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PRIZE FOR TAKING THE JAB Restrictions off for fully vaccinated
By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net FULLY vaccinated people can travel to The Bahamas without a negative COVID19 RT-PCR test come May 1, Prime Minister
Dr Hubert Minnis announced yesterday. He said fully vaccinated travellers within the country also will be exempt from test requirements when travelling to and from New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Exuma and Eleuthera. SEE PAGES FOUR & FIVE
AFRICAN TOURIST ILLEGALLY FAMILY DEMAND ANSWER ON DETAINED FOR SEVEN YEARS WHY ‘RAPED’ INMATE HELD By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net THE government suffered another defeat in the courts yesterday when it agreed to apologise to an African man who was
unlawfully held in detention for nearly seven years after he travelled to The Bahamas from Jamaica for a three week vacation in 2010. The order to apologise — and to pay damages to the Ghana native — came
just a few weeks after the government released a number of asylum seekers from Cameroon who were detained in the Carmichael Road Detention Centre for almost two years. SEE PAGE THREE
By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net
FAMILY of a woman who was allegedly raped while detained at a government facility say they are worried about her welfare
while calling for answers and her immediate release. A sister of the victim, speaking on behalf of relatives outside of The Bahamas, told The Tribune yesterday there were many unknowns surrounding the alleged sexual attack on the
BLAZE VENDORS STILL WAIT FOR HELP By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
FRUSTRATED Potter’s Cay Dock vendors say they are still waiting to receive the promised assistance from the government more than a week after their stalls were completely destroyed in a fire. Owner of the “Tall Boy” stall, Dwain Bastian said vendors are fed up and just want the government to
DAMAGE at Potter’s Cay yesterday in the wake of the fire on April 11. stop “dragging their feet” on the matter. He is one of several business owners who lost
their stalls completely to the fire on April 11. Six were burnt to the ground while two other stalls were partially damaged in the incident. Mr Bastian also lost a boat in the fire. Since the blaze, there has been marked clean-up progress at the site – a situation vendors attributed to their hard work along with the help of others.
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
SEE PAGE TWO
mother-of-two from Paramaribo, Suriname. What’s more confusing is why she remained in the custody of The Bahamas government at the Carmichael Road Detention SEE PAGE THREE
FRONT PORCH
BRITISH MONARCHY IS AN ANACHRONISM FOR COUNTRIES LIKE OURS
PAGE EIGHT
PAGE 2, Thursday, April 22, 2021
BLAZE VENDORS STILL WAIT FOR HELP
from page one
REPAIRS under way at Potter’s Cay yesterday.
Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff
“I was amazed that we had doctors, lawyers and police out here helping us to clean Potter’s Cay Dock,” he said. “We also had people like Lincoln Bain who came by and brought two dumpsters and they did a good job.” Following clean-up efforts, Mr Bastian claimed the government has pledged to have an assessment carried out of the area, which he was told would take some four to six weeks to complete. However, he said no assessments have to been carried out so far, nor is it clear when will rebuilding work will begin in the area. “We have waited and waited and waited and sometimes we come out here from six o’clock in the morning and be out here until six o’ clock in the night and nothing has happened so it’s just a bunch of talk,” he told The Tribune yesterday. “The last time we sat down with Mr (Michael) Pintard, he told us that the assessment was going to take four to six weeks which I don’t think makes any sense. “We had a licenced engineer out here yesterday and he said he could come out here and said that would take him not even four to six hours but the minister say it gone take him four to six weeks. “I mean this space inside here ain’t even 200 feet long...I don’t see how this gone take any four to six weeks to do assessment work.” The situation has left workers discouraged, Mr Bastian said. The entrepreneur said it also doesn’t help that the country is still battling the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes finding work even more difficult during these hard times. He said: “The people out here are hurting. You have one or two vendors who need counselling from this and we need the
THE TRIBUNE government’s help like yesterday. We don’t need them to be dragging their feet and doing things when they want to do it. Come on man. “The people are the government. We put these governments in place, the MPs supposed to work for us and to serve us and that’s what their supposed to do. Come and make sure your people straight. “The government need to reconstruct and rebuild the stalls on Potter’s Cay Dock and strop dragging their feet because when other countries have disasters, they jump on board and send this money out of this treasury so what happened to the vendors, your own people, and you say Bahamians first?” Matthew Rolle, another vendor who lost his stall to the fire, also admitted that times are hard for workers. “Ends are not meeting,” he said. “Right now, we are working each other to assist each other but that soon stop because ain’t nobody have no more money because if Tall Boy have something, he will assist me and that money running out so now we ain’t gone have nothing to assist each other with. “We had some promises from the minister but….I want to see what’s going to happen this week.” For his part, Gregory Bowles, secretary general of Bahama Docks and Allied Venues Association, pledged the association’s assistance to help vendors as best as they can during these extraordinary times. “Right, now we are reaching out to some organisations to see how we could do some fundraisers to buy building material for them,” he said. “(But) we have guys who can get the work done. Once we have the material and the assistance that we need, we can do it. We just need materials to work with… and as soon as we’re given the green light to do the building because the government said they have to do an assessment.”
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, April 22, 2021, PAGE 3
African tourist illegally detained for seven years from page one In the judgment on liability order, the attorney general, minister of immigration, commissioner of police, director of immigration and the officer-in-charge of the Carmichael Road Detention Centre — who are all listed as defendants — agreed to “concede liability” to Joseph Amihere’s claims of “intolerable and inexcusable” treatment while being unlawfully imprisoned. According to Mr Amihere’s original writ of summons and a supplemental witness statement filed earlier this year, in September 2010, he travelled to The Bahamas from Kingston, Jamaica as a “lawful visitor”. “On or around October 1, 2010 I was travelling in Nassau on a jitney bus. After getting off the bus in the downtown area, I realised that I had lost my pouch with all my documents, including my identification and travel documents. The documents were my Ghanaian ID and driver’s licence and my passport,” a statement from Mr Amihere submitted to the court read. “I decided to wait in the downtown area to see if the
THE CARMICHAEL Road Detention Centre. bus would pass by the same was he the “subject of a route so I could get back deportation order under my documents. A few buses the Immigration Act”. stopped and I didn’t get on They also said while Mr the buses so maybe that Amihere was detained, caused people to become he was “beaten several suspicious and they may times” by Defence Force have called the police as and Immigration officers while waiting at the bus stop during routine searches of I was arrested by the police.” the dorms at the Detention After being held at the Centre. They said these factors, in Central Police Station for five days, Mr Amihere was addition to the unsanitary transferred to the deten- environment Mr Amihere tion facility where he was subject to while at remained until May 2017 the facility, proved he was when he was released on “deprived of his personal a successful habeas corpus liberty” and had sustained injuries, loss and damage. application. One such instance was Callenders & Co, the law firm representing Mr mentioned in Mr Amihere’s Amihere, noted their client witness statement, when he was never brought before recalled a “big fight” that the courts for breaching broke out in one of the any immigration laws nor dorms in June 2012.
“I went to the front office, to find an immigration or defence force officer to come and break up the fight and (the) officers came into the dorm and started hitting me with a baton which ended up injuring my left elbow. I was taken to the Flamingo Gardens Clinic for medical attention. After that they took me to the Princess Margaret Hospital where I spent three weeks. I still have a bulge in my left elbow. Up to now I still experience pain in my elbow. I use Bengay and a variety of painkillers to manage the pain.” He added: “Prior to 2015 the conditions of the Detention Centre were very bad. The toilets were always clogged. They
expected us to clean them but most of the time there were no cleaning products to use and so the bathrooms stunk... The shower stalls were clogged most of the time. We had to bathe in an open shower stall with dirty water trapped in the showers. There was no privacy. It was very degrading to me.” He said for the first six months he was at the facility, the dorm “was so crowded” that there were no beds available for many of the detainees. “I slept on the floor without sheet or blanket for six months,” he said. “The bed shortage ended in 2015 when they opened a new dorm for the Haitians and transferred them there. The conditions improved after that.” He also said he was transferred to the prison in Fox Hill several times during his detention, and still has “nightmares” about the horrible conditions he endured there. Mr Amihere also said when he first arrived at the Detention Centre, his cell phone and $200 cash were taken from him by the immigration officials, but the money was never returned to him after he was released. “I returned to the
Detention Centre after my release to request the return of my clothing and personal items but I was turned away as I was told that the items were thrown away,” he stated. “Everything that I had was lost in a flash.” Mr Amihere also said he lost contact with his immediate relatives in Ghana and his children in Jamaica since he was not able to use a phone while in the Detention Centre. He added that although he made an application for a work permit to help “sustain myself”, he has not received a response from the Department of Immigration since he submitted his application in November 2017. “This has caused me even more hardships,” Mr Amihere’s court documents note. “I have no money to take care of myself. I have been sleeping in an old abandoned car since my release. I have no income, no family here and I have no work permit.” Mr Amihere’s action asserts that he claims “aggravated and exemplary damages arising from his assault, battery, false imprisonment, and inhuman and degrading treatment”. The assessment of damages is scheduled for May 6.
