Former EOC chairman embarrassed by Veera Bhajan's legal challenge against body

Former Equal Opportunity Commission chairman John La Guerre says he is embarrassed the commission’s tribunal now appears to be “involved in issues that seem to entail inequality.”

La Guerre, Emeritus Prof of Government, UWI, St Augustine, was commenting on attorney Veera Bhajan’s decision to initiate legal action against the tribunal for not allowing her to begin work as a lay assessor even though she was appointed to the body by President Paula-Mae Weekes since last March.

Bhajan, who was born without arms, issued a pre-action protocol letter to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and tribunal chairman Donna Prowell-Raphael on July 30.

In the letter, Bhajan, who has been an attorney since 2011, said she had written to the President about the issue,  saying she had been treated with “scant regard.”

The letter, issued through Bhajan’s attorney Rajiv Chaitoo, said she was appointed a lay assessor of the tribunal on March 17, with took effect from the same day for three years.

The President is said to be working on a resolution to the matter.

Bhajan had received a letter from Prowell-Raphael alleging breach of confidential communication channels, compromising the independence of the tribunal, among other things. She has denied the accusations.

Prowell-Raphael had also said there were currently no logistic and/or financial means to accommodate or support another lay assessor.

“Moreover, given the tribunal’s current workflow, I do not require the assistance of another lay assessor as the tribunal is well served by the current panel,” the letter said.

La Guerre, who became the EOC’s first chairman in 2008, served for two consecutive three-year terms.

He said policies must be carried out in accordance with the commission’s constitution and that of the TT.

“I expect that whoever are the policy-makers and those carrying out policy will do so with regard to the constitution of the Equal Opportunity Commission and of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago as a whole.”

La Guerre described the commission as “a very important institution in our country.

“It has to lead also by example and I think it is important that they should get everything right.”

Political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath said he was not apprised of all of the details surrounding Bhajan’s legal challenge. But he said if the President had appointed her to serve as a lay assessor in accordance with the law, then that should have been followed.

“I don’t know if the tribunal will have their own powers to disregard what the President said,” he said.

The Equal Opportunity Commission was established by Section 26 (1) of the Equal Opportunity Act 2000 for the purpose of exercising the jurisdiction conferred upon it by the act. Its mandate is to work towards the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equality and good relations between people of different status.