Address delivered by
Her Honour Mrs. Deborah Thomas-Felix
President of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago
AT THE SPECIAL SITTING FOR THE OPENING OF THE 2023-2024 LAW TERM
When I assumed the Presidency of the Industrial Court in December 2011, the main issues of that year centred on the Arab Spring, the capture of Osama Bin Laden, the Fukishima nuclear accident and on a promising note, the UN declared 2011 the International Year of Forests to raise awareness of sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. I highlight this simply to underscore that the more things change the more they stay the same since today, we continue to grapple with the global troubling problems of security, equity, justice and the growing realization that climate change is no longer a remote problem that we can leave for the next generation to handle but one that has in fact arrived. To add to this, we have since endured a pandemic. So yes, these continue to be extremely challenging times and we here in Trinidad and Tobago, like in many countries across the globe, are also grappling with a crime situation that continues to cause grief, distress and pain, to many citizens.
Even as I surrender to constancy of change and our ongoing challenges, I confess to wrestling with same bedeviling question each year of what topic to speak on at the Special Sitting of the Court. This year I decided to focus on people.
I will - by way of explanation - use the words of Sir John Donaldson of the English Court of Appeal and remind that:
The Industrial Court is a court, but a court with a difference. All courts exist to uphold the rule of law. So does this court. All courts are concerned with people. So is this Court…Why, then, is this court different? It is different in its composition, in its objects and in its procedures. It is a court of law, but not a court of lawyers…1