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VOLUME:117 No.39, JANUARY 20TH, 2020

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Secret trade in abortion tablets

Chemists selling drug WITHOUT demanding doctors’ presciptions

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE illegal sale of a drug obtained without a prescription but used to cause abortions has been uncovered by The Tribune.

At least one pharmacy visited by a Tribune investigator in the Overthe-Hill area was happy to hand over the drug - Cytotec - even though it should only be given after a doctor’s prescription is received. Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said he has received anecdotal reports about the sale of the drug.

The Tribune’s investigator

went to a pharmacy and told the pharmacist he needed the drug for his girlfriend who was five-weeks pregnant and wanted an abortion.

The pharmacist told him he had none in stock at the time, but immediately referred him to another pharmacy where he was able to buy five of the pills for $20 each. At no point was he asked for a prescription.

In fact, the pharmacist gave The Tribune’s investigator the names of two doctors he should contact should the girlfriend have any problems after taking the pills.

FEARS were growing last night that one of The Bahamas’ largest and best-known construction companies has shut down with 54 employees already terminated.

Cavalier Construction was said by multiple construction industry sources to have closed its doors last week and laid-off all staff after it was unable to win a sufficient volume of highvalue, large-scale projects to support its significant overhead costs.

John Pinder, director of labour, said his department had been notified by Cavalier that it was terminating 54 persons “due to lack of business” although he said the contractor had made no mention of closure in its letter to Dion Foulkes, Minister of Labour.

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

TUTUS ON THE MARCH

BACON & BLUE

CHEESE

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SCALDING OIL THROWN AT WOMAN IN FAMILY ROW

SEE PAGE FIVE

won’t fare much better with the temperature struggling to stay about 62 degrees.

It won’t be much better during the day either as we won’t crawl above 70 degrees until Thursday at the latest.

Throw in some gale force winds at 35-40 mph and gusting upto 60 mph it’s going to be a week to take out your thickest clothes and think of summer.

CLOSURE FEAR AT CAVALIER JOB CUTS

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

WRAP UP WARM - IT’S GOING TO GET COLD WRAP up warm folks because we’re going to get a wintry blast across The Bahamas later this week.

With a cold front coming in from the north west overnight temperatures are going to go down quicker than an ice cold Kalik.

Freeport will feel the worst of the cooldown with the overnight thermometer falling to 57 degree fahrenheit. Freeport and Nassau

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SURVIVORS and supporters were out in force for the annual Susan G Komen Race for the Cure at the weekend. Picture Special - Page 12 Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

A MAN threw hot liquid on a woman and caused burns to her body, police say. Authorities are now investigating the matter as grievous harm.

According to reports, shortly before 7am yesterday, a man and woman were at home in the eastern district of New Providence when they became involved in an argument that escalated, resulting in the man throwing hot liquid on the woman, causing burns to her body.

SEE PAGE TWO

VASYLI BEGS TO AVOID MURDER RETRIAL

BACON & BLUE CHEESE BACON

& BLUE CHEESE

$

9

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE country’s highest court is currently mulling over whether to overturn a lower court’s decision to order that Donna Vasyli be retried of the stabbing death of her millionaire podiatrist husband five years ago.

The Privy Council announced last Thursday that it would reserve its decision on whether to

DONNA Vasyli at an earlier court hearing affirm the Court of Appeal’s decision to order a second trial for Vasyli concerning

the murder of Philip Vasyli on March 24, 2015. “The court will take time to consider what advice they will humbly tender to Her Majesty,” Lord Brian Kerr announced at the end of the four-hour long hearing.

The announcement came after Vasyli’s attorney, Clare Montgomery, QC, petitioned the London-based committee to not endorse the appellate court’s decision because a sufficient

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SEE PAGE THREE

INSIGHT SETTING RULES FOR MARIJUANA INDUSTRY

SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Monday, January 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Ferreira backs plastics ban

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net MINISTER of the Environment Romauld Ferreira insisted it was “the right thing to do” for the country to tackle the dependency of plastic use amid the public push back to the single-use plastic ban.

His comments came on Friday at the “Tackling Climate Change: What Italy & the European Union Are Doing to Help” forum hosted by the University of the Bahamas Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience Research Centre in partnership with the Embassy of Italy.

Mr Ferreira warned of the deadly effects that plastics have not only on the environment but on people’s health.

“We cannot talk about renewable energy, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, without tackling our dependence on plastics because it comes from that and the other big issue with plastics is that they all break down to microplastics. They all end up in the ocean and we’re on a trajectory to

have more plastics in the ocean than fish,” he said.

He described how this affected The Bahamas: “And this is a local problem as well because many of us seem to think that these problems exist somewhere else out there and they don’t affect us. There have been numerous studies that have shown that microplastics are in the fish that we eat and that we consume.

Seeing that we have some of the highest cancer rates in the world, this is the right thing to do.”

Under a new law, merchants are mandated to charge customers 25 cents to $1 for single-use plastic bags. The fee has been controversial, with Super Value owner Rupert Roberts recently telling the media that customers are disgruntled by the move.

Meanwhile, the guest speaker at Friday’s event was Italian Ambassador Armando Varricchio, who listed initiatives that have been taken in Italy—including becoming the first country to make lessons in climate change compulsory in schools. And in Europe

SCALDING OIL THROWN AT WOMAN IN FAMILY ROW

at large, the new European Commission’s European Green Deal aims to achieve no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

Mr Varricchio also spoke about the assistance Italy has given to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian.

He said his fellow Italians were “deeply touched” by the tragic event but also “inspired by the resilience of the Bahamian people.”

“Italy and the Bahamas enjoy long-standing diplomatic relations and a strong friendship,” the ambassador said. “So we worked as hard as we could to activate the channels of support both at the national level and through the European Union to provide help with aid.”

He said that Italy and the Bahamas have a “deep conviction” to keep climate change on the global agenda as no nation “large or small, rich or poor” is “immune to the impact of climate change.”

Through the Italian government’s grant, Anatol Rodgers High School has solar energy which was implemented last year.

from page one Paramedics transported the woman to hospital where she was initially listed as being in serious condition.

Up to press time, neither police nor Public Hospitals Authority officials provided an update on her condition.

The man’s whereabouts are unclear.

THE MAN and woman involved. We have blurred the man’s face so he is not recognisable.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 20, 2020, PAGE 3

Vasyli begs to avoid a retrial for murder

DONNA Vasyli at an earlier court hearing.

Photo: Terrel W Carey/Tribune Staff from page one enough case had not been made against her client at the substantive trial.

In particular, she maintained that based on the medical evidence led at trial, Vasyli could not have been at the matrimonial home when her husband was murdered, as she had already left and went to her daughter’s house some 12 minutes away. And that fact has been accepted by the prosecution, Mrs Montgomery said.

However, Mrs Montgomery submitted that should the Privy Council find that there was in fact a case for Vasyli to answer initially, it should remit the matter back to the Court of Appeal.

Mrs Montgomery, in adopting the principles espoused in a previous decision made by the Privy Council, further asserted that the court should not order a retrial if by doing so, it is permitting the prosecution to “remedy” deficiencies in their case, effectively making the trial a “practice run” for the side opposite.

In response to Mrs Montgomery’s assertions that the prosecution would be “forearmed” and “forewarned” of potential hurdles to trump the defence should the order for a retrial stand, the prosecution maintained that the “possibility of improving the evidence” against Vasyli is a “risk” one takes when a retrial is ordered.

However, the prosecution said such a risk “cuts both ways”.

“The defence could improve its evidence too,” the prosecutor said. “It could take different decisions about how to run the trial. That’s just one of those things that inevitably happens when there’s a retrial.”

Nonetheless, the prosecution conceded that the manner in which the Court of Appeal dealt with the issue of whether to order a retrial was “wrong”, particularly because the

appellate court did not give Vasyli an opportunity to make any submissions “as to whether a retrial was appropriate in the light of its disposal of the appeal”.

The prosecution further noted that the Court of Appeal’s “failure” to entertain those submissions from Vasyli’s attorneys means that the “weight” the prosecution could put on the appellate court’s decision— assuming there is a case to answer—is “much more limited” than it would be had the appellate court “actually done the right thing and heard submissions on the question”.

Thus, the prosecution said it was “unsatisfactory” for the Court of Appeal to have ordered a retrial in those circumstances.

In any event, the prosecution said the Privy Council should reject Mrs Montgomery’s submissions and consequently find that there was in fact a case to answer, and then “go on to consider further points as to whether in those circumstances the Court of Appeal’s order for a retrial should simply be endorsed”.

And if the high court is minded to remit the matter to the Court of Appeal, the prosecution said the superior court should give a “pretty firm indication” that any consideration of the possibility of a retrial by the appellate court be done as quickly as possible, as the fifth anniversary of the crime is fast approaching.

The submissions came during a four-hour hearing before Lords Kerr, Robert Carnwath, David Lloyd Jones, Nicholas Hamblen and Lady Jill Black on the appeal of the appellate court’s July 25, 2017 decision to quash Vasyli’s murder conviction and order a retrial.

Vasyli is appealing against the order for a retrial.

