I had made mistakes. I am not saying that I had not made mistakes and (with) things that I have done. My life has changed drastically from where I was to where I am now.

Those were the words of Canadian-based Grenadian-born Labour Market Consultant, Dr. Justine Pierre who admitted in an interview with THE NEW TODAY that he had a checkered past in his homeland before migrating to Canada.

Dr. Pierre acknowledged that he did commit several acts of wrongdoing before he was forced out of his job as Manager of the Communal Co-operative Credit Union around 2002.

Among the wrong things he admitted to being involved in was the formation of a private company under his control that Communal Co-operative purchased stationery items from which amounted to “insider trading” and a conflict of interest.

According to Dr. Pierre, he was made to pay back all of the funds by the Board of Directors for this particular act of wrongdoing and then had to submit a resignation letter as Manager of the institution.

Asked to detail the other acts of wrongdoing at Communal, he said: “There were some allegations, they had a Board meeting – some of the things were factual, some were not factual.”

When pressed to identify the specific allegations, Dr. Pierre indicated that they basically centered on the misappropriation of the funds of the Communal Credit Union.

“For example, I rented a car and I used it but the Company paid for it which was not supposed to be done. It was supposed to be my responsibility so I had to pay back all that money. All of the funds that I had “misappropriated” I had to end up paying it back.

The Grenadian-born Researcher also admitted that he did things at Communal without approval from the Board like hiring a Secretary and installing a personal telephone line.

He said the Board took the position that he had to get permission from the Directors in order to do these things.

“All of these things … in order for me to get these things I must get Board approval and I did not get Board approval,” he added.

“So the relationship (between us) parted ways. I accepted my responsibility and they asked me to resign and I resigned and we parted ways – that was in January 2002,” he said.

THE NEW TODAY contacted two ex-Directors of Communal Co-operative who admitted that they had knowledge of the Justin Pierre issues but declined to comment on the matter.

Dr. Pierre denied reports circulating in some quarters in the country that he was forced to leave his work at Cable & Wireless following allegations that he secured the job opportunity by falsifying the amount of O’ level subjects that he had attained at the secondary school level.

“I was never dismissed from Cable & Wireless. I worked for Cable & Wireless. I left Cable & Wireless to migrate to Canada. I wasn’t really dismissed from there – I left Cable & Wireless in 1987,” he said.

He was also asked to comment on reports that the University of the West Indies (UWI) had severed ties with him as a student after discovering that he allegedly did the same like with Cable & Wireless on his qualifications in order to get a place to study at the region’s premier learning institution.

“I have never been to UWI – I registered at UWI – I was accepted at UWI and registered. I completed my academic education in Canada. I was not a student at UWI,” he said.

Dr. Pierre said he was admitted to the region’s top university to do a course there but did not go as he migrated to Canada instead as his immigrant status came through in 1987.