FAMILY DEMAND ANSWER ON WHY ‘RAPED’ INMATE HELD from page one
Centre and was not deported despite finishing what is said to be a sentence for some kind of immigration infraction, the relative said. It is believed she was transferred to the detention centre after her sentence came to an end last August. “We as a family are very shocked as are her children that she has not seen for three and a half years,” the sibling said. According to the relative, the woman was allowed to make contact yesterday afternoon and revealed that despite assurances that she was being released, officials made the decision to have her remain in the country as the alleged rape is investigated.
Both of the women’s identities have been withheld to protect the victim. For a second day, The Tribune has sought a response from Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson and Director Clarence Russell. Neither official has responded. It is not clear if the alleged perpetrator is with immigration or a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer. Further, it is not known whether he was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of investigations or remains on active duty. The victim’s sister said she was also unclear as to the timeline of the alleged attack. She was also unsure of how her sister ended up in The Bahamas, saying she believed she had come into
the country for “vacation”. The mountain of questions has compounded their fears of her well-being and uncertainly over how a case of this nature will pan out in a foreign country. “She contacted me legally this afternoon,” the relative said. “She said she would be put on the flight last Monday, everything was already fine but she was later told that she was no longer allowed to travel to Suriname. “She was given the reason that an investigation is underway into the rape of her in the cell house. And that is the reason she contacted us as a family today (yesterday) that we should not expect her. “Our concerns are that she is not getting food and drink and that worries us and she fears for her life
that they can do something with her. Her sentence was three years and she has been there for three and a half years now. She should be released since August. “Yet, they still kept her. We are very worried. I don’t know what the reason is why they brought her back at the detention (centre) because the time of her detention has passed. But it
seems like the authority are playing a dirty rule in her case. “Please help us as a family. Please help us to release her from (custody). We as family and she are afraid because we do not know how criminal cases go abroad.” The Tribune was told by a high-level source on Tuesday that both the
Department of Immigration and Royal Bahamas Police Force were investigating. The alleged victim was to be deported to her home country earlier this week, but immigration officials decided against it, The Tribune understands. They want to ensure that the matter is investigated fully and properly, The Tribune was told.
PAGE 4, Thursday, April 22, 2021
THE TRIBUNE
HOTEL UNION UNEASY ABOUT US UPGRADE TO TRAVEL WARNING By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net
THE hotel union “is on edge” over the US State Department’s decision to upgrade its travel advisory to level four, warning Americans not to enter The Bahamas. The State Department’s upgraded warning followed similar advice from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which advised the same to American travellers on Monday. Darrin Woods, Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union president, told The Tribune the advisory could not have come at a worse time as industry workers were looking forward to an uptick in visitor arrivals at this time of year.
He said the advisory had planted a seed of doubt in the minds of potential visitors and could prove to be problematic for tourist arrivals. On Monday, the CDC cited a very high level of COVID-19 in the country as reason to increase the country’s health notice from level three to level four, saying people should “avoid all travel” to The Bahamas. The nation had remained at level three since late January, after previously being listed at level four by the CDC last year due to virus infections. “Any travel advisory is concerning, particularly at this time of year with tourists starting to come to this country,” Mr Woods said. “What is amazing is that
they are issuing this advisory when their numbers are through the roof. “I know that they had a spike over the weekend so it’s incumbent on our people to try their best to not let their guards down because obviously we are not out of the woods yet. This is the third wave and we are admonishing Bahamians not to let your guards down. Following the protocols because we don’t want the numbers to further increase.” He continued: “While we know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, we remain concerned about the new strain of the virus. This one seems to have a mind of its own.” On Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said that travellers within
the country who have been fully vaccinated will be exempt from COVID-19 test requirements during travel from New Providence, Grand Bahama, Exuma, Abaco and Eleuthera. He added that this will only apply when the traveller has had both jabs. Additionally, from May 1, people travelling to the country will be exempt from RT-PCR COVID testing once they are fully vaccinated and have passed a two-week immunity period. In response, Mr Woods said: “Even though you are fully vaccinated, that doesn’t mean you won’t contract the virus.” Yesterday the US Embassy in Nassau reasserted its country’s position, saying that as travellers face ongoing risks
REGION SEES RISE IN CASES AND DEATHS By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net A PAN American Health Organization official has revealed that over the past week, 1.5 million new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the region with some 40,000 related deaths. Dr Carissa Etienne, PAHO director, made the announcement at the organisation’s weekly webinar which updates the region on the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only are the number of infections up, but the death count is alarming as well. “In the last week, our region reported more than 1.5 million new COVID cases and nearly 40,000 COVID-related deaths,” Dr Etienne said. “Over the weekend, the world reached a tragic milestone: more than three million people have lost their lives to COVID. And nearly half of these deaths happened right here, in the Americas. “Behind every death is a life cut short and the unimaginable suffering of families and loved ones.
Their passing is a reminder that we must do more to protect each other because this virus continues to be a threat in every corner and community across our region.” Dr Etienne said nearly every country in the region is reporting a rise in infections with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic leading the way in high infections while Aruba, Bermuda, and Curaçao are reporting a rise in COVID-related deaths. She warned about negativity related to social media in terms of spreading erroneous information about the vaccine, citing “misinformation” as a serious threat to public health. “For more than a year, we have been inundated with news reports and information about this virus,” the PAHO director said. “Most of us have had a hard time keeping up, but science is a collaborative, evolving process, and researchers and doctors rely on shared information to learn from each other and build our collective knowledge to prevent and treat this virus. “Transparency is
paramount. That’s why PAHO continues to host these press briefings to share the latest trusted information and answer your questions. Today, misinformation is one of the most serious threats to our public health. Because unreliable information spreads quickly, PAHO is collaborating with tech companies like Twitter, Google, and Facebook to address fake news and ensure the public can easily find accurate information.” She said misinformation is most damaging when it fuels vaccine hesitancy and that for more than 100 years, vaccines have saved millions of lives from infectious diseases and spared generations from diseases like smallpox, polio, and measles. According to the PAHO official, the recent volcanic eruptions in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have led to evacuations with thousands of people currently living in shelters. More than 137 COVID cases have been reported in the shelters thus far, and PAHO expects more new infections in the coming weeks.
On vaccines in the region Dr Etienne said, “We have helped deliver more than 4.2 million doses of COVID vaccines to 29 countries in the Americas. Millions of additional vaccines are due in the coming weeks. And we won’t stop until every country in our region has the vaccines they need. “Next week is World Immunisation Week, an effort that started at PAHO 18 years ago with Vaccination Week in the Americas. This is a perfect time to remind us all of the power of vaccines to save lives. Today, vaccines are helping turn the tide of this pandemic.” She informed reporters that any vaccine or medicine can present side events at a certain level. She said, “When national regulators licence a vaccine or a medicine, or when WHO grants a pre-qualification or an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) authorisation, they weigh the benefits versus the risks. The vaccines delivered through COVAX have been thoroughly assessed by the WHO experts. The benefits of these vaccines
By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
worldwide have detected the new strains first found in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. On Tuesday, health officials also reported that the recent spike in cases is being driven by international travel and a relaxed adherence to the current health protocols. Yesterday, Dr PinderButler said: “It is something that is concerning because if you are able to pick up COVID more easier, it means that it could be spread easier and so as compared to the first or second wave when we might not have had the variants before and we know how our numbers increased, certainly if we have one that is more contagious or deadly, it could have serious implications for us as a country. “We may have more people with COVID and we may have more people who may not do well from it and we may lose lives and so that’s concerning.”
