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VOLUME:115 No.86, MARCH 26TH, 2018

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Husband blasts wife, turns gun on himself

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

the street – West Dennis Court – where the family lived for about ten years was usually peaceful and A MAN shot and killed without incident. his wife before fatally turnThe children were said ing a weapon on himself in to be in the home when an apparent murder suicide the incident happened. The in the home they shared at woman’s death marked the Yellow Elder 22nd homiGardens early cide for the yesterday year, accordmorning. ing to The While police Tribune’s have not records. released their “The only identities, The thing we Tribune can know is there confirm they was screaming are Shawn and crying,” and Nicola one resident Bethel. They who lives were both near the couSHAWN AND government ple’s home NICOLA BETHEL employees and said yesterthe parents of day. “There three children. was a party last night, so The incident sent shock the music was loud so we waves rippling through the didn’t hear the shots or the community, with neighSEE PAGE THREE bours telling this newspaper

ANTONIQUE FINDS A GUARDIAN ANGEL THREE DEAD

IN SEPARATE CAR CRASHES

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding two separate traffic accidents in New Providence and Abaco that have left a man and two young women dead and several others in hospital in serious condition.

According to reports, around 10pm on Friday, a white Toyota Passo with four male occupants was traveling south on Fox Hill Road, when the driver lost control of the vehicle and ran into a utility pole and a tree.

SEE PAGE FIVE

CHIPMAN SACKED AFTER DEFYING PM

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

AFTER defying Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ ultimatum to either tender his resignation or be fired, Centreville MP Reece Chipman was sacked as chairman of the Antiquities Monuments and Museums Corporation on Saturday.

The firing – which comes a mere ten months into the Minnis administration’s term in office – is allegedly related to Mr Chipman’s

handling of the AAMC, The Tribune was told.

On Friday, Dr Minnis gave the first time MP until noon Saturday to resign.

However, he refused, stating in a letter sent to the prime minister and parliamentary colleagues ahead of his axing that he would only do so if Permanent Secretary Jack Thompson and several other high-ranking government employees at the AMMC also submitted resignations.

SEE PAGE SEVEN

‘KNEE-JERK CITIZENSHIP CHANGES INHUMANE’

TWO-month-old Antonique Munroe is headed to Florida today - after a Tribune reader stepped forward to help pay for the treatment she needs to have the best possible chance of sight. She is pictured with her parents, Antoine and Abbie Munroe, who are both blind. For the full story

by Felicity Ingraham, see page two.

OBAN’S NEW MEN - AND THEY LOOK LEGIT

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net OBAN Energies has moved to reassure its $5.5bn project is “for real” amid concern that the ongoing controversy could deter other investors from coming to Grand Bahama.

The oil storage terminal/ refinery developer, in recent upgrades to its website, named 40-year oil industry veteran John “Jack” Lipinski, who began his career

with Texaco, as one of two senior advisory directors.

The other is George Matelich, one of three “managers” at Oban Energies Management, the entity that replaced controversy-ridden non-executive chairman, Peter Krieger, as Oban Energies’ manager.

Mr Lipinski, whose qualifications “check out” based on research by Tribune Business, most recently served as chief executive and president of CVR

THE government’s plans to change the immigration law regarding citizenship has been labelled as inhumane and unconstitutional, by human rights attorney Fred Smith, QC. Mr Smith, president of advocacy group Rights Bahamas, released a statement yesterday lashing out at the changes outlined last week by Minister of Financial Services, Trade and Industry and Immigration Brent Symonette.

SEE PAGE 12

Refining, a US-based company that operated a 185,000 barrel per day refining system and 6.4 million barrel storage facility.

He held the same post with its parent, CVR Energy, until retiring at year-end 2001, having previously worked in executive management positions overseeing refining activities at another US energy giant, El Paso.

Insight

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

SEE PAGE TEN

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

THE TRUTH ABOUT SHANTY TOWNS

PAGE 2, Monday, March 26, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

ANTHONIQUE Munroe and her mother, Abbie, who will fly to Florida today.

Antonique finds a guardian angel

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TWO month-old Antonique Munroe is headed to Florida today with her mother and grandmother to visit the Bascom Palmer eye hospital for much-needed treatment.

In last week Tuesday’s Face to Face with Felicity column, Antonique’s parents made a heartfelt plea for assistance for their daughter to receive medical treatment from eye experts to give her the best chance possible of sight.

Her parents, Antoine and Abbie Munroe are both totally blind. Their daughter was born with an under-developed left eye, and her right eye has cornea issues and retina detachment. After being seen by eye doctors in the country, little Antonique was referred to the Bascom Palmer eye institute. There, she saw a cornea and a retina specialist who gave the Munroes hope that they would do their best to make it possible for their

daughter to have sight.

They did warn, however, that immediate treatment was necessary for the best possible chance.

An anonymous benefactor read the column in The Tribune and contacted the Antoine with the good news that they were willing to help with the procedures that Antonique would need. Hence, she is off to Florida today with her mother Abbie and Antoine’s mother.

This Wednesday, Antonique will receive anaesthetics to put her to sleep while eye experts conduct an exploratory procedure to look in the back of here eyes in order to find out what all needs to be done to help her.

The anonymous donor is covering Antonique’s expenses at Bascom Palmer.

Bahamasair came through for the Munroe family by providing plane tickets for two adults to travel along with Antonique. A few other people have contacted the Munroes to offer donations, including one

person who said they were “moved by the Munroe’s story” they read in The Tribune.

Antoine noted the family still bore costs for hotel accommodation and transportation expenses, but was most grateful and “overjoyed” that the anonymous donor decided had stepped forward to help his daughter.

He said if the surgeries that follow the first exploratory procedure are successful, his daughter would be able to see, and would be the only one in his new family to be able to do so - an important factor in the quality of life for his daughter.

Despite the “noise in the market” concerning two blind people deciding to marry, Antoine said he decided to follow his heart and marry the woman he loves. Today, he and his wife are working hard not only to provide for themselves, but to give their daughter the best possible chance at life.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 26, 2018, PAGE 3

Husband blasts wife, turns gun on himself

SHAWN AND NICOLA BETHEL from page one arguing. But we heard the screams and crying.

“They didn’t have any problems,” the neighbour continued. “They weren’t the type of couple to be fighting in the road and rowing for you to say this would happen to them.

They seemed loving.”

Another neighbour said: “This is just a tragedy man.

I mean they were hard working and loving. He was so helpful and he brought us the garbage bins and made sure the garbage was always empty. He don’t care how you offer him money, he would not take it.

“One night my husband (car) broke down and he came and I told him and his only response was ‘where is he?’ And he jump right back in his car and went to him. That’s just the kind of person he was.

“We are just surprised at this.”

Neighbours told The Tribune shortly after midnight, relatives reportedly arrived at the home with the hopes of mediating an argument between the couple.

While they believed the situation was diffused, the relatives were leaving the home when they heard the first gun shot, which allegedly killed Mrs Bethel, neighbours claimed.

Moments later, police arrived to find Mr Bethel in the kitchen of the home with a gun pointed upward and under his chin when he pulled the trigger and took his own life, neighbours further claimed.

However police gave a slightly different account, but said they were investigating a murder suicide.

“Shortly before 2am, police officers were called to a home on West Dennis Court, Yellow Elder Gardens, after it was reported that a male was there armed with a firearm. As officers approached the home, they heard gun shots coming from inside the house.

“Officers entered the home and discovered a male and female in an unresponsive state, with apparent gunshot injuries.

Paramedics were called to the scene, but were unsuccessful in their attempts to revive the victims. They were pronounced dead at

A POLICE caution tape outside the home of a murder scene in Yellow Elder.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff the scene,” police reports said.

Meanwhile, condolences from friends and family flooded Mrs Bethel’s Facebook page yesterday.

“When I heard I could not believe it,” one person wrote. “We all loved you but Jesus loves you best. Will be praying for your children and family. So sorry.”

“We started our journey in the public service together from Airport Maintenance (MOW) to Solid Waste Management (DEHS),” another friend wrote. “Then we got

separated but we stayed in contact our kids became a part of the Rangers programme so our connection was still in place. Lord a rose has now entered your garden. Nicky, we love you RIP.” Police are appealing to anyone with information regarding this incident or any crime, no matter how small or insignificant the tip may seem, to anonymously call police at 919 or Crime Stoppers at 328-8477 in New Providence or 1-242300-8477 in the Family Islands.

MAN SHOT AS HE STANDS ON PORCH A MAN is in hospital in stable condition after he was shot while standing on a porch of a home on Fleming Street on Friday.

According to police, shortly before 11pm, two

men were standing on the home’s porch when they were approached by three men, one of whom had a gun. The armed man shot at the men, hitting one of them before he and his

accomplices ran from the area.

Police are also investigating an armed robbery that occurred about an hour earlier, shortly after 10pm Friday.

A man was standing in his yard at Quarry Mission Road when he was approached by three men, armed with firearms, police said. They robbed him of cash before running away.

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PAGE 4, Monday, March 26, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

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Bahamas must explore revenue sharing of our airspace THE Tribune has been accused of misleading the Bahamian public in its report on Thursday that the Bahamas, unlike 180 other countries, remains among a small group of 20 generally poor, and geographically challenged African nations that neither charge nor receive any remuneration in “overflight payments” from airlines crossing their air space. All the other 180 countries charge for these overflights and by the end of the year have earned millions of dollars in overflight fees. Not so The Bahamas.

In a press release on Thursday, Mrs Glenys Hanna Martin, PLP Minister of Transport and Aviation from 2002 until her party’s defeat last year, claims that The Tribune “erroneously and deliberately seeks to mislead the Bahamian people” on her role as former Transport and Aviation Minister “relative to the control of The Bahamas’ airspace”.

The former minister claimed that she was the one who “for the first time ever in the history of The Bahamas engaged the United States of America government to recover control of the sovereign air space of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. As a consequence, and after high level negotiations in April 2017 an historic Declaration of Intent was executed between the two nations”. Note that this agreement was concluded one month before last year’s general elections when her government was defeated and she had to vacate her Ministry.

By June 2010, Bahamian Capt Randy Butler, CEO and President of SkyBahamas, was protesting loudly that he was “paying the US government to fly a Bahamian-registered airplane in The Bahamas to a Bahamian destination”.

His voice fell on deaf ears. Seven more years of these payments continued before the inequity was resolved last year — that is as far as Bahamian aircraft were concerned — no mention was made as to whether foreign airlines were to pay in recognition of the sovereignty of our archipelago over which they still fly.

It is also interesting to note the 2006 statement in the Air Traffic Control Reform Newsletter as to why the US assumed control of The Bahamas’ airspace. “The FAA applied this authority” said the newsletter, “without protest from the Bahamas government or the Ministry of Aviation and Transport to foreign carriers whose flights use our sovereign airspace (redesignated as

Miami Oceanic ZMA and considered part of the US enroute Airspace) and Bahamian carriers flying within our own airspace.”

