Magistrate forced to leave baby in car for hours

Nov 19, 2009 News

By Leonard Gildarie

Workers at a Georgetown Magistrates’ Court have expressed anger and indignation over the working conditions of a magistrate who is forced each day to leave her year-old daughter with a baby-sitter for hours in her car while court is in session.

While the mother presides in court, the baby must remain in the car with her baby sitter

While Magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmond yesterday declined to comment, Kaieteur New has learnt that the situation has been ongoing for almost two weeks now after she was transferred from Berbice where she was stationed for the past few years.
The Magistrate, upset staffers said yesterday, is forced to travel over 100 miles each day to and from Berbice to perform her duties at Court 10 in Georgetown. The child has to be breast-fed several times during the day.
Kaieteur News understands that magistrate’s baby is refusing bottle feed and is not taking milk extracted from her mother.
When Kaieteur News arrived at the Croal Street court, the Nissan X-trail SUV was running and the air-conditioning was on. According to workers, it may be costing the Magistrate thousands of dollars in gas to keep the vehicle running daily like that.
Staffers also complained that Magistrates across the country are only being paid about $20 per mile to carry out their duties.
It will be recalled that Magistrate Chandan-Edmond was suspended for two weeks a few months ago after she reportedly left Guyana for Suriname without permission.
She was seen by Chancellor of the Judiciary, Carl Singh, while she was on the trip.
The Magistrate has since filed a court case to overturn her suspension.
Yesterday, attempts to contact Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh, proved futile.
However, Justice Prem Persaud of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), which is the regulatory body charged with appointing magistrates, expressed surprise over the report over the baby.
He noted that JSC is the body that looks after the welfare of magistrates and if there was an issue, it should have been brought to the attention of the members.
He stressed that magistrates, on their appointment, are told clearly that job entails possible posting to way-out areas.
It is normal also that from time to time, magistrates are transferred from where they are posted and recently several of them were sent to other locations.
Magistrate Chandan-Edmond was one such magistrate.
The Judge noted that it is a matter of policy of JSC that magistrates are not allowed to “squat” too long in one jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Kaieteur News has received a copy of a letter written by Magistrate Chandan-Edmond and dated October 20 which asked the Chancellor to review the decision to transfer her from Berbice where she lives, to work in Georgetown.
The Magistrate cited several reasons including the hardship of nursing her baby and travelling back and forth from Berbice on a daily basis.
The letter also said that despite the request for the review of the decision to transfer her, …”the position remains the same…”
Claiming that the commuting will affect her health and the well-being and welfare of her baby, the magistrate also said that she cannot afford a chauffeur and as such will have to travel to and from Berbice with her baby.
(See related story on page 7)