Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Aside from his con­tri­bu­tions to this coun­try’s Ju­di­cia­ry and the Con­sti­tu­tion, High Court Judge Kathy Ann Wa­ter­man-Latchoo saw it fit to ac­knowl­edge who Michael de la Bastide was as a hu­man be­ing. 

Wa­ter­man-Latchoo worked close­ly with de la Bastide and col­lab­o­rat­ed with him on his au­to­bi­og­ra­phy ti­tled “With­in the Law, Mem­oirs of a Caribbean Ju­rist”, which was launched in 2021. 

Im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter his pass­ing yes­ter­day, Wa­ter­man-Latchoo said, “He was once called The Bull. But I came to think of him more as a but­ter­fly, for his bril­liant­ly coloured mind and the light­ness of his spir­it. There was noth­ing pon­der­ous about him. His wit was leg­endary. He was fun­ny, so fun­ny, and he chuck­led the most at his own foibles. He told the best sto­ries, but his own life sto­ry is like a love let­ter for Trinidad and To­ba­go.” 

Mean­while, ac­knowl­edg­ing his rep­u­ta­tion as a le­gal lu­mi­nary, for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al John Je­re­mie said, “It is im­pos­si­ble to re­count a his­to­ry of the prac­tice of the law in the Caribbean with­out a ref­er­ence to Michael de la Bastide. He was as much of a gi­ant on the bench as he was at the bar.” 

Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Stu­art Young cred­it­ed de la Bastide for en­cour­ag­ing him to be­come a lawyer when the then-16-year-old Young wit­nessed de la Bastide in the court­room.

He added, “I saw the trans­for­ma­tion of the Ju­di­cia­ry un­der his tenure as Chief Jus­tice, and I had a front-row seat when he clashed with the then-at­tor­ney gen­er­al and the pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion in 1999/2000.”

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress said it was al­so mourn­ing the pass­ing of the for­mer chief jus­tice. 

Via me­dia re­lease, the par­ty said, “Dur­ing his il­lus­tri­ous ca­reer, Mr de la Bastide made an ex­ten­sive and con­scious con­tri­bu­tion to jus­tice and leg­isla­tive gov­er­nance in his var­i­ous tenures.” 

The UNC added, “As Chief Jus­tice and first pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice, he dis­pensed jus­tice with deep in­sight, knowl­edge, and ex­pe­ri­ence. He was ear­li­er a voice of rea­son and ex­per­tise as an in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor and as pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion.” 

The Caribbean Court of Jus­tice, which he served as pres­i­dent, an­nounced that it will open a con­do­lence book to the pub­lic to­mor­row.