Nicholson has never been shy of controversy. - File Photos

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

THOSE IN tune with current affairs in Jamaica should know by now that Senator A.J. Nicholson is not afraid of a good, old-fashioned scrap. Last week, the combative Minister of Justice and Attorney-General was in the wars yet again.

Nicholson, 65, was criticised by sections of the legal fraternity, as well as independentgroups such as the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs, for castigating Justice Almarie Sinclair-Haynes for going public with an embarrassing incident at a Westmoreland hotel on May 13.

Sinclair-Haynes, a Supreme Court judge, claimed management at the hotel refused to accommodate her because the Justice Ministry owed them money. Nicholson, himself a lawyer, was not impressed by the judge's story. In typical forthright fashion, he let her know how he felt.

"The making of that kind of pronouncement from the Bench, as Her Ladyship is reported to have done, pays scant regard to her fellow Jamaicans who came to her court, carrying with them the many burdens that had brought them to that place. Her perceived problems were greater than those of all the persons who had gathered at the court," a statement from the minister read.

Nicholson was swiftly reprimanded by the Jamaican Bar Association, the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights and the Advocates Association of Jamaica. The latter, in a statement published in The Gleaner May 18, said: "Even if the minister thought the judge could have been more patient, the tenor of his response was inappropriate."

The minister has knocked heads with several persons since he entered government in 1989. The last eight months have been particularly eventful.

Jugular

In October when Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader, Bruce Golding, charged that $31 million had been transferred to three bank accounts belonging to the ruling People's National Party (PNP), Nicholson and the Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill went for the jugular.

"Unless it can be proved that there was any hanky-panky, this matter is closed!" Nicholson famously declared.

Recently, he chastised the media for not doing enough to educate the public on the sensitive issue of marital rape.

The Attorney-General has also been on the receiving end of unflattering remarks. Journalist Hugh Crosskill once described him as an "intellectual lightweight" while Delroy Chuck, the JLP's Spokesman on Justice, has called him "irrelevant".

Nicholson, however, is not without admirers.

Attorney Churchill Neita has known the Attorney-General for over 35 years. He believes Nicholson is misunderstood by many.

"A.J. likes to speak his mind. You always know where he stands because he has an undiluted candour," Neita said.

Arnold Joseph Nicholson was born in Rock River, Clarendon, and was later schooled at Excelsior High School, the University of the West Indies and University of London. After a stint in the banking sector, he began practising law in 1972.

One of Nicholson's most famous cases was the controversial Green Bay affair. Four years after five men were killed by soldiers at the St. Catherine shooting range, 10 members of the Jamaica Defence Force were freed in the Spanish Town Courthouse.

Nicholson was part of the successful defence team.

When the PNP returned to power in a landslide victory in 1989, Nicholson entered Parliament by winning the West Central St. Andrew seat. He stepped down from that post after the 1997 national polls.

Nicholson was appointed Attorney-General in 1998. Three years later, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson added the Justice Ministry to his portfolio.

Love him or loathe him, A.J. Nicholson strides with the characteristic bounce of man oozing self-confidence.