The variant strains have all raised concerns about the vaccine’s effectiveness against the mutations given limited data on the matter, a situation Dr Butler said officials would have to closely look at. Last month, the country began vaccinating its citizens against the COVID threat after receiving its first doses of the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine—first from the Indian government and then the World Health Organisation’s COVAX Facility. About 22,000 people are said to have been vaccinated with their first shot to date. “When we talk about the impact of the variants on the vaccine itself, certainly we find that we have a variant that may not lend itself as it relates to the vaccine in particular being as effective and helping to have milder (symptoms). It might now mean that that committee has to look at what might potentially be
another alternative for the country’s (vaccination programme), so I think those things become important to consider.” Speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced several eased travel restrictions for people who have been fully vaccinated. For example, starting May 1, people travelling to The Bahamas will no longer have to take a RT-PCR COVID test provided they are fully vaccinated and have passed a two-week period. Speaking on the matter yesterday, Dr Pinder-Butler said she didn’t know if she would have made such a recommendation to the Prime Minister given the rising number of cases in the country—some of which have been linked to travel—and the fact that vaccinated people can still contract the virus. The US Centres for
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Department updated its travel advisories in general to better reflect the CDC’s science-based travel health notices. The embassy said following this update, approximately 80 percent of all countries worldwide will have a travel advisory Level 4: Do Not Travel. This, it said, does not imply a reassessment of the current health situation in a given country. It reflects an adjustment in the State Department’s Travel Advisory system to give more weight to the CDC’s existing assessments. This realignment reflects the current, unpredictable and evolving threat posed by COVID-19, the embassy further noted. “The State Department
is closely monitoring health and safety conditions across the globe, and will continue to update destination-specific information for US travellers as conditions evolve,” a brief statement said yesterday. “As travel continues to recover, the Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of US citizens overseas. We are committed to providing US citizens with the most upto-date information to keep US citizens informed when they are abroad.” According to the Ministry of Health, there were 68 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, nine on Monday and 55 cases recorded on Sunday for a total of 132 over a three-day period.
TOTAL CASES
TOTAL DEATHS
9,868 194 NEWLY CONFIRMED CASES TUESDAY 68 CASES NEW PROVIDENCE 60 GRAND BAHAMA 6 EXUMA 1 CROOKED ISLAND 1
TOTAL TESTS
83,288
HOSPITALISED
51
CASES IN ICU
3
RECOVERED
9,140
in preventing infections, hospitalisations, and deaths outweigh the risks of side events. “The reports of very rare unexpected side effects, and decisions by some regulatory bodies to conduct further analyses, demonstrate one thing: that our surveillance systems are working. We rely on surveillance systems to see how medicines and vaccines
affect populations so we can understand even extremely rare adverse events and adapt our strategies when needed.” Dr Etienne said the region needs more COVID vaccines, countries need to quickly administer the doses they have on hand, communities need to build trust in vaccines, and one should remember that these vaccines can save a life.
Disease Control and Prevention notes that vaccine “breakthrough cases” occur in only a small percentage of fully vaccinated persons. As of April 13, 2021, more than 75 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 since December 14, 2020. “During the same time, CDC received 5,814 reports of vaccine breakthrough infections from 43 US states and territories,” the CDC states on its website. Meanwhile, the CPSA president stressed that the COVID-19 preventive measures in place are there to protect us and also urged people to follow the current health rules. “I think it’s important for us to put things in context,” she said. “So, yes, recommendations may be there that speaks to vaccinated people being able to be in the same room or once persons are vaccinated, there’s a suggestion of them and travel without having to be tested. “However, it is important for us to put things in context and we always have to look at what’s happening in our own country because even though that may be a
general notation, we have to look and see what’s happening here.” She added: “Right now, what’s happening here is we’re having an increase in cases, we have a third wave. That’s a fact. We also know that our healthcare institutions are overwhelmed. That is a fact. There is a staff shortage and we also know from the data that the cases that were presented, the majority have come in from international travel. “So to me, by process of reasonable deduction it would say to me that perhaps at this point in time, even though we know persons have been vaccinated in other countries and we too have started our process, maybe we should not put our guards down as yet. Maybe we should still have some measure in place whether it’s the PCR, rapid or something because at the end of the day, once they are in the country, they are in the country. It’s here.” Total COVID cases in the country rose to 2,868 after 68 new cases were recorded on Tuesday. Of those cases, 464 are active. Meanwhile, 51 people are in hospital sick with the virus.
SENIOR DOCTOR CONCERNED OVER NEW VARIANT DISCOVERIES THE detection of new and more infectious COVID-19 variant strains in the country could lead to “serious implications” that could potentially impact the national vaccination campaign, a senior physician warned yesterday. Head of the Consultant Physician Staff Association, Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler yesterday called the possible emergence of variant strains in The Bahamas a concerning matter that could result in a worsening health crisis. She spoke after health officials revealed in a press conference on Tuesday that positive test results reported by the National Reference Lab “are showing evidence of an increasing number of genomic deletions”, which indicates that COVID mutations are present in the country. Dozens of countries
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, April 22, 2021, PAGE 5
Prize for taking the jab from page one Dr Minnis said proof of full vaccination will be required in both instances. Fully vaccinated people in The Bahamas will be immediately exempted from the travel requirements while travellers to the country will be exempted no sooner than two weeks after they receive their final vaccine dose. “Once individuals within our shores… once they have received the second dose of the vaccine or they have met the vaccination requirement, they do not need any further testing to move about through our Bahama-land,” Dr Minnis said in the House of Assembly. “Therefore, I encourage individuals, receive the vaccines as soon as possible. I’m aware of CDC regulations. CDC states that there must be a two-week delay post the second vaccination shot. However, within The Bahamas, we recognise the antibody level and immunity (level), therefore that two-week requirement is not necessary. Once you receive the second dose, you could move. However, you must still adhere to mitigation protocols in terms of social distancing, mask wearing, sanitisation, etc. “Effective the 1st of May––this is important for tourism so as to give them adequate time to put out necessary warning and alerts––those travelling to The Bahamas from outside the country will be exempted from
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis in Parliament yesterday. Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff a COVID-19 test if they are fully vaccinated and have passed the two-week immunity period. A full vaccination will be required. If an individual is not fully vaccinated, that individual will still be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test. This will greatly assist our economy and will also assist in reducing the number of infections.” Dr Minnis said fully vaccinated people will get
other benefits. “Once individuals are fully vaccinated,” he said, “individuals can participate in a closed environment, once all within that closed environment are fully vaccinated. The mask would not be necessary and they can participate within that environment. That means indoor dining can resume for those individuals who are completely vaccinated. It also means from
a cultural perspective that those like myself who participate in Junkanoo, once we are all vaccinated, we can work within the Junkanoo shacks among us all vaccinated individuals. “This is important because it allows within an enclosed restaurant or wedding facility, once all are vaccinated, it also means that the cultural events that we had yesterday where individuals in restaurants
and weddings would have Junkanoo rushing through the environment, that can occur once all, including the Junkanooers, are vaccinated and therefore we can commence some form of normal life.” Dr Minnis acknowledged that enforcement will be key as vaccination status determines what people can and cannot do. “Most important as we move forward, enforcement must be adhered to,” he said. “I recognise (the) excellent work the police and COVID ambassadors are doing and I recognise many of them are probably burnt out, but I ask them to just provide us with that extra burst of energy for the next two weeks so that we can enforce our laws, our order, especially with all the events that are occurring around our islands.” Dr Minnis said the country is expected to receive 33,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine before the end of May through the World Health Organisation’s/Pan American Health Organisation’s COVAX facility. He said 22,000 vaccines have been administered to date. Dr Minnis’ comments came as health officials warn of a third wave of COVID19 cases amid a steady rise in infections. The case increases have been linked to travel and relaxed adherence to guidelines and officials warn that variants of concern may be in the country. Emphasising the importance of enforcing Emergency Order rules, Dr Minnis said he met
representatives of testing laboratories on Tuesday morning and reminded them of their duty to quickly report test results. “I reminded them of the requirement to submit COVID-19 test results to the Ministry of Health’s surveillance team,” he said. “I also reminded them of the fine, the penalty for not submitting the test results as required. I reminded them that the fine for such an event was $20,000. The requirement to submit data will be tightened for the RT-PCR test result they submit within 24-hours. There will be stiffer penalties for the failure to abide by this requirement. And I informed the labs as to what those penalties would be. At this time I would not inform the nation as to those penalties, but the labs are well aware of the extent of those penalties should they not report test results to the appropriate authorities so they could be manage appropriately within 24-hours. This is a part of our heightened surveillance strategy to combat the increase in cases.” “Enforcement of emergency orders will also be increased and enhanced. Members of the public are asked to please comply. I’m asking businesses that are able to do so to have their employees work from home where possible to decrease at the spread of COVID-19. This is a voluntary request.” Dr Minnis also announced a change in the curfew on mainland Abaco from 8pm to 5am to 10pm to 5am.
