Advertise With Us
About Us
Listen
Watch

Login

/

Subscribe

Home

News

Carnival

Business

Sport

E-Paper

Features

Opinion

Traffic Cameras

Life

Classifieds

Death Notices

Community

Real Estate

About Us

Contact Us

Home
News
Carnival
Sport
E-paper
Business
Classifieds
Other
Death Notices
Traffic Cameras
Covid-19
Features
Opinion
Games
Subscriptions
Real Estate

Judge rips into EOT for blocking Veera’s appointment

by

#meta[ag-author]
Derek Achong
20211123224012
20211123
Attorney Veera Bhajan

Attorney Veera Bhajan

The Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Tri­bunal (EOT) and its chair­man Don­na Prow­ell-Raphael have come un­der stiff crit­i­cism for their adamance in block­ing EOT lay as­ses­sor Veera Bha­jan from tak­ing up her ap­point­ment.

 In rul­ing that the EOT and Prow­ell-Ra­pa­hel act­ed il­le­gal­ly and be­yond their statu­to­ry re­mit in tak­ing the ac­tion yes­ter­day, High Court Judge Ava­son Quin­lan-Williams not­ed that the lyrics of lo­cal dance­hall artist Gen­er­al Grant’s hit “Pure Hate” res­onat­ed with her through­out her con­sid­er­a­tion of the case. 

“Pure hate and act­ing nor­mal,” Quin­lan-Williams re­peat­ed.

In ad­di­tion to is­su­ing de­c­la­ra­tions against the tri­bunal and Prow­ell-Raphael, Quin­lan-Williams or­dered that Bha­jan be paid her salary and ben­e­fits which were with­held since March, plus in­ter­est and that Bha­jan’s ap­point­ment be im­me­di­ate­ly fa­cil­i­tat­ed. 

The tri­bunal and Prow­ell-Raphael were or­dered to pay $100,000 in dam­ages for the dis­tress and em­bar­rass­ment they caused Bha­jan. 

Jus­tice Quin­lan-Williams al­so or­dered $250,000 in vin­di­ca­to­ry dam­ages to high­light the court’s strong feel­ings over what tran­spired. 

“There ought to be a sense of pub­lic out­rage over what oc­curred,” Quin­lan-Williams said as she said the at­tempts to block the ap­point­ment were dis­turb­ing and off-putting. 

She said she had dif­fi­cul­ties in writ­ing the judge­ment, not based on the le­gal is­sues be­fore her but in strik­ing a bal­ance in be­ing crit­i­cal of the con­duct and be­ing ju­di­cious in her choice of words to de­scribe it. 

“It is in­ex­plic­a­ble that this mat­ter is be­fore a court,” she said. 

Quin­lan-Williams not­ed that based on the ev­i­dence be­fore her, Prow­ell-Raphael nev­er spoke di­rect­ly with Bha­jan af­ter she was ap­point­ed by Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes on March 17. 

“What is up with that?” Quin­lan-Williams asked. 

The judge al­so ques­tioned whether Prow­ell-Raphael would re­con­sid­er her con­tin­ued role on the tri­bunal. 

“I won­der if at the end of this saga, af­ter all is said and done and when there is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­flect on de­ci­sions made and ac­tions tak­en, whether the sec­ond de­fen­dant would, in a qui­et time, re­flect on whether she is the best fit for chair of the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Tri­bunal,” Quin­lan-Williams said. 

Quin­lan-Williams not­ed that the chal­lenges per­sist­ed even af­ter the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent and Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al stood by the le­gal­i­ty of the ap­point­ment and sup­port­ed Bha­jan’s le­gal chal­lenge. 

“There was no re­gard to the man­date of the tri­bunal to pre­vent dis­crim­i­na­tion and to pro­mote equal op­por­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple of un­equal sta­tus. There was no re­gard for how it would look to the rest of us that a per­son who is law­ful­ly ap­point­ed by Her Ex­cel­len­cy can­not get her just dues from the EOT and its chair,” she said. 

Quin­lan-Williams com­mend­ed Bha­jan for hav­ing the will and for­ti­tude to pur­sue the law­suit. 

“It is not any­one and every­one who can take on that fight but the Claimant can and she has. It is no won­der, there­fore, she was ap­point­ed to the EOT,” she said. 

In her judge­ment, Quin­lan-Williams not­ed that over the past few months, the tri­bunal and Prow­ell-Raphael gave vary­ing base­less rea­sons on why Bha­jan should not be al­lowed to as­sume her du­ties, in­clud­ing the tri­bunal’s lim­it­ed fi­nan­cial re­sources, its in­abil­i­ty to ac­com­mo­date a mem­ber with a dis­abil­i­ty and al­le­ga­tions that Bha­jan may be per­ceived to be bi­ased based on her dis­abil­i­ty. 

Quin­lan-Williams sound­ly re­ject­ed claims that Bha­jan, who was born with­out arms and re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Sil­ver) in 2011, did not have 10 years com­bined ex­pe­ri­ence in law and so­cial work as re­quired for the lay-as­ses­sor po­si­tion. 

“As to her qual­i­fi­ca­tions to hold the post of lay-as­ses­sor, her life has been the best tes­ta­ment to so­cial wel­fare. She has lived it. Her ex­pe­ri­ences are from the time of her birth,” she said. 