The facts at trial were that on the evening of March 23, 2015, the Vasylis entertained two guests, Myles and Jody Pritchard, who arrived at the Vasyli residence after 3pm that day. Also present at the

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Vasyli residence that afternoon was the Vasylis’ housekeeper Nicolaza Quintana.

Upon their arrival at the Vasyli home, the Pritchards were greeted by Vasyli who immediately told them that her husband, in his drunkenness, had fallen down the stairs and sustained injuries to his back. Mr Vasyli had hit some picture frames during his spill and the broken glass from those objects caused the injuries.

Mr Pritchard, in his statement to police, said when he saw Mr Vasyli, the podiatrist was bareback with a bloody paper towel rolled up. Mr Pritchard further stated that Mrs Quintana cleaned Mr Vasyli’s wounds at Vasyli’s directions, and once that was done Mr Vasyli went upstairs to lay down.

Afterwards, Vasyli’s nephew, Mitchell Matthew, who was visiting from Australia at the time, also came over and the four (Vasyli, the Pritchards and Mr Matthew) drank and talked.

At about 4pm Mrs Quintana left. The Pritchards left sometime between six and 6.30pm and about 15 minutes later Mr Matthew left, leaving Vasyli and her husband alone at their home.

At 7am on March 24, Alejandro Quintana, the couple’s gardener/ handyman, arrived at work and saw a knife on the patio with blood on it.

Thinking someone had cut themselves, he picked it up and put it on the patio table.

He then noticed a pool of blood on the ground and started knocking at the doors, but when he got no answer he used his emergency key to enter the home. It was then that he found Mr Vasyli dead on the kitchen floor.

Mr Quintana went searching for Vasyli, and when he did not find her drove to Vasyli’s daughter’s house, the Lily Pond. Once he arrived, he knocked on the door, and Vasyli’s daughter Lauren Vasyli-DeGraaf and her husband, Quinton DeGraaf, answered. Mr

Quintana told them what happened to Mr Vasyli, prompting Mrs VasyliDeGraaf to run to the guest house at the Lily Pond to tell her mother.

After Vasyli was informed, she and Messrs Quintana and DeGraaf drove back to the scene of the crime, stopping at Old Fort Bay security booth on the way. They arrived at the house with two security officers and waited for the police to arrive.

Officer Jermaine Knowles testified that when he arrived at the house, he met Vasyli wrapped up in a sheet in a bedroom crying and shaking. He said when he identified himself to her, the woman stated that she and her husband had a fight the night prior. However, he said while she was saying that, Mrs Vasyli-DeGraaf approached her mother and whispered something in her ear, causing her mother to stop talking.

Officer Knowles subsequently arrested Vasyli with reference to murder, and during the two interviews she had with police, she emphatically denied killing her husband, and said she she did not recall telling Officer Knowles about the fight with her husband, nor that she said the cameras at her house were not working.

Her records of interview, as well as the information gleaned via the cross examination of the Crown’s witnesses revealed that on the evening of March 23, after the Pritchards and Mr Matthew had left, she then left and walked 12 minutes to her daughter’s guest house.

Nonetheless, the jury unanimously found Vasyli guilty of her husband’s murder, and she was subsequently sentenced to 20 years’ in prison minus the five months she previously spent on remand awaiting trial.

The Court of Appeal later quashed Vasyli’s conviction and ordered a retrial. At the time, two judges decided that the matter should be remitted for a retrial, while the third

judge decided that it should not.

Appearing before the Privy Council last week, Mrs Montgomery asserted that on any view of the evidence, the matter before them is a “circumstantial case”. She charged that in order to prove that Vasyli murdered her husband, the prosecution had to prove “intermediate facts” such as Vasyli being present in the house when he died and that she was the only person present at the time.

Mrs Montgomery argued that the “undisputed” medical evidence has Mr Vasyli dying on March 24, 2015.

By the time the matter made its way to the Court of Appeal, the Crown had accepted that there was no evidence that Vasyli was at the house after 9.10pm on March 23.

Secondly, in addressing the medical evidence, Mrs Montgomery asserted that signs of rigor mortis were still present in Mr Vasyli’s body when crime scene investigators photographed it at 1.15pm on March 24.

One of the photos taken depicted Mr Vasyli’s body with his arms raised which, according to pathologist Dr Caryn Sands, showed that rigor mortis had not yet broken.

Dr Sands went on to describe how rigor mortis sets in two to four hours after death. It peaks at about 12 hours before breaking and the body becomes flaccid.

That meant that Mr Vasyli met his demise around 14 to 16 hours prior to 1.15pm.

However, Mrs Montgomery said if one counts 16 hours back from 1.15pm on March 24, they would arrive at 9.15pm on March 23, a time when Vasyli had already left her house and went to her daughter’s house at Lily Pond.

Thus, Mrs Montgomery said that “undisputed medical evidence” that was led by the Crown on its case, demonstrated that while Mr Vasyli died at some uncertain time on March 24, he died at a time when her client “cannot be his assailant”.

“This is not a case that was made out on the evidence, not equivocal evidence, not matters on which the jury were entitled to reach a conclusion, matters that required them to speculate in a way that was utterly impermissible, and should have been prevented by taking the case away from them,” she asserted.

PAGE 4, Monday, January 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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Alarm bells over drugs and health THE investigation in today’s Tribune that revealed the sale of abortion drugs despite the lack of a prescription has rung several alarm bells.

First, of course, is the sale of the drugs themselves. Not once was our investigator asked for the prescription to go with the drugs – with one pharmacist directing him to two doctors should there be any problems with their usage.

The problems that can be caused by such drugs were highlighted recently by Dr Leon Dupuch, who was previously the head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Women coming into the hospital after apparent usage of the drug, cytotec, has happened often enough to raise the alarm. They might be bleeding excessively, and even on occasion a potentially viable baby has been delivered with the remnants of the pills stuck to its body.

How many times does this happen?

That’s hard to say – we have been unable to obtain statistics so far and as Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands says, those who use the drugs for an abortion are not often likely to come forward to say where they got them from even if things go wrong.

In essence, you get a grey market for such pills – being sold to people even though they are illegal.

That rings a second alarm bell – how many other drugs are also being sold illegally to people in this country? Do we have a Wild West operating over some drugs?

Dr Sands compares it to the numbers houses before they were legalised, saying “it’s illegal, wink wink, it doesn’t really happen, wink wink” before saying “you have to acknowledge there are things that are happening which are indeed illegal”.

Beyond that, we do urge parents and members of the community to reiterate that the use of such drugs, prescription or not, is never best as a first option for birth control.

As noted, the drugs have their own potential side effects – but the best method is prevention through safe sex.

Educate young people in the use of condoms and other methods, not only to avoid the use of such pills unnecessarily but to help protect against other sexually transmitted diseases.

Last year, a report revealed that around one in 50 people in The Bahamas has HIV, the highest rate in the region. Educating young people in how to be safe can help prevent that problem too.

And in the meantime, those pharmacists who are breaking the law? No wink wink, just follow the law – or end up in court yourselves.

How long will bodies be stored?

THE dispute between the Ministry of Health and Glenys Hanna Martin MP over claims of a “stench” around the container where the bodies of Hurricane Dorian victims are being stored is noise that surrounds a bigger issue.

If there is a problem with the refrigeration, of course it is an issue that needs sorting out. If there isn’t, then it’s perhaps no surprise that speculation about the conditions in which the remains are stored will circulate from time to time.

The bigger issue is this: What do we do next?

How long do such bodies get stored, even if the container is keeping them in perfect condition? What indeed is the plan for next week, next month, next year? Will those bodies still be in the container five years from now?

In short, when do we reach the point where the bodies – with DNA samples taken and preserved for later

identification if possible – are buried respectfully?

Many might never be identified – many might be the remains of undocumented migrants who either have no relatives here or whose relatives are reluctant to come forward because they fear detention.

So far, all these months later, only four of the 55 dead in Abaco have been identified. We need to make tough decisions – on how long we can keep remains in this fashion, and on how we will proceed to let them rest with dignity.

More than that, the public needs to know what the plan is – so that people know how long they have to come forward if they haven’t already, or make their peace otherwise.

This is a situation that has no easy answers, no path forward that isn’t difficult – but clarity is the least that all concerned are owed.

SBC’s work on mending racial fences commendable EDITOR, The Tribune WITH a membership of approximately 15 million -- 85 percent being Caucasian -- the largest Protestant denomination in the US, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), has a checkered past in race relations, which had spanned well over a century since its formation in the mid-nineteenth century. Indeed, the SBC was founded on the issues of slavery and racial discrimination in 1845 by a group of white southerners who would go on to become Confederate sympathisers.

These Southern Baptist pioneers were fierce opponents of any legislation aimed at placing African Americans on equal footing with their Caucasian counterparts. The Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr may

have had the SBC in mind when he composed his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963.

I believe that black supremacist groups such as the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam and the Hebrew Israelites are the unpaid bills of the SBC and other white evangelical organisations. With the election of African American pastor, Fred Luter of New Orleans, as president of the denomination in 2012, Southern Baptists have demonstrated the willingness to wrestle with the racist ghost of its past, notwithstanding the pushback against the formal repudiation of white nationalism and the Confederate flag. Another step in the right direction was a formal apology to the African American community in 1995 for its

culpability in condoning racial discrimination. With its ubiquitous presence in Pelican Point, East Grand Bahama, in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, the SBC is demonstrating to wary ethnic minorities its transformation in accepting ethnic minority groups.