DAVIS: GOVT CANNOT INTERFERE IN PRIVATE CONTRACTS By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
IN view of some local businesses mandating a COVID-19 vaccination policy for workers, Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip Davis stated the government cannot intervene in private contracts between ordinary citizens and employers. However, he suggested this refers to conditions of employment that workers have agreed to when accepting employment, once they are in line with the law, and said variations of employment contract once a worker is already on the job creates another issue, as changes will need to be agreed to by both parties. Government officials have repeatedly said that the vaccine is not mandatory, while strongly urging people to take the vaccine. However a few businesses, including the owners the Old Fort Bay restaurant Sushi Rokkan, are pushing mandatory inoculations for staff. The restaurant noted employees must be vaccinated by June 30 or they may face reassignment or termination unless there is a valid medical reason to opt out of the shot. Speaking to reporters at the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Davis explained there are laws that govern certain aspects of employment, but conditions of employment are set and agreed to between the employer and the employee. “It is for the employer to say that these conditions that I will employ you,” he said yesterday. “Employment is (a) contractual relationship between two parties and you can fix the condition on which you can employ people, that’s a right an employer (has) and if you want to work then you’ll have to decide whether you would comply with those conditions. Now the only issue now is if you have been working. This will then — if they’re now requiring you to take a vaccine to continue working — that’s another issue because then that will be varying their contracts of employment and that requires both of them to agree.”
Director of Labour John Pinder has said it is not legal to mandate people get vaccinated for COVID-19 as a condition of continued employment. When asked what he would tell workers, Mr Davis said: “I tell workers get the vaccine. To me, the risk of not taking the vaccine to you as a worker or otherwise is greater than not taking it. Contracting the virus to me, that risk is worst than if you don’t take the vaccine. “So, yes, it may sound cruel, it may sound this way. For example, you have children – can they go to school without a vaccine?” The discussion on mandatory vaccinations comes
at a time when the country is experiencing a third wave. The Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP said the government is “just reacting to this present surge” when in fact Mr Davis claimed his COVID task force pointed out to officials in January that another surge was likely and warned about emerging variants being reported around the world. While in Parliament, Mr Davis also accused the government of refusing an offer from a Bahamian company to bring in vaccines as early as January. In response, Minister of Health Renward Wells told the House of Assembly that
the government had to be discerning about accepting such offers. “We have to be very concerned with expiration
AT
dates, we have to be concerned with the source, the Bahamas government has to make sure that what is being offered and
what we agree to allow in the country is not going to adversely affect the Bahamian people,” Mr Wells said.
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PAGE 6, Thursday, April 22, 2021
THE TRIBUNE
The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”
LEON E. H. DUPUCH,
SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,
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A glimpse of a normal world - after a jab PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis dangled a carrot yesterday for those still reluctant to get their vaccinations. The world can start getting back to normal – if you’ve had your jab. Had your full set of jabs? No need for a test to travel to and from New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Exuma and Eleuthera. Full exemption from travel requirements once you meet the vaccination requirement. Even more, you can get back to indoor dining if you’re completely vaccinated. Missing Junkanoo? You can get back to the shacks and working on costumes together if you’re all vaccinated. This is what we want, right? A return to something close to normal. And to get it, we just have to get past all these scare stories told by Facebook friends or Whatsapp whisperers. It certainly has businesses delighted. Robert Sands, the president of the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association, hailed this road map for getting back to normal, and called the Prime Minister “gutsy”. Others have called it a “game changer”. Look at it from the tourism industry perspective – our biggest customer base is the United States, where vaccination has been going on at pace in recent times. Hotels and tourist businesses are hearing from would-be customers who have been fully vaccinated, and now they’re raring to go exploring the world again after a year and more of being cooped up during the pandemic. And they want to come here. This lets them arrive and enjoy the world again, safe in the knowledge that they have their shots – and lets businesses here offer them their services. Want to join them? Get your shots, both of them, then take a seat at the bar again and enjoy a meal with your vaccinated friends. That’s the deal. Is this fair to those who don’t want to get their shots? Well, perhaps once enough people have been vaccinated to ensure herd immunity, it’ll open up to include you too, but until then, this limits the chance of spreading the virus while allowing businesses and citizens to tiptoe back towards normality. It’ll take some enforcing – we’re sure there’ll be people who say they’re vaccinated but who aren’t really, and we’re sure there’ll be those who are vaccinated but can’t prove it and that may lead to awkwardness and confusion. But it’s a start. There are those who for medical reasons may not be advised right now to get their vaccinations. But for those who can? The biggest step back to a pre-COVID world that you can take is to sign up for your doses – as soon as you can.
Stolen liberty
How many times must we hear the same story of people being detained
without charge and for years on end unlawfully? The latest is a Ghanaian man who visited The Bahamas. His three-week vacation turned into a near-seven year detention when he lost his documents during a jitney ride. A tourist turned into a prisoner in an instant. During his time in detention, he says he was beaten several times, and his elbow is regularly in pain after being struck by a baton. He was never brought before the courts for any breach of immigration laws and never made the subject of a deportation order. He was just left to rot with no apparent intention to give him a chance to challenge his detention. The Attorney General, along with the Minister of Immigration, the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Immigration and the officer in charge at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre all conceded liability to Joseph Amihere’s claims of “intolerable and inexcusable” treatment while being unlawfully imprisoned. They didn’t even have a case to fight him with. If this sounds familiar, it’s because these cases keep coming up, and the government keeps losing them. How about the seven asylum seekers from Cameroon who were held in detention for nearly two years and then released when the government couldn’t even explain why they had been held? That was just this month. How about Douglas Ngumi, who was locked up for six and a half years before being awarded more than $600,000 in damages? Or Matthew Sewell, locked up for more than nine years despite never being convicted of a crime? Or Atain Takitota, locked up for being a homeless foreigner and who spent eight year behind bars and tried to kill himself three times in Fox Hill prison? When Douglas Ngumi’s case hit the headlines in December last year, the Attorney General and the Immigration Minister denied knowledge of any wrongful treatment of people still in the system. Well, here we are, with Mr Amihere. Did they know about him then? And if not, why not? More to the point, who else is still in the system, wasting away for years because we can’t manage to get someone in front of a court in a timely fashion and seem content to deprive people of their liberty rather than resolve a case? It is no wonder our international human rights reputation is so poor when locking people up for years and brutalising them is so commonplace. This must stop – but the silence from our leaders about trying to change this system shows that we will probably be here again, writing about another case of someone’s liberty being snatched away unlawfully. Perhaps the message is getting through. For the first time The Tribune can remember, in Mr Amihere’s case, the government has agreed to apologise. It’s a start.