Also in documents acquired by The Tribune, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regretted that while the FAA presented The Bahamas government with an “Air Navigation Service Provider Proposal in 2006… no official dialogue commenced until a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was convened in March 26th 2014” — eight years later. Note these statements and observations on the performance of Mrs Hanna-Martin’s Ministry were made, not by The Tribune, but by the ICAO and FAA. “The policy position in the interim,” said Mrs Hanna-Martin’s press release, “was that in the interim The Bahamas would begin building capacity, including the acquisition of the necessary infrastructure to assume full control of our air space.”

What utter madness. It just indicates that the PLP government’s tardiness in coming to the negotiating table was that none of them really understood the complexity of the matter they were negotiating. The last thing that this country should want is hands on control of aircraft flying in our airspace. This country could never afford the complicated equipment, nor the technical staff required. Do some research on some of the 180 countries that are making such handsome revenue from the charges for flying over their airspace and you find that very few of them manage their own air traffic control. In many areas, there is one control centre that manages the airspace for neighbouring countries. Yet these countries still make a handsome profit from their overflight fees. The Bahamas would need only one major aviation accident in a space they were monitoring to be financially wiped off the map.

We advise the FNM to engage someone well versed in these matters, and negotiate an agreement for the Americans to continue to do what they are now doing, but in order to maintain our sovereignty a fee should be paid for passage over our area. If others can do it, why can’t The Bahamas?

With this country’s present grim financial situation, and the threat to future business by the European Union, The Bahamas needs another financial escape route — annual overflight fees might just be the answer.

Office of the Spouse?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IN the almost 45 years since our nation has achieved Independence, we have had four married male Prime Ministers. Naturally, this means we have had four women who have been the spouses of Prime Ministers.

The present Governor General Lady Marguerite Pindling was the spouse of a Prime Minister for almost 20 years, Mrs Delores Ingraham for 15 years and Mrs Bernadette Christie for ten years.

What is interesting to me is that each of these ladies functioned in their roles as spouses of the PM, supported worthy causes and did what they needed or wanted without an “official” title per se. In a country this size who could not know who they were?

Now we have a new Prime Minister, for less

than one year, who has gotten off to a dubious start with a spouse who desires an official office or title with staff, this seems vainglorious to me!

The man has not even had an opportunity to prove to this country that we did not make a mistake electing him and the people of The Bahamas have to deal with this early display of megalomania?

Doesn’t she realise that if she does not do something spectacular in her “office” she will create opportunity for ammunition to be used against her husband politically in the future?

The Bible says that if a person desires to do good works they should not let their left hand know what the right hand is doing and in that way they will receive their reward from God, but those who seek to do their works before men have the

reward of men’s approval and nothing more.

It is my opinion that the current spouse of the Prime Minister could have gone about her way, bring light to issues and address concerns in much the same manner as her predecessors, but in my opinion it seems that we see something of an insecure, attention seeker who is more concerned with lofty titles than the work she claims she wants to do.

There are many nameless, faceless persons who perform selfless acts of service everyday; not because of the attention it would bring to them, but because they have a genuine interest in helping others. I wish our present spouse of the Prime Minister was one of those!

JB Nassau, March 23, 2018.

‘It’s time for purging the house’ EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT’S amazing in 2012 when the past administration, the PLP, won the election we had no talk of victimisation. Now because the people’s Government has the gonads to clean up and ensure there is transparency with the operations in the people’s place, it’s victimisation. My brothers and sisters of The Bahamas, I am employed at the Water & Sewerage Corporation, The executives, most of them, along with GM Laville, was not and still does not want to cooperate with the chairman and the board of directors.

The corporation is theirs. To play games play gods with who they want when they want, I say no it’s the people’s place we serve at the pleasure of the Bahamian people all of us an we must conduct ourselves accordingly. I personally suffered persecution at the hands of the executives, for years and years they have cannibalised their own colleagues leading to firings and even Mr Laville under the PLP administration was

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net moved about victimised and brought back to serve at the pleasure of the government of the people the FNM, where he served in two administrations.

Absolute power breeds corruption and content.

Mr Laville and his colleagues have left a trail of mismanagement and corrupt practices a mile long, if those audits were to continue all hell would break loose. Am proud of what’s transpiring, it’s painful but needed at the end the only thing I ask for is to create a system that’s fair to all, not just FNMs but to PLP, DNA, all walks of Bahamians, then it’s truly the people’s time.

There is a small elitist group that Mr Laville chose to surround himself with, who bought into what his transformation was, it was not fair and was suspect, it was comprised of who he wanted to push and the non-management PLP cronies and their friends. Mr Dwayne Prickle

Wood is an operative who appears not to have any known interest in working with chairman Gibson - it appears he wants to play politricks.

WSC needs real change, true transformation objectively set up to bring transparency, integrity, truth and honest business practices that will make us profitable, great and the model Corporation.

So I say this, the majority of the staff are not demoralised, we are glad for this purging, destroy the agendas of the executives to frustrate chairman Gibson and the other directors, destroy the agendas of the unions who also have their own agendas – and not the interest of the Bahamian people, whose pleasure we serve at. “They will sell their hats, pawn their coats to satisfy their greedy throats”. It’s all about them, friends, family and lovers.

Happy not demoralised.

Clean the house. Live in the sunshine.

CLEAN THE HOUSE Nassau, March 21, 2018.

Cyprianna farewell Re: A fond farewell

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was so very sad to read of the recent death of Mrs Cyprianna Wilhelmina Wright-Fox. A truly charming Bahamian woman, she among others represented the best characteristics of a strong woman of grace whose work life painted a picture of building people, thereby contributing to building the kingdom of God on the job, with her family and by extension the community.

Cyprianna and I were among the twenty-three

ladies selected to meet and greet official guests attending the July 10th Independence celebrations of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas in 1973.

We, along with Mrs Thomasina Finlayson, the late Mrs Gwen Forbes Kelly and Ms Vernita Johnson, LVO, were later appointed to serve in the new and dynamic Ministry of External Affairs under the esteemed leadership of the late Honourable Paul Lawrence Adderley.

Regrettably, Cyprianna will now rest in peace with her hospitality sisters, Vernice Cooper, Barbara

Thurston, Agnes Richardson, Thelma Byles, Shirley Smith, Allene Powell, Pandora Gibson Gomez, and Juliette Barnwell, LVO. In this regard I wish to convey deepest sympathy to the family of Cyprianna on behalf of her surviving hospitality sisters, Portia Barnett, Gertrude Kelly, Vania Babb, Rose Humes, Julia Burnside, Thomasina Finlayson, Lillian Walker, Leah Johnson, Jeannie Adderley and Joyce Campbell.

AGATHA BETHELL CUMBERBATCH Nassau,

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 26, 2018, PAGE 5

THREE DEAD IN SEPARATE CAR CRASHES from page one

Witnesses said the driver was attempting to overtake another vehicle at the time of the accident.

The driver and two of the passengers were injured. Paramedics were called to the scene, but were unable to revive one of the men. He died at the scene.

The driver and another

male were taken to hospital and were listed in serious condition.

Then shortly after 5pm on Saturday, police were called to a traffic accident on SC Bootle Highway in Abaco, where they found a grey Honda Fit with three female passengers inside that had hit a pine tree.

The driver - Catherine Martin - died from her injuries at the scene.

It is understood the accident happened on the dead woman’s birthday.

EMS personnel were called to the scene and took two of the female passengers to the Marsh Harbour Clinic.

They were subsequently airlifted to New Providence but one died on Sunday morning at about 8am. The third victim is in serious condition

THE SCENE of the crash in Freeport yesterday. at Princess Hospital.

There was

Margaret a

further

crash in Freeport yesterday, in which there were no reported fatalities.

No further details were available at the time of going to press.

INGRAHAM APPOINTED AS BAR COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE TO BFSB FROM left, Wayne Munroe, QC, Bar Council Member, Tanya McCartney, CEO & executive director of The Bahamas Financial Services Board, Kelli K A Ingraham, Bar Council Member and BFSB Board Member and J Denise Lewis-Johnson, Vice President of The Bahamas Bar Association.

THE Bahamas Bar Association has announced the appointment of Bar Council member Kelli K A Ingraham as the BBA’s representative on the Board of Directors of The Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB).

“We are confident.” said BBA President Kahill D Parker, “that Ms Ingraham will excel in her new

role as the Association’s representative.”

“We encourage the participation of all industry associations on the Board,” said Tanya McCartney, CEO & Executive Director of BFSB. “We welcome Ms Ingraham as The Bahamas Bar Association is a critical stakeholder for industry.

Our collaborative efforts

have resulted in the introduction of new products and services in the past.

We anticipate that we can now have earnest dialogue on such matters as the controlled liberalisation of The Bar as industry sees this as a critical lever for the future growth and development of the financial services sector.”

Ms. Ingraham is a Senior

Associate at McKinney Bancroft & Hughes with

over twelve years of experience in Commercial & Civil

Litigation, Insolvency and Financial Services.

PAGE 6, Monday, March 26, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Oban: Minnis must resign

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Deputy Leader Chester Cooper has called on Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to “spare us all any further headache” and resign for “misleading” the country on the $5.5 billion Oban Energies project, as he accused the nation’s leader of “flamming” Bahamians on the matter.

Mr Cooper, during a PLP branch meeting in Grand Bahama over the weekend, said the “course of action for the prime minister is clear”, as he said Dr Minnis has convinced no one that he knows what he is doing with this project, and neither has he addressed the “very critical issues that Bahamians have raised” over Oban.

Mr Cooper also criticised Dr Minnis’ “blatant hypocrisy” for his declarations on March 20 concerning the government’s stance on Crown cays or land, despite Oban Energies President Satpal Dhunna having revealed the company will lease 690 acres of Crown land from the government to build th refinery and storage facility in East End, Grand Bahama for, as Mr Cooper put it, “a measly $1,700 per acre”.

Mr Cooper also hit out at Dr Minnis for deflecting from “his own complicity

DEPUTY Leader of the PLP Chester Cooper.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff and responsibility” in sign- consultation over the proing a Heads of Agreement posed project, and also that for the project with “ques- a heads of agreement had tionable characters” via his been signed without the statements to the House of execution of an environAssembly last week, instead mental impact assessment. of using the opportunity There have also been to “uncover critical details concerns over the signing of that have been missing the agreement for the profrom the patchy tale of the posed development.

Oban Energies scandal”.