Current SBC President J D Greear and his executive board should be well aware that over 92 percent of the Bahamian population is of African extraction.

Despite this knowledge, the SBC has come to the aid of East Grand Bahamians, whose community had been pummelled by Dorian. I commend the SBC for at least attempting to mend racial fences in The Bahamas.

KEVIN EVANS Grand Baham January 14, 2020

Time to ground the dinosaurs of Bahamasair EDITOR, The Tribune SELDOM have we seen politicians over-react to a tempest in a tea-cup like we have seen over Bahamasair and whether or not three of their aircraft can enter US airspace.

It was a classic example of every man for himself as first the Minister, then the Chairman came out looking for someone to throw under the bus to assuage this made-up controversy.

It appeared, for a moment, that somebody had committed a catastrophic mistake by not installing modern communications equipment in three very old jets that are long overdue for the scrap yard.

Nobody wanted to cast focus on the fact that we are still flying aircraft that first rolled out of the Boeing factory 27 years ago. These planes are dinosaurs.

Missing from the politicians’ blame game was the fact that these planes were never designed to operate in the current air traffic control system which relies more on GPS satellites than the radars that were state-of-the-art when Bahamasair’s B737-500 planes were designed.

The Americans proposed a next generation navigation system that even they admit won’t be fully rolledout until 2025. The big boys of the industry – American, Delta and United – all operate modern aircraft none of which are caught up in the deadline that ensnared Bahamasair.

Newer aircraft have the modern equipment that Bahamasair has to now install to be compliant and operate these junkyard dogs to Miami.

So quick was Dionisio D’Aguilar and Tommy Turnquest to find someone

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net to throw under the bus, that they didn’t bother to tell the public that almost 2,000 American registered aircraft are also affected by the ban and cannot operate into controlled US airspace.

They also could have mentioned that the deadline in Canada for the same equipment is January 2022 and that certain non-compliant Air Canada planes had to take the long way around the US to avoid US airspace since January 1.

Or that the Canadian Air Force operates some jets that are deemed too old to be upgraded. The US gave them exemptions because of their overlapping airspace, much like we have.

To accommodate noncompliant aircraft, the US devised an ad-hoc solution.

At least one hour before they fly into controlled airspace, operators have to apply to the FAA for a one-off authorisation.

Because neither Miami, Ft. Lauderdale or Orlando are operating at capacity, the FAA would have been more understanding of Bahamasair’s predicament.

This was not a steep hill for Bahamasair to climb. If the politicians didn’t push their big foot into the ring, Bahamasair would have devised a work-around with none of us the wiser.

Worse case they could have assigned these planes to Freeport, Exuma, Cuba and Haiti.

Anywhere except Florida. The newer (but still old) B737-700 and the ATRs could have filled in the slack in this slow season.

It is understood that as they looked around for a

scapegoat to blame, they saw the Director of Maintenance, Prince Storr as a hapless victim to throw under the bus. No Canadian heads rolled when they missed the deadline.

But let’s get real. Bahamasair has always been micro-managed by its Board of Directors. Tommy Turnquest and before him the PLP Chairman, Val Grimes are serial interventionists who involve themselves in minutiae, to the grumbles of management.

Nobody believes that the Board wasn’t in the loop on this and if the Minister was left clueless he has to blame the Board, not the management.

This matter is too technical to be sorted by politicians including opposition leader Brave Davis a former portfolio minister responsible for Bahamasair.

A cost-benefit analysis probably would have concluded that it was not economic to invest in navigation equipment that costs more than 25 percent of the plane’s value. Bahamasair would be better served to get rid of these old planes.

For starters, the companies that design and produce the navigation equipment were in no rush to make engineering drawings for old airplanes. So Bahamasair was immediately relegated to the bottom of the design and production lists.

So, it should not have come as a surprise that Bahamasair missed the deadline to comply.

The Board of Bahamasair should modernise the fleet. And stop looking for scapegoats.

THE GRADUATE Nassau January 19, 2019

An idealistic pipe dream EDITOR, The Tribune Re: Former MP: Bahamas Needs To Heal Racial Divide. The Tribune, January 10, 2020.

It’s a worthy and idealistic pipe dream but definitely not politically expedient.

After all, if the racial divide were ever healed, quite a few of our politicians could never get elected and would be out of a job.

KEN W KNOWLES MD Nassau January 11, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 20, 2020, PAGE 5

A TRIBUNE investigation has uncovered the illegal sale of the drug Cytotec which can be usded to cause abortions has been uncovered by The Tribune.

Recently, Dr Leon Dupuch, the immediate past head of Princess Margaret Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, expressed alarm at the number of women coming to the hospital after an attempted abortion had gone wrong while Health Minister Dr Duane Sands, right, said he has received anecdotal reports about the sale of the drug.

Secret trade in abortion tablets

from page one

In a recent interview, Dr Leon Dupuch, the immediate past head of Princess Margaret Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, expressed alarm at the number of women coming to the hospital after an attempted abortion goes wrong, a problem he tied to Cytotec use.

“Women and girls arriving in the hospital’s emergency room very often are bleeding excessively and many end up requiring emergency surgery,” he said. “On occasion, a potentially viable baby is delivered with remnants of these pills – which, having been inserted in the mother’s vagina and failed to dissolve – are stuck to its feet, limbs and torso.”

The Tribune could not obtain statistics on the number of failed abortion attempts dealt with in the public healthcare system.

Use of Cytotec for abortions is not a new or recent development in the Bahamas even though it is illegal without a prescription. The drug is used for managing heavy bleeding after birth and other purposes but should be used in a controlled environment and under the supervision of a qualified physician, Dr Dupuch said. The World

Health Organisation says misoprostol––which is sold under the brand name Cytotec––can be used to safely induce an abortion but recommends a clinical follow-up to ensure complete abortion has happened.

Gina Archer Carey, chairperson of the Bahamas Pharmacy Council, said she is unaware of any formal complaints being made about the dispersal of the drug without a prescription.

She said medical professionals who are aware of a problem are obligated to report it.

“We have no issue of sending someone in to find out what is going on,” she said yesterday. “It’s illegal.

If we find that this is happening, we would refer the matter to the police. When you give persons these things without a prescription, you are putting their lives at risk. That’s not something we take lightly. I would love to have a complaint so we could address it because that’s really disturbing.”

Nonetheless, policing the sale of such drugs is difficult, Dr Sands said yesterday, because those who obtain them are not forthcoming about how they got them even when complications develop.

“Victims are unwilling to confess on the record as to where they would’ve

gotten the medication from,” he said. “The issue of whether there is a protocol that exists to deal with this is difficult because it’s hard to act in the absence of a complaint. It speaks to some of the weakness in the legislation. As health minister, I cannot ignore an anecdotal complaint that emanates from such a doctor who has clearly raised the alarm. If there is one case where illicit use of a drug may have resulted in injury then as awkward and uncomfortable as it is, we are obliged to listen and to act on it. If there is evidence that there is a pharmacy or pharmacist who is acting outside of the law then we don’t have the volition to give a nod and say, we ain’t worried about that today.”

Some health professionals say cultural conservatism is the root of the problem, that the illegal procuration of such drugs is inevitable in a society where women do not have legitimate ways of ending unwanted pregnancies.

Some observers emphasise the disparities that exist, with legal abortion easily accessible to Bahamian women who can afford to get them abroad.

Dr Sands said it is not among the Minnis administration’s priorities to address abortion legislatively, calling the issue

political kryptonite. He said his ministry has generated a list of “flagged pharmacies” that warrant greater inspection and evaluation.

Among other things, officials are concerned about questionable practices like the delivery of generic medications alleged to be brand name drugs, he said.

“Illegal numbers before it was legalised was the worst kept secret of all,” he said. “It’s illegal, wink wink, it doesn’t really happen, wink wink, and then the discussion took on a surreal turn when there was an opinion poll/and the public said we don’t wish to legalise and regulate

numbers and the administration did something different. When you start talking about abortion, you really talking about an emotive issue. You have to acknowledge there are things that are happening which are indeed illegal.”

Editorial View - Page 4

PAGE 6, Monday, January 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

SIR JACK’S FORMER BUTLER IN SUICIDE PROBE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama police are continuing investigations into an apparent suicide of a man who is believed to the former long-time butler of the late Sir Jack Hayward of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, and who was embroiled in a legal battle

over his interest in the cochairman’s trust.

According to sources, the victim, believed to be Julius Trevor Bethel, the co-chairman’s personal assistant and manager of his Freeport residences, was found dead at a home on Sea Scape Drive, Royal Palm Way, on Friday morning.

Sir Jack owned a large sprawling residential property in Royal Palm Way.

According to police reports, sometime after 10am, a friend of the deceased man went to the police and reported finding his friend unresponsive in a vehicle at the deceased’s residence.

