Don’t expect Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr Denis Lowe, to stop asking for Opposition Leader Mia Mottley to produce her Legal Education Certificate in the House of Assembly as an official document.
The MP for Christ Church East made it clear yesterday that he would keep making the call until Mottley made her certificate a document of the House.
Lowe, who said he has been reliably informed his request had good legal standing, also launched a broadside at the Barbados Bar Association, warning it not to become a political organisation.
“She (Mottley) still hasn’t brought that document here,” he told fellow MPs while debating the second reading of the Road Traffic Amendment Bill (2017).
“I will check with the clerk of Parliament regarding how many documents the Opposition Leader has made documents of this House. I will call for that document to be produced until go to my grave,” he declared. “I am not a legal luminary, but I have been told by legal luminaries I am standing on good grounds.”
While briefly moving away from the substantive bill, Lowe also expressed his disappointment with the Bar, saying he had written that entity for clarification on the issue months ago.
“If you wait for a response from the Bar Association, these amendments would never go into place. I wrote the Bar Association almost four months ago asking them to investigate a charge that was made in this honourable House, and to date, they have not even responded. Not even the courtesy of acknowledging receiving the correspondence. The charge is that there is a person practising law without an LEC, a matter that was reintroduced in this debate,” Lowe noted.
He also had some advice for the body.
“The Bar Association in Barbados has to be very careful it is not weaponised to become a political organisation rather than giving audience to Barbadians who have legitimate concerns,” Lowe said.
When contacted yesterday, Bar president Liesel Weekes said she was not aware of any correspondence from Lowe.
“The Bar has always stood ready to assist when assistance is sought in so far as we can. I am quite willing to respond to the honourable member if he would be willing to resend his original correspondence or a follow-up thereto,” she told the MIDWEEK NATION.
“I personally do not recall having sight of any correspondence from the honourable minister. If he did remit correspondence to the Bar Association and didn’t receive a response, it may be for no other reason than myself or the secretary did not have sight of it.”
Weekes also made it clear the association has no plans of being political. “The Bar Association is no way, nor has it at any time, been politically weaponised. Any statement which the Bar makes on any issue which affects the public is completely apolitical,” she added. (BA)
