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VOLUME:115 No.81, MARCH 19TH, 2018

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INSIGHT: NOW WHO’S THIS BAHAMIAN WHO NEEDED A HAIRCUT?

Left in limbo Locked in Fox Hill three years ‘without charge’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

A 42-YEAR-OLD schizophrenic man has been held in prison without medication, charge or court date for more than three years.

Alfairs Agregory Higgs was arrested in Freeport after an incident at the Immigration department in February 2015.

Now Mr Higgs’ family are begging the government to intervene as they fear as he waits in limbo in Fox Hill prison their loved one’s mental illness if worsening brought on by the squalid and dangerous living conditions at the jail.

Mr Higgs spent 11 years in a US prison, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and put

on medication.

Since his incarceration for which his family insist no charges have ever been brought - Mr Higgs has been stabbed by another inmate.

“He’s been there from 39,” said Mr Higgs’ father, an Abaco resident who asked for his name to be withheld due to his profession.

“He’s 42 now, he spent his 40th, his 41st, and his 42nd birthday in there.

“He’s suffering man, the last time I was there they wouldn’t let me see him.

They told me he was gone he’s not in there. Gone where? I still haven’t seen him yet the other times I went before it was no problem.

SEE PAGE FIVE

MITCHELL: FLYING COURT A MISTAKE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis administration’s decision to facilitate hearings on Inagua for 230 migrants accused of illegally entering the country last week is an unsustainable process, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman and former Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said yesterday.

With its actions, the administration has made a concession to attorney Fred Smith and like-minded advocates without having

the benefit of a Privy Council ruling on the longstanding practice of deporting people before they have landed in the country without first seeking a court conviction, he said.

The practice of having a magistrate find “illegal migrants guilty and then dispatch them off to their home country” was done before, he said, adding: “The practice was stopped because it is simply not necessary in law and could result in a nightmare for the judiciary and the prison system.

SEE PAGE FIVE

FOULKES SEES URGENCY TO SOLVE SHANTY TOWN CRISIS

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net ABACO residents yesterday suggested the island was “on the edge” of “serious tragedy” in coming months due to the government’s “inaction and mismanagement” of the ongoing shanty town crisis.

Labour Minister Senator Dion Foulkes led the government-appointed shanty town committee on tours of SEE PAGE SIX

D’AGUILAR: WE’LL KEEP AN EYE ON COCO CAY

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

IS this the smallest Batmobile of them all? A youngster in a Batman T-shirt hops behind the wheel during the Antique Auto Club’s annual auto show and cookout on Saturday.

The event saw a host of classic cars on show - as well as visitors picking up their cookout orders.

This year’s event had an extra goal - with funds from the event going towards the cost of surgery for Ephraim Williams, who has already had two open-heart surgeries and three catheterisations, and further surgery required.

See page two for more photographs from the event.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

BODY BUILDER STABBED TO DEATH

By BRENT STUBBS AND RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporters

PAUL Melbourne, a 70-year-old man known for his athletic versatility, was killed Saturday at his home on McKinney Drive off Carmichael Road after arguing with a woman.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found him with stab wounds about his body.

He was taken to the hospital by emergency medical

PAUL MELBOURNE, pictured in 1989. Photo: Jim LaRoda services personnel, but was later pronounced dead.

Police believe Melbourne

got into an argument with a woman, then was stabbed. A woman has since been taken into custody and is assisting police with their investigation.

The Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation and the Bahamas Powerlifting Federation are mourning Melbourne’s death.

Long-time close friend Raymond Tucker, who travelled with him to SEE PAGE THREE

TRIPLE GOLD IN CARIFTA WATER POLO

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ Water Polo competitos have won three gold medals at CARIFTA, continuing a trend as

one of the elite performers in the region.

The Bahamas closed out the four-day competition at this segment of the 33rd CARIFTA Aquatics Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, yesterday with a

haul of three gold medals for the team.

The Bahamas defeated the host country in the U14, U16 boys, and U19 boys finals at Kingston’s National Stadium.

FULL STORY - SEE SPORTS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

THE Minister of Tourism has pledged to “keep a very close eye” on the cruise lines to prevent their multimillion dollar private island investments sucking economic benefits away from Nassau.

Dionisio D’Aguilar admitted to Tribune Business that the $200m spend unveiled by Royal Caribbean for Coco Cay was “a concern”, given the potential impact on cruise passenger spending when its vessels call on the Bahamian capital and Freeport.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS PLUS - SEE PAGE 15

CORPORATE TAX ‘MUST COME IN’ TO SATISFY EU

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A WELL-KNOWN QC has warned “it’s going to be very difficult to meet” the European Union (EU) and OECD’s demands unless The Bahamas implements a corporate income tax.

Brian Moree QC, senior partner at McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes, told Tribune Business that while the introduction of such a tax was “not inevitable”, the Government is faced with “a big decision” before year-end 2018.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

16

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PAGE 2, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

HOT WHEELS

THE ANTIQUE Auto Club show was held at Arawak Cay on Saturday. The proceeds of the event will aid a child with heart disease.

Photos: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 19, 2018, PAGE 3

Body builder stabbed to death from page one

PAUL MELBOURNE, pictured in 1993.

Photo: Jim LaRoda

compete in international arenas, said the death represented a tremendous loss because Melbourne served as a mentor, transferring his knowledge to numerous competitors and serving as a personal trainer at Better Bodies before his death.

“Paul Melbourne was among the list of Kermit Forbes, Jeremy Knowles and Della Thomas, who were among the first competitors to win medals for the Bahamas at the CAC (Central American and Caribbean) Championships,” Mr Tucker said.

“Paul then went on to become the first Bahamian to win the gold for men when he won the masters and the bantamweight divisions at the same time. I started competing before Paul, but he came after me and with the knowledge he gained from Dr Norman Gay, he went on to excel further than me. But what I liked about him was the fact that he passed a lot of that on to others. I remember a lot of times we were in front of the mirror posing and working on our routine. We ate a lot out of the same pot as we did our dieting together.”

Melbourne was also an accomplished entertainer who took pride in singing the national anthem at the start of many of the federation’s bodybuilding

and powerlifting shows.

He also played the drum as part of groups that performed for some top musicians in nightclubs.

His musical talents were a big part of his church life as well.

“It’s a big loss because he was one time the pioneering supervisors at the Gold’s Gym and he trained many people,” Mr Tucker said.

BBPF president Joel Stubbs said he first met Melbourne when they competed in powerlifting; he was the best lifter in his category for the bench press, squat and deadlifts and he competed against competitors like John Mills.

He then ventured into bodybuilding and while training in Total Fitness, he told Mr Stubbs of his determination to get a medal in the CAC. “He really dedicated himself to his training and he went on to excel. The results speaks for itself as he was a force to reckon with in the bantamweight and eventually in the masters category,” Mr Stubbs said.

“But he also spent a lot of time in the gym helping to train a lot of people, not just as a personal trainer, but one who wanted to help other bodybuilders to excel.”

“He was a real motivator and encourager. He always tried to let you know that the sky was the limit.

PRISON OFFICER GUNNED DOWN IN STREET

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net A PRISON officer became one of the country’s latest murder victims over the weekend when he was killed at Tufa Close

off Cordeaux Avenue on Friday.

Michael Hanna, who is said to have joined the Bahamas Department of Corrections in 2014, was among three people shot.

Police said they received reports about the shooting

shortly before 10pm. When they arrived on the scene they found all three men lying on the ground with apparent gunshot injuries to their bodies.

Hanna was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Police said the men were

standing on the street when they were approached by a gunmen who fired shots in their direction.

Hanna’s murder was one of two over the weekend, the first two murders for March.

There have been 21 murders for the year so far.

CRIME PREVENTION SCHEME PROVING ITS WORTH IN GRAND BAHAMA

BY DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Police Commissioner Stephen Dean flagged the new National Neighbourhood Watch Council as “the most ambitious crime prevention programme” in the country during a walkabout in Grand Bahama last week.

The programme, according to Mr Dean, will bring all neighbour watch groups and associations in the country registered under one umbrella to fight crime and make communities safe.

The senior police official was in Grand Bahamato meet people affiliated with various small neighbourhood watch groups throughout the island to inform them about the Neighbourhood Watch Council.

Mr Dean said the NWC would be launched soon by Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis. He noted Grand Bahama has always experienced low crime levels and said that New Providence is now beginning to experience the same thing.

“We are not rushing to shooting scenes every night; we are not rushing to brazen armed robberies in the daytime, and it is because of citizens assisting the police and a number of strategies that are being utilised,” he explained.

The deputy commissioner of police said that while the RBPF supports the formation of neighbourhood watch groups, they realised that the groups work in isolation of each other.

“There are a number of community groups and associations all over the country and they are doing such good things, but a lot them work in isolation. It is the same thing in New Providence, we have over 30 neighbourhood watch groups operating in NP.” Mr Dean explained that

the Neighbourhood Watch Council, which falls under the Ministry of National Security, will be the overall body in which all groups will be registered.

“We will make sure all groups are registered under one umbrella and organised, he said. We have begun the process of identifying groups, leaders, and members. It is nationwide, and we come to Grand Bahama to look at all existing neighbourhood watch groups, community associations and those interested in starting groups,” he said.

DCP Dean they have met with the groups in New Providence and two

co-chairmen have been selected to the council.

He explained that a similar meeting will take place with all groups in Grand Bahama where persons will be selected to represent the groups on the council.

Mr Dean said that one of the benefits of NWC is information sharing, adding that groups will have access to information from crime officers who will supply them with press releases.

He also stated that every policing division will have a liaison officer who will be assigned to the neighbourhood watch group. “He will attend your meetings and be in contact with you. He

will find out what is happen in the community and give you updates,” he said.

The group leaders he said will undergo a two-threeday training after which they will receive a certificate and a pin. He said that group members will also attend a two-week training program at Police Training College.

“He always told you that if you want to excel as a bodybuilder, you have to train hard and you have to find that mirror and go in the front of it and pose. These are the things that will get you to the top.”

Last year, the federation honoured Melbourne for his contributions to the sport during their

National Bodybuilding Championships.

Mr Stubbs said Melbourne was preparing to write a book and he wanted him to make a contribution in it.

In the last conversation the pair had a few weeks ago, Melbourne was encouraging him to read a passage from the book of Psalm, he said.

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PAGE 4, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

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The last Lucayan left standing WHO is a true Bahamian? And what is a true Bahamian?

In this battle for citizenship – now being waged and won in the courts by Bahamian QC Fred Smith – former Appeals Court President Dame Joan Sawyer refused to be drawn into the controversy – but not before reminding us that “we are all foreigners here”.

“Why,” asked Dame Joan, “all this feeding frenzy of Bahamians against foreigners?

“We were all foreigners here,” she said. “The original inhabitants were killed out… they died out”. She was referring to the Lucayans, the population of which was decimated by the Spaniards.

“My ancestors, one side came here as slaves, or in chains,” she said. “The other side came here as exploiters. So what right have we got to say that we are not going to treat people humanely?”

When Columbus discovered our islands, landing at San Salvador on October 12, 1492, he met the originals — the Lucayans, an Arawak-speaking Taino people, who arrived between 500 and 800 AD from other Caribbean islands. These were the true Bahamians. And today there is only one person in The Bahamas that we know of who can trace his roots directly to these originals. The rest of us are “Johnnycome-latelies”. Included among us over the centuries have been wreckers, privateers and pirates – a melting pot of many peoples, leaving the inhabitants of today historically all interlopers in the land of the Lucayans.

Until 1963, Bahamians were colonials in a British colony. At the London conference in May, 1963, The Bahamas received a new constitution granting these islands full self government with Britain retaining control of foreign affairs, defence and internal security. By July 10, 1973, The Bahamas Independence Order was signed making us an independent nation within the British Commonwealth. Sir Lynden Pindling was the first Prime Minister.