Superintendent Walter Henderson said officers went to Sea Scape Drive where they found the deceased. He was taken to Rand Memorial Hospital

where he was pronounced dead. Supt Henderson said that an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.

According to Tribune Business, Mr Bethel had filed legal action in the Court of Appeal against Sir Jack’s family trust last October seeking to freeze the trust’s affairs and remove the judicial trustee, Lyford Cay-based Deltec

SIR JACK HAYWARD

Bank & Trust’s Paul Winder who is overseeing the Hayward 1993 Discretionary Settlement.

Mr Bethel’s initial court case centred on allegations that he has been unfairly squeezed out of his interest in the trust after Sir Jack named him as a beneficiary of his estate. These claims, though, are being heavily contested in the Bahamian court system.

BPL has no coherent plan, says PLP leader

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION Leader Philip “Brave” Davis

OPPOSITION Leader Philip “Brave” Davis demanded the Minnis administration “come clean” on what it plans to do with Bahamas Power and Light.

He spoke after BPL chairman Dr Donovan Moxey said last week the company intends to sell Stations A and D at the Clifton Pier Power Plant to Shell North America.

Mr Davis said in a statement yesterday: “Given the statements by the chairman for the company, it appears that without the leave of the Bahamian people through Parliament, the FNM has unilaterally decided that they are going to give the power generation portion for the company to a foreign entity. They never campaigned on this policy and were never given a public mandate to do so.

There must be some public explanation for this.”

Mr Davis complained there is no coherent plan or vision for BPL. “The plans left in place (by the Christie administration) were scrapped and purportedly replaced with nothing more than a memorandum of understanding with Shell North America to construct a 200 megawatts power generation station at their cost in exchange for a power purchasing agreement,” he said.

“The public then witnessed the implosion of the board with accusations of political interference and corruption stemming no doubt from the government’s decision to enter

into another arrangement that conflict with the Shell MoU. In this competing agreement, Wartsilla constructed a 120 megawatts power generation station at our cost without any explanation as what was to become of the Shell deal.”

Mr Davis said supposed changes at BPL have deepened mistrust and heightened the Bahamian public’s uncertainty over the government-owned power provider.

“We are now being asked to swallow the fact that the Bahamian public will bear the cost of building two new power generation plants,” he said. “The FNM government will then sell the two new plants to a foreign company, namely Shell North America. Then BPL, already owned by the Bahamian people, will buy power from the foreign company at a price yet to be determined. The Bahamian people are then told that they will be able to buy shares in the foreign company once the details are settled.”

Mr Davis said Shell North America should be careful before entering into this transaction, likening the matter to BTC, which was controversially sold under the last Ingraham administration.

POLICE HUNT FOR ARMED MEN WHO INVADED HOME POLICE are looking for a group of men responsible for a home invasion and robbery that occurred on Sunday.

Police said around 3am yesterday, a group of armed men forced their way into a home on Joe Farrington Road, “held residents at bay” and robbed them of cash and personal items before running away.

This comes after police reported a woman was sexually assaulted during an early morning home invasion on Marshall Road last week.

Police said that attack took place shortly after 3am last Tuesday when two men forced their way into a home and held residents at bay while robbing them of cash and personal items.

One of the robbers sexually assaulted a woman before they escaped in one of the victims’ black 2014 Ford F-150 truck.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991/2, Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477) or the nearest police station.

Investigations are ongoing.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 20, 2020, PAGE 7

HOME REPAIRS POISED TO START

BOATS are still blocking roadways in some private subdivisions in East Grand Bahama.

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net FIVE months after Hurricane Dorian, road access in some private subdivisions in East Grand Bahama are still blocked.

Some residents say the state of the community poses safety risks.

Boats are still blocking roadways, and there are also downed poles, as well as power lines dangerously hanging across the street in the Palm Bay subdivision, which was severely affected by storm surge in early September.

Palm Bay is one of several residential subdivisions near the Grand Lucayan Waterway that is developed by the Grand Bahama Development Company.

The Tribune visited the area on Thursday and counted at least four boats in the Chippinghill Drive and Barlow Lane area. One boat was lying across the street at Barlow Lane and Chippinghill Drive, and another was blocking the westbound lane on Chippinghill Drive.

Although most of the homes were destroyed in Palm Bay, residents are returning to the area to rebuild.

Resident Brian Seymour posted several photos on Facebook and was concerned about the boats still blocking the streets in that area, as well as downed poles and power lines.

“I posted the photos on my Facebook page out of concern for the safety and well-being of residents,” he said. “A lot of residents are moving back in and frequenting the area, and the area as it is now, poses a safety risk. I understand that this (Dorian) was something unexpected and overwhelming and that patience is required. I have been patient and I think it is a little beyond asking for patience now, and having to endure such unsafe conditions,” he said.

He believes that the hanging power lines in the road, downed poles, and the boats should at least be removed from the area.

“As for (debris) clean-up, we could get to that later.

But as community-minded persons, we do have to be concerned, particularly about going around there at nights because an accident can happen.”

Mr Seymour said that he is very grateful to be alive.

He and his family were away at the time when the storm hit.

Road access still blocked after Dorian

“But for the Grace of God we would have been among the missing…and this is not about scoring political points, it is about the restoration and rebuilding of the Grand Bahama community,’ he said.

Palm Bay is maintained

by Lucaya Service Company Limited (LUSCO), which is responsible for the maintenance of properties in subdivisions developed or to-be-developed in the future by the Grand Bahama Development Company (GB DEVCO). LUSCO has the responsibility of maintaining and repairing streets, roads and utilities in DEVCO’s subdivisions.

In a statement to this newspaper, a spokesperson for DEVCO said the company began assessing roadways and verges soon after the “all-clear” was given following Dorian, with the view of having storm debris removed.

“Along with the vegetative and construction debris, several boats were also marooned inland,” DEVCO’s statement noted. “For reasons of legality, the owners of the vessels must be contacted and advised concerning the removal of the vessel, before removal can occur.

The vessels’ registration numbers were recorded and communicated to the government’s Port Department for its appropriate handling, ie (notification to the owners, coordinated removal of vessels…etc).

In our recent follow up with the Port Department, we were advised that the process is still ongoing and DEVCO will be apprised of any required action, within a few days.”

The company said announcements were made regarding the marooned vessels, asking owners to contact them to coordinate the securing of the boats.

“In the interim, other means of contacting the owners are being pursued to quickly remedy this concerning situation. We are hopeful that the matter will soon be resolved.”

Meanwhile, the Grand Bahama Power Company said that a crew would be deployed in the area on Friday.

The company stated that the Chippinghill area received extensive damage as a result of Hurricane Dorian, and that its transmission and distribution infrastructure was also severely damaged.

“GBPC had crews in the area Wednesday, January

15, scoping the damage.

Crews will be back in the area January 17, 2020,” the company said.

When asked about debris clean-up in private subdivisions, Katherine Smith, managing director of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority, said that cleanup is underway on the island.

“Grand Bahama has to be cleaned, and whether it is a subdivision that is privately owned, we take the position that we will clean Grand Bahama,” she said.

“The GB Port Authority and Sanitation Services have been responsible for the 230 square miles of Free Trade Zone, and the government has issued contracts by the Ministry of Works and Department of Environment Health Services for areas outside of the Port Area. But again, anywhere that needs to be cleaned the government will seek to ensure that areas are cleaned.

“I think people are frustrated because there is a perception that cleaning is not happening, but it is a constant thing,” she explained. “But people also need to understand that what we had in this country was a Category Five storm,” she said.

THE Disaster Reconstruction Authority is scheduled to begin its home repair programme for Hurricane Dorian victims in Grand Bahama and Abaco early next month.

The programme, set to begin the first week of February, will involve vouchers being dispersed to victims to purchase building materials and other items related to home restoration.

There will be four categories for which vouchers will be granted. Residents whose homes were assessed with minimal damage will be eligible for $2,500 in vouchers; those with medium damage will be eligible for $5,000 in vouchers; those with major damage will be eligible for $7,500 in vouchers; and those whose homes were destroyed will be eligible for $10,000 in vouchers.

The DRA also said it is working to provide temporary housing solutions for displaced storm victims.

Temporary dome structures are being constructed in Spring City, Abaco with additional domes scheduled to arrive in the country by the end of the month.

“They will be made available to residents in the impacted areas who wish to place them on their properties as temporary residential structures while they repair or rebuild their homes,” DRA said in a press release.

The temporary domes are free of charge. Information regarding the applications for the domes will be issued this week.

THE DOME structures

RAGGED ISLAND RENEWABLE ENERGY CANADIAN FIRMS OFFER TO HELP GRID TO BE COMPLETED THIS YEAR WITH DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE construction of the electrical grid set to bring renewable energy to stormravaged Ragged Island is set to be completed this year.

In July 2019, the contract to build the electrical grid was awarded to Tugliq Energy Corporation, an independent power producer that specialises in reducing a client’s reliance on fossil and diesel fuel for power generation.

Speaking to reporters at the Canada-Bahamas Reconstruction and Resilience Business Forum on Friday, Nicholas Seguin, Tugliq’s business development director, said “30 to 40 percent” of the solar panels have already been installed.

