THE OPPOSITION Barbados Labour Party (BLP) has no moral authority for its objection to an imminent amendment to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act that could lead to Marston Gibson’s appointment as Barbados’ next Chief Justice, says Minister of Housing Michael Lashley.
Speaking last night at a Democratic Labour Party St Philip West branch meeting at Princess Margaret Secondary School, Lashley said the then BLP Government went to Parliament and amended the National Housing Act to facilitate the continuance of a construction arrangement with contractor Al Barrack for commercial building when the agency’s mandate was to provide housing for Barbadians.
He also noted the BLP administration had brought the separation of powers into serious question by accommodating a politician (Sir David Simmons) becoming Chief Justice of Barbados within three months of stepping down as a parliamentarian.
Lashley, who is an attorney-at-law, said such an act had never previously been carried out anywhere in the Caribbean.
The St Philip North MP described Gibson as one of the most brilliant legal brains to come out of Barbados and the planned amendment as an improvement to existing legislation.
Gibson, a Rhodes Scholar with law degrees from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Oxford University in England, has served as a judicial referee, and has taught and practised law in New York, United States, for more than 20 years.
The former Foundation and Harrison College student has also served in the New York State Supreme or Surrogate’s courts on Long Island and Manhattan since 1989.
A lecturer at the University of the West Indies campuses at Cave Hill and St Augustine before going to the United States in 1987.