Earlier this month, it was Mr Cooper also lam- revealed that Peter Krieger, basted Dr Minnis for the infamous non-execattempting to accuse the utive chairman of Oban former PLP administration Energies, did not sign his of being hypocritical on own name on the heads of the Oban Energies deba- agreement for the deal that cle, stating: “You never was inked on February 19, saw a PLP sign any Heads but appeared to sign Mr of Agreement with a con- Dhunna’s name instead. victed felon from Oban, did However, the document you?” tabled on March 1 in the Dr Minnis and his admin- House of Assembly by Dr istration have come under Minnis bore Mr Dhunna’s heavy fire over the past name, and was dated Febfew weeks from the Official ruary 19.

Opposition and environDr Minnis, in admitting mentalists for the lack of the government’s missteps

on the Oban issue, told the House last Tuesday that Mr Dhunna signed the official heads of agreement on February 10 before leaving the country to attend to other business.

And although Mr Dhunna signed the document on that date, Dr Minnis said his administration made the “effective date of the heads of agreement the 19th of February to conform with the public ceremonial signing” it had arranged “in recognition of its promise to keep Bahamians informed”.

Dr Minnis further said that Mr Krieger, who resigned effective March 1, “should have noted that he was signing on behalf of Mr Dhunna” and “signed his name as the authorised representative of the K Family Irrevocable Trust on the ceremonial document”.

The K Family Irrevocable Trust is the beneficial owner of Oban Energies LLC. Nonetheless, Mr Cooper said Dr Minnis committed “one of the worst violations possible in our parliamentary democracy” by misleading Parliament with his initial February 14 announcement concerning the government’s plans to sign the agreement for the development, which ultimately spiralled into a string of controversies concerning the $5.5bn project. “…The prime minister announced that a Heads of Agreement was to be signed with Oban Energies on February 19,” Mr Cooper said. “However, on March 20, the prime minister said that Satpal Dhunna, the alleged president of Oban Energies, signed the Heads of Agreement on February 10.

“How is it then that the prime minister, knowing a Heads of Agreement had already been signed four days earlier, found himself telling the House without clarifying anything about a ceremonial Heads of Agreement, whatever that might be, that an agreement was yet to be signed?

“Given the prime minister’s statements, there can be little question that he misled the House of Assembly. Perhaps all that is left to understand is whether his misleading of the House was intentional or not.

“Either way, the course of action for the prime minister is clear.”

Mr Cooper also hit out at Dr Minnis for attempting to brand the PLP as hypocrites in their criticisms of his handling of the Oban Energies debacle during his statements in Parliament on March 20.

At the time, Dr Minnis noted Mr Krieger being chairman and CEO of the company when it came before the National Economic Council (NEC) under the Christie administration. An approval in principle was subsequently signed on November 15, 2016.

Dr Minnis also said on March 30, 2017, a second proposed Heads of Agreement was forwarded to the former Christie administration for review, but was not executed.

And on that same date, Bahamas Information Services (BIS) and the FNM circulated videos of Mr Krieger and former Grand Bahama Minister Dr Michael Darville surveying the “original site” for the proposed development in 2016.

“It was disastrous

watching him attempt to insinuate the Progressive Liberal Party was wrong for doing due diligence on Oban. Party members met with people from Oban and visited the site, as any responsible public official would in the discovery stage of things,” Mr Cooper said on Saturday. “Yet, you never saw a PLP sign any Heads of Agreement with a convicted felon from Oban, did you?”

He added: “The people were really hoping that what he had to say would uncover critical details that have been missing from the patchy tale of the Oban Energies scandal. We hoped that he would clear it up or say he was cancelling the deal, for misrepresentations made.

“Instead, he doubled down and what we witnessed was a prime minister covering himself in shame as he sought to deflect from his own complicity and responsibility in signing a Heads of Agreement with these questionable characters, while raising more questions than answers.

“When Minnis was opposition leader in March of 2015, he said at a press conference that, ‘by High Parliamentary Convention there is only one recourse when a Cabinet minister misleads Parliament—he must resign.’

“So I’ll say to Dr Minnis, and really this could apply to a few of them on the other side, maybe you should follow your own advice. Stop flammin’ the Bahamian people. Stop flammin’ yourself by acting like you know what you’re doing, when everyone can see that you don’t (sic).

Stop acting like you all brand new.”

DARVILLE: PURSUIT OF OBAN DEAL DEMONIC

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE government’s continued push of the $5.5bn Oban Energies oil refinery project in the face of intense opposition is tantamount to treason, according to Save the Bays Chairman Joseph Darville, who on Friday slammed the

move as “sacrilegious” and “demonic”.

“I’ve been around the block many a times, the government’s actions in this case is something I can only call dangerous and sacrilegious; sinful and demonic,” he said when asked his view on Oban Energies’ town hall meeting held in East Grand Bahama last Thursday.

The former educator said the Minnis administration’s “betrayal” of the Bahamian electorate’s trust could no longer be overlooked and denied.

“We bought it,” he said. “This administration made us think it was all in for the Bahamian people with its slogans and chants.

Well, it is quite clear this is not the people’s time.”

Mr Darville said the government’s handling of the Oban saga has “sealed the deal” in his eyes.

“It is all a ploy to pull the wool over the eyes of the people. I know Grand Bahama needs jobs, but not like this,” the activist said.

“You can’t sacrifice everything this country was built on. We are talking about the true legacy of Grand Bahama being sacrificed for a project steeped in controversies and lies.

“No right-thinking Bahamian could look at all the facts presented to date and say, ‘Yes, this plan is the thing that is going to improve the quality of life in Grand Bahama.’”

He continued: “This environment has sustained this community. We have invited guests from all over the world to these shores.

We have lived off of this very same land; and now we are going to risk all of that for a few jobs?

“No true-hearted Bahamian would agree to that,” Mr Darville said.

Thursday’s forum was the first time residents in Grand Bahama publicly weighed in on the project.

Oban Energies President Satpal Dhunna represented the company at the event, revealing that he is a shareholder in the firm. He

claimed the company has spent $10m so far on the project, mostly to nail down the best location.

Almost a month after Oban Energies’ website was wiped of revelations of the dubious past of its management team, he said the new management structure will be revealed in the coming days.

He said once people see their “experience in the energy sector”, no fears about their capability will persist.

Towards the end of Thursday’s forum, Mr Dhunna hurried away before the press could ask him further questions, citing a technical meeting he had to attend elsewhere on the island even though it was nearly 9pm.

This action, paired with the fact that no government official attended the forum, angered Mr Darville on Friday, who missed Thursday’s meeting due to ongoing legal proceedings in New Providence.

Mr Darville said: “No one showed up from the government.

The very men and women elected to ensure the rights of Bahamians are protected.

They refused to show up.

How ridiculous is that?

“Where is the respect?

“Where is the compassion and love for the community?

“First you force the project on them, they recognised and called out the issues. You then sell them on the idea that all was still well despite the issues; they again shouted foul.

“How is it that you push and push, but refuse to show up and address these persons?”

Mr Darville continued: “For the last 40-years, there have been no approvals given to do any kind of refinery. The company trying to come in, they don’t know a thing about oil refinement. Heck, they’ve said that much. This is a tragedy. This is a nightmare proposal directly from the pits of hell. This is lunacy.

The people of Grand Bahama are going to fight this to the tooth.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 26, 2018, PAGE 7

Chipman sacked after defying PM from page one He further claimed the AMMC was operating outside of the law and also suggested the government was following the status quo of the previous Christie administration.

When contacted by this newspaper yesterday about the controversy, Mr Chipman said he had high expectations of the Office of the Prime Minister which were not met, but added he regretted that things had escalated to this point. He also said the civil service is filled with “political prostitutes” which will hinder forward movement unless this problem is weeded out.

When asked if there was any bad blood between he and the prime minister, Mr Chipman said: “I don’t know where he is with it. I just know from my perspective I just had higher expectation of not him in particular but of the Office of the Prime Minister and I think that’s where the line is for me, my expectations were not met.

It’s a difference in expectation. I wish him all the best with his role and of course I wish my administration the best moving forward but there is a level of expectation one would expect when we look at public service and higher office and in that regard I think there is a lot of work to be done.”

When asked if he had regrets, Mr Chipman told The Tribune, “It’s always regrettable when any organisation or administration gets to the point where obviously whether there is a lack of communication or just a lack of attention is given to certain areas.

“I think that the letter (sent to the prime minister) spoke to campaigning against a system and when a system of governance is filled with what I term political prostitutes it’s going to be difficult for us to move forward unless we rid ourselves of that type of injection in

the public service.

“I think it’s important for the constituents of Centreville to know my take on it. And it’s also important for you to in terms of the fairness of reporting to understand both sides.

Because the prime minister will have to say his interpretation of what transpired, I don’t know whether he will or won’t and then I guess we’ll have an opportunity to clear the air at some point.

“But it is important for us to acknowledge that we have a tough job. I do understand that the prime minister has a tough job. I do understand our administration has a tough job however there are some little things that are important. Like respect, like adequate relevant communication, clarity with regard to the law and with regard to corporate governance principles. Otherwise what will trickle down is a bunch of foolishness and that is not something I am going to be good at tolerating,” Mr Chipman said.

In his letter to Dr Minnis dated March 23, Mr Chipman said his request for the resignations of Mr Thompson, Deputy Permanent Secretary Carol Johnson and Director of AMMC Dr Keith Tinker were based on several concerns, which he claimed were brought to the attention of AMMC’s board of directors.

“Thank you for the opportunity to serve,” he wrote. “I would have told you that I would get back to you on Saturday, March 24, 2018, regarding your request for my resignation from the position of chairman of the Antiquities Monuments and Museums Corporation.

“I will submit my resignation upon your simultaneous request and submission of the resignations of Permanent Secretary Jack Thompson, your Deputy Permanent Secretary Carol Johnson and Director of Antiquities Monuments and Museums Corporation Dr Keith Tinker.”

He also wrote: “We campaigned for change Mr Prime Minister. We campaigned against a system that was not working for our children and the next generation of Bahamians.

We did not campaign on much of the same. Centreville will continue to fight for change for our people and Centreville hopes you endeavour to do the same.

“You would have been presented by myself with the AMMC Act and regulation in order for us to be in compliance with the law. Obviously, these were ignored by the Office of the Prime Minister.”

The MP claimed the AMMC received a double subvention of $206,000 that was not returned to the Public Treasury as is

required by law.

He further claimed a senior employee had also failed to conduct duties as required and requested by the board and the chairman, and also received additional remuneration outside of contractual arrangements of the AMMC. In addition, Mr Chipman said no audited financials for the corporation for the last five years as requested by law had been provided.

The letter also stated there were unauthorised approvals written without Cabinet’s consent, which is also required in some instances.

He said the AMMC Act and regulations were further being ignored in the operations of the corporation.

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Reece Chipman, Centreville MP. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

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PAGE 8, Monday, March 26, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

Ignorance isn’t always bliss

By MALCOLM STRACHAN OBAN Energies has been the talk of the town for well over a month. Certainly, more grey hairs must be popping up all over the prime minister’s head as what he thought would have been a huge win for an administration struggling to endear itself to the Bahamian people. Prime Minister Minnis beamed like a teenager on prom night sitting on the right of the now infamous Peter Krieger on the fateful day the Oban powder keg fuse was lit to explode.

