An email alleging mistreatment by a Judge of an Amerindian woman in her court fight for her son will see Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues being summoned to state whether or not she was the author of the electronic missive.
Should she say she is the author of the email she could be held in contempt of court.
A summons would shortly be served on Rodrigues instructing her to appear before Justice William Ramlal in the High Court to confirm or deny whether she wrote the email which among other things accused the judge of calling the woman names.
A clearly angry Justice Ramlal yesterday dissected the email in open court, detailing alleged happenings in an in chamber matter before him. He said he had to do so not only to defend the court but also to defend his character as he is the judge in the matter mentioned in the email.
“If she (the minister) is the author of this email actions would be taken, make no mistake,” the judge declared yesterday.
The email stemmed from a case before the judge involving two women and a three-year-old boy. One of the women is the child’s 21-year-old mother and the other woman is contending that she was left with the child for almost three years and he was later taken away by the mother. The applicant moved to the court on the grounds that the mother is not taking proper care of the child and on February 27 the judge granted that applicant temporary legal guardianship of the child pending a probation report on the mother. An order was also made for the mother to have access to the child on weekends.
Yesterday, the order was extended for another two weeks as the probation officer in court was not ready with the report and requested another two weeks. On that same date, March 22, Minister Rodrigues is expected to appear before the judge in chambers to answer whether she wrote the email.
The applicant is represented by attorneys Jailall Kissoon and Rishi Kissoon. The mother of the child was previously unrepresented but yesterday attorney-at-law Debra Backer appeared on her behalf and filed an affidavit in response to the one filed by the applicant.
And even as Justice Ramlal dealt with the issue in court a number of persons, mostly women were outside the High Court holding placards and calling for justice for the child’s mother. The protesters said that they wanted to ensure that the mother got justice and that her child stays with her and not a total stranger.
‘Mother and Child must reunite’ and ‘Mother is best to protect her child’ were some of the messages on the placards.
After spending about half an hour in chambers with the lawyers in the matter, Justice Ramlal stated in open court that he had to deal with an email that was being circulated which was written by someone named Carolyn Rodrigues. He said the lawyers indicated that he could not be sure that the author was indeed the minister. However, the judge said when one looks at the contents of the email one would readily see that the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs was involved.
“Whether Carolyn Rod-rigues (the minister) is the author or not would be dealt with later