Not the country we once knew EDITOR, The Tribune I REMEMBER the days – yes, the good old days — when the only weapon a Bahamian policeman carried was a “Billy” at his waist, and if my memory serves me right in my early days of reading The Tribune it seems that the only crimes committed that could see you before the courts was offending the delicate ears of the constable on the beat with “foul language’’. Today we live in a different Bahamas. The police are armed to defend themselves and peaceful citizens, while — although it’s illegal
to own a firearm without a licence – lawless gangs, seemingly are armed to the teeth. Already for the first three months of this year there have been 28 murders – all gun-related! This is certainly no longer the Nassau in which I grew up. With gun possession in the United States a seemingly constitutional right of every citizen and the ease with which guns can be purchased in the US, the Bahamas will always have a gun problem, unless a stricter set of rules can be applied and carried out to stop their import. But, how to do that? Many years ago
I heard that a set of guns had been imported in a coffin! I don’t know what to suggest to get around such chicanery, but if this country wants a gun-free, crime-free community, then they will have to use TIPS8477 more often to tip the police off to a neighbour or friend who has an unlawful firearm. If Bahamians want a safer community, they should do their duty and assist the police. TRUE BAHAMIAN Nassau, April 20, 2021
Filming the police EDITOR, The Tribune. WHILE all eyes were glued to their television screens, smart devices, waiting with bated breaths just to hear the verdict as it was announced in real time, cities around the USA braced for riots in the event a not guilty verdict was returned. Judge Cahill read calmly the verdict arrived at by the 12-panel jury. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Sighs of relief came from most quarters: the police, the national guard, the business owners, commuters headed home around the country could now relax as the ‘mobsters’ got what they wanted. But is it fair to call people who are fighting for justice mobsters? Should our forefathers be labelled as mobsters for having fought against their colonial oppressors? Other countries to which the protests had spread last year after George Floyd’s death were also relieved that they wouldn’t have to deal with more protests while trying to curb the spread of this albatross around the necks of their economies known as COVID-19. I have read some distasteful and harsh comments on social media about the case, which suggested that the defendant was already tried and convicted in the media. Others claimed that a guilty verdict was only arrived at to quell the masses and prevent further destruction of property by the hooligans who were waiting to capitalize on the protest to become lawless and commit crimes. These comments are an affront to the justice system which is trying to evolve from its systemic racist position. Could any court of law really disregard the eight minutes and forty-six seconds video we saw? We later learned during the trial that it was even worse than that – nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds! Only those who still believe that it is okay for police officers to commit murder while being filmed felt that justice was not rightly served. I’m no legal mind, but the witnesses for the prosecution were rightly selected to recount what happened on that fateful day, May 25, 2020. The prosecution
LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net made their case, and the defence had a difficult task of casting doubt on what was captured on camera or the first-hand testimonies of eyewitnesses along with expert testimonies from the medical and use of force experts. The conviction of Derek Chauvin reminds us that we need to encourage more responsible policing across the world. Locally, we are grateful to the government for introducing body cameras to prevent the “your word against mine” scenario. However, since not every police officer is fitted with a body camera, citizens should be encouraged to film their actions. These said videos can help either to exonerate or to incriminate the police officers of misconduct. My idea of excessive force, harsh behaviour, and tone is completely different from yours. Let the objective scale – the camera do the talking and the jury through the court of law make that decision. Police officers should not become uneasy or weary of being filmed if they are doing their job in a professional manner. The bystanders’ videos could also provide additional evidence to the prosecutorial team when dealing with difficult cases involving the police or any other person for that matter. Derek Chauvin would probably have gotten away had it not been for those bystanders whose cameras gave a different perspective from the body cameras worn by the four officers. Too often, a police officer’s report conflicts with the body-cam video, as we have seen in the recently released video of Adam Toledo, who was gunned down by a police officer in March. In no way am I advancing an anti-police stance. As a matter of fact, my father served some twentyseven years in the force and taught me how to respond to police officers. I too would have been a part of the police force had my mother not discouraged me. What we, the citizens, want is plain and simple, proper policing. We want police
officers who care about the safety, and well-being of the public as well as know how to address the public. Every person regardless of their legal status, skin coloration, educational ability, mother tongue must be treated with the highest respect and decorum by police officers. I maintain that once a relationship is built up between the police and the public there might be more people willing to come forward with pertinent information regarding various cases. Kudos to those hardworking police officers who love their job and risk their lives to maintain law and order in our society. We are grateful for those police officers who are making every effort to serve, protect, and reassure citizens that their complaints will be dealt with in a timely manner. However, the minority – the bad apples – bring shame and are sowing seeds of doubt and distrust in the hearts of the public. Now, let us not fool ourselves, the police force was always used to maintain the status quo even during slavery. So, naturally, it has a stain and a bad taste in the lives of the many blacks who were dehumanized, endured hardship and injustice at the hands of police officers. We are no longer in slavery or any oppressive period of history; therefore, the behaviour of police officers must be humane, reassuring and less confrontational. Police officers must always attempt to de-escalate the situation as they are aptly trained to do. So, the next time we encounter the police we should not be treated based on how we look, how we sound and the car we drive. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Isn’t that still the legal mantra? We all have our prejudices but as professionals, we need to deal with the public whose interests we serve with dignity. So, I say to police officers, do not forbid filming unless… you have something to hide. PASTOR CARLYLE PEART Associate pastor of Christian Education Grace Community Church Nassau, April 21, 2021.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, April 22, 2021, PAGE 7
Candlelight vigil held for mass shooting victims By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net
A CANDLELIGHT vigil was held in the Kemp Road area yesterday for six men who lost their lives in a violent execution in the area last Thursday. Renardo Bastian, also known as “Crack Teeth”, Travis Cooper, Maurice Pinder, Kendal Lord, Delano Smith, and Dequant Brown were shot at the intersection of Jerome Avenue and Chesapeake Road when four men opened fire on them, killing them and injuring a 19-yearold woman and a toddler. The men were killed shortly after being released from police custody for firearm possession. Police suspect the shooting was gang related. Members of the Kemp Road community came out in droves last evening in memory of the fallen residents.
Organisers of the event, Khandi Gibson, of FOAM; Pastor Eric Fox of Urban Renewal and Mandell Miller of the National Drug Council said there is no time frame in grief and the event was to simply give the family hope. “Even though a kind word or a gesture cannot make them feel better, we want to just give them hope,” Ms Gibson said. “Tonight was like a revival. I came to the area on Saturday and I met with the six families and I told them that I will have a candlelight vigil and Pastor Eric Fox and Mandell Miller came on board. I got some sponsors like Monique Burrows from Abaco, we had the commissioner of police who gave us permission to have the event. We want to thank them.” This is not the last of events to celebrate the lives of the murdered men. The organisers and members of the Kemp Road community will go to the site where the men were killed today at 5.30 pm and place teddy
MAN DENIES RUNNING CLUB AGAINST PANDEMIC ORDERS By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A MAN yesterday denied violating Emergency Orders by operating a prohibited business earlier this year. Akeem Wilson, 54, was charged with prohibited business activities after police alleged he was found in violation of the Emergency Orders by operating Club Twilight on January 23. The bar owner denied the allegation during his hearing before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis yesterday and his matter was adjourned to June 23 for trial. Wilson was granted $500 bail on his own recognizance until that time. In a separate matter yesterday, a judge discharged a woman who was initially summoned to court for patronising a business that was operating without a valid permit. Rokeisha Smith, 44, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes after she was accused of giving business
to the Last Man Standing Pub and Restaurant on January 17. She pleaded guilty, but told the magistrate she was only in the prohibited establishment for a “couple of seconds” when officers approached them, told them to go back inside and asked them for identification. Smith claimed the officers then spoke to the owners of the bar and asked them to produce their business licence. She said when they did, it was discovered their permit had expired. Smith insisted she was not aware the bar was not supposed to be open as people were in it. After listening to her explanation, Magistrate Forbes told Smith every legal establishment is required to post their business licence in a “conspicuous location”. He explained if a business place does not have their permit displayed openly, chances are they are not operating legally. As a result, he told her to be more mindful in the future and discharged her with a warning.
By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A JAMAICAN man who was caught with $60 worth of marijuana he claimed he bought for his employer’s wife was yesterday placed on probation for one year. Police arrested Derrick Williams after they found eight grams of Indian hemp on him on April 15. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis. The court heard officers were on mobile patrol in the Gambier Village area around 8.20am that morning when they observed Williams driving a silver Toyota Passo. The prosecution said the accused appeared to look in the direction of officers before acting in a suspicious manner. As a result, they beckoned for him to stop and told him to get out of his vehicle. When they searched him, they found a clear plastic baggie containing $60 worth of marijuana in his sock. Williams was subsequently arrested and taken to the Drug Enforcement Unit for questioning. During his interview he admitted the offence, but said he “bought the dope for his boss’ wife”. During the hearing, Williams maintained his explanation. He also told the magistrate that while his actions were “plain
stupid”, he only committed the offence because he wanted to “keep his job”. After listening to his explanation, Magistrate Rolle Davis placed Williams on a year’s probation. He warned the accused that if he failed to be of good behaviour during that time frame, he would be sentenced to six months in jail. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Darling, 18, was placed on probation after he was found with a marijuana joint on April 14. Police said that morning, officers conducting road checks on Fox Hill Road observed Darling riding in a Nissan Cube without a seatbelt. When they approached his car to ask him why he was not complying with the road regulations, they smelt a strong scent of marijuana. When they searched his vehicle, they found a clear Ziploc bag with one gram of Indian hemp. Yesterday, the teen told Magistrate Rolle Davis he had asthma so he bought the drugs to smoke to alleviate the “tightness” he felt in his chest. He also said his asthma had become “less severe” after he started smoking marijuana. In response, the magistrate told Darling that his explanation was perplexing as smoking would exacerbate his respiratory problems. As a result, he placed him on six months’ probation. If Darling is convicted of any offence during that time he will be fined $300 or risk being sentenced to one month in jail.