Sir Lynden was a master of divide and rule. In his first years as prime minister he seemed to think The Tribune was his main opposition, not the opposition members facing him in the House of Assembly. He felt that he could sideline us – not by debating the issues — but by making his supporters believe that we were foreigners with no right of an opinion in our own country. Very often in House debates he would refer to us as “that crazy French woman on Shirley Street”. What he seemed to forget was that he was more foreign – or non Bahamian than we were. At least we were fourth generation in The Bahamas, compared to him being first generation through a Bahamian mother and Jamaican father. However, even those roots were questioned. The rumour that he was in fact born in Jamaica of another mother and brought to Nassau by his Jamaican father was so persistent that while he was prime minister he called a press conference in an attempt to prove that he was fully Bahamian and indeed born in the Bahamas of a Bahamian mother. At that conference, he produced a copy of an affidavit sworn in 1947 that he was born in The Bahamas in 1930. The affidavit became necessary 17 years after his birth because, with no record of birth, the affidavit had to be sworn by someone who could attest to the birth so that he could get a passport to pursue law studies in England. Some believed him, others did not.

And now we have the case of lawyer Fred Smith, QC, a human rights activist, who, against all odds, is fighting for the rights, mainly of Haitians, who were born here to be heard before a court rather being arbitrarily arrested and deported. Haitian labourers were attracted here because Bahamians refused to do menial labour, dismissing it as “˙Haitian work”. Over the years, this has become a major problem because the Haitians have come in droves — many smuggled in in unseaworthy boats. The result was that immigration officers were arresting them — many of them born here with certain rights — and detaining them until they could be flown back to Haiti. It has become a major humanitarian problem.

And Fred Smith, a Bahamian born in Haiti, fluent in Creole and brilliant in the law, has come to their rescue and given them a voice before the courts.

Many Bahamians, angered by this are demanding that Mr Smith’s passport be revoked and he be shipped back to Haiti, the land of his birth. They claim he is not Bahamian. However, Mr Smith is more Bahamian than most of us. His parents met when his Bahamian father worked a mailboat between Nassau and Haiti, trading with a Middle Eastern family that had also settled in Haiti. Mr Smith eventually married the daughter of the merchant. She was born in Jordan and with her parents moved to Haiti when she was eight years old.

Today, there are Bahamians who claim Mr Smith is Haitian, not Bahamian. However, when Papa Doc Duvalier took over Haiti, he refused to recognise the Smiths as Haitian. Mr Smith’s father was arrested and deported back to Nassau. Fred Smith was eight years old at the time. He remembers the nightmare of the Ton-Ton Macoutes breaking into and destroying their home, seising and imprisoning his mother, who remained missing for three days.

Although Mr Smith’s family had settled in Haiti for business reasons, they never lost touch with their Nassau roots. They returned home frequently, until they finally returned for good.

Each Smith child –– including lawyer Fred Smith — born in Haiti, was registered at birth with the British consulate as British citizens, which we all were at that time. And, like the rest of us, when The Bahamas gained its independence in 1973 they too became full-fledged Bahamians.

But, unlike the rest of us, lawyer Fred Smith can trace his family roots back to a man whose last name was Sims — the family later added another ‘m’ to the name. He was one of the last remaining Lucayans after the Spaniards had left the islands. He was Fred Smith’s great maternal grandfather — with seven greats before grandfather. One hundred and fifty years later, his descendant William Simms had a daughter by the name of Arabella Simms. She was lawyer Smith’s great, great grandmother. In other words, as far as is known, Fred Smith is the only Bahamian who can trace his roots directly to the original Bahamian— a Lucayan.

Should the day ever come that each family now inhabiting these shores would be ordered to leave according to the date of arrival of their original forebear, then Fred Smith would probably be the only one left standing at Prince George Wharf waving us all goodbye. The last Lucayan left standing – the original Bahamian!

Time to cut off BAIC and clean up the mess EDITOR, The Tribune.

BAIC - if operated and owned by a private person they would have gone out of business years ago.

BP&L would have cut them off. NIB would have them in Court. Look what we do?

Government continues to pour subvention money into BAIC for pure political reasoning. It should be closed and absorbed by Bahamas Development Bank which is also on the edge but not as far gone as BAIC.

Factories in Soldier Road park... I would remove their duty free exemption till they start paying the rent owed.

Question: of those factories products do government purchase them? This is one way to improve the cash turnover - why isn’t government purchasing toilet and towel paper from the local producer or do the Ministers and Civil servants need the foreign softer type?

Bahamasair family island fares - think again minister - increase the fares by

$10 across the board - that is nothing. Maybe the long distance flights only by $5.

Hacking - wrong policy and attitude… letters should have gone out from the appropriate authority giving everyone 14 days to comply or else.

Why we pussyfoot around on this life issue? Ask the island MPs they will tell you precisely who is hacking, they use them every day!

W THOMPSON Nassau, March 16, 2018.

Revoke his citizenship?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I SAW quite a few comments by irate Bahamians on a popular political Facebook page calling for the immediate revocation of prominent attorney and QC Fred Smith’s Bahamian citizenship after the Supreme Court “ordered the unconditional release of five persons and two minors from the Carmichael Road Detention Centre,” as per the February 27 edition of The Tribune.

Judging from the names of the former detainees, they all appear to be Haitians.

Earlier in the month of February, the Supreme Court ordered the release of three other Haitian detainees from the Detention Centre. The one common denominator for each of these immigration case is that Smith, who apparently knows the insand-outs of the Bahamian Constitution and the judicial system, was the attorney who represented all of the persons. Bahamians are gravely concerned over what they interpret as a subtle effort to undermine the sovereignty of The Bahamas and its government by bombarding an inefficient judicial system with a plethora of immigration cases that could take years to get a hearing. Smith knows this. Bahamians know this. The country is already home to tens of thousands of illegal and legal Haitian migrants with more making the dangerous journey from their impoverished homeland on rickety vessels to The Bahamas. It is simply humanly impossible for each and every last one of these cases to be given a hearing by a judicial system which already has a huge backlog of cases. If Smith challenges the

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net lawfulness of the detention of each suspected Haitian immigrant arrested by the Immigration Department, he will undoubtedly make the Bahamian government look like an incompetent, bumbling fool in the courts where he is at his best.

Bahamians feel as if Smith is attempting to Haitianise their country. They are angry. They are upset that Haitians and their partisans such as the QC seems more determined to Haitianise The Bahamas than in fixing their own broken country. They are now calling into question the QC’s patriotism for The Bahamas. That is why angry Bahamians are now calling on the government to revoke Smith’s citizenship.

Under the Bahamian Constitution, however, such a move would be impossible, unless there is an amendment to Chapter II, under Article 3, which states: “Every person, having been born outside the former Colony of the Bahamas Islands, is on 9th July 1973 a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies shall, if his father becomes or would but for his death have become a citizen of The Bahamas in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, become a citizen of The Bahamas on 10th July 1973.” While Smith was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his native Bahamian father, Frederick Charles Smith, was born on the island of Andros. The outspoken QC is also of Middle Eastern extraction. His mother, Julia Richards, was born in the Middle Eastern country

of Jordan. Based on my maladroit understanding of the Constitution, Smith’s Bahamian citizenship was automatically conferred to him by his father, who, like the framers of the Constitution, officially became a Bahamian citizen on July 10, 1973. I wholeheartedly agree with Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Fred Mitchell, who has called for both the Free National Movement and the PLP to have a “common face” against those people who would seek to undermine this country and our government. The Bahamas is all we have. Bahamians, generally speaking, are not xenophobic. Many native born Bahamians have engaged in intermarriage with Haitians. Bahamians do not mind Haitians coming here legally. But they want them to assimilate into Bahamian culture. Bahamians want Haitians to come through the front door; not through the back door.

Legal experts from both sides of the political aisle must come together and work out a feasible plan in order to plug whatever gaps there are in our laws in order to prevent this immigration travesty from ever occurring again. As for Smith’s citizenship being revoked, that is only the wishful thinking of patriotic Bahamians who are annoyed with the recent judicial manoeuvrings of the prominent QC. Unless Smith wakes up one morning and decides to renounce his citizenship, he will remain a Bahamian for the remainder of his life.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahama.

March 4, 2018.

These people ain’t making no sense EDITOR, The Tribune.

BOY some people are really annoying and when they are in the hospitalityservice industry they must be exposed.

Location - West Bay infant of Baha Mar… noon/ midday Friday, March 16th, the landscaping people decide to move a large tree… Tree hung up by a crane moving very slowly east. Traffic snarled is not the question and what really

annoyed everyone there was a Royal Bahamas Traffic motorcycle cop and he did not order the landscape people to stop and park in the first lay-by as the traffic was snarled and crawling for about a mile.

Thanks, Landscapers of Baha Mar! Whilst on them - those ATVs you drive are they not supposed to be licensed?

Location - Bay Street Straw Market - I realise education is not one of those

things we are very successful with but please Straw Market Authority take the sign down with the misspelt word… AISLE… Isle if the Authority didn’t know refers to an island.

Road Traffic - you see today many ATVs on the road with no licence plates what happens when they hit me?

ABRAHAM MOSS Nassau, March 16, 2018.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 19, 2018, PAGE 5

Left in limbo from page one

His father continued: “It’s sad, and he’s getting worse. I haven’t seen him about a year. The last time I was there he told me he’s drinking his own pee.

He has never ever been to court, how did they get a committal for him, you have to have a warrant of committal and you can only get that from the court.”

Relatives claim Mr Higgs grew frustrated after having been repeatedly turned away during attempts to present his documents and make good on a letter he received while out of the country that his citizenship application had been approved.

The Tribune was contacted by his sister Candace Mills, 33, following the newspaper’s coverage of long-term detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Center.

“Technically he’s not in Fox Hill prison,” Ms Mills said, “technically he’s just being held by Immigration.

When I asked before at the prison they said they can’t tell me nothing other than he’s being held by Immigration. Why does he have to be held in there?

“In there is awful, even on the outside you can tell it’s awful, even when you go for visits the heat will knock you out.”

She continued: “Even if they had to house him in there for a minute they never came back for him.

They have forgotten about him. When you calling around nobody knows nothing, nobody never knows nothing when it comes to him.”

Mr Higgs was born on December 2, 1975, in Eight Mile Rock, and was a student at SC Bootle High School (formerly Cooper Town High). His mother was a Turks Islander and his father is Bahamian.

Although he did not have a passport, Mr Higgs had a travel document and was living in the United States when he was convicted of rape on April 12, 2004 was jailed and went on to serve 11 years, Mr Higgs returned to Abaco for a few months and then back to Grand Bahama where he worked as a barber.

According to relatives, he received a letter notifying him his citizenship application

ALFAIRS AGREGORY HIGGS, who has been held in prison without medication, charge or court date for more than three years. had been approved but could not take part in the swearingin ceremony because he was incarcerated in the United States.

His father said: “He had all his documents on him when he got locked up, now they can’t seem to find it. He had his old traveling document issued by government. All of his birth certificate, schools records, the letter they wrote to him for citizenship. He had a cheque on him for $500 because someone paid him by cheque knowing full well he couldn’t cash it because he had no ID.

Mr Higgs’ father continued: “So he went there because he needed identification and they kept turning him around so he carried on and so they decide to lock him up.

“They put him in the detention centre, and we told them he needed his medication. And when he was there a few months they say he break up the detention centre, pull some wires out of the wall. So they sent him to the prison.

But he’s on medication, I told them he needs help.”

Ms Mills said she hasn’t been able to visit her

brother regularly because of her job, which doesn’t allow for time-consuming and hectic prison visitation days.

However, she admitted part of the reason she’s stayed away is because it breaks her heart to see her brother in such a helpless state and feeling powerless to help him.

“I couldn’t go there and see him like that. Why not put him on a ward? If he come out now he may have to go straight to Sandilands and then maybe he can come out on this road,” she said.

Ms Mills continued: “He

ain’t no saint, don’t get me wrong. I feel for what he did he serve 11 years in prison but as things are it’s not right.