“We are doing the installation as we speak in Ragged Island for the solar part and the energy storage component as well is coming a bit later this year,” he said.

“The liner on the ground is fully installed, the concrete beams are fully installed, the posts are fully installed and now they’re working into installing the solar panels on the arrays.”

Mr Seguin explained that the purpose of the system is to displace around 90 percent of the diesel fuel that is used for power generation on Ragged Island.

He added that when completed, the system will mostly be supplied by renewable energy. “When there are cloudy days of course the diesel generator will have to be there as a backup, but in normal operation, it will be fully supplied by the solar system and the other battery system.”

CANADIAN High Commissioner Laurie Peters held a Reconstruction and Resilience Forum on Friday to introduce local contractors to a delegation of Clean-Tech and infrastructure companies that can assist with Hurricane Dorian restoration efforts.

Representatives from 12 Canadian firms with expertise in renewable energy, sustainable building and engineering gathered at the Melia Nassau Beach Hotel to share how their respective companies can help with disaster risk management and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“The idea for this event came to us immediately after Dorian,” Ms Peters said. “In fact, during Dorian we had numerous companies contacting us at the Canadian High Commission in Ottawa wanting to support the Bahamas during the storm (and) hoping to find ways to share expertise.”

Ms Peter explained Canadian companies have been helping countries around the world address their climate challenges by assisting governments with developing strategies and plans to adapt to the threat.

She said the delegation she brought to the Bahamas was comprised of “established industry leaders and practitioners” who had “proven track records in delivering infrastructure across a range of asset classes.”

“I commend the Commonwealth of the Bahamas for your goal of making the Caribbean the first climatesmart region in the world

NICHOLAS SEGUIN, Tugliq’s business development director.

Mr Seguin also said the plant is designed to sustain Category Five plus winds.

“Category Five, if I’m correct is 157 mph, so it’s slightly above,” he said.

“We are working toward a stronger design up to 200mph with Salt Energy, but at the moment it’s approved for 180-mph.”

Mr Seguin said construction on the plant began in November last year. He also said the solar portion of the project should be completed by the end of January.

Still, he admitted the battery storage will be completed “slightly later” because ordering the battery takes a “bit of time.”

“One thing that was great from the Bahamian government is that they built a new roll-on roll-off facility at the end of Ragged Island,” he added.

“So there was a brand new port facility allowing us to unload the containers, even use some of the backfill material for the lay out of the solar array.

“As you know Ragged Island doesn’t have a lot of equipment on site so everything was barged in from mostly Freeport with

a local contractor working out of Freeport.”

Stating that Ragged Island’s renewable energy system could work on other islands throughout the archipelago, he added: “I think distributed power generation could make a lot of sense where you have the central grid from BPL and in case of grid failure, those micro grids to be distributed –especially on the islands that have to cover more than 100-kilometres of power lines,” he said.

“It would make sense to have distributed solar arrays in those specific locations so if you lose the power grid, you can still power back up probably faster than rebuilding the entire transmission line – at least for (a) really quick recovery.”

Mr Seguin also said his company is involved in other tenders with Bahamas Power and Light.

“We are awaiting the results that are not out yet and hopefully we can see if we could replicate the design or the concept of Ragged Island for other islands to increase resiliency on the power generation side.”

and Canada wants to support this objective,” she said.

“Globally, Canada has pledged $2.65 billion to support developing countries enabling them to transition into low-carbon, sustainable and resilient economies.

“However, while important, donor and government support alone is insufficient to address the challenges facing the region and we agree that the private sector is and must be an integral part of this effort.”

Carl Smith, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, also brought remarks on behalf of the division’s minister of state.

“Today, disruptions fueled in large measure by the forces of climate change have made crises the new normal for countries around the world,” he said.

“If it isn’t a hurricane, it’s an earthquake, wildfires or water shortages and Hurricane Dorian’s passage through the northern Bahama islands of Grand Bahama, Abaco and the Abaco cays exacerbated the reality of some inadequacies that we have.”

According to Mr Smith, approximately 9,000 homes sustained damage on Abaco and Grand Bahama, affecting over 29,000 persons.

More than 10,000 students were also affected due to the suspension of primary and secondary school classes on the stormbattered islands.

“The Bahamas must confront the challenges resulting from climate change,” he said. “Frankly we have no other choice.

“In doing so, we want to become a model for small

island development states.

We are pursuing innovative strategies for the building of public infrastructure... and also in building housing and businesses.”

Mr Smith said the government plans to focus on approaches that build relationships between residents and the private sector and that “channel investment opportunities into affected communities.”

“We want to employ tools and techniques to reduce risks for communities and rebuild resilient sustainable ecosystems,” he added.

“In order to protect the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco…from the vulnerabilities that initially exposed it to danger, the rebuilding processes must necessarily be a time for rethinking and ultimately for revitalisation.”

Mr Smith explained that the Disaster Reconstruction Authority was formed to “coordinate the redevelopment responses to Hurricane Dorian” and create a “substantial coordinated plan” to repair and rebuild Abaco and Grand Bahama.

The companies present at the forum included Arcadis; Stantec; Tugliq Energy Corporation; Atco; Belvedere Place Development; Fourth State Energy; Group Ocean; Leigh Fisher; Lightweight Concrete Solutions, NEXII; Portable Electric and WSP Caribbean.

The Canadian corporations specialise in key areas of sustainable development, including micro-grids/offgrid developments, resilient power plants and global practices in the implementation of infrastructure, energy and reconstruction projects.

PAGE 8, Monday, January 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

ANOTHER 114 HAITIANS ARE EXPELLED FROM COUNTRY

A TRAILER parked behind the clinic in Marsh Harbour believed to contain the remains of unidentified victims.

‘No degredation of 51 bodies kept in cooler’

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net THE Ministry of Health criticised Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin’s “insensitive” and “reckless” claims that the bodies of Hurricane Dorian victims in Abaco are creating a “stench” because the container in which they are stored is not cooling adequately.

The Ministry of Health, in a statement, criticised Mrs Hanna Martin for her “baseless and inaccurate” remarks, asserting that claims of a stench, or “fresh or old remnants of bodily fluids at or around the container” are “pathetic falsifications” that have recently been refuted by government officials.

The ministry further stated that rumours have also been spread about “unusually large populations of flies attracted to the trailer,” allegations it also refuted.

The ministry admitted that there are remains of 51 people currently being stored in a refrigerated cooler hooked up to the Marsh Harbour Clinic’s electrical breaker. However, said the ministry, to date there have been no power losses and no “degradation of the remains which are stored”.

The ministry also said such “false claims”, which it asserts were also contained in a “widely circulated video” on social media, merely add to the “pain and suffering” of Abaco residents. Without calling names, it said “at least one of the persons” spreading these rumours “should know better and seek confirmation before affirming misinformation”.

However, Mrs Hanna Martin, in a statement yesterday afternoon, said the government’s statement is merely “confirmation” of her claims, as she said the revelation of the 51 bodies “surpasses” the number she previously thought to be in that container.

The Englerston MP also said that the ministry’s “minute certification” of the “continuity and reliability” of the electrical supply to the container is “laughable and strains credibility as all of us who rely upon (Bahamas Power and Light) can attest”.

On Friday, Mrs Hanna Martin called for the “dignified and respectful” removal of bodies which were stored after Hurricane Dorian. At the time, she claimed that due to the untimely refueling of the container’s refrigeration unit, the bodies contained therein “de-iced” before the before the refrigeration was

restored, leading to “degeneration and stench”.

Additionally, Mrs Hanna Martin claimed that the container is not secured with a lock. “This grotesque situation playing out in the life of Abaconians is almost unspeakable and not consistent with our values as a Bahamian people,” Mrs Hanna Martin said at the time.

In response, however, the ministry said that the “claim of a stench, fresh or old remnants of bodily fluids at or around the trailer” and suggestion that there are unusually large populations of flies attracted to the trailer are pathetic falsifications that were refuted by direct inspection of its clinic

by Administrator Kyron Darville and Administrator of Community Health Charlene Bain on Friday.

“The refrigerated cooler has been wired into the electrical breaker of the Marsh Harbour Clinic for months,” the ministry’s statement explained.

“The clinic has been on the re-energised grid since November 2019. It has a functioning back-up generator which is serviced monthly. A lock was placed and maintained in place for more than two months.

There are security officers on the premises.

“Since restoration of municipal power to the

GLENYS HANNA MARTIN clinic, BPL has functioned at better than 90 percent efficiency. Except for the few seconds for sensing by the automatic transfer switch prior to generator start, there have been no power losses to the trailer and no degradation of the remains which are stored. Indeed, there is further redundancy.

In the event of a catastrophic failure, the 40-foot unit also has a back-up generator which could power the container if needed.”

The Ministry of Health added: “The locked cooler is currently at minus eight to minus 10 degrees. We have carefully selected and maintained the cooler temperature to avoid any further degradation of bodies that were all collected in a state of decomposition.

The integrity of the remains has been verified by our pathology team as late as Friday.

To date, of the 55 Dorianrelated deaths recovered in Abaco, the remains of four persons have been identified

In Loving Memory

Helen Aranha Of

February 25th, 1929 - January 19th, 2019

Broken Chain We little knew that morning that God was going to call your name. in life we loved you dearly, in death we do the same.

