Former High Court Judge and Justice Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Herbert Volney has died, according to information reaching Dominica News Online.
The exact cause of his death is unknown at this time however, messages of his passing and condolences began appearing on social media on Wednesday morning.
Volney was the third of eight children born to Dominican Rosalind Volney and her St. Lucian husband, Cyril Volney.
He was born on June 8, 1953 in Plymouth, Montserrat.
He went to primary schools in Antigua, Barbados, St. Kitts and Dominica.
He attended high school at the St Mary’s Academy in Dominica and then went on to study at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.
Volney settled in Trinidad and Tobago after completing his law studies in 1978.
He had a choice of coming to Dominica to be part of a political movement led by former prime minister, the now deceased Mary Eugenia Charles, or getting married and settling in Trinidad.
He chose the latter and took up a position at the Office of Public Prosecution, where he took on many high profile cases.
Upon his retirement as Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, he worked in the law chambers of Karl Hudson-Phillips, QC.
Volney opened his own private law office in 1991.
In 1994 he was recruited by Chief Justice Clinton Bernard and appointed a judge of the Supreme Court.
He retired from the judiciary in April 28, 2010, to contest the constituency of St Joseph in the general election of that year on a United National Congress (UNC) ticket.
Volney won and was appointed Minister of Justice on May 28, 2010 in the cabinet of then prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
In September 2012, he was among 11 ministers dismissed by the government and was criticized at the time by Persad-Bissessar for having reportedly misled the Cabinet over the early proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Act.
He was vindicated when British Queen’s Counsel Edward Fitzgerald argued, during a hearing in the High Court in January 2013, that Volney did not mislead his Cabinet colleagues.
Volney subsequently appeared with Persad-Bissessar at a public UNC event in May 2013.
On several occasions, Volney had dipped his fingers in the politics of Dominica.
In a Facebook post in June, 2016, Volney said he was appalled by the proceedings in the House of Assembly in Dominica saying parliamentary democracy is under threat due to the “dictatorship” of the then Speaker of the House, Alix Boyd-Knights.
He also on several occasions, addressed Dominica Labour Party (DLP) conventions here as a guest speaker.
He drew criticism, when during one of those conventions on May 6, 2017, he described Dominicans in the diaspora who criticized the DLP as “wicked,” urging Dominicans on the island “to sort them out.”
At that same convention he called on Dominica to legalize Marijuana and prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, said that he would be leaning heavily on the experience of Volney in the shaping of a new Dominica.
“Herbert Volney, I am sure you would agree, is a man, who still has a significant contribution to make to the social development of our Caribbean, and I for one, intend to lean very heavily on his vast knowledge and experience in the shaping and emergence of the new Dominica,” Skerrit stated at that time.
I myself doh have no face when it comes political prostitutes who denigrate my people in their quest for scraps from the DLP table.
May the angels the devil LUCIFER meet you at the gates of HELL and escort you to the burning pit on the back of a donkey via a path of brimstone and fire under the same bridge.
Who vex get lost because I DON’T care! Fire burn wicked ones!
On less set of rubbish spewing out there.
Even in death you all LANGUES DIRTY and mayprixant. May god have merci on mauvé LANGUES.
Herbert may your soul rest in peace. My condolences to the Volney family. May your life be a lesson to all of us. Here you are one moment insulting people and making enemies over politics, and the next moment we are all dust and ashes. So the lesson to all of us from your example is to ask ourselves the question is it worth it? We cannot take the world, political party or political position to the grave, so is it worth the enemies, hate and pain that we cause in the name of politics!
RIP old fella you are in a better place where you belong, not in Dominica politics.
From what I read on Loop Caribbean yesterday he died of a heart attack.
Deepest Condolences to the Volney Family.
Remember him as a sixth form student in my first year at SMA way back on 1968.
He was one or two contenders in a very upbeat election at the time for head boy. I still could recall his face from those days. My condolences to his family and his brother, my first history teacher Mr Henry Volney President at the Dominica state college.
good riddance i say
R.I.P old friend.
The same one that referred to UWP supporters as donkeys and said they should not be allowed to walk on the China bridge? I guess he is at the right place
He was a famous one for always singing for his super.
@Why me, We all must die
“We all must die.” But acknowledging that fact we should do our best to live right and love our fellow men. Pride and loftiness have blinded us from the frailty of this life. Causing us to deny the Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ. I guess the priest will say that he is “looking down on us.” What a joke the Roman Catholic Church is. I often wonder where they get the power to put people “Up There” to look down. We aught to Look up to God while we are alive here on earth – Not “Look down” when you die. This makes no sense whatsoever. If such is the case I hope he looks down on his pal Skeritt and tell him, “please don’t come here!” Skeritt is too far gone to hear or listen. “He run things.”
So you picking on the dead eh? That make you very despicable.I hope he will be waiting to have a word with you on the other side to tell you what he thinks of you, when it is your turn to go.
His character, that’s what people are picking on. And rightly so, if I may say. But you wouldn’t understand!
Oops…. All of this info but the cause of death “unknown”? Come and help Skerrit “shape Dominica.” Because he has put it out of shape. God isn’t a police.
So we come, so we go. There is no eternal life for anyone but history will judge us by our deeds.
Toto, if you believe that there is no Eternal Life, then what would be the reason for the historical judgment?
In your opinion “History” would be pointless for those who have passed away, in that their days in the body have ended and that is that.
But on the other hand, you are right, we will be judged by our deeds “History” and that judgment will decide how we will spend our time in “Eternity” whether it be “Eternal Life”–the state of Light in Love, or whether it be “Eternal death”–the state of Eternal darkness.
But that judgment will not be for your physical self, it will be for your soul–your person within. That should be your only concern, while you are still in the body.
My sympathy and condolences to the Volney family. His brother Henry was my History teacher in the 5th Form at the St. Mary’s Academy.
Who cares…? Go have another dive in the dirt hole!