“If he has committed a crime they should take him before court but that has never happened.”

The Tribune attempted to contact the Director of Immigration Clarence Russell but he did not return our calls.

He got stabbed here in jail and I only know because my kid’s dad is in jail and he let people know if anything happen to Greg (Mr Higgs) to let him know.

“But when he comes out I don’t have no eyes or ears on him, I don’t know if he (Mr Higgs) can use the phone or doesn’t know how but he doesn’t call us. I’m sorry he (boyfriend) had to go to jail to know how my brother doing, for the last 18 months I’ve been knowing how Greg been doing because of him.”

Mr Higgs’ father said he met with the British Consul to see if they could render assistance given his mother was from Turks and Caicos, but was informed that they would not get involved.

MITCHELL: FLYING COURT A MISTAKE from page one

“If you follow the logic of this present practice, by taking bad legal advice from a politically FNM connected lawyer - someone who has no love for this country - a tourist landing here at the airport with no visa will need to be found guilty of illegal landing before he can be put back on a plane and sent back home. This is done every day at LPIA by immigration. Clearly then to have to find migrants guilty is neither correct in law nor

sustainable.”

Last week, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said the government facilitated fair hearings and deportation in Inagua for the 230 illegal migrants who were captured in area.

He said it will become standard practice to send a delegation to islands where migrants are captured where such hearings can take place, rather than bring them to New Providence.

The government’s actions last week come as it has faced intense pressure from immigration

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell

advocates over long-standing practices.

Mr Mitchell said: “We continue to say that the government must prosecute the decision on this matter up to the Privy Council level or amend the law forthwith to stop this.”

Mr Mitchell said there was no need for a magistrate to be sent to Inagua last week, saying island administrations have the “full powers of a magistrate and could have easily dealt with the cases there in Matthew Town.”

He said: “The government should be aware that this may seem fine so long as they plead guilty. What if they decide to not plead guilty? Are you going to give them bail? Where are you going to hold them if in their hundreds and thousands they say not guilty?

In this case, the magistrate gave them a conditional discharge. What if a mother magistrate gives them a term of imprisonment?

Then what?”

The Immigration Act empowers the Director of Immigration to order the deportation of anyone convicted and sentenced to prison for illegally landing in the Bahamas before their sentence experiences.

Mr Mitchell, however, said taking this route after a magistrate hands down a prison sentence may raise concerns about judicial interference.

Mr Mitchell also called for an explanation from Dr Minnis on his role in authorising the magistrate to fly to Inagua.

“This is particularly important, not just because of the general questions about interference in the judiciary but given the interruptions in the House

of Assembly by the FNM on the false accusations made against a minister of government about interference in the judiciary during the time the PLP was in power, certainly the prime minister as a matter of law has no legal role in directing magistrates,” said Mr Mitchell.

“This is a role for the Chief Justice or for the Chief Magistrate.

The Attorney General as the minister for the administration of justice would normally bet eh one who negotiates to talks to the head of the judiciary about administrative matters dealing with the court.”

PAGE 6, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Foulkes sees urgency to solve shanty town crisis from page one several of the major shanty towns on the island, where officials estimate some 10,000 migrants illegally reside.

Mr Foulkes, the committee’s chairman, was visibly shocked by much of what he saw during his treks through the Farm Lands, Sand Banks, the Mud and Pigeon Peas shanty towns, telling The Tribune the government is treating the matter with a sense of “urgency”.

At the Marsh Harbour government complex following Sunday’s tour, Mr Foulkes insisted all of the areas seen were a “major catastrophe waiting to happen”.

“People could actually die,” he said.

“In some of these communities there aren’t one single home built to code, so the question is how we can go about addressing this matter in a way that is humane and considerate to the persons living in here?” he added.

Referring to makeshift power generating systems scattered around the muddled communities, Mr Foulkes said: “Just on this visit today, I saw three major generators that had 20 to 50 different lines connected to that generator.”

Law enforcement officers who aided Mr Foulkes on his tour claimed similar systems could be blamed for as many as four major fires in the past.

To that end, Mr Foulkes said: “We can’t have these communities operating like this. We saw wires running along the ground. I am talking about exposed wires that can be affected by rain and floods. If that isn’t bad enough, we have exposed extension cords being wired irresponsibly to huge generators which are running in close proximity to big drums of fuel.”

During a stop in the Mud, a man believed to be the operator of a similar setup that exploded into flames and destroyed several homes in the past were questioned by police.

Over the course of that exchange, the operator denied he was still in the business of producing power, but admitted the business was too lucrative for people to stay away.

“It’s a money maker. You supply the fuel and generator, you can have everybody running to hook up in no time,” he told one of the

LABOUR Minister Dion Foulkes during a tour of shanty towns in Abaco yesterday and, right, some of the electric cables in one of the locations. government officials touring with Mr Foulkes.

“Small business could grow big very fast. I charged $25 per week. Other people will ask for more and get it because people want and need light,” he said.

His claim became even more evident the further the group pushed into the Mud and then on to the Pigeon Peas – The Tribune counted three small single stove eateries, three clothing stores, four small liquor stores, four mobile phone top-up stalls, four barbers and six convenience stores.

All either running on small generators just outside the establishment or illegal connections feed through windows or walls.

This challenge, according to Marsh Harbour Township Chairman Roscoe Thompson, has created an entire subculture that stifles a large portion of Abaco’s economy.

“You have all of these people through whatever means, legal or illegal, earning money that they never put back into the economy. Thousands of people either shipping money out

of the country or basically burying it in their isolated community. But, they use the schools; the clinics; when the fires happen, we have to find our way in to assist,” he said.

“This isn’t a system that can work long-term,” he added.

When asked by The Tribune for a timeline of the government’s efforts in Abaco yesterday, Mr Foulkes said the Minnis administration doesn’t intend to “storm in.”

Rather, according to Mr Foulkes, the government intends to move with a level of “calm and decency”.

He said: “In the majority of these towns, the majority of persons living in them are children. Out concern in how do we get in there at a time when school is done and with enough warning to these persons. Our goal isn’t to storm in there and level everything. As I said before, we are a Christian nation and our action will, no matter what, reflect that.”

Mr Foulkes added: “Away from the kids, some of these persons have spousal and work permits

and they are permitted to be here. We want to give them time to find homes and locations away from these communities.”

He continued: “Then you have the issue of illegals. That is an immigration matter, and we are working closely with persons out of immigration to ensure that they are on hand to manage and assess persons that fall out of the category of legal.”

“I am working very closely with the defence force, police and immigration; so this is a very

coordinated effort already.

“I have about 12 ministries and departments represented on this committee, we are going to do it humanely and respectfully.”

Earlier this month, Works Minister Desmond Bannister said the government was working to fully “eradicate” shanty towns, focusing on clean up and removal as opposed to regulating these areas.

However, Mr Foulkes clarified those claims to highlight the government’s intention to be more understanding.

He said: “I think that is what Minister Bannister meant when he said we are going to eradicate them, he was referring to are those structures that aren’t up to code. He used a different term than I am using, he used removal and eradicate; I’m saying removal and end unregulated structures.”

The Abaco Shantytown Action Task Force, chaired by administrator Maxine Duncombe, was established to directly manage all efforts on the island.

LABOUR Minister Dion Foulkes during his tour of shanty towns in Abaco.

breach of union BPSU trio want answers on funds greements’ and for executives to be removed THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 19, 2018, PAGE 7

ORGAN ADDERLEY

By RASHAD ROLLE Staff Reporter neTribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net rley@tribunemedia.net THREE executives of

E the government’s uni-SerBahamas Public decision to terminate vices Union are seeking ,500 people from thetheir to have seven of peers is aremoved ervice “concern”from office including President presents a breach of Kimsley Ferguson - over agreements, Bahaallegations of misappropriublic Services Union ating funds. entSupporters Kimsley Ferguof the they will create dmove say yesterday. a breakaway if Mr Ferguson alsounion called Ferguson fails to call a speney General Carl cial general meeting so a ’svote recent suggestion to remove them could hese job acuts have be held, threat former Bahamas Public Services the government $75 KIMSLEY FERGUSON, presi“Our is Public (BPSU) president dent position of the Bahamas n,Union “hypocritical”.

The John Pinder said yesterdaywe Services Union. are finding leader questioned is an “extremely legitimate hese workers could out as about they campaigned them against possibility”. aveThe been redeployed the legacy of long-time move to oust thewhen these people erstaffed of the president areas and the others, leader Mr Pinder, who did notterminated. run. an unprecedented act ifare ervice, instead of the The fracture that has it succeeds, ployment line. comes afterWhen actuality, since in emerged, however,

Mr Ferguson and Secrepits trustees Terrance tary General Cindira Bainthere should be Dorbegan receiving monthly sette, Theophilus Dean and withGenAssistant Secretary emoluments last year ofconsultation eral Ms Coleby against Mr $6,683.32 and 5,403.32the union when Ferguson, Ms Bain, execurespectively, allegedly withy time people lose persons our president O’Neil first obtaining board tive vice from t’sout a concern forwhen the the Thurston, vice president approval in an era bargaining unit are ”union’s Mr Ferguson told is of the northern region financial position Tasha disciplined Bullard-Hamilton, Tribune. “(However), either dire. their emolu- vice president Ernest Bured Though to get an underor let go, not ngments first package before is wesaid canto be rows, treasurer Philip Greenslade and trustee to what their pre-terminated.” a identical definitive statement decessors received, critics Peter Outten. egards to how many The rebellious execuinsist they did not follow se people are really tivesBahamas did not always seek due process to get it.

Public Assistantwho Secretary servants (are)Gen- to have a declaration of ServicesinUnion no confidence their eral Lelotha Coleby also a part of our barcolleagues, Mr Dorsette said that after two months President Kimsley g unit, as opposed to in office last year, Mr Fer- said Friday. Instead, he sguson who received are contracted Ferguson to adjust a Christmas said they sought s bonus or persons whowhile Ms are the emoluments package of $1,200 askedand by The Mr Ferguson Ms Bain based on a contract.

Bain received a bonus of When receive.if he thinks the Meanwhile, n $1,000. any event, we are theTribune A special union is unable number general of job oncerned aboutto give per- itsreported was Mr held at membership of about 4,000cutsmeeting is accurate, Ferguho lose their loans jobs.of up to BPSU’s Wulff Road headpeople small son replied: “I really can’t r$500. position is we quarters on February 20th that accurately, finding out about to address this through a The ten-member execu-answer because I’m sure. And majority not decision of tive team ran united as the when these people really were trying to find members in Worker’s Team erminated.

When during in we union last year’s union election, attendance.

Mr Dora way as to how we could ty, there should be vowing to operate thecompile sette said 300 so the amount or of pertation with the union organisation with integritysons members attended the that were terminated.

Concern

persons from our ning unit are either ined or let go, not ated.”

Ferguson continued: so, the statement that ike to make is that mployer (the governis having a disregard e agreement that’s in when they terminate s.” ording to figures ed by the Departof Statistics on Friday, ployment has slightly sed from 9.9 percent 1 percent. The latest ers also show employin the public sector sed by 2,555 people the survey period. a press statement ed by Progressive l Party (PLP) Leader “Brave” Davis on y, Mr Davis called ob cuts “shameful” aid he believes the of jobs lost in the service will double he complete picture is ed.

“And again I’m going to go back to what I said earlier — the union for whatever reason is not being informed when these exercises are taking place.

There is no consultation whatsoever.”

Mr Ferguson added: “We are supposed to see the Minister of the Public Service (Brensil Rolle) … either this week or next week. We would’ve made application to meet with him. He hasn’t given us a definitive date yet, but we want to address these (concerns) so that we would be able to respond to matters.

“I’m hopeful we’re going to have some sort of resolve in that regard.”

When asked if the majority of people have been terminated from a specific area or across the board, Mr Ferguson said: “I know for a fact the Gaming Board so far. I’ve been given some speculation that something is supposed to happen at (Ministry of) Agriculture.