It broke our hearts to lose you, you did not go alone; for part of us went with you, the day God called you home.

You left us peaceful memories, your love is still our guide; and though we cannot see you, you are always at our side.

You are greatly missed.

From the family

Our family chain is broken, and nothin seems like the same; but as God calls us one by one, the chain will link again.

and released. Upon completion of all efforts to ensure identification, all the victims will be buried with dignity.

“The people of Abaco have suffered tremendously.

These insensitive and reckless false claims add to their pain and suffering. At least one of the persons should know better and seek confirmation before affirming misinformation.”

In response to the ministry’s assertions, Mrs Hanna Martin said it is “ironic” that the ministry would refer to “the suffering experienced by the people of Abaco” in a bid to “chastise” her, while Health Minister Dr Duane Sands “appears to have no sense of urgency in addressing the scores of bodies stored in that refrigerated container”. “(Dr Sands) must know that this state of affairs is a constant gruesome reminder to the people of Abaco and no doubt exacerbates their suffering,” Mrs Hanna Martin said.

“The minister should be aware that the facts I provided are from a source that I trust, despite his official stance.

“This is yet another example of this administration straining the truth to avert transparency in a public relations exercise.”

Editorial View - Page 4

THE Department of Immigration expelled more than 100 Haitians on Saturday.

According to a press release, the group of 114 Haitians left New Providence on a Bahamasair flight at 7.30am to Portau-Prince, Haiti, escorted by a team of law enforcement officers. This group included 85 men, 27 women and two minors.

The department said it will continue its commitment to carrying out the mandates of the agency to combat illegal migration by establishing effective border control management in compliance with the country’s laws.

For further information on Bahamas immigration procedures, complaints or Anti-Corruption Unit reports, please visit the agency’s website at www. immigration.gov.bs or contact the department’s hotline at 242-322-7530 or 242-502-0574.

BAHAMIAN ACCUSED OF COCAINE POSSESSION

A BAHAMIAN man was arrested at Lynden Pindling International Airport on Saturday after he was allegedly found in possession of cocaine.

According to reports. shortly after noon, the man presented himself to a US customs officer after checking in for a flight to Philadelphia. He was selected for a secondary search and his checked-in cooler bag was recalled.

Upon searching the bag, officers recovered two packages of suspected cocaine.

The drugs weighed two kilos (4.4 pounds) and have a street value of $30,000.

The man is expected to be formally charged before a judge this week.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

THE MANAGER of a retail marijuana dispensary manager in Oregon stocks the shelves.

Setting the ground rules for a marijuana industry

by Malcolm Strachan THE recent leak of the Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana’s preliminary report has brought the topic of marijuana decriminalisation back to the fore. With Prime Minister Minnis’ decision to transfer the commission from the Ministry of Health to the Office of The Prime Minister, now we wait for the next steps. Of course, as marijuana continues to be a polarised topic across generations, Bahamians, whether for or against decriminalisation, know that such a policy shift will completely alter The Bahamas. At this time, there is no timeline for the publication of the final report.

However, that has not prevented speculation on what the Bahamian marijuana industry would look like.

If we are to take into account the vision of commission co-chair Quin McCartney, The Bahamas’ marijuana industry would probably look a lot like Jamaica’s. The island nation, seen as a cultural mecca for the plant, has garnered some success since its legalisation in 2015. As one of Canada’s main suppliers of the crop, Jamaica has high hopes in cashing in on what is projected to be a $50bn industry in the next decade.

Certainly, if we are seeking to model ourselves after any Caribbean state, Jamaica fits the bill. With its iconic branding and association with marijuana making it a prime market as well as its potential to promote itself as a medical marijuana tourism hub, there are many parallels The Bahamas can learn from to position itself as another prime supplier to North American markets.

Still, as it serves as the guinea pig for other Caribbean countries, Jamaica’s marijuana industry has not prospered without obstacles. Particularly, creating an open market industry while safeguarding smaller growers and Rastafarians who have long used the plant as a religious sacrament - are still hoops the island nation attempts to work through.

With cultural similarities, Jamaica does – as Mr McCartney believes – create a good launching pad for The Bahamas.

That said, developing an entirely new industry against the backdrop of intensely conservative religious views will be no easy feat. Among the considerations are overhauling social perceptions, mitigating barriers to entry, industry regulation and

what should be on all of our minds just four months removed from Hurricane Dorian – climate change.

Many opinions on the herb are rooted in misinformation promulgated by American tabloids dating back to the 1930s – something we have discussed in this column previously.

Surely, we can recall that what began as a prejudice-driven campaign to persuade the US government to enforce harsher immigration policies on Mexican immigrants who smoked the plant, at a time when it was primarily used in America for medicinal purposes, marijuana was outlawed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 – eliminating all use outside of medicinal and industrial purposes – before it was later classified as a Schedule 1 dangerous drug, per the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

And while, today, 29 US states have legalised medical marijuana since 1996 many Bahamians still associate the herb with the socially undesirable, criminal and those of lower class – all offshoots on the antiimmigrant agenda that was initially spread by American media.

Such warped views have continued to leave a large portion of the populace ignorant of marijuana’s benefits and have led to the disenfranchisement of youth that have had their criminal records blemished for possession of small amounts of the substance and religious persecution of the Rastafarian community.

As the world’s views on marijuana begin to come full circle, public education - in the form of an unlearning what we’ve come to understand about marijuana as a society - will be essential if politicians are going to drive our efforts towards decriminalisation, and eventual legalisation.

Barriers to Entry Another thing we must consider is the need to promote equitable participation in the industry. Like Jamaica, The Bahamas, should ensure Bahamians are majority owners of the industry. As we will likely become suppliers to North American distributors, foreigners should only be allowed to have minority interests in our marijuana industry.

Additionally, as a precursor to licencing, prospective parties should be enforced to provide specialised training to Bahamians in all areas of expertise within the industry to minimise the need for

expatriates within five years of being issued a licence.

Moreover, as we look at ensuring individuals at all levels of the economic spectrum can participate locally, we should consider how to remain true to open market principles, yet still look at how we prevent the elites from monopolising the space – an issue Jamaica also ran into. Similarly, The Bahamas can create its own version of Jamaica’s Alternative Development Programme which allows individuals with the expertise in growing marijuana to form consortiums and pay lesser fees for licences. This would, in essence, combat a marijuana black market, and prevent clandestine marijuana profits from escaping the public purse.

Additionally, taking the commission’s preliminary recommendation on allowing the Rastafarian community to form a consultative body a step further, they should also be allowed to form an entity at a discounted licence fee to become a supplier.

As a group that has been perhaps the most persecuted for marijuana usage, giving them the chance to obtain an economic benefit should serve as a form of reparation for the years of oppression they’ve experienced.

Regulation Regulation will be one of the greatest challenges we face, as we will be required to make new laws and safeguard the nation’s youth from using marijuana before the legally mandated age. One of the biggest hurdles that has led Jamaica to revamping its interim regulations has been found in the inability of lifelong marijuana growers from entering the industry because of a difficulty in accessing capital.

With the US still hesitant to federally decriminalise marijuana, jurisdictions like ours that also depend on the financial services sector would obviously be timid about the prospects of a marijuana industry. Recent challenges the country has experienced with being blacklisted would make it incumbent on the government that strict policies are developed and followed to avoid further regulation from external agencies.

Certainly, a regulatory body – possibly building off what the commission has already accomplished – would need to be formed.

Such a body should be composed of experts in policy, the law, marijuana’s medicinal benefits and economics.

Climate Change Living in a hurricane belt presents a unique challenge for a low-lying country like The Bahamas with aspirations of growing marijuana to service a full-fledged industry. While many who see the vast possibilities of a Bahamian marijuana industry may be looking at islands like Andros as a hub because of its rich and sizeable arable

land, its susceptibility to hurricanes may require us to give more thought to how marijuana should be grown in the country.

Whether we look at developing hurricane-proof hydroponic labs on strategically selected areas throughout the country will be up to the braintrust.

However, what we cannot ignore is the stakes have changed and a move

towards developing a marijuana industry must lead us to exercising great thinking into how it should be done.

Marijuana decriminalisation and legalisation is no longer a matter of if, but rather, only a matter of when. Thus, it would serve us best to begin furthering our understanding of what will make our country successful once we too become a player.

PAGE 10 MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

Why CARICOM had no national for OAS top job R

EADERS of Barbados newspapers were exposed recently to the views of John Beale, one of the country’s former Ambassadors to the Organisation of American States (OAS), on the forthcoming election for the post of Secretary-General. Because Mr Beale served at the OAS and did sterling work, his views on the SecretaryGeneralship of the OAS deserve attention.

Mr Beale is my friend and former colleague as Ambassador to the United States of America (US) and the OAS. We fought several

battles together to advance the interests of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries in the US and at the OAS. At a bilateral level, we jointly took on the abuse by the US Virgin Islands (USVI) government of US Federal Government tax rebates to disadvantage CARICOM rum exporters.

The USVI used the rebate to subsidise rum production

by the British multinational, Diageo PLC, allowing it to undercut CARICOM rum producers.

