Chief Magistrate will be missed tremendously – Dr Gonsalves

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says that Chief Magistrate Sonya Young “would be missed tremendously,” as she prepares to take up a new post in Central America.{{more}}

Young, who presides over the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown, is expected to take up duties as a judge in Belize soon.

She was appointed as chief magistrate here in 2008.

Gonsalves told SEARCHLIGHT last week that he was thankful for the tremendous work that she is doing, and for her contribution to the justice system in St Vincent and the Grenadines and that he was certain that she would be a huge asset to Belize.

“I can tell you that she will be eminently suitable in my view to sit on a High Court bench in any country in the Caribbean. Belize will be very fortunate, and of course it is part of her own career development.

“One part of me would say that I hope she doesn’t go, but the objective part would say that I never expected her to stay forever as the chief magistrate, because she is of a quality to go on the High Court bench and with the relevant experience of a High Court judge to go beyond that, she is a lawyer and a jurist of exceptional quality,” the Prime Minister, also Minister of Legal Affairs, said.

When asked about a likely replacement for Young, Gonsalves said that the relevant authorities would make this decision.

“The Judicial and Legal Services Commission, the independent commission which selects magistrates and judges in the Eastern Caribbean will do its work in the normal way. I don’t know whether they will have some­body there who they will put there or whether they would put it out for advertisement, but they have their own procedures, which does not involve the executive at all.”