PROBATION FOR BUYING HEMP ‘FOR WIFE OF BOSS’
bears there. After this they will go to Kemp Road Ministries at 6pm for a church service. On Monday at 10 am, Urban Renewal through Social Services will mount six wreaths in memory of the men at the spot where they were executed. Pastor Fox spoke to the future of the children affected as far as support is concerned. “Urban Renewal, through myself, will provide support for the children and families of these men on a continuing basis,” he said. “This is not something new Urban Renewal is doing. We have been doing it all along. Now we are going to beef it up in all the communities that we do grief counselling and anger management in.” Those who came out were given food items and candles. There was heavy police presence at the vigil which swiftly began to wind down at 8pm.
LAST nigth’s candlelit vigil for the six men shot last week.
Photo: Racardo Thomas
PAGE 8, Thursday, April 22, 2021
THE TRIBUNE
The British Monarchy is an anachronism for sovereign, independent countries like ours ONE does not have to be a monarchist or a fan of the late Prince Philip to admire the simplicity and beauty of the Order of Service at his brief funeral held at St. George’s Chapel on the Lower Ward at Windsor Castle. The Castle Chapel, originally founded in the 14th century, was significantly enlarged in the 15th century. With its many pinnacles, the Chapel is “built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style.” Its bulwarks are ancient history and memory. Admittedly, there was a degree of frippery not to the taste of many. Still, there was a clarity and solemnity to the service rooted in the rituals of the Church of England. At the end of the service the Buglers of the Royal Marines sounded The Lament. Then, “After a period of silence the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry [sounded] the Last Post”, followed by the Buglers of the Royal Marines sounding the Last Post. At that moment, whatever one’s feelings about
the British Monarchy, most viewers felt for the soul of the dead and for the grieving widow and her family, a grief we have all experienced at the death of a loved one. We felt in some measure, mercy and empathy for another. The rituals engulfed us. Rituals and symbols bear emotions, traditions and memories in ways in which words cannot compete and often fail. Silence during rituals bears even
more because each of us individually and scores collectively, recollect, mourn or imagine in our unique manner during such quietude. We imbue the silence with our own narratives and memories. A late beloved cleric often lamented that too many church services in The Bahamas were noisy, loud, devoid of a powerful silence needed to allow a certain indwelling of the spirit in more profound ways. Rituals like the Liturgy of the Eucharist in various Christian traditions, invoke the ineffable and the numinous, moving one into the liminal, the boundaries between seen and unseen, body and soul, Heaven and Earth. We are a boisterous culture, a wonderful part of our identity. But cultures which allow for little silence, often feel manic, empty, unsettled, unreflective, immature. Writing of Gotham, the materialist heartbeat of America, Walt Whitman interrogated cultures driven by materialist noise: “Silence? What can New York
- noisy, roaring, rumbling, tumbling, bustling, story, turbulent New York - have to do with silence? Amid the universal clatter, the incessant din of business, the all swallowing vortex of the great money whirlpool - who has any, even distant, idea of the profound repose... of silence?” More so, what becomes of a culture or a people stripped or ignorant of its ancestral roots, mythology, rituals and identity? It is like a child born ignorant of the names and identity and history of her parents, grandparents and ancestors.
EMPOWERING
A dear and wonderful friend, an ardent patriot, who loves Bahamian culture and who believes it is past time for the country to have a Bahamian head of state, delights in pomp and circumstance. She revels in rituals of church and state, foreign and domestic. She enjoys these rituals because they penetrate her soul, provide meaning, grant joy and offer a sense of purpose and continuity. When we lose empowering rituals we lose elements of our identity, destroying ourselves and limiting our possibilities. All cultures are a sort of pot luck, a miscegenated, creolized mixture of many influences and narrative threads, often in contradiction, the very forces of which are like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes forming new lands, features and contours. By example, over the centuries, the United Kingdom has borrowed magisterially from the cultural patrimony of the global commons and its imperial conquests. This includes the British Monarchy, many of its traditions crafted and honed over centuries, readily plundering, copying and assimilating from cultures far and wide. There is no pure British blood, American blood nor Bahamian blood, to which genetic testing will attest. The world is a commonwealth, in which the lands of global commons borrow, including classic and tested traditions that become a standard feature of human civilisation. The Bahamas, like many other Caribbean cultures has assimilated the contributions of other cultures, forging something new out of what Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott described as “fragments of epic memory”. This includes our system of government. Parliamentary democracy has a rich history, with roots from Iceland, which developed one of the first such systems in the world. Various Native American tribes also developed a form of collegial and collaborative governance. We trace our governmental system to the United Kingdom, which honed the traditions and conventions of parliamentary democracy over centuries. The genius of the system recognizes certain features of human and group psychology including temptations to abuse power; the need to restrain the power of the head of government through various checks; and the importance of collegiality and consensus-building in a cabinet system of collective responsibility. The Founders of a modern independent Bahamas recognised the virtues
of such a system which we have adopted as our own. At independence we did not adopt a colonial constitution as some have loudly and ignorantly proclaimed. We adopted a modern constitution similar to other countries that are parliamentary democracies. Undoubtedly we need constitutional reform. Those reforms and amendments will be decided by the Bahamian people and Parliament, not by a British government. At the One Bahamas church service in 2010, former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes described some of the fragments of our identity: “But many who were brought by force and many who came by their own free will stayed, put down their roots, and became the ancestors of a new people: the Bahamians… “Over many years they came from Europe and Africa, and some from Asia; and they came by direct as well as by circuitous routes. Many of our forebears diverse in race, colour, creed and ethnicity - came by way of the United States, South America and the other islands of the Caribbean. “But today we are one people with a distinct identity among the nations of the world. We are Bahamians. We have come through many trials and tribulations but now we joyously celebrate the blessing of being able to live as one people, in peace and unity, and to call one of the most beautiful spots on the planet our home.” There is a vital difference between adaptation and mimicry. At independence, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and many other former British colonies retained the genius and conventions of parliamentary democracy, while removing the British Monarch as head of state. In addition to the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II, presently serves as the Head of State for 15 countries, nine of which are in the Caribbean. These countries are: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
ANACHRONISM
Queen Elizabeth II is deeply respected by many. But the British Monarchy is an anachronism for sovereign, independent countries. One can borrow from other cultures without being mindless mimic men and women. The British Royal Family deeply appreciate the centrality of identity and symbolism. Prince Philip reportedly appreciated how over the top were many of the traditions of a hidebound monarchy in a modern Britain. Yet, he observed: “People still respond more easily to symbolism than to reason.” He also appreciated the need to preserve various rituals, traditions and symbols as well as to make vital changes for the continuity and modernisation of all institutions. Queen Victoria’s German husband Prince Albert gave the name of SaxeCoburg-Gotha to the then
Royal Family. In 1917, King George V, worried about the monarchy’s survival because of war with Germany and deeply anti-German sentiment in Britain, understood the Royal Family needed a new name. As reported by a British magazine: “The man tasked with the job was Lord Stamfordham, the king’s trusted private secretary. He trawled through history books but struggled to find a name untouched by the monarchy’s own bloody history - passing over Tudor, Stuart and Plantagenet before finally being struck by inspiration while working in Windsor Castle.” After her accession in 1952, the Queen confirmed the Royal Family name of Windsor. As a young student in university, this columnist was discussing public rituals with a professor. The professor advised: “Before you seek to replace or change a civic or other ritual or process, first know its history and seek to understand the values a ritual upholds.” He went on to say: “When you too quickly uproot a ritual, process or system, you may also harm values you hold dear and which society needs.” Approaching 50 years of independence, The Bahamas should celebrate its heritage, preserving what is essential, including various rituals of democracy, which invoke and reinforce our national identity and freedom struggles. Concurrently, we must also reform and modernise as a 21st century democracy. As a free, independent country, The Bahamas should have its own head of state, which is essential for our political maturity and identity as a sovereign nation. The head of state serves a functional and critical role in our parliamentary democracy. Our head of state must be a symbol of national unity and identity. This head of state should be Bahamian, not the British Monarch, to whom we are still “subjects”. When he was sworn in as Governor General, Sir Arthur, a champion of majority rule and sovereignty declared: “We are today observing important ceremonies and rituals of our constitutional government, our parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. “Rituals and ceremonies are designed to protect values, to speak to us in ways that are sometimes more effective than words, and to celebrate our good fortune as inheritors of this rich Bahamian patrimony. “The ceremonies and rituals surrounding the swearing-in of a new Governor General and the opening of a new session of Parliament speak to us about our democracy, about the right to be governed by our own elected representatives. “They speak to us about the continuity of our institutions, about our parliamentary democracy, about its peaceful evolution over nearly 300 years, and about our commitment to strive for its future perfection.” In the not too distant future, we will celebrate the swearing-in of a Bahamian as President and head of state, preserving our democracy while revitalising our heritage in keeping for successive generations.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, April 22, 2021, PAGE 9
