By Sue-Ann Wayow
COMMERCIAL diving instructor Dr Glenn Cheddie who sought to provide expert evidence to the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the Paria/LMCS tragedy told the CoE that he is neither an expert nor a practising attorney.
Dr Cheddie was a witness provided to the CoE by the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU) to assist the CoE with an expert opinion.
He was also the diving instructor of two of the four LMCS employees –Fyzal Kurban and Rishi Nagassar who died following the incident on February 25, 2022, at Paria’s Berth #6.
On Tuesday, he was grilled by Paria’s attorney Gilbert Peterson, SC, about his credentials and an apparent bias towards Paria based on an interview last year published in the Guardian newspaper.
Last year March, Dr Cheddie in an interview with the Guardian newspaper said too many local companies have been flouting international diving standards, a view he maintained during his time in the CoE’s witness box.
Dr Cheddie first appeared in the witness box on Monday afternoon and when asked by attorney Prakash Ramadhar if he was a lawyer, he answered yes.
But on Tuesday, when asked the same question by Peterson, he said he was not and his job classification was actually sports law consultant.
He did admit to the CoE that he realised his mistake on Monday and was hoping to get the opportunity on Tuesday to correct it.
CoE’s chairman Jerome Lynch, KC, asked him why he did not do it at the earliest opportune time on Tuesday to which Dr Cheddie said he did not know how to but was grateful for the prodding of Peterson to get the opportunity to.
After a break, when Dr Cheddie was to continue his evidence, Lynch told him he will not be required to.
He told SWWTU’s attorney Nyree Alfonso, “It would be very difficult for this commission to rely on what he has said given his confession that he is a) not an expert and b) that he had asserted he was a lawyer when he clearly is not. Those facts alone call into question the extent to which we will be able to rely on his evidence.”
He also told the CoE most of his diving students learn by the book instead of by certain practical training such as penetration diving into a pipeline.
Dr Cheddie said his former diving students who died disregarded his advice that scuba gear should never be used in commercial diving.
He was asked what size pipeline was the teaching done in to which he responded in “the thirties. ”
The men were sucked into a 30-inch pipeline at Paria’s Berth #6.
“And you taught that to (Fyzal) Kurban and (Rishi) Nagassar and any of them that disregarded your teaching?” Peterson asked.
“It would have been in the textbook yes,” Dr Cheddie answered.
He said it was in the teaching manual which was entirely covered.
Peterson then asked, “Your lesson to them is never dive in that scenario with scuba?”
Dr Cheddie responded, “Yes.”
Peterson further asked, “And they disregarded your training?”
“Yes sir,” Dr Cheddie again responded.
Commissioner Gregory Wilson also asked about the location of the pipelines where the men had their training.
“These were never done on practicals on theory,” Dr Cheddie said.
He added, “We were never allowed to teach that type in an actual scenario as part of the training.”
Wilson, a subsea specialist said he was allowed to conduct his training practically under the Association of Diving Contractors College of Oceaneering.
However, Dr Cheddie said under the ADCI standards, his school was not permitted. The ADCI represents the commercial diving industry around the world.
Peterson said he thought he was finished but following up on Wilson’s questions, he asked, “So this training and teaching in different sizes of pipe, 30 something inches is just book thing?”
Dr Cheddie said, “Yes Sir.”
Peterson likened the training to a surgeon who never had to cut someone.
Dr Cheddie maintained that he was to not allow that type of practical training.