“There some persons meeting butarethe event longer affiliated with union abruptly endedhave before the dealt leadership, said yesterday that would been issues Mr Ferguson would be conwith were fromaddressed.

In-land Revenue.

On Friday, Mr Fergu- travening the constitution if I can’t really comment on son told reporters this he blocks a special general anybecause other some particular was people area meeting. because disruptive.

I don’t know of“They will have to take became too any at thisoftime.

“Because theirAnd ownagain, legal acton because he disruptive behaviours they this would be in violation of that is why we have were unable to get their the union constitution,” concern.” concerns addressed,” he he said. “(His critics) However, Mr Ferguson is said in the boardroom could then refer the matter adamantheadquarters. the governmenttois the Department of of BPSU’s going aboutwere these “Questions putterminaon Labour or go directly to the tions way. the floorthe by wrong these particular courts. He does not have individuals, then who the power to do that. The He said:those “They’re were accompanying constitution does not limit breaching the them industrial became very disruptive and the number of times memagreement . . . if a person were causing persons not to bers could call a special going to be disciplined, bewas able to respond to the general meeting. If memit should be done in the questions asked.” bers have 12 issues in a presence a shop steward Both sidesofsuggest they year, then you have to hold had enough support in the a special meeting twelve representative. room to force the outcome times in a year.” Before he they wanted. became president, Mr FerThe executives, how- guson was executive vice ever, have since escalated president under Mr Pinder the dispute, demanding a for a number of years. vote takes in accord“Whatplace we have also dis-Mr Pinder expressed ance with as Article 24 that of the alarm over allegations that covered well is the union’s constitution two of the union’s trustees employer and theirto repdischarge the other execu- have been denied access resentatives are That actually tives from office. to financial records, access bringing in shop stewards, provision mandates that the Industrial Relations reallygeneral are notmeetas versed a who special Act mandates that they ing within as be theycalled should be, 14 just have. to days after the generalsome-He said although he has say that they have secretary receives an applibeen working in the backone present while they are cation signed by at least 30 ground to discourage the either disciplining ora getmembers moving such formation of a breakaway ting ready to terminateunion, the a resolution. threat of deparperson, just so that they Mr Ferguson, however, ture is extremely legitimate. said the say union not bethat a“The Public Hospitals could onwill record having another special was Authority (PHA) has union representative general meeting because it two thirds of the mempresent. would be too costly to do bership of BPSU,” he “There are certain so. He said their concernsthings said. “BPSU would be in thatbetranspire as it to will addressed at relates the trouble if they breakapeople’s employment annual general meeting in that way and they must take September. the threat extremely seriyou have to call an execu“We the have president just hit the ously. PHA, the Bahamas tive, or the ground running,” he said. and Indussecretary general, and Agricultural let “We are working and we trial Corporation (BAIC), them know The whatunion you are are excited. the Bahamas Mortgage about to do.” is moving forward and Corporation (BMC), Mr progress.”

Ferguson also rebutmaking the Airport Authority, If noMrspecial general and Bahamas Informated Bethel’s recent meeting is called, thosejob who tion Services (BIS) are all comments on the losses. oppose the present leaderthreatening to pull out.

Mr Ferguson said: “My ship say they will start their The president cannot concern own union. is, if we’re terafford that. They are in a minating Mr Pinder,people though to no save real dilemma.”

Discovered

money, that’s not something that the union is supporting because if that is the case and we’re faced with unemployment then it’s basically a hypocritical statement.

“And we’re not in support of just terminating persons to save money.

We’re hearing comments like other government departments are in need of persons, they’re understaffed.

“Well if the public service is understaffed in some areas, then why not just redeploy individuals who they would have considered or who they would have terminated to these various areas and train them? Give them the first option.

“And for these persons who are saying that they’re overstaffed, and they’re making positions redundant, there is a policy in place to deal with redundancy. And if you’re overstaffed then redeploy them someplace else in the public service.”

EAN NEWS

A INAUGURATES US-SPONSORED STATUE HONOURING HERO

VANA (AP) — President sculpture installed on the south Castro and his expected end of New York’s Central Park in sor attended the formal 1965. ng of a U.S.-sponsored Sunday was the 165th anniversary of independence hero Jose of the birth of Marti, a renowned on Sunday in a sign of Cuba’s poet, journalist and fighter for on maintaining ties with the Cuban independence who was d States despite a chill in fatally wounded in an 1895 battle ns under President Donald for independence from the Spanish. .

Marti, who spent years in exile ro and Vice President in New York City, is almost unil Diaz-Canel sat in the front versally revered by Cubans on the the sunrise ceremony along A REPLICA of island and overseas despite their Democratic members of Con- a New York political differences, making him a Barbara Lee and Karen Bass statue of Cuba’s potent symbol of attempts at recifornia and Kansas Repub- independence onciliation between the U.S. and ger Marshall, who were the hero Jose Marti Cuba. t-ranking Americans at the in Havana, Cuba.

“I’m extraordinarily overjoyed ony. Castro makes relatively (AP) that we in Havana can on this day ublic appearances, endowenjoy such a beautiful work of e ceremony with a stamp of poetic inspiration, “Havana City ular importance in a country where Historian Eusebio Leal said in an address ovements of high officials are closely to the crowd that was also broadcast on ised for clues to government plans state-run media. tentions.

Bronx Museum Chairman of the Board bronze statue of Marti on a rear- Joseph Mizzi also addressed the audience orse was funded with $2.5 million and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio sent a in the United States in a project letter read aloud by an assistant. d by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, The statue has been placed in a promi-

Because of the BPSU’s financial problems, members are unable to obtain small loans.

“Persons would have been in the union for some 30 years and are now seeking assistance based on what is entitled to them but can’t get it because the president and the secretary general want to maintain a hefty salary for themselves to enjoy,” Mr Dorsette said.

Outside BPSU on Friday, several angry union members vented their frustration.

Brendanee Seymour, a worker at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) who supported Mr Ferguson and the other executives during last year’s election, said she pays too much money to be unable to secure small loans.

“I was in the union from 2005 and during the time I was in it I put in to get $500 but couldn’t get it so I dropped out of the union,” she said. “I rejoined after this team got back in but it’s the same thing. Every time you call the president, you can’t get him or Mr Thurston. You put in for $500, you can’t get it because ain’t no money in the treasury. But I paying $25 every month. I struggling hard for my $25. I have no more confidence in them. I finish and I done.”

Deidre Johnson, who also works at PMH, said the union leaders “joined just for money”.

“Why isn’t a ceiling set for how much they could make?” she said. “If you are a union president, it should be your starting salary is maybe $4,000. You can’t just go in the union and say you starting off with almost seven thousand with all kind of perks. I don’t think that’s fair.”

During BPSU’s annual

general meeting last year, a decision was made to allow loans of no more than $500 to members in emergency cases only.

Before then, some members – allegedly some former executives of the union included – were able to obtain tens of thousands in loans, executives said on Friday.

“When the union is in a position to give (emergency loans) we will do it,” Mr Ferguson said. “We encourage our membership to become fiscally prudent with their finances. When a member could be accommodated, they will be.”

On Friday, Mr Dorsette claimed the BPSU has lost its registration and bargaining power after failing to ensure annual audits have been conducted in accordance with section 31 of the Industrial Relations Act. A loss of bargaining power has prevented the union from agitating for hazardous pay on behalf of workers who need it, particularly those at PMH, he claimed.

However, Robert Farquharson, Director of Labour and Registrar of Trade Unions, denied on Friday that the BPSU has been decertified.

“Trade unions are obligated to provide the registrar with certain audited statements,” he said. “The BPSU is either compliant or in the process of being complaint.

They have been in constant communication with the Department of Labour.”

As for the internal strife within the union, Mr Farquharson said those will have to be resolved “through the union’s internal mechanisms.”

“We are prohibited from getting involved in internal matters,” he said.

PAGE 8, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Gaming Board workers seek $2m for dismissal

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THIRTY former Gaming Board employees are seeking $2m in damages for their dismissal from the government agency last year, their attorney said on Friday.

Wayne Munroe, QC, told The Tribune his clients will seek $2.7m in exemplary damages, an amount he claimed matched the sum the agency claimed it saved by dismissiing his clients.

Mr Munroe also said his clients, the plaintiffs in the action, will be seeking 18 months pay for each former line staff and 24 months pay for each former manager the Supreme Court decides not to order reinstatement at the Gaming Board.

And if the court does decide to order reinstatement, Mr Munroe said his clients will still be seeking damages.

However, he said the aforementioned issues will be determined at trial on August 28 and 29, which the adjudicator, Supreme Court Justice Indra Charles, has dedicated some of her vacation time to preside over.

Mr Munroe’s comments came following a hearing before Justice Charles concerning the former employees’ bid to compel

the Gaming Board to reinstate them to the positions they formerly held at the government agency.

The Tribune was unable to physically attend Friday’s hearing as the court room was completely filled due to the attendance of the various plaintiffs.

However, Mr Munroe told The Tribune following the hearing the respondents in the matter contend the disengagement of the 30 former employees was termination without notice.

However, he said the respondents admitted they did not follow the procedures as mandated in the recently amended Employment Act when they disengaged the workers.

Notwithstanding that, Mr Munroe said his clients are contending their disengagement was a redundancy exercise, based on the definition of “redundancy” outlined in the amended Employment Act. “The issue will be this: you can terminate someone for cause in which case you don’t have to pay them anything, so if you thieve or something like that, they’ll terminate you for cause,” he said. “Or you can terminate them without cause, in which case you have to pay them. So when you make someone redundant, you are terminating them without cause.

“If you were to look at

the Employment Act of 2017 in the new section 26, it defines what redundancy is. So here we said where the chairman of the Gaming Board has said because they’re moving to more technology, basically saying these workers don’t fit their needs anymore, we say that amounts to redundancy.

“Then there are certain procedures you have to take if you’re making someone redundant, or planning to.”

Thus, Mr Munroe said the upcoming trial will largely be over whether or not the Gaming Board broke the law in disengaging the services of his clients, and whether it was a redundancy exercise.

According to a writ filed

by Mr Munroe’s chambers on December 22, 2017, the Gaming Board, its “servants and/or agents” dismissed the 30 plaintiffs from the agency, via termination letters dated November 1, 2017 to December 13, 2017, purportedly on the grounds of redundancy.

However, the plaintiffs contend that in doing so, the Gaming Board “failed and/or refused to comply with the procedures required by Section 26A of the Employment Act, 2001, as well as Articles 25, 36 and 40 of the collective bargaining agreement between the Gaming Board and the Bahamas Public Services Union, dated January 1,

2013, to December 31, 2015.

As a result, the plaintiffs are seeking damages for wrongful dismissal, exemplary damages, interest, costs and other relief the court deems just.

The plaintiffs in the action are Kayla Ward, Jean Minus, Marva Heastie, Hope Miller, Dwaynel Archer, Barbara Adderley, Antonique Brown, Donald Nougez, Jennifer Russell, Genese Musgrove, Meresha Walkes, Patricia Johnson, Lakera Cash, Jacqueline Duncombe, Lataj Henfield, Nickie McPhee, Warren Neymour, Teneille Mackey, Carolee Munnings, Inga Brown, Chantique Brown, Tanzinia Carey, Lisa Pratt, Kirmica Stuart, Sherry Roberts, Julia Thompson, John McDonald, Doddridge Missick, Mitchell Ferguson and Herbert Duncombe.

Last year, Gaming Board Chairman Kenyatta Gibson said the terminations, which followed the earlier release of 17 persons whose temporary contracts had expired, came following the completion of a manpower assessment of the overstaffed agency.

At the time, Mr Gibson said over the past four years, staffing levels at the Gaming Board had increased by 40 percent. He also said the regulator was focused on hiring persons with the skill sets to property supervise the sector.

a vibrant, active union that is trying to get things done,” he said.

