St. Vincent’s Newly appointed Attorney General Grenville Williams has promised: “to protect, preserve and uphold the rule of law, to ensure the public has confidence in the rule of law”.
Williams, who earlier this week, became the third person to fill the post of the attorney general under the Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration, which has opted for public servant rather than political chief legal advisor since coming to office in March 2001.
At the ceremony at Government House on Friday, Williams quoted the inauguration speech of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy.
Williams said when Kennedy said “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country”, he inspired children and adults in the United States to see the importance of civic action and public service.
The historic words “challenged every American to contribute to the public good,” Williams said.
“I apply those words to the Vincentian context in saying that I am humbled and honored to answer the call to serve my country to be the principal legal officer for the government, to serve all Vincentians and the wider regional and international community who will be impacted by the actions and decisions of the office of the attorney general and the state machinery.”
Williams comes to the office just two months after announcing that he is still interested in representing South Leeward in Parliament.
In 2015, he failed in his bid to become the ULP‘s candidate in the district, withdrawing at the primary and endorsing then-senator Jomo Thomas, who lost in the election that year against the incumbent Nigel “Nature” Stephenson of the main opposition New Democratic Party.
Williams told Friday’s ceremony that the “cardinal responsibility of the attorney general is to protect, preserve and uphold the rule of law, to ensure the public has confidence in the rule of law.
“To build a successful nation, our people must respect the law, our citizens must feel comfortable that we have clear laws which apply to everyone and where there is a contravention of the law, there will be access to redress through independent and impartial courts,” he said.
Williams replaces Jaundy Martin, who is leaving the post after five years to be with his family, according to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
At Friday’s ceremony, Martin expressed confidence in Williams’ ability to fill the post.
“I have known Granville for most of my own career for he was admitted to practice about two or three years after my own admission. and from my personal knowledge, it is no surprise that the government and people of this, our nation, has reposed confidence in him to serve in the high office that he now holds,” Martin said.
He said Williams — who is in his mid-40s — “is very much a young man in the prime of his life and the evidence is clear that the cause of young people in this nation is being championed and this is in no uncertain terms at very high levels”.
CMC/
