Veteran Crown attorney retires after 46 years

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This article was published 21/07/2015 (3786 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 1961, a fresh-faced kid from Trinidad a stepped off a plane in the dead of a Winnipeg winter with a dream of gaining an education.

After getting over the shock of the cold and seeing snow for the first time, Dave Rampersad went on to forge a 46-year career as a Crown attorney which ended only recently.

 “My wife Maureen and I had enough money for a year,” the St. Vital resident recalled. “When I received my BA (from United College), I felt incomplete. I wanted to go further. I wanted to be a doctor but was no good in math, or physics.”

 Luckily for Manitobans, Rampersad went to law school and became a Crown attorney after graduation in 1969.

 Though short in stature, Rampersad cast a big shadow.

 “You have left a legacy of great public service,” Manitoba Justice Minister Gord Macintosh in a note to Rampersad congratulating him on his retirement.

“You have been recognized as a leader and ground breaker assisting junior counsel as they developed as lawyers and conducted their first cases.”

 Rampersad appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada five times and many times in the Manitoba Court of Appeal, conducting himself with dignity all the while.

 “I always tried to treat everyone equally. We all walk on the same floor,” he said.

Rampersad was humbled by the number of defence counsel, judges and police officers who attended his retirement function.

For many years, Rampersad was the “only person of colour” in the Crown’s office and is overjoyed at the current diversity in “gender, colour and ethnicity.”

 He learned the ropes in circuit court, prosecuting cases in Steinbach, Stonewall, Lac du Bonnet, Arborg and Teulon.

 “We couldn’t stay over. We came back to Winnipeg each day, regardless of the weather,” he said.

 The only regret he has, Rampersad said, is “not spending enough time with my daughter Alison in her formative years. I enjoyed being a Crown attorney. It wasn’t all fun and games but I have no regrets career wise.”

 A stickler for detail, Rampersad enjoyed delivering the opening and closing remarks of a case to a jury.

 “You can not speak above a jury,” Rampersad said. “A Crown must carry out his or her duty of applying the law to the evidence, which may be difficult in these bureaucratic times, but in the end it is your reputation at stake.”

Bob Holliday is a community correspondent for St. Vital. Email him at docholliday90@me.com