Sunday March 13, 2011
Sir Brian Alleyne resigns from Dominica’s Integrity Commission
TheDominican.net Newsdesk
Former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal Sir Brian Alleyne has tendered his resignation from the Integrity Commission to the President of Dominica.
Former justice Sir Brian Alleyne. |
The full text of his resignation letter is given below:
“It is with much regret that I tender my resignation as a member of the Integrity Commission pursuant to section 6 of the Integrity in Public Office Act, Act 6 of 2003. I take this step reluctantly, but out of a sense of duty to the Commission, following a discussion I initiated with the Chairman on 2nd instant, and a letter which I received from Mr. Alick Lawrence, Attorney-At-Law, on the 3rd.
I will not for the moment address the various allegations or inferences in Mr. Lawrence’s letter, except to say that some of those allegations are factually erroneous, and the conclusions in the letter in relation to my assumed lack of impartiality in relation to my functioning as a member of the Commission are entirely unfounded.
As regards Mr. Lawrence’s reference to section 5(b) of the Act, there can be no question as to whether I am qualified under section 31 of the Constitution. As to the issue of disqualification I refer Your Excellency to section 35(3)(b) of the Constitution, which makes it clear, in my view, that a Commonwealth citizen is not disqualified to be a Senator.
Mr. Lawrence asserts that the Commission is a judicial or quasi judicial tribunal. Notwithstanding the fact that I disagree that the Commission, as distinct from a Tribunal established by the President under section 23 or otherwise under the Act, is a judicial or quasi judicial tribunal, I agree with him to the extent that he may be understood to say that there ought to be no question that the members must, in performing their functions as Commissioners, act independently and impartially at all times.
I cannot and do not agree, however, that my public statements referred to by Mr. lawrence allege, implicitly or expressly, that the Prime Minister or other Ministers is or are or may be dishonest, a liar, and a bad example for the youth.
I need to say that in accepting appointment as a member of the Commission, I did not and do not assume that I was required to surrender my natural, human and constitutional rights to freedom of conscience, including freedom of thought, or to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to communicate ideas and information, whether to the public generally or to any person, subject, of course to the obligation to respect the rules of confidentiality provided for in the Act, and such limitations as are properly implied from the terms of the Act.
I do not think that I can be fairly accused of misconduct in office as a member of the Commission. Mr. Lawrence has made specific reference to letters to the editor in issues of the Chronicle newspapers of 18th and 25th February. I cannot accept that these letters are in any way improper or a breach of my duties as a member of the Commission. I also assert firmly my right as a citizen to hold and express the opinions I have published in these letters.
While I also assert my right, if I choose to, to attend meetings of political parties or other organizations, I deny having attended any meetings of the Dominica Freedom Party or the Executive thereof, or of any political party, in the past many years. I did attend a meeting on 13th February at Jungle Bay on invitation.
I was invited to attend the meeting specifically to advise on relevant constitutional issues. I make no apology for this. Membership of the Commission does not, in my view, limit my freedom to associate with the persons mentioned in Mr. Lawrence’s letter as being present at that meeting. It was not a meeting of a political party, although much of the discussion centred on political issues.
Notwithstanding my firmly held view that as a member of the Commission I am not prohibited from engaging in political discussion, I in fact refrained from participating in those discussions. I limited my contributions to the legal issues on which I was asked to advise.
Nevertheless, Mr. President, I recognize that certain persons in public life within the provisions of the Act appear to have come to the conclusion that I hold a personal animosity to them. I also recognize that for the Commission to function effectively, and to facilitate the persons under the oversight of the Commission, it is necessary that those persons feel confident that the members of the Commission will deal with the business of the Commission without prejudice or any animosity towards them.
It is evident from Mr. Lawrence’s letter that his client, Mr. Charles Savarin, a person in public life, and by implication from Mr. Lawrence’s letter, other persons in public life, do not feel confident that I will maintain a posture of independence and without prejudice or animosity in relation to them. While asserting that I hold no prejudice or animosity to Mr. Savarin or any other person in public life under the Act, and that I have in all respects dealt with matters which came before me as a Commissioner in a spirit of fairness, objectivity and integrity, nevertheless, in the interests of the continued effective operations of the Commission, and so that persons in public life who are under scrutiny by the Commission may not feel oppressed by my membership of the Commission, I have decided to tender my resignation from the Commission with immediate effect.
I express the fervent hope, however, that this decision does not become a precedent so that any person in public life who may feel uncomfortable with having to account to the Commission in accordance with the Act may think that they can secure the resignation of a member or members by making groundless and unjustified allegations of bias by individual members of the Commission.
May I end by saying that I have devoted much time and effort to the work of the Commission, I am grateful to the Dominica Bar Association for having given me the opportunity to serve.
I also want to take this opportunity to place on record that I have been deeply impressed by the seriousness, professionalism, devotion, and integrity with which the Chairman and all other members, past and present, have attended to and conducted the business of the Commission.
The same is true of the members of staff of the Commission. All these persons devote considerable time and effort, well beyond the call of duty, to the onerous and highly responsible duties which they are called upon to perform on a daily basis.
I am taking the liberty of copying this letter to the Chairman of the Commission, and to the Dominica Bar Association, on whose nomination I was appointed to the Commission and who will now be tasked with finding someone to replace me.
I thank the Bar Association for the confidence which they have demonstrated, and I trust that they will not feel let down by my decision to resign at this stage. I continue to be available to the Association for any service they may think I am able to render.”
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