“We have a culture where we are taught as physicians to endure and endure for the sake of the patient, for the sake of the job to ensure that the populous remains healthy. But we now see a shift in the age set of doctors. A lot more younger physicians are in the system and they don’t have much patience as someone in their late 30s and 40s. They want their careers to move forward and so we are seeing and will continue to see more pushing to get changes.”

Among the doctors’

concerns is their lack of holiday pay, which they are entitled to under the Employment Act. They are concerned about the government’s failure to adhere to a recent Industrial Agreement by increasing the salaries of doctors employed by the Department of Public Health.

They also complain the Public Hospital Authority (PHA) deducts money from salaries of those who claim maternity and sickness benefits from National Insurance Board (NIB) that are “equal to the maternity benefits” female doctors receive from NIB, despite

court rulings that suggest this should not happen.

They are also concerned that when working overnight they have found themselves sleeping amid crumbling infrastructure, including in rooms where “sewage infested waters” have exploded from ceilings.

“Doctors stationed on the Family Islands have to be available twenty-four hours of the day seven days of the week to handle emergencies,” Dr Miller added.

“Some of these physicians do not get a day off, a weekend or even a holiday in order to serve the needs of the populace as they are

WAYNE MUNROE, QC.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

DOCTORS AT ‘BREAKING POINT’, UNION CHIEF WARNS

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER years of enduring substandard working conditions and inadequate terms of service, junior doctors in the public sector have reached a breaking point, Dr Mucomba Miller, Acting President of the Bahamas Doctors Union, has warned.

He vowed the union will increase its efforts to have its concerns addressed, starting by publicising them.

“The breaking point is now. We haven’t seen this kind of action from doctors in about 20 years. We have

the one physician on the island.”

Dr Miller said trying to get the union’s issues addressed is a monthly struggle.

“Every month since we signed that agreement we have been addressing this with them,” he said, adding communication with some officials has been subpar.

He said after months of seeking a meeting with PHA’s managing director, one was finally arranged only after he spoke to the press about their concerns on Friday.

Industrial agreements between the BDU and the Ministry of Health and the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) were signed in 2017 after many months of negotiations. Among other things, it allowed for salary increases, increase in disturbance, rental, relocation and education allowances and for lump-sum payments to be be made.

However, since then, doctors in public clinics have yet to receive their salary increase. “There’s a difference in the salary of people in public clinics and in PHA,” Dr Miller said. “We are all doing the same job but there is this disparity of about $600. We actually sat down with officials to address this and tried to be agreeable with them because we understand it’s a large amount of money.

Their lawyers tried to put up a smokescreen but we tried to be agreeable; to date there has still been no progress.”

Doctors have received holiday pay only once since the industrial agreements were singed, Dr Miller said, adding: “We have written over and over and over again about it.”

Doctors are also concerned about having to attend to patients on private wards without pay, particularly when consultants paid to care for those patients rarely show up to do so. “(Dr Duane Sands) said junior staff is supposed to see public and private patients,” Dr Miller noted, adding: “That’s understandable. However, it gets abused to the point where you can get admitted to the private ward and never see the consultant you are paying to take care of you.

You would be seeing junior staff everyday; they would be the ones examining you

while the consultant would call the junior staff to do a procedure on their private patient. If that junior staff encounters complications with the private patient, that patient can sue the government. We as taxpayers would end up paying for that whereas if the consultant performs the procedure and gets sued the money gets taken out of their insurance. It’s in these ways the abuses occur. Why are you calling your intern from the ward who is swamped with work to perform some routine lab work for a patient when you can order that in the day?”

Dr Miller also highlighted the concerns of doctors who sought private practice licenses in 2013 but were denied them months later after the new Medical Act 2014 came into force. The new Act prescribed different quality standards, but Dr Miller said it makes “no sense for the Caribbean”.

He said: “A number of doctors were just working in the system but never bothered for a private license even though they were qualified to get them. When they heard the law would change they applied in 2013 to receive the private license but the medical council held all their applications until May 2014. These people applied in December 2016 but their applications were held for six months and then they were summarily rejected.”

It is not clear when the union will pursue legal action to address some of its concerns. “I’m just a representative,” Dr Miller said.

“If the body says they want to pursue the government for a judgement for these past years then that’s the course I’ll have to follow.”

As for Health Minister Dr Duane Sands and his performance in that role, Dr Miller said a “wait and see approach” has been adopted.

“We know Dr Sands the surgeon,” he said. “I’ve worked with him in the surgical department. My interactions were positive but politics is a different game. We don’t know Dr Sands the politician. We’ve had physicians who have become politicians before and some were good and some were not good. We’re taking a wait and see approach with him at this point.”

MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

Why the cherry switch is a lot scarier than the tamarind switch I

By FREDERICK SMITH QC

N the recent heated and vituperative public reactions to my Human Rights advocacy against the continued victimisation and abuse visited by the Government of The Bahamas upon our Haitian ethnic minority - and the vocal threats on my safety and life - I was moved to react to a particularly savage attack upon me in a voice note circulating widely on social media by a Mr Bannister, a selfproclaimed “True Born and Bred Bahamian”.

He pointedly reminded me of the visceral, raw and unadulterated hatred of Haitians by Bahamians and the discrimination which I was subjected to in my early teens in The Bahamas.

He called on the public to thrash me with a Tamarind Tree Switch, a particularly painful form of local corporal punishment. It caused me to pause and reminded me of why I care about Human Rights and why my passion for it remains unrequited.

I wrote a short essay, which turned out to be a little biography of my life. I entitled it: Why the cherry switch is a lot scarier than the tamarind switch And so, since I am perpetually accused in the court of public opinion of not being a True Bahamian, being a traitor to The Bahamas and only interested in Human Rights for money and publicity, I thought to share a little of my personal history.

Bahamian born in Haiti I was born in 1956 in Petionville Haiti and registered as a British subject at the consulate in Port au Prince.

I was raised in an ethnically and culturally diverse community, but nonetheless as a foreigner; a “Ti Blanc” or “Arabe” in Haiti in the 1950s and early 60s. Along with our my family, I witnessed and personally experienced the abuse of Papa Doc Duvalier’s Ton Ton Macoutes. It inculcated in me an appreciation and respect for Human Rights at a very tender and impressionable young age.

It was scary growing up in Haiti.

It’s scary being an adult in The Bahamas now.

A teen in Nassau When my British father was deported from Haiti by Papa Doc, and we moved to Nassau in The Bahamas from where he had emigrated to Haiti decades before, I was mercilessly teased and beaten (usually with “rock an’ bottle”, then favoured instruments of war by Bahamian kids), ridiculed for three years at St Thomas Moore, Xaviers and St. Augustine’s by Bahamians for being a “Haitian”, even though I was not.

I was British, being the

ABOVE, the young Fred Smith is circled with a hairstyle to stand out from the crowd at school. Right, Arabella Simms, Fred Smith’s great-great-grandmother. Below, the young Fred Smith and his family in Haiti in 1956. From left, his sister Gladys, his father, his sister Norma holding Fred as a baby, his mother Julia and then his sister Joyce. Far right, baby Fred at the age of five months.

offspring of a father born in the then Colony of the Bahama Islands and a mother born in TransJordan, a previous British Protectorate. On July 10, 1973, like Bannister, we became Bahamian Citizens.

Alas, I did not know there was anything wrong with having come from Haiti! I was proud to speak Creole, French and English fluently.

So I didn’t back down!

It was scary, but it made me stronger!

Giggleswick Boarding School Anyway, because of the abuse, my family eventually shipped me off (literally in the SS Bremerhaven), sight unseen (there was no internet in those days), to boarding school in England, a supposedly civilised country.

But little did my parents know they were throwing me from the frying pan into the fire.

FRED Smith’s grandfather, Isaac Ghishan, third child from left standing at the bottom when he was five. He and his four brothers and two sisters and their family migrated from Transjordan after the second world war to Haiti. His father, Fred’s great grandfather, is sitting first left and his great great grandfather is the patriarch in the middle. They were Bedouins from Jordan, of the Hashemite clan and they settled in Madaba, near Amman in Jordan. Fred’s mother’s Bedouin clan are the only Catholic Bedouins who fought for the Holy Roman Empire.

I was sent in the late 1960s to an all white, all boys, all English aristocratic boarding school dating from the 15th-century, in the moors of northern England.

A great educational opportunity, but a racist place to the core!

There I was a WOG (a Western Oriental Gentlemen!), a Blackie, a Coon, a Nigger, a Brillo Pad Head etc!

What I had been subjected to in Nassau was a joke in comparison. Every verbal and physical abuse under the sun was visited upon me by the English school boys.

It was scary, but it toughened me up and made me stronger.

Lincolns Inn I joined Amnesty International and Greenpeace at age 13 and have been fighting for human and environmental rights since.

I suppose it was only natural that I gravitated to law, to find some principled and steadfast protection as an adult from abuse.

I studied law in England, a country that, ironically despite its pervasive historic racism beneath its veneer of good manners, has a tradition of respect for The Rule of Law. I came to learn in and believe in The Rule of Law and its protection of individual rights from government and social abuse!

So growing up in Haiti and experiencing the totalitarian dictatorship of Papa Doc visited on ordinary people; then being abused as a “Haitian” (a pejorative cuss word and term in The Bahamas pronounced “Haeeeshian”) in Nassau, and then being racially savaged in Jolly Old England, taught me in a very raw way to appreciate Human

Rights and to fight for my own and those of others.

Back To The Bahamas Although in 1976 I received a scholarship to attend Baliol College, Oxford, after a week, I determined to “Get out of Dodge” sooner rather than later. I read law at 17 at Lincolns Inn, London and was called to the Bar of England and Wales at 20, and was in 1977 also called to The Bahamas Bar. I have been fighting for Human Rights in the courts since I became a lawyer 41 years ago when I returned to The Bahamas.

So Human Rights is not a study, pass time, game or job for me. It has been real all of my life. I have always tried to treat people with the respect and dignity with which I would want to be treated by them.

I care deeply.

I am a Human, and I fight for Human Rights!

The continuing first volley of abuse by Bahamians towards me is always that I should carry my “Haitian Ass Back to Haiti”! I am a Bahamian and have nowhere else to go.

I want MY Bahamas to be a humane place, where the Rule of Law and Human Rights are respected.

I will continue to fight until my dying breath to prevent The Bahamas from continuing to degenerate into a country where Human Rights are respected more in the breach than in the observance!

My reverence, love and respect for the Rule of Law is so very real.

I care.

Hence doggedness for due process. It is why I promote and protect the Rule of Law, the independence of the judiciary and the

effectiveness of the court system in protecting rights.

I do so because society and politicians do not protect peoples’ “Individual Rights”!

They protect the rights of the “Majority” not “Individual” Rights.

Thankfully we have Chapter 3 of the Constitution which protects the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Individual.

Eventually, it is only the thin membrane of the Rule of Law, an Independent Judiciary and strong and effective Civil Society that protect individual Human Rights from political and social abuse by politicians, barbarians and the mob!

Hate The Haitian Regrettably, Bannister’s truculent invective typifies the visceral hatred and discrimination that forms part of the general Bahamian ethos!

And our political leaders, both FNM and PLP, remain either mute or some, like Senator Fred Mitchell, for their own political gain, promote hate, discrimination, victimisation and abuse.

It’s amazing how so many people, including our PLP and FNM political leaders have reacted irrationally simply because people are being taught about their rights and some (Haitian, Bahamians of Haitian descent, Jamaicans, Cubans, Canadians and Africans) are being released by the courts because they were illegally imprisoned, without charge, bail, being taken before a court, sentence or conviction, and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment at the Carmichael Camp for up to eight (that we know of so far) years.

“Talk” about rights is very cheap in The Bahamas.

But when people like me along with Rights Bahamas actually assert their rights, teach them, express them, call upon the government to respect them, and the courts actually effectively uphold them (as in Jean Rony‘s case) venom and hatred spew from the minds and mouths of Bahamians.

