Lone Paria survivor ‘disgusted’ by CoE legal fees

Christopher Boodram -

Christopher Boodram, the lone survivor of the 2022 Paria diving tragedy, has condemned the millions of dollars in legal fees paid to attorneys involved in the commission of enquiry, calling it “a feeding frenzy at our expense.”

In a statement on October 21, Boodram said he was “disgusted” to learn that the former PNM administration paid large sums to commissioners and lawyers, while families of the four deceased divers have yet to receive compensation. “I feel as though legal vultures swooped down to feed and pick at the corpses of my brothers who died in that pipeline,” Boodram said.

He described the commission of enquiry, which cost $15.5 million, as a “political excuse” and said none of the Lynch Report recommendations have been implemented. Boodram added that the matter’s referral to the Director of Public Prosecutions has resulted in “deafening silence,” with no progress on possible corporate manslaughter charges.

Boodram expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for not appealing Justice Joan Charles’ judgment that led to the revelation of the legal payments and urged her “kind and compassionate heart” to intervene to bring relief to the families.

He said the families have endured three years of hardship, adding that Paria’s recent “meet-and-greet” session with its new board was “a well-intentioned public-relations exercise” that did nothing to ease their struggles. “Poor people have no justice to get in this country,” Boodram said.

“I bared my soul and told my story to the nation for free, and it is grievous and painful to learn about the millions that were spent on lawyers when not one red cent has been paid to the families. We have suffered for over three years in silence.”

He said Paria’s newly appointed board of directors invited the divers’ families to a meet-and-greet session, but noted that "it does not help us to put food on the table or help us to send our children to school.”

“It was, at best, a well-intentioned public-relations exercise.

“I feel forgotten and betrayed…”

There has been no word on the $1 million compensation promised by then-prime minister and then-minister of energy Stuart Young days before the April 28 general election.

In September, Paria's chairman Nyree Alphonso spoke to the media on the former prime minister's pledge. She said, “On the political hustings, the former prime minister would have indicated that an ex-gratia payment of a million dollars per family would be given. I don’t have any information as to what happened to that. I don’t know if that was an offer or a pronouncement. I know it was not paid, but certainly, we are moving to see how all of the claims can be settled in the shortest period of time. But again, in accordance with the law, the insurers involved, we also have to manoeuvre between the insurers as well.”

She added, “Ultimately, as I said, we are trying to sort our way through the insurers, the attorneys who have made claims and so on. It’s certainly high on our priority list. If we can’t get things done in the shorter term, then we may have to look at an interim position. But overall, the feeling is that this matter should be brought to an end.”