Un­der the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Act, the tri­bunal con­sists of a chair­man and two lay-as­ses­sors. While the Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (JLSC) ad­vis­es the Pres­i­dent on the ap­point­ment of the chair­man, the lay-as­ses­sors are se­lect­ed by the Pres­i­dent. The tri­bunal is man­dat­ed to hear and de­ter­mine dis­crim­i­na­tion com­plaints un­der the leg­is­la­tion, which are re­ferred to it by the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion. 

In a press re­lease mo­ments af­ter the judge­ment, the tri­bunal said it re­spect­ed the de­ci­sion but con­tin­ued to de­ny any wrong­do­ing.

“The Tri­bunal has been guid­ed by best prac­tices and pro­fes­sion­al ad­vice at all time,” it said. 

“The Tri­bunal re­spects the rul­ing of the Ho­n­ourable Court and will meet with its at­tor­neys to de­ter­mine its next steps. The Tri­bunal looks for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to serve the cit­i­zens of T&T.”

Ear­li­er yes­ter­day, the tri­bunal is­sued a sep­a­rate and un­re­lat­ed re­lease in which it an­nounced that its cas­es sched­uled for hear­ing in De­cem­ber were ad­journed, as it re­mains with­out ac­cess to fa­cil­i­ties to con­duct in-per­son and vir­tu­al hear­ings. 

Bha­jan was rep­re­sent­ed by Alvin Fitz­patrick, SC, Ra­jiv Per­sad, Michael Rooplal, Ra­jiv Chaitoo, Shari Fitz­patrick and Gabriel Her­nan­dez. The EOT and its chair­man were rep­re­sent­ed by Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, SC, Leon Kalicha­ran, Kiel Tak­lals­ingh and Ka­ri­na Singh. Rishi Dass, Te­nille Ramkissoon, Svet­lana Dass and Karis­sa Singh rep­re­sent­ed the AG’s Of­fice.


Click HERE to Login

Want FREE access to all our content? Sign up HERE!

Tagged in:

Responses

Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Trending

Missing Naipaul-Coolman file re-appears
UNC officials happy about Kamla’s reunion with Jack
Couple win $815 appeal in Privy Council
Police searching for seven men in Santa Flora bar robbery
Venezuelans attacked, home razed by bandits in Wallerfield
Rowley: $1.6b transformation coming for Sando
Two killed in Laventille on Sunday night 
T&T nationals safe, out of Turkey disaster zone
PM slams failing regional corporations
Man disappears on hunting trip
Today's
Guardian
View
Subscribe

Publications

Mrs. Zobida Ragbirsingh - 70th Birthday

Mrs. Zobida Ragbirsingh - 70th Birthday

Mrs. Zobida Ragbirsingh - 70th Birthday

Mrs. Zobida Ragbirsingh - 70th Birthday

A woman’s health is her capital

20230204130256
TTCS General Manager, Kevin Cox (left) presenting certificate to our Global Hero, Marcia Miranda.

TTCS General Manager, Kevin Cox (left) presenting certificate to our Global Hero, Marcia Miranda.

TTCS General Manager, Kevin Cox (left) presenting certificate to our Global Hero, Marcia Miranda.

TTCS General Manager, Kevin Cox (left) presenting certificate to our Global Hero, Marcia Miranda.

Marcia Miranda Global Hero of Hope

20230204131053
A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S. on Friday, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying and sending excited or alarmed Americans outside with binoculars. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U..S.-China tensions.(Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP)

A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S. on Friday, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying and sending excited or alarmed Americans outside with binoculars. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U..S.-China tensions.(Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP)

Larry Mayer

A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S. on Friday, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying and sending excited or alarmed Americans outside with binoculars. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U..S.-China tensions.(Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP)

A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S. on Friday, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying and sending excited or alarmed Americans outside with binoculars. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U..S.-China tensions.(Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP)

Larry Mayer

Second Chinese spy balloon spotted in skies over Latin America, says Pentagon

20230203212758
This photo released by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows debris found in a dead sperm whale at Lydgate Beach in Kauai County, Hawaii on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris. (Daniel Dennison/Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)

This photo released by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows debris found in a dead sperm whale at Lydgate Beach in Kauai County, Hawaii on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris. (Daniel Dennison/Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)

Daniel Dennison

This photo released by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows debris found in a dead sperm whale at Lydgate Beach in Kauai County, Hawaii on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris. (Daniel Dennison/Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)

This photo released by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows debris found in a dead sperm whale at Lydgate Beach in Kauai County, Hawaii on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris. (Daniel Dennison/Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)

Daniel Dennison

Hawaii whale dies with fishing nets, plastic bags in stomach

20230202212857
Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

News

Business

Sports

Life

Opinion

Tobago Today

Classifieds

Death Notices

Subscriptions

Real Estate

Categories

News
Business
Sport
Features
Opinion
Traffic Cameras
Death Notices

INFORMATION

About Us
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Privacy Policy
Subscriptions
Terms of Services

Digital Media

The Big Board Company.
Real Estate
Classifieds

TELEVISION

CNC3 Television

RADIO

951 Remix
Sangeet 106.1 FM
Sky 99.5FM
Slam 100.5 FM
Vibe CT 105 FM
Mix 90.1 FM (Guyana)
Freedom 106.5 FM

About Us

Guardian Media is the premier provider of multimedia solutions and authoritative insight on news, politics, business, finance, sports, and current affairs. Our brand portfolio includes CNC3, Guardian, TBC Radio Network and The Big Board Company.

Contact us

Send us an e-mail here or call us at +1-(868)-225-4465

Follow us