Mayhem erupts from the xenophobic lynch mob.

Politicians jump on the opportunistic “patriotic” bandwagon.

And tragically, our political leaders continue to encourage ethnic cleansing in The Bahamas of persons of Haitian descent!

It is scary for me to be in MY Bahamas now; but it simply makes me stronger.

Yet, despite the threats, I am emboldened, more than ever, to continue to fight for my Human Rights and those of every other “person”.

Haitians are human beings Haitians are human neings and human beings have rights. Despite Bahamian Bannister’s vile vitriol and venom!

It follows, as day follows night, that Haitians have rights too!

It is so sad to see these true Bahamian colours!

So, my message to Bannister and those of his disparaging ilk is the following.

I didn’t back down 53 years ago when Bahamians were attacking me with rock an’ bottle.

I will not back down now because you threaten me with a Tamarind Tree Switch.

My Bahamian daddy towered 6’ 2” over me as a child, and when I was bad, he used a Cherry Tree Switch on me!

Now that was scary!

PAGE 10 MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

Navigating the steep learning curve of leadership

By MALCOLM STRACHAN AS we rapidly approach a year of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis being the nation’s leader, the landmark only a little more than a month away, we have seen a plethora of moments that made us want to cover our eyes in fear of what he would say next. However, this past week, while he should have still been feeling the bumps and bruises of the beating he took in the media for his egregious missteps on the Oban Energies deal, he is receiving something that has been largely unfamiliar thus far as prime minister – praise.

With so many attempts at pleasing the Bahamian people falling flat, he finally did something that some of his biggest opponents could not make a sensible argument against. His task now will be to figure out how this can be replicated going forward.

Most of Prime Minister Minnis’ actions since - and even before becoming prime minister - have been dissected by the sharp

scalpel of the Bahamian media, commercial and social. No doubt, on most occasions he seems uncomfortable when a microphone is shoved in his face, as he still, for the most part, struggles to string together cogent sentences when trying to communicate his

‘With so many attempts at pleasing the Bahamian people falling flat, he finally did something that some of his biggest opponents could not make a sensible argument against.’

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viewpoints to the Bahamian public.

Unfortunately, this will continue to be, perhaps the steepest hill for him to climb as the job demands that he stands in the gap between where we are and where he intends to lead us over the next few years of this government’s term.

The prime minister’s decision to not maintain a portfolio left many unclear as to how he planned to make an imprint on governing the country’s affairs.

With no overt skillset aside from being a medical practitioner, his decision seemed like the most practical although unprecedented in the Bahamian context.

Evidently, as a prime minister without a portfolio, there would be an expectation that his skills would rest in being a conductor of sorts – with the Cabinet being his orchestra, and him being able to knowledgably articulate his views on all public concerns.

This has certainly proved a bumpy road with the prime minister often lost in the shuffle as we are unable to see his fingerprints as often as we would like.

In particular, the talk around the town for months has been consistently pointed at the government being ran by the proverbial “men behind the curtain” – Brent Symonette and the White Knights.

As disrespectful to the prime minister as those sentiments are, the ambiguity revolving around his role in government has not served him well. History has shown us in multiple instances (some closer to home than others) how even the worse leaders, once being adept communicators, have been able to fly under the radar without making any real

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis impact. Unluckily, Minnis’ widely-mocked shortcoming as it relates to the use of the English language has been one of his most

‘His difficulties with communicating to the Bahamian people overshadows his message.’ glaring limitations.

Thus, if he is not responsible for a particular portfolio where we are able to see results he is driving, his difficulties with communicating to the Bahamian people overshadows his message.

The EU’s blacklisting created the perfect opportunity for the prime minister to shine in his role as acting Immigration Minister, where we got to see him oversee in a very expeditious manner the conviction and deportation of some 280 illegal Haitian migrants that landed near Inagua last weekend.

Though, this is what is expected of a leader, many have been surprised that this was handled so efficiently.

To be fair, colleagues within his Cabinet have given him credit for being able to drive results, particularly with Hurricane Irma.

Regretfully, his praise is short-lived when followed by media mishaps, as we too often see

with the prime minister.

It may be worth considering a shake-up of portfolio responsibilities in government, which can benefit both the prime minister and the current Minister of Immigration, Brent Symonette, who already has a load of responsibilities.

Also worth considering is what happens when he is again confronted by media mishaps. Although the proper protocols seemed to be followed with the Harbour Island Resort deal, his own inadvertent admission of the government’s mishandling the Oban Heads of Agreement still creates concern as to why he pulled the trigger on the deal so quickly. Further, he has yet to clear up the confusion and his statements that he had no issues with the company’s non-executive chairman’s sketchy past and the pre-meditated hoax of a “ceremonial” signing that we only found out about through the media.

We presume he intends to address these matters when he speaks during the Budget Debate this week, but what he will say when the time comes is an area that can use drastic improvement.

While it may be true the

prime minister is an ineffective speaker, he did a good job on making a historic impact on our immigration affairs. Hopefully, the results from his quick action can create a boilerplate for what the government ought to do regarding matters of great public concern.

Perhaps if we can see more efficient action from the prime minister and the government, all the jibes on how he speaks can fade away and the government can salvage some of the goodwill that has been evaporating since they took office. Indeed, this can help him to build confidence and be a jolt of positive energy, as his job is possibly the most difficult one that exist in the country.

Kudos to you, Prime Minister Minnis. Although you do not receive many congratulatory remarks from your critics, there are still some among us who are able to be fair and balanced enough to let you know when you’ve done a good job.

However, be mindful the standards we set are high and we hope to see you build from this and continue to chart a course that will lead to greener pastures for all Bahamians.

‘It may be worth considering a shake-up of portfolio responsibilities in government.’

Photos: Terrel W. Carey/ Tribune Staff

0 EMAIL: MONDAY, MAY 22, 2017 PAGE 10, Monday, January 23, 2017 insight@tribunemedia.net

WEEK IN RIBUNE

day - Supervalue rt Roberts is overnment to VAT policy rertnell reports e Bahamas nachampionships or The Bahay; plus Fourth s. latest properand rent in the s’ Guide

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net THE TRIBUNE MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018 PAGE 11

GAIN AN EDGE A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIGHER EDUCATION

A prescription for Why diversified The perfect a brighterisfuture education key career is to social equity within R

GAIN AN EDG

A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIGHER EDUCATI

sday “THE past two years nd Health ce on taking have flown by. Even now mind and body that I’m about to graduate, making waves the fact that I’ve been able to attend university at all as Box sporting seems surreal,” says StephInigo “Naugh- anie Stubbs, who will soon have her Associate’s Deaya OCHELLE Failure to have both gree in Medical Laboratory Smith had Technology from Keiser TVET and traditional nesday prayed long and University in Florida. ch - a weeklyhard about what academics available in of 39 Ly’s she newwanted in the to doStephanie with heris one allwho school ford Cay Scholars will programmes nology life.

Stephanie’s ultimate goal graduate this year join believed Smith’s is aand disservice to in her potential She forthwas in the 11th grade enough to invest in her. It is to return to The Bahamas the thousands of Scholars Calland column a decision regarding the our children and who been able to com- was the boost she needed to and partner with an estabtrajectory of her lifehave needed believe in herself and pur- lished laboratory company country, says Remiska plete theirin-college educarsday to be made. She would sue her own dreams. to expand its business to intion either locally or interand Religion, Wildgoose, English form her mother tonight.

Stephanie is convinced clude more diverse medical nationally over the past 45 ew As she OU have big reluctantly ap- instructor at BTVI that college has unlocked a technology services. Her years ook’, a weekly dreams – through that’s proached Mrs Smith, she the generos- whole new world for her and hope is that her training ofyou’ve donors toschool the Lyford ng could in The Ba-why TVET is a first option for does not work out.a path sense theity exhaustion. set her on towards will help the country closer Caythinking Foundations. some is an important step as a society, Mrs Smithbeen worked hard - Unfortunately, success.

She has used every provide a wider array of towards progression. The about college. You’ve dis- the we road place to whitemoment collar jobs both parents did,Although for they of her Associate’s medical laboratory services graduation has not an day that is talented with covered secret that on abeen pedestal.

Our educa- to child wanted athe best formany their programme explore all locally without having to Stephanie al- separates the their adon’t 28-page sec- easy one,dishands is just as inteltionalhas system know. You’ve children. aspects of the little-known send the more complex labways kept her focus on the to the bestgraduating in I’ve ligent as the child who asstudents with “great poten“Mummy, made a decovered from field of medical technology. oratories abroad for testing. graduating fashion, pires to pursue medicine. and for those students cision. food, I want do hair prize and -tial”, college is key to toshining unlocking “It’s an exciting field that She also hopes to spread the with a college degree that tainment, garSocial equity begins with we give our best. nails.”doors in this rapidly career allows you to make sure word at home about the imenable make a countries such us, for the carpenter alchanging matters, fit-Mrswill and Vexed,world.

Smith re-her toHowever, that doctors are giving their portance of this critical field. difference in The Bahamas andplied, interviews the doctor both end up coneduca“Girl crazy aye! as Finland, whose You’ve just you got one probpatients the right diagno- “College has allowed me the through medical technology.

View Naughtributing to the society as a tional system sis rivals most, testing,” All- that money we plunklem. How do you figure out through she chance to really look toward Like so many aspiring take on the whole. Thus, failure to have shows that 45 per cent of ing out to put you in private the perfect career for you? said. Stephanie knows that the future and seek out opstudents, Stephanie’s first Bahamas both TVET and traditional a technical school say you wan’ students choose How doand youyou choose exactly there are many portunities where I couldn’t hurdle the road to although hewhat Finish Line, academics available in all as opposed to the tra- physicians do what?!

Girlmajor you better you should study in ontrack well-trained in see them before,” said Stepha college education wasacademics*. fie college? local sports school programmes is truly ditional What get out my face and pray CARMETTA The Bahamas, there is “This opportunity wasBarry is one of many students who discovered her career fit through exposure to life nancial.

“I can still remem-who can take a a disservicea to anie. nt about Stubbs our children if Joshua, what to your According todo thewith profesexperiences. great need for equally well- the just the first rung on a very ber the moment that I found and ultimately our country. car apart and trained put it back life!” team at Lyford Cay sional healthcare technol- tall ladder. I planato former continue guidance coun- and volunteering. Karen the smart commitment to I was awarded a scholurday At this pivotal moment, together, or Gabrielle, who Rochelle aout retreated, Foundations, non-profit ogy professionals. to climb and I’m going to consellor. “Every day was a also noted students who pursue college, figuring out arship from The Foundaune’s Top 5: there is no simple answer can paint nails like artwork heartbroken,that has despondorganization been After graduation, Stephtinue my education by anylearn more about register for college entrance the perfect career is within chance to tions,” she reflected.

“I was deoent, review of determined to on a canvass, had the op- to solve our social and ecobut was helping studentsstunned! make their anie plans to pursue a means possible.” myself and my interests.” exams, such as the Scho- reach by taking a few extra Just moments opmake stories by mother proud. nomic ills. Nevertheless, portunitybe-early on to bedegree college her dreams fore come true that Bachelor’s in bio• “Gain An Edge” a Karenis also shared that lastic Aptitude Test (SAT) steps.

I learned I’d been gilShe on prayed www. long and hard seen as a success one of our answers lies in for who for nearly 50 years, there logical sciences or clinical weekly collaboration of find free career or ACT (formerly called a scholarship, I was students can omand decided to awarded placing diversified educathey are, as opposed the will pursue areThe some simple steps medyou biology.to She also do the Lyford Cay Founda2.

Seek out opportunities art and now architecture contemplating calling the information from their American College Testing), “Gain An Edge” is a in Tribtion at the forefront. All expectations that society icine. can take to help you to findtell for study tohave become a tions, Bahamasschool Technical exposure. a place and purpose college them thatonto I further guidance counsellors will automatically have an weekly collaboration of the usiness, sports, countries, especially deprojects them?

