COURT SPEAKS OUT!

IT is hoped that the work of the Drug Treatment Court will assist in reducing some of the crime and violence being exhibited in this country.

Chief Justice, Sir Marston Gibson, speaking out against the recent spike in violent crimes committed with firearms, suggested that there is little doubt that much of the use of firearms is fuelled by the drug trade and as such, he hinted that successfully countering the drug challenge, should help deal with the violence. His comments came at the Special Sitting of the Supreme Court to mark the Commencement of the Law Term 2017-2018.

“We in the Court join right-thinking Barbadians in deprecating the violence which has caused so many of us to cower in fear. We will continue, in our own little way, to reduce the market by reducing the number of addicts, and we can only hope that this will in turn reduce some of the violence which we have witnessed,” he stated.

Sir Marston, speaking more to the work of the Drug Treatment Court, indicated that it continues to meet on a monthly basis with a total of 21 clients, and to date, he said the presiding judge, Magistrate Graveney Bannister, has only had to order one of the clients into further and more clinical treatment. Those clients, he said, are expected to graduate in January 2018 and he revealed another cohort of Drug Treatment Court clients will be enrolled thereafter.

The Chief Justice also touched on the Mediation Project. Noting that there has not been the interest for the project as was expected, he said to combat this absence of enthusiasm, the Court recently hosted another sensitisation session for members of the Bar. This, he said, was done in an effort to have more cases resolved rather than decided.

“In April of this year, we were fortunate to have 26 persons receive the first half of the mediation training. The training was conducted by the Riverdale Mediation Group based in Toronto, Canada, led by Ms. Hilary Linton. The trainees spoke glowingly of the level of attention and professional input which they received from Riverdale. They also specifically requested that Riverdale play a role in supervising the second half of their training, the practicums which involve mediation of live cases filed in the Courts,” he explained.

According to Sir Marston, he has requested funding from the JURIST Project for this second portion of the training, but is still awaiting a response on the matter.