Now, what potentially was supposed to be a series of weeks where three heads of agreements were signed for various projects to stimulate economic growth throughout the archipelago has been derailed by a sideshow. This Oban debacle has been one that has shone a spotlight on the incompetence of this administration which made such an amateur mistake.

It was not that long ago when Prime Minister Minnis urged the Bahamian public to wait on the Heads of Agreement to be tabled, as to quell the concerns of the citizenry after the alarming revelations of Krieger’s criminal past surfaced in the media. Following the tabling of the heads, as we have all witnessed, things went from bad to exponentially worse.

Bahamians, far and wide, are struggling to understand how the prime minister could have so unartfully negotiated such a bad deal. This deal was not just any bad deal, though. When weighing the scales of the economic opportunity versus the environmental risk, it is not even close – not even in the same hemisphere.

The Heads of Agreement, which the good doctor thought would be the cure that would pacify the electorate, turned out to give away the whole farm to Oban – waiving taxes, changing tax laws and giving away hundreds of acres of crown land. In return, what did we get?

A measly 250 permanent jobs and 600 construction jobs over a ten-year period.

That’s right – an average of 25 and 60 jobs per year. You heard it here first, brothers and sisters, Grand Bahama is on its way back to streets of gold (tongue-in-cheek).

Although we wish this was a joke being played on us by the government, the irony of it is that is perhaps the best way to describe this – a sad joke.

The eerily strange irony that Prime Minister Minnis brought fire and brimstone on the former government over concessions given away in a secret deal with Baha Mar, and now, hardly a year later, he has done far worse.

At least Baha Mar, like most resort projects, has employed into the thousands and has great overall residual value for the country. Conversely, the Oban Energies deal provides nothing of the sort. Aside from a $1.2m annual lease of crown land and a few jobs - which is a mere drop in the bucket - the Minnisled government has been outdone.

While the Bahamian people remain quite optimistic, believing that upon the government’s review of the Heads of Agreement there would be potential to renege on the deal, in all likelihood that is not what will happen.

The Oban president, Satpal Dhunna, has already stated the agreement is binding – meaning that an amateur oil company led by some sketchy characters holds all the marbles (literally and figuratively).

Nonetheless, the prime

PRIME Minister Hubert Minnis looks on as Oban Energies’ non-executive chairman, Peter Krieger, signs the heads of agreement. Krieger has since resigned from the company following public scrutiny.

Photo: Yontalay Bowe/OPM Media Services. minister’s admission of governmental missteps has many wondering what will change the current circumstances. However, it seems the deal is done, and this is nothing more than an act of appeasing the Bahamian

‘It is incumbent on the Bahamian people to demand more from their government while in government because five years is a long time.’ public and allowing Mr Dhunna time to gain the affection of the people on the ground.

This was attempted at a town meeting where Dhunna met with the people of East Grand Bahama last week to engage in discussion and answer questions regarding their concerns. As you could have imagined, opposing points of view were in attendance. Those who were justifiably sceptical because of the lack of information about a project of this size and scope taking place in their backyard without any community consultation were not easy on the Oban president.

Likewise, there were also those present who could not care less if this were a sweatshop trading in black market body parts provided Grand Bahamians were back to work.

Naturally, without public education, the same split going into the town meeting would remain. Many Bahamians do not understand the impact that an oil refinery can have on the environment. Many do not care. However, ignorance isn’t always bliss and everything that glitters is not gold.

The cultural propensity to look for projects that only marginally benefit a few Bahamians by way of jobs is going to be what kills this country if there is no evolution. Contrarily, our demand to understand the pros and cons of any deal being negotiated by the government before

they sign Heads of Agreements empowers us.

The pervasive mindset that many too often forget in the relationship between the elected and the electorate is that the people are the ones with the power.

Yet, we entrust our future and vitality to those we elect on the merits of the campaign promises they made when our desires were a means to their end.

Equally important, the reciprocal nature of governance dictates that, when in office, the government is a means to the collective end of the Bahamian people. However, with no mandate or checks and balances that are upheld among the citizenry until election time, a government runs the country as it sees fit for five years.

Certainly, we see how that has already turned out to be a costly mistake for this administration.

What may be more unfortunate is the fact this will never change unless we do something about it. It is maddening when we hear the darker side of desperation when people are ready to eat crumbs off the floor – pennies off the dollar on a $5.5bn deal.

Clearly, what you don’t know or care to know can not only hurt you, but also the generations to come after you’re gone. Aside from the very real physical danger of this deal, the lasting economic impact will more than likely prove to outweigh any potential benefit derived.

Oban will more than likely come and go. After the rich get richer and cash out, another Bahamian government may be in power, while our children will be grappling with the tax burden of getting rid of the refinery.

As it stands, the writing is on the wall. This deal is done. The government and Oban alike are in a period of damage control that will more than likely go on until May when the EIA is completed. However, there will be no deal-breakers, friends. Our government, instead of placing a higher premium on protecting the environment, opted to commit to fixing any issues found in the report.

Now, we can only hope for the best.

Going forward, it is incumbent on the Bahamian people to demand more from their government while in government because five years is a

long time.

While many of us are inquisitive, and through social media, we spark intense debates on what governments do, there are still huge factions within

the country that are guided by party allegiance and reserve their rights to understand what the government is doing.

A wise man once said, “Curiosity is the very basis

of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.”

Dear brothers and sisters, let that be food for thought.

PAGE 10 MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

THE TRUTH ABOUT SHANTY TOWNS - PART 1

By FREDERICK SMITH, QC

around 2,000 individuals.

In a population of approximately 250,000 people, this amounts to less than one percent. Do Bahamians really have any justification for vilifying these people as a plague of invaders who are threatening to take over the country? Is this perspective anything more than xenophobic, hate-driven scaremongering, which politicians tend to encourage and perpetuate in order to gain votes?

TO MANY Bahamians, the informal communities that exist on New Providence and Abaco and some of the larger Family Islands are evidence of an invasion; signs of a hostile takeover or aggressive plague that must be eradicated by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the people who live in these communities are spoken of as if they are hostile aliens, dangerous social contaminants, hardened criminals who should be shown no mercy.

Not only is this prevailing attitude alarmingly cruel, cold-blooded and inhumane; it is also, legally and factually speaking, totally misinformed. As with most narratives born out of fear and distrust of those who are perceived as different, this desire to “cleanse” our society of supposedly dangerous foreign elements is built on a framework of falsehoods, half-truths and convenient myths.

THE REAL INVADERS

A SHANTY town in New Providence.

MYTH 1: SHANTY TOWNS WERE CREATED BY ‘ILLEGAL HAITIANS’ Many of these communities, today known collectively and derogatorily as “shanty towns”, were not created by irregular migrants from Haiti.

Rather, they have their roots in decades-old government Crown Land grants to Bahamian farmers, who in turn hired labourers from all levels of society – men and women, local and foreign.

In many cases, the workers were allowed to live on the land and work it for a profit. In return, these occupants were expected to share a percentage of their crop with the landowner and perhaps pay some small amount in rent. Later, after the farmers had ceased

ATTORNEY Fred Smith. operations, some allowed the workers to continue occupying the land.

Over the years, others joined these communities. Among them were of course individuals who had entered The Bahamas without proper permission; but many others were migrants working and living in the

country legally. Others were Bahamians who befriended, formed bonds with and married those already living there, as well as locals who simply found themselves down on their luck with nowhere else to go.

In November 2014, when former minister of immigration Fred Mitchell launched his illegal and appalling crackdown on these communities, the first round of raids swept up more than 400 people – people whose rights were violated in the most egregious manner, whose property was destroyed and whose liberty was taken away.

Over the next few days, however, more than half of these shanty town dwellers had to be released, because they were found to either be Bahamian citizens or individuals who were in the country legally.

MYTH 2: THE OCCUPANTS HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE THERE A second inconvenient truth is that regardless of their nationality, the occupants of these communities cannot be deprived of their homes or other property by arbitrary dictate of government. Article 27 of the Bahamas Constitution declares that “no property of any description shall be compulsorily taken possession of, and no interest in or right over property of any description shall be compulsorily acquired” without “securing to any person having an interest in or right over the property a right of access to the Supreme Court, whether direct or on appeal from any other authority, for the determination of his interest or right, the legality of the taking of possession or acquisition of the property, interest or right, and the amount of any compensation to which he is entitled”.

Far from being some kind of illegal invasion, the fact is these communities follow long Bahamian tradition; the acquisition of land through sustained and unchallenged occupation, what is called “adverse possession,” is the genesis of a great deal of the Generation Land held by Bahamian families across the country. It is also how traditional communities such as Bain and Grants Town came about.

The law also says that if a person occupies a piece of land for 12 or more years and develops that land, he or she can lay claim to the property through the Quieting of Titles Act. Many shanty town residents have been there 20, 30 even 40 years or more, and therefore could indeed have a claim if the matter went before the courts. In addition, according to the Building Regulations Act, if an irregular structure has stood uncontested for over a year, the government is prevented by law from taking any arbitrary action to remove it.

In other words, the people living in these communities cannot be deprived of their homes without first being afforded the opportunity to go before a judge and plead their case. Neither the PLP nor the FNM has the right to simply drive people off the land, bulldoze their homes and destroy their property, and any government that does so is breaking the law.

MYTH 3: ‘DIRTY HAITIANS’ ARE CREATING UNSANITARY CONDITIONS Another misconception often taken as fact is that the “dirty illegal Haitians” in these communities are to blame for the often unsanitary conditions and the attendant health and safety risks. Bound up in this particular myth is a whole host of petty generalisations which are regularly used

Meanwhile, there is a class of bona fide invaders who actually do pose a clear and urgent threat to land and resources which properly belong to the Bahamian people. Far from being denounced by the public and persecuted by the authorities, these invaders are honoured and celebrated; the red carpet is rolled out for them at every possible opportunity and fawning politicians regularly gift them economic benefits that Bahamians themselves will never to justify the visceral aver- be lucky enough to enjoy.

I refer to the seemingly sion some Bahamians feel towards Haitians, who they unending stream of wealthy tend to stereotype as dis- foreign investors who come ease-ridden, unhygienic and here knowing they will be granted huge swathes of dirty.

