The hearing regarding national squash player Julian Morrison versus the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) will have another delay as the Independent Anti-Doping Panel (IADP) will first have to decide whether its chairperson, Catherine Minto, recuses herself from the proceedings.

Morrison is seeking to prove his innocence after testing positive and being provisionally suspended by JADCO for trace amounts of Boldenone, a banned anabolic substance. His defence is that the substance entered his body through contamination.

His legal counsel, comprising of Matthew Gayle, Dr Emir Crowne, and Sayeed Bernard, filed an application to have Minto recuse herself from the hearing after finding that she had what is claimed to be a professional working relationship with JADCO’s counsel, King’s Counsel Ian Wilkinson, based on a case between the Jamaica Bar Association, the attorney general, and the General Legal Council in 2014.

Morrison’s team presented a finding in its application that Minto was co-counsel with Wilkinson and/or was even instructed by him during this case. Their issue is that Minto had not declared this relationship before the start of the hearing, as is required by World Anti-Doping Agency protocol.

During yesterday’s session, which was to be the first of two days in which Morrison’s case would have been heard virtually, his team presented its concern about the potential conflict of interest.

Before adjournment, Minto laid out details for official orders relating to Morrison’s application. This means the application must now be broken down in specific detail regarding each concern. Minto said these orders will be delivered in document form to both Morrison and JADCO by Friday.

But Gayle was displeased with Minto’s demeanour while addressing him during the session.

He says he hoped Minto would have recused herself yesterday and laid a foundation for the matter to see a different chairperson in what he described as the shortest possible time.

“It was clear to me from her manner that she was becoming extremely defensive – indeed, in her utterances too,” Gayle told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday afternoon. “That is not the way that an experienced and responsible chairperson handles a recusal application. An experienced and balanced chairperson [interacts with] the parties, with the absence of commentary and the absence of injudicious interruptions and interventions. In fact, the chair, this morning, I would describe her as being hostile to the athlete’s representatives.”

Gayle describes the application as regrettable.

“She’s a lawyer, I’m a lawyer, and I understand the implications of raising an application like this against any lawyer,” he said. “And so, we do so with a considerable amount of reluctance, but the panel ought to recognise and treat with a certain degree of professional courtesy any such application because they’re always made in that context. So it was disappointing to see that response. But even to say at the end, ‘Well, I wasn’t hearing the application; I was just putting on record the panel’s position.’ It’s not what was asked for, so that was a bit of a confusing situation.

“Perhaps, more impactfully, [the chair] could’ve come this morning and say, ‘Gentlemen, I’ve seen this application, and, for the record, I want to say that I really ought to have disclosed the existence of this case, and there was no conflict, but it slipped my mind to disclose it.’

“That would’ve been a wholly different situation, instead of this sort of aggressive and in the defence of the righteousness of her position, and ‘There has been no unfairness in these proceedings…’

“It spoke to the necessity for the application, quite frankly.”

The Observer sought a response from Minto but calls to her phone went unanswered.

Wilkinson says he was bothered by how the day’s events transpired and regrets another delay.

“It is disappointing that the matter had to be adjourned because of the application filed on behalf of the athlete and/or his legal representatives,” Wilkinson told The Observer. “The application for the chairperson to recuse herself is ill-conceived and without merit.”

He says JADCO is unfazed by the application and the delay in the process.

“JADCO was ready to proceed with the hearing and will continue to do its job as best as possible,” Wilkinson said. “JADCO is prepared to handle the matter at any time, anywhere, and as professionally as possible, and in the interest of all the parties. In fact, the JADCO staff and its legal representative have acted very fairly, generally speaking, and we will continue to do so as professionally as possible.”

Should Minto recuse herself, the IADP’s other option for a legal representative on its panel is King’s Counsel Georgia Gibson Henlin, who was also named in the application as a co-counsel to Wilkinson during the case in 2014. Minto mentioned this during the session, saying it leaves little options given these hearings would have JADCO as one party, and Wilkinson may likely be its legal counsel for the foreseeable future.

But Gayle says this is no concern to him since his issue was Minto’s lack of declaration about her working relationship with Wilkinson. This is because, at this point, all concerned would have known about Gibson Henlin’s professional relationship, making a declaration unnecessary.

Gayle is also not concerned that his views on Minto’s behaviour may affect her objectivity in the hearing, should she continue on the panel.

“I would like to believe that as a professional member of the Bar in Jamaica, she is capable of disabusing her judicial mind of any personal angst she may or may not have — and I’m not suggesting that she has because I don’t know anything that’s been said about her, I have to have faith that she is capable of doing that,” he said. “But it’s not really about me, it’s about the athlete. I tried to make that point this morning and I was a little concerned that she may have been a bit flippant and laissez-faire about that point. We have an obligation to act and conduct ourselves in a particular way. My view was, and I expressed this on the record this morning at the tribunal, that the chair wasn’t doing so. But that doesn’t mean she is biased or unfair. It’s a question of your conduct as opposed to the actual substantive way you’re treating the athlete.”

Morrison hopes to get his suspension lifted to participate in qualifiers for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, where squash will début.