For As Bahamians, we know way: specialist in would hema- make and Vocationalsuch Institute FOCUS is a certified programme that wouldn’t be because d your Classifieds as IDEAS (Interests opportunity to take a career Lyford Cay Foundations, veloping countries,Jackson need students like these, techthis story about all too well.

Wecoming 1.

Think your intertology and microbiology. and University of The Baof Lyford Cay FoundaBurnside smile.” couldn’t afford it.” best guide to I justthe Determination Exploration assessment that is built into Bahamas Technical and balanced development nical vocational education give our children best and aptitudes.For Stephanie, This combinationCarmetta of train- Barry, hamas aimed at promottions with a goal of putting a Grade being e,ests real estate, and Assessment System), the exam. By taking these Vocational Institute and through all of the educaand training (TVET) is education because we have ing 5willpublic allow her the versa- at ing Lyford Foundationa selected a Walker national dialogue on the Ministry of tests, students can prepare University of The BahaGrade 11 student CRorder awarded scholarship andhopes more.thatCay a resource tional sectors in to first choice. they will become tility to career fields higher had education. To share Scholar Powell (’04)there WILDGOOSE students onare a pursue path High School, meant that were peoing news Kristie and apply for colleges plus mas aimed at promoting a make significant progressa Education has made availa- toREMISKA While therethat stillfromSenior doctors and lawyers.

Car- school range pathology your thoughts, gainSTEPHANIE STUBBS, Keiser University Graduate Lyford Caydialogue on higher admits that as a former to college.

Varied student similar experience. In pri- email ple out there, along with her your mobileble to help students explore get a report that maps outand national in terms of national develbe made penters and massage ther- changes neededtotopublic and look to 2027, when our well-diversified educational duce instantaneous results, and allied health. anedge@tribunemedia.net. scholar. computer engineer with experiences is a hallmark of mary school, her aspiration own supportive family, who ne242.com careers. careers that may be a good education.

To share your opment (Bennell,1996). apists should only be the in our educational system, that will educational system pro- system is one small but sig- it is an alternative Google, she when had a medical career the programme. to besee thebeyond first woman We must 2017 duces Other opportunities fit. thoughts, email gainembracing the fact that was alternative than enough nificant step towards long- make a tremendous differmany dream about. Kristie Tiffany A Bain-Saunders, to be Prime Minister of The includemore summer internships Now that you’ve made anedge@tribunemedia.net. is also the first to admit she FOCUS Programme Coor- Bahamas. But high school qualified, visionary citizens term economic prosperity ence.

For many students at the didn’t even know her career dinator (Grades 5-9), points participation in StemForce, who could build a world in our nation.

While further investment Bahamas Technical and field existed when she was out: “Finding your career an intensive programme class resort that would rival into developing our educa- Vocational Institute, TVET in high school. fit comes out of self-dis- that exposes Bahamian most. Implementing TVET “Growing up in Nassau, I covery. Opening your eyes students to science and programmes and having a tional system may not pro- is their only choice because it is what they love. As leadonly saw traditional careers. to the world of opportuni- geology, changed that. ers, teachers, and parents, I didn’t want to be a doctor, ties can drive your career Today, Carmetta is quick it is incumbent that we conlawyer or in the hotel indus- choices. Our students have to say: “I want to become tinue to embrace TVET as try. I just knew that I liked been exposed to everything an Environmental Engian alternative at all levels so computers,” shared Kristie. from agriculture to com- neer. I would like to work all individuals can become She researched and bec- puter coding and the arts.” on a plan to properly line valuable contributing memvame involved with “I’ve seen exposure the landfill to prevent toxic bers of society. extracurricular activities launch dreams. I’ll never leakage, water contaminaStories like that of Rothat sparked her curiosity in forget when Dante Ney- tion and fires.” chelle, whose name has technology. mour, a FOCUS Class 3.

Use the career been changed for the pruHer exploration paid of 2021 student from TA resources all around you. pose of this article, are off. After studying Elec- Thompson Junior High “When I had a job at much too common. Like trical Engineering, Kristie School, participated in one a pharmacy, I used that so many others, medical went on to have success- of our experiences that opportunity to talk to as school did not work out. In ful careers in technology showcased CAD archi- many people as I could the end, she still pursued at Goldman Sachs on Wall tecture software. He had and find out about their what she loved - beauty Street and at Google. Her always been interested in careers,” points out Karen trades. next endeavour is Coral drawing, but now, a career McCartney, On Course To Media, a tech-focused busi- lightbulb went off in his College Programme CoorSources ness in The Bahamas. head. His love and drive for dinator for FOCUS and *Mark Phillips (2012).

Why should we care about Vocational Education? **Bennell, P (1996).

General versus vocational secondary education in developing country: A review of rates of return evidence.

The Journal of Development Studies.

“Gain An Edge” is a weekly collaboration of the Lyford Cay Foundations, Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute and University of The Bahamas aimed at promoting a national dialogue on higher education. To share TECHNICAL vocational education and training is important to your thoughts, email gainanedge@tribunemedia.net. help students, says Remiska Wildgoose.

A Lyford Cay Foundations scholar aims to serve through medical technology

your reach Y

PAGE 12, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Union chief: No morale problem at water corp

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net THE WATER and Sewerage Management Union yesterday denied the characterisation of low staff morale at the corporation and expressed support for the government’s mandate and its executive management.

WSMU president Ednel Rolle sent out an urgent press release on Friday seeking to “clarify certain statements” published in the press about low morale.

The WSMU press release read: “The corporation is bigger than any one person or small group of persons; our members are ready to ensure that the affairs of the organisation continue to be properly executed

during this transition period; we respect the government’s mandate for this organisation and its minister, executive chairman and board of directors.”

Mr Laville was fired on Wednesday and accused

by WSC chairman Adrian Gibson of mismanaging the affairs of the corporation.

Mr Gibson maintained the staff morale was heightened as a result of the EY audit tabled in the House of Assembly last week.

However, Bahamas Utilities Service and Allied Workers president Dwayne Woods suggested that employee morale was low, adding that workers just wanted operations to return to normal when WSC was not under public scrutiny.

The EY report was tabled

in parliament on Wednesday, and painted a damning picture of WSC, portraying a corporation awash with irregularities.

In particular, the debacle of the Gladstone Road Waste Water Treatment Plant (GRWWTP) was exposed.

Despite a budget overrun of more than 80 percent, not since September 2016 has work been performed on the incomplete project, which was expected to receive and treat waste water from Baha Mar and return it for irrigation purposes.

The plant, initially budgeted at $9.6m with a completion date of 2014, has cost taxpayers at least $17m so far, EY said.

Mr Gibson has said the EY report would be sent to police.

GLEN LAVILLE, who was fired on Wednesday last week.

‘DON’T LOCK MY WIFE UP,’ BEGS MAN AS HE IS JAILED FOR DRUG POSSESSION

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A 46-YEAR-OLD man sentenced to a year in prison on Friday for drug possession made a passionate plea to the deputy chief

magistrate and the Crown to have his wife of less than 90 days acquitted of the crime.

Shorn Munroe, of Venice Bay, was found in possession of some 20 pounds of marijuana, valued at around $20,000

at their residence on March 15.

He begged Deputy Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain to let his wife, Nickya Demeritte, go free as he adamantly insisted on taking “full responsibility” by his guilty plea.

Prior to her husband’s pleas, Demeritte, 36, had pleaded not guilty to the single count of possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply with which they were both charged, T heir attorney, Bernard Ferguson, had also tried to get the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent Clifford Daxon, to withdraw the charge against her.

However, Dep Chief Magistrate Swain informed Munroe, and consequently his wife, that only the prosecution could withdraw the charges against either of them. When the requests were directed at ASP Daxon, the senior officer ultimately said he would need more time to come to a more informed decision, thus meaning she would be remanded until then.

The two were arraigned in connection with the recovery of a quantity of marijuana from a residence off Bacardi Road.

According to the summary of the facts read by ASP Daxon, sometime around 6:30am on the day in question, a team of officers, acting on intelligence and armed with a search warrant, proceeded to a green trimmed white twostorey complex located off Venice Bay Boulevard.

Upon arrival, officers secured the perimeter of the complex and knocked on door #1. They verbally identified themselves as police officers. At that time, officers heard a shuffling sound coming from inside the complex. Then, officers situated at the rear of the building, saw Munroe looking out of a door on the rear balcony.

Officers used flashlights and observed Munroe open the balcony door and throw a dark coloured travel bag over the fence into a bushy area. Shorn subsequently came to the front door and opened it.

After officers presented the search warrant to both Shorn and his wife, and identified themselves, a search was conducted of the residence. Officers subsequently found a brown, homemade cigarette which was found to contain a quantity of suspected marijuana. Both Shorn and Demeritte were arrested and cautioned in connection with that find.

Oiffcers then conducted a search of a bathroom and found in plain view on the countertop a clear Ziploc package with a quantity of suspected marijuana. The

two were further cautioned by profession, while his wife on that find. works at Sandilands RehaOfficers then took both bilitation Centre. defendants to the bushy Munroe then insisted that area at the rear of the resi- he does not sell drugs, and dence where they had seen has no need to as he owns a Munroe throw the travel “flourishing business”, and bag and conducted a search that he works and supports of that area. The officers his wife and all of his chilconsequently found a blue dren. However, he admitted Travel Star bag with a bag- that he does have a smokgage claim tag from Copa ing problem.

Airlines with the name He claimed he was comShorn Munroe on it. missioned to hold the bag of It was examined and drugs by a guy for a period found to contain one tan- of time, after which he taped package and a white said he was to receive two garbage bag with 22 clear pounds of the marijuana for vacuum sealed packages his personal consumption. with suspected marijuana According to him, the bag inside. The couple was wasn’t even in his possesfurther cautioned in con- sion for 24 good hours. nection with that third find.

He expressed how sorry While under caution, he was for his actions, but however, Munroe said: maintained that he wanted “Man officer, you all done to take full responsibility got me. Please don’t lock for the incident, and that my wife up she ain’t had he did not want his wife to nothing to do with this. I lose her government job as won’t waste you all time. a result of his actions.

I will plead guilty for this However, Dep. Chief marijuana.”

Magistrate Swain still Both Munroe and imposed what she said is a Demeritte were taken very lenient sentence: one to the Carmichael Road year in prison and a $15,000 Police Station and booked fine. Should he default on in. Then, while at the Drug the payment, he will serve Enforcement Unit (DEU), an additional year in prison.

Munroe admitted all knowlMunroe seemed not to edge, custody and control take issue with the senof the drugs in question. tence, but still maintained His wife, however, denied that he did not want his ownership. wife to lose her government Officers also recorded a job as a result of his actions. statement under caution However, the deputy from Munroe where he chief magistrate responded admitted to being in posses- by saying: “Well you should sion of the drugs. have considered that when The two were later you took possession of the charged formally in connec- drugs.” And adding that his tion with the find. actions put everyone that On Friday, Mr Ferguson resided at the residence in said in his plea in mitigation jeopardy, she added: “If that his client did not waste your mother had been there the court’s time by plead- she’d have been charged ing guilty to possessing the too”. drugs in question, which “You (people) do these Mr Ferguson submitted things and then you’re was borne out of Munroe’s remorseful later,” the addiction to marijuana. deputy chief magistrate Mr Ferguson further said. submitted that if the ASP Daxon indicated to court considered being the court that he should be lenient, his client would be able to come to a decision prepared to kick his habit on Demeritte by Monday, for good. Thus, he asked meaning she would have that the deputy chief magis- to be remanded to the trate not impose a custodial Bahamas Department of sentence, but a fine instead. Correctional Services in the When Mr Ferguson interim. sought to make a plea in However, Munroe conmitigation for the wife, tinued to lament the both the prosecutor and prosecutor’s stance on the the deputy chief magis- matter, saying it was “hurttrate reminded him that ful” and trying to fathom Demeritte had pleaded not how the prosecutor could guilty, thus negating the have a “heart so cold”. need for him to do so.