Mr Beale also joined me in 2015 in the first public airing of concerns about the effect on Caribbean economies of the withdrawal of correspondent banking relations (CBRs) by US global banks, and in resisting the wrongful branding

Memorial Service for LEONA ALBERTHA SYLVEN-FERRIER of Westridge Estates, will be held on Friday January 24th 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Lyford Cay. Officiating will be Fr. Kendrick Forbes. Cremation was held.

Left to cherish fond memories are her Daughter: Robyn Ferrier-Rahming; Son in-law: Clifford Rahming; Grand Children: Cedric, Michael and Steven Scott and Kellan Rahming; Sisters: Constance Missick and Daisy McPhee; Brothers in-law: Joel Missick, Gladstone (Moon) McPhee, Edouard and Michael Ferrier; Nieces: Kenisha, Yolett , Beverley, Sandra, Vanria, Nathlie, Patricia and Cynthia: Nephews: Kenyon, Basil, Huntley, Richard, Stephan, Lynden, Nathan and Fabrice; Numerous Grand Nieces, Grand Nephews Cousin and Friends including Sir Arthur Foulkes & Family, Lucito Bazard & Family, Catherine Scott & Family, Linda Scott, Wilfred & Dorey Horton & Family, Leonie Moultrie & Family, Aaron Knowles, Guy Charles & Family, Thelma McMillian & Family, Rodger D, Norman & Dory Whitlock & Family, Jeff & Lorraine Turnquest, Carl & Lisa Bethel & Family, Dr. Eugene & Francois Newry & Family, Willamae Kemp & Family, Diana Wallace, Brian Humblestone and Family, Angie Archara and Family, Wendy Brown and Family and numerous members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Special Acknowledgments: Dr. Stewart and Dr. Agreta Eneas-Carey; Caregivers: Ms. Annaelle Auguste, Ms. Marva Mackey, Ms Jean Killingbeck, Ms Claudette Thompson, Ms. Dean and W.T. Hamilton & Staff.

of CARICOM countries as tax havens and money launderers. Without those early warnings, the situation today may have been worse.

Caribbean governments and Mr Beale disagree on Mr Luis Almagro being re-elected as SecretaryGeneral of the OAS on March 22. Mr Beale asserts that “many CARICOM leaders have been critical of the management style of Mr Almagro”, and identifies this as a reason for them not supporting his re-election.

For Mr Beale, CARICOM countries “should leave Mr Almagro to manage the OAS and not worry about his management style”.

Further, he infers that, since Mr Almagro “continues to have the support of several major countries such as the US, Canada, Colombia and Brazil”, CARICOM countries should re-elect him.

Apart from the fact Canada has not indicated support for Mr Almagro, CARICOM countries – whether they do so individually or collectively – decide on support for candidatures based on their own assessment, not the wishes of others who, equally, have no reason to consider CARICOM countries in their own decision-making.

Mr Beale is incorrect in giving Mr Almagro’s “management style” as the reason for CARICOM countries’ dissatisfaction with him. Mr Beale served as Ambassador only during the first year of Mr Almagro’s tenure. He should, therefore, be forgiven for his lack of familiarity with Mr Almagro’s performance in the three years that followed.

The CARICOM group’s real concern is Mr Almagro has sought to use the OAS as an international platform for advocating his personal positions and the narrow purposes of some governments. Further, he has been divisive, failing to build consensus and promote dialogue and understanding among states. Development and security – the two pillars of the OAS about which CARICOM countries are most concerned - also received little or no attention from him.

As far back as November

LUIS ALMAGRO, SecretaryGeneral of the OAS 1, 2018, in a widely published commentary entitled, “A Caribbean Secretary-General for the OAS”, I argued that after 70 years of Caribbean membership of the Organisation, it was time for a Secretary-General from among the CARICOM group. I pointed out that, “If CARICOM countries are divided over a candidate, others will take advantage of that division to insert their own candidate, as has happened with other organisations. In the process, the Caribbean will continue to be relegated to second position.”

Indeed, the CARICOM group has had to be content with the Assistant Secretary-General’s position for 39 years. The present holder of the position is Nestor Mendez of Belize. Mr Beale understands that, as he put it, “CARICOM leaders, quite rightly, would like to have one of their countrymen be elected to the SG position”. He suggests “the best way to succeed is to reelect both the current ASG and the SG because in 2025, Nestor Mendez would be the obvious candidate for the post of SG”.

Mr Beale appears to be unaware CARICOM never had a chance to consider Mr Mendez as a candidate for the post of SecretaryGeneral in the March 2020 election. Mr Mendez was not proposed for the job by the Belizean government which only canvassed for him to retain the position as ASG. And, as Mr Beale pointed out, a geographical group of countries in the OAS cannot field candidates for both positions. Therefore, to quote Mr Beale, “Since Nestor Mendez is the current ASG and his country, Belize, has proposed him to run again for the same post as ASG, it de

facto makes it impossible for another CARICOM candidate to run for the SG spot”.

Being unable to propose their own candidate for the post of Secretary-General, because this would have dislodged Mr Mendez from the comfort of being unopposed, CARICOM governments sought to put their support behind a non-CARICOM candidate. To do so, they looked for an outstanding citizen of the Americas whose known record could best serve the collective interests of all member states. Most CARICOM governments opted for Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the former President of the UN General Assembly, whose performance was exemplified by consensus building, a focus on climate change, poverty alleviation, peace keeping and security. Others are considering a Peruvian candidate, Mr Hugo de Zela.

Mr Beale is right that Ms Espinosa was not proposed

by Ecuador, the country in which she was born, but Mr Almagro was also not proposed by Uruguay, the country of his birth.

So, nothing turns on that observation.

Supporting candidates on the basis only of their birthplace, over which they had no choice, is too narrow a consideration. Far more important is their record of building inter-governmental trust, seeking peaceful solutions to disputes and delivering benefits for all the peoples they serve.

Nonetheless, Mr Beale is right that if the CARICOM group wants to secure the post of Secretary-General at the next election for a national, the work of preparing likely candidates should start now – regardless of the CARICOM country of their birth.

The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own. Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020 PAGE 11 THE MS MAASDAM, pictured here, is reported to have discharged 34 cubic metres of black water/sewage in Bahamian waters as it sailed from Half Moon Cay to Fort Lauderdale in March last year.

What price are we paying for the cruise industry?

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net LUXURY cruise brands operated by Carnival Corporation & PLC emitted 10 times more air pollution in Europe than all of the continent’s vehicles combined, accorrding to an international study.

Transport & Environment, a sustainable transport group in Europe, claimed that its estimated cruise lines operating under the company released more “disease-causing” gases in Europe than over 260 million European passenger vehicles.

Global Royal Caribbean Cruises was said to be second highest polluter, emitting about four times more sulphur oxide than all of Europe’s cars, according to the group’s in-house analysis. The report, which was published in June 2019, examined 203 cruise ships that set sail around European coasts in 2017.

In total, the study claimed that the cruise ships emitted about 62 kilotonnes of sulphur oxide, 155 kilotonnes of nitrogen oxides and 10 kilotonnes of particulate matter.

Spain, Italy, Norway, Greece and France – some of Europe’s top tourist destinations – were the countries with the highest exposure to sulphur oxide from cruise ships.

Four out of the top five nitrogen oxide exposed European countries were also major tourist destinations in Southern Europe.

In response to Transport & Environment’s findings, Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corporation’s chief communications officer, dismissed the think-tank’s conclusions as “inaccurate, misleading and irrelevant”.

“The report is based on an in-house analysis applying highly questionable methodology with so-called ‘best guess’ estimated data on cruise ship emissions,” he told Insight.

“In fact, the figures arrived at in the report do not reconcile with calculations using actual fuel data and emissions from cruise ships, as well as data independently collected and verified by the ports themselves.

“It also does not take into account that it is well accepted among regulatory groups such as the International Maritime Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency that we have implemented several advanced technologies that remove the vast majority and sometimes all of the sulphur

from exhaust, resulting in extremely clean air emissions.”

Last year, Insight reported that in 2014, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) approved a road map that would require shipping companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2023.

At the time, the Marshall Islands, the world’s third largest shipping registry, responded by calling for 100-percent decarbonisation by 2035. And yet, despite being considered one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change that the shipping industry exacerbates, The Bahamas put forward a submission to the IMO in 2017 opposing the Marshall Islands’ demands.

Instead, Bahamian officials proposed cuts that would decrease emissions to 50-percent of 2008 levels by 2050.

Just last week Tribune Business reported that a monitor appointed by a South Florida federal court revealed that Carnival Cruise Line committed further environmental infractions in 2019.

In light of this, Bahamian environmental activist Sam Duncombe said the country needs to “get rid of” private cruise ports all together.

“We are basically allowing an industry that is a huge polluter to affect our country,” she told Insight.

“We are not taking into consideration the environmental impact of those emissions. The trade off in terms of the money and the jobs they provide, how does that mitigate the amount of environmental damage they’re doing?”

The reEarth president insisted everyone must realise the environment is a business.

