling to offer serious thought to the debate so you cover it with your tales of ‘ my life is better than yours’ stories. congrats, we get it …cheers


  41. @ Pinkie

    Reading my comments discloses FACT that I am an educated woman, do not speak or write ebonics as does islandgal246 and Smooth Chocolate. Additionally, I don’t disclose intimacy involving me and my man. The quality of life of which I live is none of your business, but it is certainly not low level or poor. I’m not an alcohol drinker. However, I do appreciate good tasting fine wines and smooth jazz. I do indulge in fine linens, bone china (flatware) and crystal (stemware). Also, sex Pinkie I think is stricktly a private matter, I do not embrace sadomasochism known as S&M, don’t do that, don’t allow men to tie me up and or whip me. People’s like or dislike for sadomasochism should not be exposed here on the Barbados Underground, maybe on Messenger or Facebook.

    No Pinkie, you did not embarrass me, only yourself.


  42. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFhni2FWCO8&w=420&h=315%5D

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5-z4gbitw&w=560&h=315%5D

    Don’t pick on me. I don’t particularly dislike anybody but will fire back to whomever has fires at me. I’m not the one you want to piss off. Ask Baffy about that, Smooth Chocolate, Islandgal246 too. Relax Pinkie, try some Chillaxin with Saxaphonist, Huge Groove. Maybe you should get out and about, do some Grazing In the Grass (Hugh Maskela).


  43. @Look. You take on Islandgal? You mad? You take on Baffy? You really crazy? Dream on, girl. No amount of “Chillaxin with Saxaphonist, Huge Groove” is going to save you now. Bye bye.

  44. Alvin Cummins Avatar

    @Well Well
    For your information re. CLICO, if you can get hold of the Caribbean Times International (www.caribbeantimes international.com for the week ending May 23, have a look at page 16 under the headline ” Interesting reading, but what should be of special interest to you is the statement that “The financial problems of CLICO and the collapse ot the British American Insurance company (BAICO) have not only affected clients in Trinidad and Tobago, but in many Caribbean countries where policy holdeers have reported losses estimated as millions of dollars.
    The Trinidad and Tobago government said it had pumped more than TT$25 billion,in bailing out the company since it collapsed in 2009, (note the year) and last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gasparel said the police had started a “full criminal investigation” into the conduct of individuals and corporate entities involved in the collapse of CLICO and related companies.”
    Get a copy of the Newspaper at any west indian store.There are other interesting stories, especially a statement made by P.M. Stuart last wednesday when he delivered the feature address at the UNDP’s Human Development Report 2013. “Economic Development is Possible [even] when here is no growth…Barbados is ranked 38 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Report of 2013
    @Enuff.
    Pertaining to me, you disparagingly, in reference to my suggestion that we could export golden apples, said:that “his hilarious suggestion of exporting Golden Apples”…Tell that to the Jamaicans. Up to today I went into No Frills, one of the largest supermarket chains in Ontario, and saw the large amount of golden Apples (June Plums they call it) offered for sale $3.27 Can per pound.and they sell well.So Bajans, keep your heads in the sand. don’t look at the possibilities that stare you in the face. Don’t look for them, or explore them. I will still continue to give suggestions. If you don’t want to expor them how about making golden Apple juice, filter it well and package it in Tetra Pak containers (as Pine Hill Dairies does with Guava etc (from concentrate), especially small containers and sell it locally and overseas. It cam be done. we import a large amount of Apple Juice (English apples for clarity) and a lot of this juice is made from the smallest and most rejected apples grown.Offer Golden Apple juice to tourists as an alternative juice drink, get them accustomed to the taste. Here is an opportunity for a young entrepreneur to enter the market.The guy who first put coconut water in cans (a white guy with a Brazilian girlfriend who conceptualised the idea when he visited her in Brazil, is now a multimillionaire. How long ago have we been selling coconut water?.At least it could help the import substitution matter.
    Enough “shoite” (shades of Islandgal ) for now.


  45. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM&w=420&h=315%5D

    @ Amused

    I haven’t yet dodged any bullets, not from you! You, you Amused Got to Give it up. You, you said . . . . That was just a hot air balloon?


  46. @Look…” Additionally, I don’t disclose intimacy involving me and my man. The quality of life of which I live is none of your business, but it is certainly not low level or poor. I’m not an alcohol drinker. However, I do appreciate good tasting fine wines”

    You are one blasted LIAR and SHOW PIG if I ever met one. You disclosed that you have a French Canadian man and he calls you BAD. What de rass yuh think you telling us on BU??? You don’t drink acohol BUT you like fine tasting wines??? What de rass yuh tink wine is??? SMH you are one poor great pussy!


  47. An example of the JOKERS that are in positions of authority….Toronto mayor and alleged crack scandal….


  48. There is nothing sadder than witnessing a person’s lack of intelligence, just pure stupidity – IN ACTION.

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