However, Dep. Chief When questioned by Magistrate Swain told Dep. Chief Magistrate Munroe that ASP Swain if he had any chil- Daxon was merely doing his dren, Munroe said he has job, and that it wasn’t fair of eight children by five moth- him to cast aspersions. ers, some of whom are The two were then in the United States. He escorted out of the also said he is a contractor courtroom.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 19, 2018, PAGE 13

McCabe kept memos on Trump dealings - Mueller now has them WASHINGTON Associated Press ANDREW McCabe, the one-time FBI deputy director long scorned by President Donald Trump and just fired by the attorney general, kept personal memos detailing interactions with the president that have been provided to the special counsel’s office and are similar to the notes compiled by dismissed FBI chief James Comey, The Associated Press has learned.

The memos could factor into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as his team examines Trump campaign ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice.

McCabe’s memos include details of his own interactions with the president, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorised to discuss the notes publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

They also recount different conversations he had with Comey, who kept notes on meetings with Trump that unnerved him.

Though the precise contents are unknown, the memos possibly could help substantiate McCabe’s assertion that he was unfairly maligned by a White House he says had declared “war” on the FBI and Mueller’s investigation. They almost certainly contain, as Comey’s memos did, previously undisclosed details about encounters between the Trump administration and FBI that could be of interest to Mueller.

The disclosure Saturday came hours after Trump called McCabe’s firing by Attorney General Jeff Sessions “a great day for Democracy” and asserted without elaboration that McCabe knew “all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels off the FBI”! In the past year, Trump has repeatedly condemned McCabe as emblematic of an FBI that he insists is biased against his administration.

That sent former CIA director John Brennan, an outspoken Trump critic, into a Twitter tizzy: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you.”

Sessions said he acted on the recommendation of

PUTIN GETS SIX MORE YEARS IN BIG MARGIN WIN

ACTING FBI Director Andrew McCabe appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Capitol Hill in Washington.

FBI disciplinary officials who said McCabe had not been candid with a watchdog office investigation.

McCabe was fired two days before his retirement date on Sunday. The dismissal likely jeopardises his ability to collect his full pension benefits and, more broadly, could add to the turmoil that has enveloped the FBI since Comey’s firing and as the bureau moves ahead with an investigation the White House has dismissed as a hoax.

An upcoming inspector general’s report is expected to conclude that McCabe, who spent more than 20 years with the FBI, had authorised the release of information to the media and was not forthcoming with the watchdog office as it examined the bureau’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

McCabe has vigorously disputed the allegations and said his credibility had been attacked as “part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally” but also the FBI and law enforcement.

“It is part of this administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the special counsel investigation, which continue to this day,” he added. “Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the special counsel’s work.”

The firing set off dueling tweets between Trump, who called the termination a “great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI”, and Comey, the director he fired ten months ago.

Trump called Comey “sanctimonious” and said

Comey made McCabe “look like a choirboy”.

Comey, referencing his highly anticipated book that comes out next month, responded with his own tweet: “Mr President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honourable and who is not.”

Also Saturday, Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, cited the “brilliant and courageous example”

by Sessions and the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility and said deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein should “bring an end” to the Russia investigation “manufactured” by Comey.

Dowd told the AP that he neither was calling on Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller’s inquiry, to fire the special counsel immediately nor had discussed with Rosenstein the idea of dismissing Mueller or ending the probe.

Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s actions, including Comey’s ouster, constitute obstruction of justice. McCabe could be an important witness, and his memos could be used by investigators as they look into whether Trump sought to thwart the FBI probe.

Comey’s own memos, including one in which he says Trump encouraged him to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, have been provided to Mueller and are part of his investigation.

McCabe, in a statement defending himself, asserted he was singled out by the administration because of the “role I played, the

LAWMAKERS SAY UK SHOULD CONSIDER POSTPONING BREXIT LONDON Associated Press

BRITAIN should consider postponing Brexit because there may not be enough time to strike a deal with the European Union before the UK leaves the bloc a year from now, a key committee of British lawmakers said Sunday.

The House of Commons Exiting the EU Committee said if major aspects of the future relationship with the EU remain unsettled

by October, Britain should seek a “limited extension” of its EU membership.

Britain and the EU want a deal on future relations settled by the fall so national parliaments can approve it before Britain officially leaves the 28-nation bloc on March 29, 2019.

In a report published on Sunday, the lawmakers said a proposed transition period of about two years should be able to be extended if needed. The two sides have agreed in principle that Britain will continue to remain part of the bloc’s structures and rules until the end of 2020.

Seven pro-Brexit members of the 21-member,

BRITAIN’s Prime Minister Theresa May. all-party committee refused to back the report, preparing an alternative version that took a more uncompromising tone toward the EU. The majority-backed report said it is worrying that there has been “little progress” in solving the key issue of how to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit.

Britain and the EU agree there must be no customs posts or other infrastructure along the all-but-invisible border, but the committee said Britain has yet to put forward credible proposals for how this could work.

“We know of no

international border, other than the internal borders of the EU, that operates without checks and physical infrastructure,” said the committee’s chairman, Labour lawmaker Hilary Benn.

The pro-Brexit dissenters’ alternative document accused the EU of taking an unhelpful approach to the border issue. They suggested that new technology and “streamlined” customs arrangements can deliver a frictionless border.

Rather than having Britain seek to extend its EU membership, the minority group said the UK should walk away without a deal if talks bog down.

actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath” of Comey’s firing last May. He became acting director after that but clashed with the Trump administration, including when he publicly rejected White House assertions that Comey had lost the support of the rank-and-file.

He abruptly left the deputy director position in January and went on leave.

The firing arises from an inspector general review into how the FBI handled the Clinton email investigation.

That inquiry focused not only on specific decisions made by FBI leadership but also on news media leaks.

McCabe came under scrutiny over an October 2016 news report that revealed differing approaches within the FBI and Justice Department

over how aggressively the Clinton Foundation should be investigated. The watchdog office has concluded that McCabe authorised FBI officials to speak to a Wall Street Journal reporter for that story and that McCabe had not been forthcoming with investigators. McCabe denies it.

McCabe became entangled in presidential politics in 2016 after it was revealed that his wife, during her unsuccessful run for state Senate in Virginia one year earlier, received campaign contributions from the political action committee of then-Gov Terry McAuliffe, D-Va, a long-time Clinton friend. The FBI has said McCabe received the necessary ethics approval about his wife’s candidacy and was not supervising the Clinton investigation at the time of the contributions.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has addressed thousands of people who rallied outside the Kremlin to thank them for their support and promised new achievements.

Speaking to a crowd who attended a pop concert near the Kremlin marking his election victory, Putin hailed those who voted for him as a “big national team,” adding that “we are bound for success”.

He said that the nation needs unity to move forward and urged the audience to “think about the future of our great motherland”. He then led the enthusiastic crowd to chant “Russia”!

Results from more than half of precincts showed Putin winning over 75 percent of the vote, with Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin and ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky trailing far behind with about 13 and six percent, respectively.

‘BLACK PANTHER’ TOPS BOX OFFICE FOR FIFTH WEEKEND NOT since “Avatar” has a box office hit had the kind of staying power of “Black Panther”. Ryan Coogler’s comic-book sensation on Sunday became the first film since James Cameron’s 2009 smash to top the weekend box office five straight weekends.

The Disney release grossed $27m in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates, pushing its domestic haul to $605.4m.

Worldwide, “Black Panther” has grossed more than $1.1bn.

PAGE 14, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 19, 2018, PAGE 15

ACTIVISTS WARY OVER $200M COCO CAY PLAN

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL activists have expressed disgust at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s planned $200m overhaul of Coco Cay, its private island in the Berry Islands.

Upon completion in 2019, the island will have one of the largest water parks in the region and the tallest slide in North America.

The project will be named “Perfect Day at Coco Cay” and feature thirteen slides, a 1600-foot-long zip line that lands in water, a helium balloon ride that takes cruise passengers 450 feet into the air, and the largest freshwater pool in the Bahamas and Caribbean.

On Wednesday, Royal Caribbean president and CEO Michael Bayley discussed the project with USA Today.

He said the project has been in development for three years and will be unique for a cruise ship private island.

“It’s really about bringing the kind of innovation and creativity that we’ve brought the past few years to our ships and creating the kind of experience ashore that we think (will) deliver the perfect day.”

According to USA Today, this will include “the installation of a pier that will be able to accommodate even the biggest of Royal Caribbean’s 24 ships”.

Presently, “vessels visiting the island… must anchor off shore and ferry passengers to land, making it off limits to Royal Caribbean’s biggest vessels”.

Mr Bayley said this will allow Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class ships to visit.

The three ships in this line can hold more than 6,000 passengers and are 30 peer cent bigger than their competitors. Each weighs more than 225,000 tons.

At 135 feet high,

“Daredevil’s Peak” will be the name of the tallest slide in North America.

There will also be a fully vertical, high-speed slide called the Screeching Serpent.

The 1600-foot-long zip line ending in a splash water landing also will be the first in the Bahamas or Caribbean, according to USA Today.

The freshwater pool will have three coves— one for families with a “kid-friendly beach-style entry area”, another for adults featuring a swim-up bar, and a third with private cabanas that will be available at an extra charge.

For sports enthusiasts, the “South Beach” area will allow for soccer, volleyball, beachside basketball, glassbottom kayaking, zorbing in an inflatable zorb ball, and paddle boating. There also will be a floating bar in the vicinity.

The largest restaurant will be Chill Grill, located in the “Chill Beach” area.

This beach will also offer boat tours, snorkelling, cabanas, wave runner excursions, and daybeds.

Furthermore, there will be a private beach club that features “the only over-water cabanas in the Bahamas”.

There will be an extra charge for the use of many of these new inclusions, including the water park.

The pier is expected to be completed this September and the entire project completed by November 2019.

However, “Perfect Day

at Coco Cay” has been with some criticism by some locals.

Activist Heather Carey, of Raising Awareness about the Bahamas Landfill (RABL), denounced the project in a Facebook post on Friday.

Ms Carey said: “Just another example of how the cruise ship industry does little to benefit us locally, and instead continues to make the visitor experience more insular to the cruise ship islands, taking away any motivation to explore places like Nassau or to enjoy the excursions we offer.”

“Royal Caribbean plans Massive Overhaul of Coco Cay. Dredging in order to accommodate the world’s largest cruise ships. A massive marine park. Helium Air Balloon Rides. A fresh water pool.”

“Sad. We cannot give away any more of our beautiful Bahamas to these bottomless pits.”

In another Facebook post, Theo Linn wrote: “This once beautiful island was known as Little Stirrup Cay.” “It now represents tangible proof that our species is in the process of amusing itself to death. Goodbye beloved Bahamas.”

A third Facebook user added: “Seriously. If guests want Disneyland, then go to Disneyland. Such a loss of natural beauty.”

• See Business section for Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar’s reaction.

PAGE 16, Monday, March 19, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

STAR STUDENTS SHOWCASE

COOPERS Town Primary School students beat out a foot-moving Junkanoo rhythm, on Thursday, during the E Clement Bethel National Arts Festival adjudications in Marsh Harbour, Abaco.

JOURNEY HIGGS, of Forest Heights Academy, performs during the first combined-school Abaco adjudications.

Several private and public schools gathered for music, dance and drama performances.

Photos: Eric Rose/BIS

4 SPICY WINGS

2 SPICY STRIPS

1 PIECE CHICKEN • • • •

1 PIECE CHICKEN INDIVIDUAL FRIES BISCUIT 16oz. PEPSI®

STUDENTS of Central Abaco Primary sing ‘Hand in Hand’.

ST Francis de Sales Catholic School singing group. ®

JADE McKenzie of Patrick J Bethel High School.