Firstly, any person who Crown Land for free or next labels another as “dirty” by to nothing. These insurgents nature because of the cir- and occupiers woo hapcumstances in which they less politicians, sometimes are forced to live displays a with bribe money, always shocking level of ignorance the promise of “jobs, jobs, about the realities of pov- jobs!” In reality they merely erty. Anyone who portrays preside over a further entrenchment the degradation involved Meanwhile, there of the neo-plantation mentality in the struggle in which rich, for survival is a class of bona as a matter fide invaders who white foreigners are the of choice is actually do pose masters and clearly blind to the incred- a clear and urgent Bahamians are relegated ible privilege threat to land to the menial afforded to and resources tasks with little those lucky to no chance enough to con- which properly of job mobility trol their own belong to the or other betterdestiny. There, Bahamian people. ment of their but for the circumstances. grace of God, Meanwhile, they take our go all of us.

As to who is most to precious land and natural blame for the unsanitary resources for their own use, conditions themselves, a often pollute and destroy 2013 report by the Bahamas the sensitive surrounding Department of Environ- environment, then ship all mental Health found that: of the real profits out of “An emerging trend is the the country. Peter Nygard, increasing number of Baha- Resorts World Bimini, mians (or persons, who Guana Cay and now Oban claim to be Bahamian) who – we know the names and live in or frequent these faces of these invaders well. towns. Many of the long What many Bahamians do term shanty town occu- not know, or do not wish pants express that the ‘new to recognise, it these chararrivals’ do not have the acters have done and are same reverence for proper doing far more harm to our hygiene and respect for law society and economy than and order resulting in the shanty town dwellers ever could. decline of the towns.”

MYTH 4: ILLEGAL SHANTY TOWN DWELLERS ARE ‘TAKING OVER THE COUNTRY’ The last census in 2010 found the total population of The Bahamas at the time was 351,000, and that around 290,000 of them were Bahamians. In other words, according to the Department of Statistics, 61,000 nonBahamians were living here.

Of that number, 5,600 were North Americans, 1,700 South Americans, 1,700 Asians, more than 5,000 were Jamaicans and about 3,600 were from Europe.

Upwards of 40,000 are therefore presumed to be Haitians, and many Bahamians extrapolate from this that there are tens of thousands of “illegals” in the country. However, a great many Haitian nationals live in this country legally, whether on work permits, as spouses of Bahamians or under some other lawful arrangement. In addition, there are many thousands of Bahamian-born children of foreigners, including Haitians, who have a right to be registered as citizens upon application on their 18th birthday. And, as multiple recent rulings by The Bahamas Supreme Court have upheld, these individuals cannot be referred to as “illegals” as they have a right to be here.

According to the 2013 DEHS report, the combined number of shanty town dwellers in New Providence is somewhere

A HUMANE SOLUTION Obviously though, something must be done. No one can dispute that shanty town communities are plagued by unsafe living conditions, substandard building practices, pollution of the environment and serious public health risks. The solution of the last PLP government – and it would seem the intention of this new administration as well – is simply to bulldoze the homes, thereby destroying the lives of hundreds of human beings, many of them innocent children, many of whom have done nothing wrong in living there. These people now live in constant fear and distress that their entire world will be ripped away from them at any moment, a dreadful Sword of Damocles suspended over their head.

Human rights activists hope for a day when this sensitive and complex matter is not longer subject to blunt-force, brutal “final solutions” which tear lives and people apart. We hope our government will one day be sufficiently visionary and caring to approach it innovative thinking, fair and legal solutions and most of all, compassion and humanity. How long we will have to wait depends on whether or not this current FNM administration plans to live up to its promise to govern in a new way and protect the rights of all the people.

• Part 2 of this piece will examine a range of possible solutions to the shanty town issue that do not involve breaking the law or violating the rights of individuals.

THE TRIBUNE EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

Monday, March 26, PAGE 11 11 MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018, 2018 PAGE

EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE IN CARIBBEAN ELECTIONS IS REAL BEFORE getting into the thrust of the serious and threatening matter that lies at the heart of this commentary, I declare that I was an integral part of the management of the campaign of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) for the March 21 General Election, and I managed its communications campaign.

It is well-known now that the ABLP won 15 of the 17 parliamentary seats, losing 1 to the United Progressive Party (UPP) and failing to keep the Barbuda seat from falling into the hands of the Barbuda Peoples’ Movement (BPM).

The victory was the result of confidence in the competence of Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, to continue to grow the economy; implement close to US$3 billion in public sector and private sector investments over the next five years; create thousands of new jobs; and improve the quality of life generally.

It was also achieved by a widespread belief, evident in the results of the election, that the candidates of the UPP had neither the competence nor the experience to satisfactorily deliver the social and economic improvements that the electorate expect. The UPP had only three persons with any experience in government and two of them were regarded as key players in the decline of the economy between 2008 and 2014 when the party served as the government.

I mention the above only by way of providing context. The real purpose of this commentary is to point out and emphasise the interference in the elections in Antigua and Barbuda

CHIEF executive of Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix.

and in other Caribbean countries by external forces with an interest in achieving their own ends.

The presence of external influences, particularly the now notorious SCL Group and its subsidiary, Cambridge Analytica, became obvious in the last two weeks of the Antigua and Barbuda campaign when deliberately false articles began appearing on internet blog sites, written by persons who had not previously scribbled one word about Antigua and Barbuda.

The false information about Prime Minister Gaston Browne, spread on the eve of the election, had the potential for materially affecting the election result had it not been rebutted swiftly and convincingly.

The evidence of an orchestrated campaign was the fact that the articles were promoted on the website of the UPP and on social media at a cost of thousands of US dollars. The final proof was the appearance on the UPP radio station of one of these bloggers, Monte Friesner, to promote the false information he had published on his website. Freisner and others were obviously compensated for trafficking the fake news that they manufactured.

The issue, however, is not about Friesner and other hired guns; it is about the persons and organisations behind them. Facebook has now banned Cambridge Analytica from its pages for abuse of its rules. It

was clear in the campaign for the March 21 Antigua and Barbuda general election groups like SLC and Cambridge Analytica were hired by firms with a vested interest in controlling the country’s Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP). The objective was to ensure that the Gaston Browne-led government did not return to office since, as with other cases, it had refused to allow enterprises to operate in ways that deprive the national treasury of revenues.

If Antigua and Barbuda did not have snap elections and a very short campaign, it is likely that external forces might have succeeded in influencing the election’s result. There would have been no way in which the ABLP would have been able to counter the expensive tactics of these rich organisations.

SCL is the prime suspect as the organisation hired to carry out the objectives of external agencies. It has operated secretly in the Caribbean for many years.

The news portal, Caribbean News Now, has

documented its activities which include: • The 2009 election in Dominica where it was hired to manage the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) campaign. Someone other than the UWP paid the US$1.5m invoice from SCL; • In Saint Lucia, in 2011, SCL offered to help run the government’s re-election campaign for free, in return for $1.9m project after the government was re-elected; • In St Kitts-Nevis, SCL managed the successful campaign of the Labour Party, and the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, published a story on March 22 (2018), revealing an SLC sting operation against the then leader of the opposition on behalf of the St Kitts Labour Party; • In 2004/5, SLC was also active in St Vincent and the Grenadines against Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and they returned in 2009 to help torpedo a referendum on constitutional reform.

SLC was also evident in Trinidad and Tobago, acting for persons in the United National Congress Party, and in the 2013 general elections in Barbados where it claims to have worked for the Democratic Labour Party. Alexander Nix, the now suspended chief executive of SLC’s subsidiary Cambridge Analytica, was known to operate in the Caribbean.

According to the British Daily Mail newspaper, the SCL Group reportedly claimed in a case study that they are skilled enough to launch a “sophisticated campaign of mass deception” to hoodwink the population. Nix is also reported to have told covert

reporters that “we just put information into the bloodstream of the internet and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again over time to watch it take shape”. SCL bragged that the campaign of dirty tricks was so successful that “it’s unattributable, untrackable”.

In the case of the recent general elections in Antigua and Barbuda, a great deal of effort and resources had to be devoted to exposing and refuting false information fed to the public on social media and on internet blog sites, such as the one operated by Monte Friesner.

It is clear that external forces, intent on achieving their own objectives, have been operating in the Caribbean for some time using the Internet and social media to condition opinion through the manufacturing and distribution of false information.

However, they could not succeed without the collusion of political parties which, in their own desire to attain power, engage them for such nefarious activity.

It is a frightening and worrying development that should be curbed quickly or democracy in the region will be undermined and, unsuspecting Caribbean electorates, will be the victims.

• Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organisation of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto.

The views expressed are his own.

PAGE 12, Monday, March 26, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

‘Knee-jerk citizenship changes inhumane’ from page one

Mr Smith said “the new policy of denying certain people born in the Bahamas the right to citizenship is inhumane, unconstitutional and discriminatory.”

He added: “His (Mr Symonette) perverse attempt to relegate some children of non-citizens to permanent residency is an unreasonable and shortsighted knee-jerk reaction that cannot stand up in a court of law.

“I remind the minister that ‘policy’ is not a vehicle for making new rules outside the law, but rather a tool for implementing already existing laws. And there is nothing currently in the law that supports this rash move. Mr Symonette must also remember that his government cannot either enact policy or pass any news laws which violate the rights and protections enshrined in the Bahamas Constitution. By any objective measure, this proposed bureaucratic segregation of certain individuals is a clear

ATTORNEY Fred Smith.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/ Tribune Staff and flagrant violation of the constitutional right to freedom from discrimination.”

Speaking in the House of Assembly last week, Mr Symonette indicated persons born in this country to non-Bahamian parents, who have missed the constitutionally entitled period to apply for citizenship between 18 and 19, will only be granted permanent residency with the right to work unless other circumstances

entitle them.

“Persons born in The Bahamas, lived here all of their lives, (who) apply between 18 and 19 will be considered under the constitutional entitlement as to whether or not they are entitled to citizenship,” Mr Symonette said.

“Those who do not apply in time will be considered and, if applicable, will be granted permanent residency with the right to work. There are obviously other aspects of the rule that apply in terms of length of stay, criminal record and so on and so forth.

“In order for an individual who falls into this category to obtain permanent residency status, he or she must be able to satisfy regularisation requirements, including presenting a passport and identification.

“Mr Speaker, that is the way we will be moving on as we go on,” Mr Symonette continued.

He added: “Unless other circumstances entitle them to, (they) will only be granted permanent

residency with the right to work, and not citizenship.”

Yesterday, Mr Smith said the Constitution does not provide for any “prejudicial consequences” for those who do not apply for citizenship between 18 and 19.

He believes the proposed change would intentionally affect the children of Haitian migrants disproportionately and is a “knee jerk” reaction to the landmark case of Jean Rony Jean-Charles.

“This move amounts to the unlawful targeting of an ethnic minority – an extremely serious matter for The Bahamas, both internally and with regard to our reputation on the international stage,” Mr Smith said.