“Think about it like any store,” she said. “If you went in and started smashing the air conditioning,

punching holes in the roof (and) destroying entire areas inside the store, you’re going to have a big problem.”

The outspoken activist said the public must consider the impact cruise ship emissions have on climate change.

“When you have so many of these toxins in the atmosphere they essentially mix with the sea water and turn into acid,” she explained.

“One cruise ship pollutes as much as one million cars... so when you consider how many cruise ships there are out there doing the same thing, eventually that all adds up very quickly.”

Mrs Duncombe said she thought the devastation wrought on Abaco and Grand Bahama by Hurricane Dorian would have been a “wake up call” for the country to “do business differently”.

“My recommendations are no more cruise ships... they are the biggest leeches on the planet when you consider how little their impact is to the Bahamian economy.

“It looks really good when you see a bunch of people on Bay Street all piling off the cruise ship, but the reality is that cruise ship passengers account for 75 percent of the visitor arrival (and) only represent 25-percent of the tourism revenue.”

Mrs Duncome insisted if every Caribbean nation worked together to create “one set of regulations” for all cruise ships, the corporations would not be able to blackmail individual islands or threaten to take their business elsewhere.

“That’s one of the things the government should have started doing 50 years ago,” she asserted.

“It’s not right that all of these industries are out there polluting the crap out

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of our country and externalising all their costs so we have to deal with it at the end of the day.”

Still, when asked to clarify Carnival Corporation’s stance on reducing pollution, Mr Frizzell assured Insight that environmental compliance

is a top priority at the organisation.

“To date, we have reduced our carbon footprint rate by 25 percent with plans in place to reduce our rate by 40 percent by 2030,” he said.

“Our own environmental operational

standards for our ships typically go beyond and are more stringent-than international maritime regulations or requirements.

We self-report any potential violation including near misses, equipment failures or violations of internal company policy.”

PAGE 12, Monday, January 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Race for the Cure

THE ANNUAL Susan G Komen Race for the Cure took place on Saturday which saw cancer survivors and supporters taking part in the run.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, January 20, 2020, PAGE 13

VIOLENCE ESCALATES IN BEIRUT

S AFRICAN WORLD CHAMP DIES PETER Mathebula, the first black South African to win a world boxing title, has died at 67. He made history in 1980 when he beat fellow flyweight Tae-Shik Kim of South Korea at the World Boxing Association title fight.

His fearsome skill inside the ring earned him the nickname “Terror” He began boxing at the age of nine and had his first amateur fight aged 19.

His world title victory in 1980 was the proudest moment of his career. “I thought I was dreaming,” he said years after his win. “I nearly collapsed with joy.”

BEIRUT Associated Press

PETER MATHEBULA, the first black South African to win a world boxing title, has died at the ege of 67

Trump takes ‘no crime, no impeachment’ trial approach WASHINGTON Associated Press President Donald Trump’s lawyers yesterday previewed their impeachment defence with the questionable assertion that the charges against him are invalid, adopting a position rejected by Democrats as “nonsense” as both sides sharpened their arguments for trial.

“Criminal-like conduct is required,” said Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional lawyer on Trump’s defence team. Dershowitz said he will be making the same argument to the Senate and if it prevails, there will be “no need” to pursue the witness testimony or documents that Democrats are demanding.

The argument is part of a multi-pronged strategy the president’s team is developing ahead of its impeachment trial brief, which is due today. Trump

asserts that his Ukraine pressure was “perfect” and that he is the victim of a witch hunt.

But the “no crime, no impeachment” approach has been roundly dismissed by scholars and Democrats, who were fresh off a trial brief that called Trump’s behavior the “worst nightmare” of the country’s founders. In their view, the standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is vague and open-ended in the Constitution and meant to encompass abuses of power that aren’t necessarily illegal.

The White House is pushing an “absurdist position,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead Democratic prosecutor of the impeachment case.

“That’s the argument I suppose you have to make if the facts are so dead set against you.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, another impeachment prosecutor, called it “arrant nonsense” and said

evidence of Trump’s misconduct is overwhelming.

The back-and-forth came as all concerned agitated for the Senate to get on with the third impeachment trial in the nation’s history. Behind the scenes, the seven House managers were meeting on strategy with staff and shoring up which prosecutor will handle which parts of the case. The White House, meanwhile, was working on its response to the House’s brief outlining the charges.

No senators were more eager to get going than the four Democratic presidential candidates facing the prospect of being marooned in the Senate ahead of kickoff nominating votes in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“I’d rather be here,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on New Hampshire Public Radio while campaigning in Concord.

During the trial, Sanders and other senators are required to sit mutely

PRINCE HARRY TALKS OF HIS GREAT SADNESS ‘THAT IT HAS COME TO THIS’ LONDON Associated Press

PRINCE Harry last night spoke of his “great sadness that it has come to this” as he broke his silence over Megxit and laments it was not possible to find the new life he wanted.

The Duke of Sussex was at a formal private dinner at the Ivy, in Chelsea, for vulnerable children’s charity Sentebale, which founded in 2006, when he made the comments.

In an emotional speech, the 35-year-old said that the UK is a place that he loves and that will “never change” but that he had ‘no other option’ than to quit his royal duties.

Harry also paid a stirring tribute to his grandmother, calling her his ‘commanderin- chief’ and that he was “incredibly gratefu” to Her Majesty and the rest of his family. He said: ‘Once Meghan and I were married we were excited. We were hopeful and we were here to serve. For those reasons it brings me great sadness that it has come to this.

“The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made

THE NOT-so-royal Harry and Meghan lightly. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges and I know I haven’t always gotten it right but as far as this goes there really was no other option.”

It comes after last night’s statement from the Queen that Harry and Meghan will ‘not use their HRH titles’, as they look to forge a new life in North America. As well as returning the £2.4 million spent on a lavish refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, they will pay a commercial rent – estimated at up to £360,000 a year – to retain it as their British home.

The Duke of Sussex

added: “What I want to make clear is we’re not walking away and we certainly aren’t walking away from you.

“Our hope was to continue serving the queen, the commonwealth and my military associations but without public funding.

“Unfortunately that wasn’t possible.

I’ve accepted this knowing that it doesn’t change who I am or how committed I am but I hope that helps you understand what it had come to that I would step my family back from all I have ever known to take a step forward into what I hope can be a peaceful life.”

COUPLE TOGETHER FOR 65 YEARS DIE ON SAME DAY

MISSOURI Associated Press

A COUPLE who had been together for nearly 65 years have died on the same day at a St. Louis-area nursing home in Missouri. Jack and Harriet Morrison’s beds were placed next to each other in their final hours, allowing them to hold hands.

Eighty-six-year-old Jack died first. Harriett,

who was 83, died later on January 11.

“I’m sad. But I know they’re at peace and they’re back together,” said Sue Wagener, a niece raised by the Morrisons. “It truly was a love story for the books.”

The couple went on their first date on Halloween of 1955. “They went to a little diner and never separated from that day on,” Wagener said. They married about six months later.

SECURITY forces fired tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets in clashes yesterday with hundreds of anti-government protesters outside Lebanon’s Parliament, as violence continued to escalate in a week of rioting. At least 114 people were injured in the protests with 47 taken to hospitals.

Most of the wounds were from rubber bullets, some in the face and upper body.

Demonstrators threw rocks and other projectiles and even shot a stream of fire from ignited aerosol cans. Security forces responded with tear gas and water cannons.

PAGE 14, Monday, January 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

DIRECTOR Sam Mendeson the set of 1917.

1917 TAKES TOP HONOUR IN BUILD-UP TO OSCARS LOS ANGELES Associated Press

IF THE Producers Guild Awards are a true predictor of the Oscars’ best film category, then the World War I film “1917” is poised to come away with the top honour in a few weeks.

The Sam Mendes film won the award for theatrical motion picture at the untelevised ceremony Saturday night at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Many in the crowd seemed stunned after Reese Witherspoon announced the winner of the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, which has gone on to win the best picture Oscar 21 out of 30 times — including the past two years, with “Green Book” and “The Shape of Water.”

“This film was inspired by my grandfather, Alfred Mendes, and my hope was to honor his experience,” said Mendes, who co-produced and directed the project. He also said it was his first time attending the awards, and thanked the guild for recognizing his film. “This was best experience of my professional life,” he added.

At the PGA awards, the war film bested other contenders like “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker,” “Knives Out,” “Little

Women,” “Marriage Story,” “Parasite” and “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood.”

“1917” has now built strong momentum heading into the Academy Awards on February 9.

In other categories, “Toy Story 4” took home the animation award, “Fleabag” won the episodic comedy television award and “Chernobyl” collected best limited series.

Multiple special honors were given out throughout the evening for production work including to Octavia Spencer, Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos, “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman, the film “Bombshell,” and Plan B Entertainment’s Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner.

“When I started off as an actor, I wondered about producers, ‘What the (expletive) do they do?’” Pitt jokingly said after accepting the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures. Plan B has been behind “Moonlight” and “12 Years a Slave.”

“I’m now painfully aware of what you do,” he said. “I commend you all. Our job as producers are protectors, stewards. ... Stewards of the story and protectors of the storytellers. And I find that to be an awesome responsibility.”