(Barbados Nation) Minister of Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss is “deeply troubled” there’s no Barbadian on the bench of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
He raised the issue in the House of Assembly on Tuesday one day after the question was asked by a student from Combermere School who was part of a group observing sittings in the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson had responded to the student: “We have to trust that when we sit and determine that someone is of the calibre to sit on the CCJ, that we are not guided by nationalistic or insular concerns.”
During debate on an amendment to the Immigration Act in the Lower Chamber, aimed, among other things, at strengthening penalties and introducing indictable offences along with summary trials, the minister said: “I am deeply troubled by the absence of Barbadians on the Caribbean Court of Justice and by the place being administered by citizens of countries who have refused and find all kinds of excuses not to have the CCJ as their final court of appeal.”