He added: “Shockingly, what the FNM government now proposes is a situation in which foreign nationals can be granted citizenship

by Cabinet; but persons born in this country, who have broken no law and known no other home, cannot. These individuals may have failed to meet the non-binding

deadline for automatic registration as citizens for various reasons. Obstacles often include: inability to afford the fees or translation of documents, which can cost many hundreds of dollars; difficulty securing the necessary documents themselves, which often requires travel to Haiti; and an inability to apply because the applicants are not in The Bahamas, having been unlawfully deported with their parents, sometimes years before; the sad reality of the Immigration Department losing multiple peoples’ applications, forcing them to apply again.

“Suddenly now, by ministerial diktat, these individuals must apply for permanent residency and pay a fee of $10,000. This is a practical impossibility for most applicants, as the government well knows.

The policy can only be construed as a tactic aimed at surgically removing as many individuals of Haitian descent as possible; ‘eradicating’ their presence in The Bahamas – just as the government said it would

do with the informal communities of both Haitians and Bahamians which they so dismissively and derisively refer to as ‘shanty towns.’

“Even for those few able to afford permanent residency, huge challenges remain. They cannot vote or open a business on their own, and will find it almost impossible to secure a loan from a bank. The will face increased hospital, school and other expenses. They will not be able to own shares in any companies or trade on the Bahamas stock exchange, and will likely face challenges traveling and getting a US Visa.

“The FNM seems intent upon creating a nightmare scenario for this particular group of people, for no other reason than their ethnic heritage. The government would make second-class citizens of them, simply in order to appease the more xenophobic elements of the public, in continuance of their predecessors’ policy of selling their souls in exchange for votes.”

MITCHELL DOUBTS POLITICAL WILL TO TACKLE SHANTY TOWNS

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

A BUILDING marked for destruction in a shanty town.

THE government’s proposed census of shanty town communities could be slowed by people within the Minnis administration, according to Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Senator Fred Mitchell, who on Friday suggested the promises made by the government before the 2017 election could limit its “political will”.

Mr Mitchell in a statement to The Tribune on Friday, said Labour Minister Dion Foulkes will soon test the limits of “political reality” when he attempts to raze shanty towns across the country.

Mr Mitchell further insisted that if Mr Foulkes is indeed serious about his plans, there will come a point where he may very

well have to “fight his own party”.

On Wednesday, Mr Foulkes, who is chairman of the government-appointed shanty town committee, revealed 11 teams were being trained ahead of a census exercise planned for shanty towns spread across the capital. The census was scheduled for Saturday, however it was postponed.

He said the intention was for the government to glean an understanding of the demographics involved as it moves to clean up the capital and more broadly the country.

In response on Friday, Mr Mitchell said the pronouncements and most of what Mr Foulkes has done with the committee in recent weeks have made him “laugh out loud”.

“Sound and fury signifying nothing,” Mr Mitchell said.

“There is nothing new under the sun. The PLP has been there and done that,” continued Mr Mitchell.

“He will have to fight his own party when the action hits the fan and the push back comes from migrant communities and their allies in the country, the phoney human rights activists.

“The fact that at least one of those activists believes that he bought the election for the FNM will make

it doubly difficult.”

The former Fox Hill MP added: “We shall see whether the political will is really there to do this given what the FNM promised the shanty town community in order to get their support in the last election.

The chickens will come home to roost.”

Mr Mitchell said what is required to adequately address the immigration crisis is not “ministerial histrionics,” but rather a “solid multi-disciplinary programme” Inclusive of conversations with the Bahamian public about what it will really cost and why for public health and national security it must be done.

The government’s shanty town committee has toured many of the shanty towns in The Bahamas and has narrowed down who the Bahamian landowners are.

While there is no clear indication at this point when the exercise will be completed in New Providence, the minister said census officials will focus their attention on the Family Islands when this is done.

On Sunday, March 18, the committee toured Farm Lands, Sand Banks, the Mud and Pigeon Peas shanty towns in Abaco where they got a sobering picture of the urgent need to overhaul these areas.

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THE TRIBUNE

TRIBUTES TO FRENCH OFFICER WHO SWAPPED FOR HOSTAGE

TREBES, France (AP) — A French bishop paid tribute Sunday to a police officer who lost his life after swapping himself with a supermarket employee held hostage by an Islamist extremist, saying his heroic sacrifice helped save the nation.

Survivors and families of the four victims of Friday’s rampage of attacks packed the Saint-Etiennede-Trebes church for the special Mass honoring Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame.

Members of the region’s Muslim community were among those mourning at the special Palm Sunday service in the southern town of Trebes, near the medieval city of Carcassonne. The manager of the supermarket sat in the front row, alongside her husband, the town mayor.

The bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne, Alain Planet, hailed Beltrame’s “extraordinary act, extraordinary devotion”.

“It is better that one man dies for the people, so that the nation doesn’t perish,” the bishop said.

The Islamic State group claimed that the attacker — Radouane Lakdim, 25, born in Morocco — was answering its call to target nations in the US-led coalition fighting IS militants in Syria and Iraq.

Lakdim was killed by police on Friday after Beltrame helped them storm the market. Lakdim also killed the supermarket’s butcher, a shopper and a passenger in the car that Lakdim had hijacked earlier in nearby Carcassonne.

37 DEAD IN SHOPPING CENTRE FIRE MOSCOW (AP) — A devastating fire at a shopping centre in a Siberian city killed 37 people and left 69 others missing on Sunday, many of them children, a Russian state news agency reported.

The Tass agency quoted firefighters as saying that 40 of the missing at the fourstory Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo were children.

An additional 43 people were injured in the blaze, the report said.

There has been no immediate information on the cause of the fire at the mall, which is about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow. But Tass reported that the fire started on the top floor and consumed an area of about 1,500 square meters (16,150 square feet).

STORMY DANIELS, left, during an interview with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” last night.

Photo: CBS News/60 Minutes via AP

Porn star: I was threatened after Trump sexual encounter WASHINGTON Associated Press ADULT film star Stormy Daniels says she was threatened to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006, telling her story in a highly anticipated interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” broadcast Sunday.

Daniels said she was threatened by an unidentified man in Las Vegas to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump, an incident that she said happened while she was with her young daughter. She said in the interview that she had one encounter of consensual sex with the future president.

“He knows I’m telling the truth,” said Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. She does not allege that she was coerced in her encounter with Trump, saying, “This is not a ‘Me too.’ I was not a victim.”

The adult film actress provided little new evidence of her alleged 2006 affair with Trump but said she faced intimidation tactics aimed at ensuring her silence in 2011.

Daniels said that in the incident, in a parking lot, the man told her: “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” She said he then looked at her daughter and said, “That’s a beautiful

little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”

Daniels received a $130,000 payment days before the 2016 presidential election for her silence and has sought to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement.

The White House did not immediately comment Sunday on the interview.

Trump, through his representatives, has denied the allegations. His attorney, Michael Cohen, has said Trump never had an affair with Daniels. Cohen has said he paid the $130,000 out of his pocket.

Cohen has said neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels and he was not reimbursed for the payment. However, Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti told “60 Minutes” he has documents showing Cohen using his Trump Organization email address in setting up the payment and that the nondisclosure agreement was sent

by FedEx to Cohen at his Trump Organization office in Trump Tower.

In the interview, Daniels described a sexual encounter with Trump that began with him talking about himself and showing her an issue of a magazine with his picture on the cover. She said she asked, “Does this ... does this normally work

for you?” He was taken aback, she says. “And I was like, ‘Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it.’” She says she then ordered him to drop his pants and, in a playful manner, “I just gave him a couple swats.”

She said they talked some more, although he quit talking about himself, and that she became more comfortable.

“He was like, ‘Wow, you — you are special. You remind me of my daughter.’

You know — he was like, ‘You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.’”

She said after dinner in Trump’s room, they had sex.

He didn’t use a condom, she said, and she didn’t ask him to. Afterward, he asked to see her again, she said.

Daniels said that before they had sex Trump had broached the idea of her being a contestant on “The Apprentice,” and she likened it to a “business opportunity.” She said he called her several times and would ask if they could get together again and that he had an update for her. She said she felt that he was dangling the opportunity to keep her coming back.

“Of course. I mean, I’m not blind. But at the same time, maybe it’ll work out, you know?” Daniels said.

In July 2007, a year after

they had met, Daniels said Trump asked to meet with her privately at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

She said they did not have sex, but he wanted to.

Daniels reported that Trump called her the following month to say he had not been able to get her a spot on his TV show. She said they never met again.

Daniels was asked why she’s talking now: “Because it was very important to me to be able to defend myself,” she said.

Daniels said she was fine saying nothing at all. “But I’m not OK with being made out to be a liar, or people thinking that I did this for money and people are like, ‘Oh, you’re an opportunist.

You’re taking advantage of this.’ Yes, I’m getting more job offers now, but tell me one person who would turn down a job offer making more than they’ve been making, doing the same thing that they’ve always done?”

“60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper noted during the interview that Melania Trump had recently given birth just a few months before. “Did he mention his wife or child at all in this?” Cooper said. “ “I asked. And he brushed it aside, said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, you know, don’t worry about that. We don’t even, we have separate rooms and stuff’” Daniels said.

The CBS interview came

as Trump deals with allegations about his sexual exploits long before he ran for president.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal told Cooper in a CNN interview broadcast Thursday that her affair with Trump began at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2006.

McDougal said she ended the relationship in 2007 out of guilt.

McDougal has filed suit in Los Angeles seeking to invalidate a confidentiality agreement with American Media Inc., the company that owns the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.

It paid her $150,000 during the 2016 presidential election.

The lawsuit alleges that McDougal was paid for the rights to her story of an affair, but the story never ran. It also alleges that Cohen was secretly involved in her discussions with American Media.

Trump is also facing a New York defamation lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice.”

Zervos has accused Trump of unwanted sexual contact in 2007 after she had appeared on the show with him, and sued after he dismissed the claims as made up.

A judge ruled the lawsuit can move forward while the president is in office.

STUDENTS MARCH TRUMP ‘TO OVER GUN LAWS OUST SHULKIN’ FROM VA ROLE

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning to oust embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin amid an extraordinary rebellion at the agency and damaging government investigations into his alleged spending abuses, three administration officials told the Associated Press on Sunday.

Two officials said an announcement on Shulkin could happen this week, subject to Trump’s final decision as the White House hones in on possible replacements to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.

ONE DEAD IN SAUDI BARRAGE DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Shiite rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia late Sunday on the third anniversary of a kingdom-led war in Yemen, with fragments of one missile over Riyadh killing one person and wounding two. The casualties were the first in Saudi Arabia’s capital since the Saudi-led war in Yemen began in March 2015.

WASHINGTON DC Associated Press

CHARLIE Goodman looked at the massive crowd around him, the largest youth-led protest in Washington since the Vietnam War era. He listened to people speak about toughening gun laws.

They included some of his peers at the Florida high school who’ve sparked this movement, as well as the nine-year-old granddaughter of the Rev Martin Luther King.

When she spoke, he was moved to tears.

“This is truly a revolution,” said Goodman, a sophomore at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were gunned down last month.

“We can really change the world.”

The marches unified hundreds of thousands of people in cities across the country and have galvanised this movement, he and others say. Now they are vowing to get young voters registered and send a message in upcoming elections.

“We have a lot of people who are inspired,” said Kobey Lofton, a student from Chicago’s South Side who also traveled overnight to Washington on Friday with 12 busloads of fellow

students and adults.

Before the march, Lofton and his fellow Peace Warriors at North Lawndale College Prep High School had already met with the Florida students — young people from different worlds, but both impacted by gun violence.

Now they and other students across the country are planning voter registration drives through the fall.

Voter registration groups, including Rock the Vote, Voto Latino and HeadCount, a nonpartisan group that usually focuses on registering people at concerts and music festivals, also helped mobilise teams at Saturday’s marches in 30 US cities and have created a registration tool kit for high school students.

“I’ve never felt the energy that I felt,” HeadCount spokesman Aaron Ghitelman said of the registration training that preceded the march in Washington. In a matter of hours, he said the groups registered nearly 5,000 people, many of them millennials.

“More young people are realising that we can have a voice and we can have a seat at the table,” he said.

“But people realise that you have to fight for that seat at the table.”

“We have to force them to do something,” agreed Lofton, who was referring

DEMONSTRATORS hold up signs during a rally at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando, Florida, as a part of the nationwide protest against gun violence across the US on Saturday.

Photo: Joe Burbank /Orlando Sentinel via AP to elected officials, includ- statistics. It’s an embarrass- they felt excluded. ing President Donald ing turnout,” Kasky said.

Kyle Kashuv, another Compared with 2012, student at the Florida Trump. The White House issued a statement about voter turnout for millen- school, appeared on the student-led march and nials, those ages 18 to 35, “Face the Nation” to also pointed to the presi- increased to just below 50 voice his support for the dent’s support for the Stop percent in the last presiden- 2nd Amendment and for School Violence Act, which tial election, according to enforcement of existing authorised grants to schools the Pew Research Center gun laws. He expressed his to bolster security and and US Census data. But disappointment that he was attempts to improve back- that turnout still lags behind not invited to speak at Satother generations. ground checks. urday’s march and placed Still, Dianne Daley, blame for the deadly shootBut Cameron Kasky, a student leader at Marjory a 60-year-old corporate ing at his school on local Stoneman Douglas High events planner from Long law enforcement and the School, says the current Beach, California, said the FBI. laws and legislation don’t students have done a lot to • Rick Santorum, a inspire their older peers. go far enough. former Republican Sena“Maybe that’s what it’s tor from Pennsylvania and The students, he said, are demanding an assault weap- going to take — children now a CNN commentaons ban, prohibition of sales leading us,” Daley said. tor, suggested Sunday that of high-capacity magazines She comes from a family students shouldn’t look to and universal background of educators and marched others to solve their probchecks. But Kasky said this Saturday in her hometown lem. “Do something about won’t happen if his peers with three generations of maybe taking CPR classes across the nation don’t get her family, including her or trying to deal with situ87-year-old father, an Air ations that when there is a more involved.

“The youth of Amer- Force veteran. violent shooter that you can Some students from “the actually respond to that,” ica needs to step up and start voting. (You) see the silent minority” still said Santorum said.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, March 26, 2018, PAGE 15

TEACHERS AND SALARIED WORKERS CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT UNION LTD. The Following Persons are asked to Report to The Teachers & Salaried Workers Cooperative Credit Union Limited Urgently.

NASSAU BRANCH Adderley, Joycelyn L. Adderley, Shenique Patrice Allen, Lloyd L. Anthony, Frederick J. Armbrister, Collingwood E. Armbrister, Joy Nicole Baillou, Darnell Bastian, Brandon A. Bastian, Elvina Beckford, Nicole Leamna Bonimy, Bryant N. Bowe, Hughdon (Exuma) Bowe, Nelson Bowleg, Camille E. Bowleg, Grace Brennen, Edward L. (Bimini) Brice, Alfred Bridgewater, Douglas A. Brown, Sherry Brown, Tamika Nikia Brown-Rolle, Archilean Bullard, Cecile S. Bullard, Tessa N. Burrows, Kerryn A. Butler, Doriel Butler, Matthew Carey, Monalisa Feliciana Carroll, Sheila Cartwright, Dexter Chipman, Naomi Chipman, Reece D. Cleare, Jazze Jonelle M. Coleby, Veldia Coleby-Pickstock, Elscene A. Collymore, Shelly C. Cooke, Rockcliffe E. Cox, Fritz Cuffe, Mario A. Cunningham, Jasmine Curtis, Ruth E. Curry, Quintin L. Darling, Steven Davis, Chakara M. Dean, Evangeline Deveaux, Jodie Deveaux, Linda B. Dorsett, Thecla M. Edgecombe, Jasmine Etienne, Raphael Etienne, Vonchelle A. Farrington, Sandor Fenalus-Robinson, Nellie Ferguson, Derek T. Ferguson, Stephen Ferguson, Tanya Fisher, Sean Kelly Forbes, Delicia Forbes, Minerva O. Francis, Angelo Alexander Frazer, Bernard Gaitor, Clifton Gibson, Arthel Gibson Gibson, Joanne Gordon, Tara A. Grant, Charmaine Griffin, Barry N. Hall, Cara B. Hanchell, Kervin C. Hanna, Gwendolyn Higgins, Sydney W. Horton, Zelma D. Isaacs, Darmeeko Jennings, Albertha Joanne, Cunningham Johnson, James Christopher Johnson, Mary K. Johnson, Patrick Cleveland Johnson, Shakera V. Johnson, Sherwin A. Julien-McNeil, Ruth King, Alverne P. King, Dellarese S. King-Nixon, Paulette Knowles, Daniel M.

Laing, Jerome Lewis, Kristin Lightbourne-Darvil, Florence Long, Rosalie Major, Dana Major, Lisa M. Marshall, Kimberley McClain, Gaydene C. McIntosh, Jackson M. Mckenzie, D’Niqua S. K. McKinney, Demoria D. Miller, Cyril Miller, Daconil Desheen Miller, Louis Samuel A. Miller, Odaley Mills, Sandra Minns, Shantel Minus, Patricia Moss, Marilyn Yvonne Munroe, Maedawn Murphy, Audie John Murphy, Clarina Wright, Neil K. Neilly, Thudgelynn Maria Newbold, Soeurette Nixon, Everette Nouguez, Natasha Okezie, Shonell Périgord, Ricardo M. Rees, Pearl M. Riley, Idamae Roberts, Andre K. Robinson-Spencer, Kendra Rolle, Alphonzo Rolle, Bryan L. Rolle, Charlene Rolle, Denise M. Rolle, Emerson S. Rolle, Irgena M. Rolle, Lendevenchi Rolle, Samara Rolle, Warren A. Russell, Jane T. Russell, Michael T. Sands, Archlyn R. Sawyer, Amanda Scott, Aretha M. Sears, Franklyn A. Seymour, Hyacinth Smith, Sean Gibran Storr-Mcintosh, Nechia Strachan, Marilyn Stuart, DeAngelo Stuart-Bain, Valaria O. Stubbs, Kelson Sturrup, Portia N. Symonette, Letitia C. Taylor, Anthony I. Taylor-Newton, Braquelle Thompson-Russell, Christina M. Tinker, Doris E. Walker, Patricia Wallace, David Ward, D’Nard Ward, Gizelle Wells, Chercovie Williams, Felita Williams-Virgil, Jestina Williams, Lorraine Williamson, Miriam R. Wisdom, Sonya L. Zonicle, Paulette

FREEPORT BRANCH Adderley, Kenya Albury Stafford Albury, Deidra Albury, Prescill Albury, Stafford Ambrister, Lauralee Andrews, Tyrone Archer, Corey Archer, Ingrid Armbrister, Lauralee Armstrong-Bowleg, Anishka Astwood, Monique

Augustin, Velma Bain, Kashad Bain, Necola Bain, Prescott Barr, Nekia Bastian-Roberts, Grace Beckles,Anika Bell-Williams, Patreen Bethel, Carnard Braynen, Bernadette Braynen, Joy Brice, Thelma Brown, Andrew Brown, Tino Brown-Roker, Carla Burke, Hugh Burrows, Doris Butler, Keeran Cartwright, Asanette Carver, Karen Christie, Jeanine Christie-Martin, Brakell Colebrook-Claude, Carnell Cooper, Jayson Courtney, Leon Culmer, Anescka Darville, Eleanor Darville, Nelson Davis, Priscilla Dean,Shirley Decarvalho, Anne Demeritte, Deno Demeritte, Shenequa Douglas, Leon Edgecombe, Dolencia Edgecombe, Miriam Edwards-Hall, Denise Ellis, Oswald Elliston, Wesley Evans, Bernard Farquharson, Elaine Farrington, Christian Ferguson, Amanda Ferguson, Harry Ferguson, James Ferguson, Wilfred Forbes, Clint Forbes, Michelle Forbes, Raphael Forbes-Adderley, Matrice Forbes-Bowe, Kathy Ann Fountain, Ricardo Francis, Clifton Frazier, Theada Fritz, Jermmie Gilbert-Saunders, Kethann Goddard, Ann Grant, Gail Grant, Pedrol Greene, Sintenie Hamiltion, Sheba Hamilton, Pratrick Hanna, Constance Hanna, Donell Harris, Kenroy Hepburn, Bernard Hepburn, Darrel Hield, Daleina Hutcheson, Shenika Israel, Linda Jack, Jackiely Johnsion-Sears, Pauline Johnson, Carmel Johnson, Deborah Johnson, Mary Johnson-Bain, Tina Jolly, Dwight Jones, Oral Joseph, Edwin King, Elton Knowles, Christian Knowles, Kendal Knowles, Kendal I. Laing-Bodie, Patricia Lake, Jocelyn Layne, Christian Lewis, Julese Barbara Lightbourne, Jamaal Lockhart, Jerome Lockhart, Rhonda

Lockhart, Waltia Lord, Tabitha Lowe, Laverne Lundy,Diana Mader,Tia Major, Allyson Major, Hope Major, Judy Major,Karen Malakius, Antoinette E. Marhsall, Govan Martin,Pierre Martin-Wildgoose, Tiffany McIntosh, Melonie McIntosh,Ismae Mcphee, Ghea McPhee, Raquel McPhee,T-Von Miller, Clayton Moncur,Franco Monroe,Michelle Morris, Axton Morris,Barry Morris,Doretha Moxey, Benjamin Moxey, Roger Munnings, Angela Munnings, Rendal Munroe, Beth Musgrove, Antionette Musgrove, Karlene Nesbitt, John Nesbitt, Yvonne Nouguez, Natasha Oconno, Yvette Paul, Vitney Pickstock, Alson Pinder, Javanno Pinder, Otiesa Pinder-Lundy,Shantell Poitier,Dorrington Porter, Dwight Pratt, Alexander Pratt, Sherelle Prince, Charlyne Rahming, Larissa Richardson, Simeon Robert-louis, Lunnette Roberts, Kenneth Robinson, Anthony Roker, Priscilla Rolle, Alexander Rolle, Iregena Rolle, Jacqueline C. Rolle, Lewis Rolle, Pamela Rolle, Van Rolle, Virginia E. Rolle-Thompson,Jolyn Russell, Audley Sands, Arthur Sands-Been, Christine Saunders-Neely, Anneathera Sealy, Charious Seide, Aritta Seymour, Selwyn Shepherd, David Simms, Joel Smith, Donesha Smith, Erica Smith, Sanovia Smith, Triskey Smith,Vanessa Spencer, Shurlene Stoddart, Velores Storr, David Strachan,Wanda Stuart, Jacqueline Stubbs, Benjamin Stubbs, Lorene Stupart, Deon Sutherland, Devon Sweeting, Delcardo Tanelus, Memos Taylor, Deserea Thompson, Danielle Thompson, Richard Thompson, Stephanie Thurston, Valarie Turnquest, Aldece

Vincent, Kylon Welsh, Jessica Wildgoose, Jefferson Williams, Avardo Williams, Henry Williams, Paul Williams, Shantell Williams, Sheila Wills, Shawn Wilson, Fabia Wilson, Godfrey Wilson, Jermaine Woodside, Jacqueline Wright, Monique Wright-Lockhart, Kandi

ABACO BRANCH Albury, Stanley Armbrister, Cindy Armbrister, Kem Austin, Tiffinee Bain, Clyde Bell, Paula Bethel, Dawn Bowe-Mullings, Simone Brennen-Clarke, Lynell Burrows, Roscow Campbell, Cyprianna Campbell, Glen Cornish, David Dames, Idamae Davis, Joy Davis, Lindsay Davis, Raymond Dawkins, Michael Dean, Garnet Delancy, Georgia Francis, Alexander Hudson, Yvonne Humes, Michael Humes, Sherry Huyler, Patrick Johnson, Jacqueline Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Nikim Jolly, Samuel Kemp, Justin Knowles, Stephen Lightbourne, Anthon Lightbourne, Clint Mackey, Mario Major, Portia McBride, Chovez McMullan, David Miller, Shanique Mitchell, Natasha Munroe-Forbes, Rosemary Oliver, Cecilia Paul, Deran Phillips, Margaret Pinder, Chere Rahming, Christopher Rahming, Krystal Roberts, Don Russell, Franklyn Scott, Telessa Simms, Jerrad Smith, Alisa Smith, Lavado Stuart, Joseph Sully, Samantha Swann, Charlotte Talbot, Nakaya Taylor, Vanessa Thompson, Calsey Tinker, Jexell Ward, Livingston Watkins, Crystal Williams, Antanice Williams, Ruth Williams, Shakera Wilmore, Dorolyn Wilson, Erica

PAGE 16, Monday, March 26, 2018

THE BAHAMAS Ministry of Labour hosted a “Labour on the Blocks” Initiative on Windsor Park in conjunction with The National Training Agency.

THE TRIBUNE

REECE CHIPMAN, MP for Centreville with attendees.

DION FOULKES, Minister of Labour.

PHOTOS: Lionel Smith

Cashiers accused of stealing $400,000 from employer

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FOUR cashiers at a local automotive services company in New Providence were arraigned in a Magistrate’s Court on Friday charged with collectively stealing more than $400,000 from their employer over a two-year period.

Anthonique Bowleg, Alice Murphy, Bradlisha Bullard and Shalesia Bannister appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain to answer to numerous fraud related charges concerning $495,325.57 that they are accused of stealing from Battery and Tyre Specialists from as far back as 2016.

And with the money they allegedly obtained illegally, Bannister and Bowleg are

alleged to have purchased numerous items, such as Michael Kors watches, multiple flatscreen televisions as well as jewellery from the David Yurman collection.

As for 27-year-old Bowleg of St Vincent Road, it is alleged that between April 14, 2017, and March 13, 2018, she stole $111,498.55 by reason of her employment, and laundered $111,498.49 between those dates.

Bowleg is also alleged to have used money that represented the proceeds of her criminal activities to purchase Michael Kors watches, a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses, a Gucci backpack, a Gucci luggage bag, a 42-inch flat screen television between April 24, 2017, and March 13, 2018, with the intent to conceal or disguise those items.

She is also alleged to have made numerous false

entries into the Battery and Tyre Specialists’ POS system, which she was also required to maintain, to show that between April 24, 2017, and March 7, 2017, some $17,871 worth of merchandise was returned to the company.

Murphy, 59, of Nassau Village, is alleged to have, between July 18, 2017, and March 14, 2018, stolen by reason of her employment, and laundered $33,208.13 between those dates.

She is also alleged to have made numerous false entries into her employer’s POS system, which she was required to maintain, to show that between July 22, 2017, to March 14, 2018, some $10,013.50 worth of merchandise was returned to the company.

She is also alleged to have dishonestly received $3,893.94 in cash, the

property of Battery and Tyre Specialists, on March 19, 2018.

Murphy and Bowleg were further charged with conspiring together to steal by reason of their employment between January 1, 2018, and March 14, 2018.

Concerning 27-year-old Bannister of Cottonwood Street, it is alleged that between January 4, 2016, and March 12, 2018, she stole $182,372.38 by reason of her employment, and attempted to launder $182,372.43 between those dates.

It is also alleged that between the dates in question, she used the proceeds of her criminal activities to purchase a 65-inch Samsung television; a 55-inch Samsung Smart TV; a ring, bracelet and two bangles from the David Yurman collection, two Citizen watches; two Michael Kors

watches; one Guess watch; and one Pandora bracelet with the intent to conceal or disguise those items.

Bannister is also alleged to have dishonestly received $1,315 in cash, the property of Battery and Tyre Specialists, on March 19, 2018.

She is also alleged to have made numerous false entries in the company’s POS system, which she too was required to maintain, to show that $39,468.54 worth of merchandise was returned to the company between January 6, 2016 and March 3, 2018.

Concerning 23-yearold Bullard of Washington Street, it is alleged that between January 12, 2016, and February 7, 2018, she stole $168,246.46 by reason of her employment, and also laundered that amount between those dates.

It is also alleged that

between March 26, 2016, and January 23, 2018, she made numerous false entries into her employer’s POS system, which she was also required to maintain, to show that $12,599 worth of merchandise was returned to the company.

All four women denied the charges as they were read out to them by the deputy chief magistrate.

Because of their not guilty pleas, the case was adjourned to June 7 for trial. Bail was denied and they were remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS) until that time.

They have the right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

Bjorn Ferguson represents Bowleg, Terrell Butler represents Bannister, Alex Dorsett represents Murphy while Nathan Smith represents Bullard.

UNION CHALLENGE DISMISSED OVER VARIATION OF OVERTIME

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal has dismissed a union’s challenge to the government’s unilateral variation of its members’ overtime rate in 2010, after concurring with a Supreme Court judge that the union’s existence as the relevant bargaining agent was not valid at that time.

Former appellate President Dame Anita Allen, along with Justices Jon Isaacs and Roy Jones, dismissed the Bahamas Customs Immigration & Allied Workers Union’s legal challenge of Justice Ian Winder’s ruling against its bid to contest the government’s March 5, 2010, order to pay customs and immigration officers a flat rate of overtime.

And in doing so, the appellate judges also affirmed Justice Winder’s finding that at the relevant time, there was an agreement between the government and the Bahamas Public Services Union — the former bargaining agent for the customs and immigration officers – on the issue.

According to the Court of Appeal ruling, the BCIAWU and its president Shandokan Wilson, along with former union president Sloane Smith and nine other appellants, had previously taken legal action over what was termed a “unilateral variation of salaries” by the government stemming from the implementation of a new shift system that was agreed to by the BPSU and the government in 2005.

At the time, the BPSU and the government agreed to the implementation of the shift system upon completion of a compensation study to determine whether remuneration of customs and immigration officers was commensurate with duties being performed by them.

The compensation study was to commence in 2006; however, there was no evidence to suggest if it was ever completed.

On March 5, 2010, the minister of finance gazetted an order that provided for the payment of a flat rate of overtime pay for customs and immigration officers placed at various ports of entry.

The flat rate to be applied was to be based upon the seniority of the officer involved.

The appellants charged that as a result of the new arrangements in 2010 and the appointment of approximately 175 new customs and immigration officers, the amount of overtime paid to them was significantly reduced.

They were placed in three shifts and required to work 40 hours a week and any time worked thereafter would not be overtime but would be considered an additional scheduled shift.

According to the ruling, on October 20, 2010, the BCIAWU was formed and on July 25, 2011, was formally recognised as the bargaining agent for employees in the Customs and Immigration Departments.

At some time in 2012, negotiations began between the government of The Bahamas and the BCIAWU. During the course of those negotiations, differences developed between the parties over what was termed a “unilateral variation of salaries” by the government arising from the implementation of the new shift system.

The union took the view that the proposed salary increase should include the amount lost in overtime pay. This was objected to by the government.

The issue was consequently taken up in the Supreme Court — initiated by the union – for a determination as to whether overtime formed part of the

worker’s wages.

However, Justice Winder ultimately found that the BCIAWU, although formed in 2010, was not recognised to represent the customs and immigration officers pursuant to Section 42 of the Industrial Relations Act, and as such could not legally, in 2010, be considered the bargaining agent for those employees.

The evidence before Justice Winder was that the BCIAWU was only recognised as the bargaining agent for immigration and customs officers in 2011.

The BCIAWU and the 11 other appellants filed a notice of appeal on April 18, 2016 containing several grounds of appeal, asking the appellate court to set aside Justice Winder’s findings.

However, the appellate justices said the union’s appeal can be “conveniently reduced” to a single issue: was the BCIAWU a valid, registered bargaining agent for immigration and customs officers on March 5, 2010 when the orders relating to overtime were made?

“The undisputed evidence before (Justice Winder), was that the BCIAWU was only recognised as the bargaining agent for immigration and customs officers in 2011,” the ruling said. “In my view the reference by (Justice Winder), to the union’s existence relates to the BCIAWU’s recognition by the minister as the bargaining agent for the customs and immigration officers and not the fact of their registration as a union.

“The answer to the question raised must be a resounding no, with the result that the appellants fail on this issue.

“For the above reasons the appellants’ appeal must be dismissed and the judgement of (Justice Winder), affirmed with cost to the respondents to be taxed if not agreed.”

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IL CARES Foundation hosted a fun-filled Easter egg hunt at Botanical Gardens on Saturday.

Photos: Lionel Smith

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