George got a rare justice in a system which needs change D
erek Chauvin was convicted late Tuesday afternoon by a Minneapolis jury on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. You might have heard about it. The trial was extensively covered by mainstream media throughout the United States, and Fox News and other right-leaning media companies did not ignore it either. For almost the past 11 months, America has been riveted to the story of the death at the hands and knees of a veteran white metropolitan police officer of a troubled, frankly unexceptional black man whose death transformed his life and community in ways that could never have been anticipated. George Floyd’s name will not be soon forgotten. Murals depicting him as a martyr have appeared across the country. The news of exofficer Chauvin’s conviction merited banner headlines in
major daily newspapers. Floyd’s death was certainly senseless and Chauvin’s behaviour cannot be satisfactorily nor rationally explained. So why did the guilty verdicts merit such national attention? Wouldn’t any reasonable person have expected these jury judgments in a case where the prosecution’s facts were so obvious and were backed up not only by highly credible, emotional testimony from responsible witnesses but also by bystanders’ phone videos of the event? We all know why. It’s tough for prosecutors to get a conviction against police officers accused of violent or even deadly conduct. According to publicly available statistics, police shoot and kill around 1,000 people in the US every year. Many of these events are clearly justified and involve shootouts with suspects or other obviously aggressive behaviour which makes the outcome seem reasonable. Police aren’t charged in
ANOTHER MOMENT OF SHAME
IN this image made from Windsor, (Va.) Police video, a police officer speaks with Caron Nazario during a traffic stop on Dec. 20, 2020, in Windsor, Va. (Windsor Police via AP). THE British House of Windsor and Windsor Castle outside London have rightly been the focus of the world’s attention recently with the passing of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Another Windsor, infinitely less well known, also popped up in the news at around the same time. This Windsor is a small rural crossroads community of 2,626 inhabitants in southeast Virginia. Its slight significance derives from its position at the intersection of one highway connecting Norfolk and Richmond and another linking Hampton Roads and eastern North Carolina. The two roads form an X in Windsor. Months after the fact, many Americans learned that last December 5 was an eventful night in Windsor, Virginia. On that evening, black and Latino US Army Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario, who is 27-years-old, was pulled over by a Windsor police car. Nazario was dressed in military fatigues. Nazario, whose prior experience with the police made him apprehensive in this small Southern hamlet, pulled into a brightly lit BP gas station before stopping for the police. There, he learned his offence was displaying a temporary Virginia licence plate across his back window, not on the rear fender of his SUV. What followed briefly made the national news. The lead cop, officer Joe Gutierrez, appeared to aggressively question Nazario. Gutierrez’ body camera recorded the incident, as Nazario displayed his hands but was reluctant to get out of the vehicle as ordered. The result was a mess. Gutierrez seemed to get more agitated as he eventually forced Nazario out of the SUV, onto the pavement and into handcuffs. At one point, Nazario, who was relatively calm and even docile throughout the incident, was pepper-sprayed by the policeman. Ultimately, no charges were filed. All this didn’t attract too much attention until Nazario filed suit against the town for police misconduct over three months later. Then the pressure ramped up considerably. The town fired Gutierrez but not his young, also white partner. As repeatedly replayed on regional television, the incident looks remarkably like it was staged for an episode of a police procedural drama on TV. The actions of both men involved, especially Gutierrez, seem almost unrealistically exaggerated for dramatic effect. But it all actually happened. The governor, a US Senator, and the state’s Attorney General all soon piled on, demanding inquiries and remedies. The outcomes of either the trial – if charges are not settled out of court – or the state investigation will probably not attract much attention when they are concluded. But coming as it did right in the middle of the Derek Chauvin trial in Minnesota and a new outbreak of gun violence across the US, the Windsor incident added more fuel to a growing national conflagration of indignation. A 19-year-old girl from the town told reporters, oddly echoing Biden: “Enough is enough. America has a racism problem that we can’t sit by and allow to happen anymore.”
most of these cases, and convictions are achieved in fewer than half of the incidents that do make it to trial. This doesn’t mean America is a callous society in which individual rights are widely ignored and police misconduct is universally excused. It does mean that for whatever reason, few police killings result in convictions for the officers involved. A university professor criminologist offered to reporters some reasons for the collective sign of national relief when the Minneapolis jury returned its guilty verdict this week: “We’ve seen with other cases where there has been damning video evidence and the prosecution has struggled to win a conviction,” he said. “This case was in no way a slam dunk for the prosecution.”
Prosecutor The prosecutor in this case, Steve Schleicher, acknowledged as much in court. Addressing the jury, he said: “It may be hard for any of you to imagine a police officer doing something like this. Indeed, imagining a police officer committing a crime might be the most difficult thing for you, because that’s just not the way we think about police officers. We trust the police.” After the jury heard testimony from numerous senior Minneapolis officials including the chief, along with highly credible eye-witnesses, Schleicher made perhaps his most telling point. “This is not a prosecution of the police. What Chauvin did was not policing.” President Joe Biden, who has begun to surprise supporters and opponents alike with a stunning, almost
GEORGE Floyd’s name will not be soon forgotten.
completely unexpected gift of finding the right words in reaction to the series of gun-related and other tragedies that presently beset the US, said the following: “Enough. Enough. Enough of the senseless killings. Such a verdict is also much too rare. For so many people, it seems like it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors (to get a guilty verdict).” Even Trey Gowdy, a former South Carolina congressman who was one of the most annoying of a pack of Republican attack dogs always nipping at Barack Obama’s presidential heels and at those of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, announced on Fox News that Biden’s overall response to the verdict “was pretty reasonable”. TV and newspapers yesterday were filled with sights and sounds of jubilation and relief, particularly in black communities. The outpouring of joy – and surprise – reminded some observers of a similar reaction to the 1995 acquittal on murder charges of former football star, actor and Hertz TV pitchman O.J. Simpson in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles. Very few people paying attention – and an estimated 95 million people watched the famous low-speed police chase of Simpson’s white Ford Bronco on television – to the most publicized court case in history thought Simpson was innocent. That wasn’t the point. In the Simpson case, a prominent, wealthy African American demonstrated that he too could “buy” an acquittal in the American criminal justice system, just as blacks had watched white defendants do all their lives. Incidentally, Simpson’s defence “Dream Team”
IN this image from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin listens as the verdict is read in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool) included oratorical genius and famous black attorney Johnnie Cochran and Robert Kardashian. The latter, who lived for a while with Priscilla Presley after her divorce from Elvis, also sired Khloe, Kourtney and of course Kim Kardashian, whose reality TV show is now in its 20th and final season. Neither for the first nor the last time, the line between real life and Hollywood-style drama got pretty blurry. Simpson was acquitted at a time when few blacks
were similarly successful. Now, justice has been served for George Floyd in circumstances where the overwhelming preponderance of evidence supported a legal conclusion that is nonetheless unusual in the context of contemporary America. Soon enough, attention will turn to general police reform and whether the odds will shift in the future toward blacks involved with police in tense and deadly situations. But Americans will remember George Floyd’s name.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, April 22, 2021, PAGE 11
VACCINE MANDATES AREN’T THE ONLY – OR EASIEST – WAY FOR EMPLOYERS TO COMPEL WORKERS TO GET THEIR SHOT
By ELIZABETH C. TIPPETT, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Oregon A WORKPLACE showdown may be brewing over mandating vaccinations. Employers would love the sense of certainty that comes with a vaccinated workforce. Workers can be brought back sooner than later, there’s no need for physical distancing in the office and there will be less worry about employees falling ill from COVID-19. And polls suggest many US workers would love this too. One recent survey found that over 60 percent of workers want their companies to require everyone to get vaccinated before returning to the office. But not everyone is convinced about the value of getting vaccinated. Surveys suggest that 17 percent of American adults are taking a “wait and see” approach to the vaccine, and 20 percent say either they “definitely” won’t get the vaccine or would do so only if required. Some states, such as Florida and North Dakota, have even introduced legislation that would prevent companies and other businesses from requiring workers to get vaccinated. While I agree with other employment law experts that companies are well within their legal rights to mandate a vaccine – provided they offer disability and religious accommodations – I don’t expect them to lower the hammer, at least not right away. As I explain in an ongoing book project, employers have already gotten so good at nudging workers to do what they want, they may not need to resort to a mandate.
THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL
Employers have such a strong influence on their employees’ daily behaviour – and bodies – that it becomes part of the rhythm of their lives. Most people can remember a time when they skipped breakfast to avoid being late for work. Nurses regularly report missing breaks and meals to tend to patients’ needs. Even remote workers who are physically removed from direct control may find themselves hovering over a laptop late at night, at the expense of their family, mental health and eyesight. Or to use an extreme example, warehouse workers and poultry workers have reportedly avoided trips to the bathroom just to keep up with an impossible pace of work. Most of the time, employers influence worker choices without a direct mandate. Instead, they use more subtle methods – like imposing rules and expectations, tinkering with pay, monitoring behaviours, controlling time and passing judgment on performance. Undoubtedly some organisations, such as airlines and nursing homes, will impose a vaccine mandate as a business necessity. And while many corporate CEOs say they are mulling the idea of a mandate, most seem to have settled on more subtle methods at their disposal.
MAKING IT EASIER TO GET VACCINATED
A simple way to alter worker choices is to make it easier for workers to engage in behaviour the employer wants to encourage. At the law firm where I used to work, they offered dinner for people who worked past 6.30pm. Were
A WORKER at Atlantis receiving a vaccination for COVID-19 earlier this month. they just being nice? Of course not! They wanted us to stay at work, rather than calling it quits when we got hungry. Companies have already started doing the same for vaccines. Some employers – including my university – are offering onsite vaccinations. Others are making it easier for workers to make it to their vaccine appointments off-site. Target is offering its workers free Lyft rides to vaccination sites. For workers worried about using scarce vacation or sick time, Trader Joe’s, Chobani and Dollar General are offering time off to get vaccinated. Even a gesture as simple as instructing managers to find coverage for a worker’s shift could help relieve the logistical burden for workers who want to get vaccinated but haven’t gotten around to it.
INFORMATION AND EDUCATION
Companies are already accustomed to pushing out educational information to workers – particularly during the pandemic, when they have had to roll out and update social distancing protocols in a short time frame. Although the human resources department often handles routine communications about legal requirements and mandatory training sessions, companies can also draw upon the expertise of their marketing departments to craft internal messaging to employees. They seem to already be doing so with vaccine messaging. Some large companies, like Walmart and Microsoft, are assisting with the vaccine rollout and publicizing that role in their internal and external messaging. Meat-packing plants, which have been plagued by extensive COVID-19 outbreaks, are promoting the vaccine through videos, posters and presentations. And when the stakes are high enough, companies can be brutally effective at persuasion – as when Amazon convinced its Alabama warehouse workers to reject a union in a recent vote. The retailer apparently went so far as to barrage workers with near-daily text messages,
targeted social media ads and even marketing materials in warehouse bathroom stalls. As the US finds itself in a race to vaccinate enough of the population to keep fast-spreading COVID19 variants at bay, the stakes are deadly serious for companies hoping to reopen without workplace outbreaks in the months ahead.
MAKING IT A HASSLE TO AVOID GETTING VACCINATED
Short of threatening to fire unvaccinated workers who do not qualify for a disability or religious exemption, companies certainly could make things inconvenient for workers who avoid the vaccine as a matter of personal preference. I expect that companies may start to resort to more punitive measures over time, to help push remaining stragglers over the finish line. What might that look like? It could be a “reward” that is primarily intended to foment a fear of missing out among the vaccine-reluctant; monthly raffle drawings available to the recently vaccinated; tickets to the company’s outdoor barbecue for those fully vaccinated by a specified date; or preference in vacation scheduling or shift selection for those who are vaccinated or qualify for an exemption. Employers can also introduce annoying hassles for vaccine avoiders, not unlike the way they prod workers who are slow to complete the company’s mandatory harassment training, as I know from personal experience. That could mean automated reminders, followed by personalised reminders from human resources, and eventually a phone call. At some point, it becomes more of a hassle to avoid the vaccine than to get it. Personalised reminders to complete unpleasant tasks can be hard to ignore. Companies that don’t want to fire workers who refuse to get a shot may ultimately have them sign a document acknowledging the health risks of continued exposure – like
the form employers are required to provide health care workers who refuse a hepatitis B vaccine. While such a document should not include an unlawful waiver
Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff of workers’ compensation claims, it could explicitly warn workers of the health risks they’re taking. Are companies meddling in workers’ choice and
behaviour? Of course they are. You might even say it’s their core competency. • Originally published on theconversation.com
PAGE 12, Thursday, April 22, 2021
THE TRIBUNE
After Chauvin found guilty, probe into police launched WASHINGTON Associated Press THE Justice Department is opening a sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis after a former officer was convicted in the killing of George Floyd there, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced yesterday. The decision comes a day after the former officer, Derek Chauvin, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death last May, a verdict that set off a wave of relief across the country. Floyd’s death had led to months of mass protests against policing and the treatment of Black people in the United States. The Justice Department was already investigating whether Chauvin and the other officers involved in Floyd’s death violated his civil rights. “Yesterday’s verdict in the state criminal trial does not address potentially systemic policing issues
ATTORNEY General Merrick Garland. in Minneapolis,” Garland said. The new investigation is known as a “pattern or practice” — examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing — and will be a more sweeping review of the entire police department. It may result in major changes to policing in the Minnesota city. It will examine the use of force by police officers, including force used during protests, and whether the
department engages in discriminatory practices. It will also look into the department’s handling of misconduct allegations and its treatment of people with behavioral health issues and will assess the department’s current systems of accountability, Garland said. The Minneapolis police said in a statement that the chief, Medaria Arradondo “welcomes this investigation” and will fully cooperate with federal prosecutors. Arradondo “understand that the intent of this inquiry is to reveal any deficiencies or unwanted conduct within the department and provide adequate resources and direction to correct them,” the statement said. A senior Justice Department official said prosecutors chose to announce the investigation a day after the verdict because they did not want to do anything to interfere with Chauvin’s trial. The official would not discuss details of the investigation
publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Three other ex-Minneapolis police officers charged in Floyd’s death will be tried together beginning Aug. 23. The official said their trial is far enough off that officials believed it was still appropriate to make the announcement Wednesday, even though the defendants are awaiting trial on state charges. It’s unclear whether the years under investigation will begin when Floyd died or before. Garland said a public report would be issued if the department finds a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. The government also could bring a lawsuit against the police department, which in the past have typically ended in settlement agreements or consent decrees to force changes. The Minneapolis Police Department is also being investigated by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which is looking into the police department’s
policies and practices over the past decade to see if it engaged in systemic discriminatory practices. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said city officials “welcome the investigation as an opportunity to continue working toward deep change and accountability in the Minneapolis Police Department.” The city council also issued a statement supporting the investigation, saying its work had been constrained by local laws and that it welcomes “new tools to pursue transformational, structural changes to how the City provides for public safety”. The Justice Department official said attorneys from the department’s civil rights division are in Minneapolis, working with the US attorney’s office and speaking with community groups and others. Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He panicked,
pleaded that he was claustrophobic and struggled with police when they tried to put him in a squad car. They put him on the ground instead. The centrepiece of the case was bystander video of Floyd, handcuffed behind his back, gasping repeatedly, “I can’t breathe,” and onlookers yelling at Chauvin to stop as the officer pressed his knee on or close to Floyd’s neck for what authorities say was about 9 1/2 minutes, including several minutes after Floyd’s breathing had stopped and he had no pulse. Floyd’s death on May 25 became a flashpoint in the national conversation about the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement and sparked worldwide protests. The Justice Department had previously considered opening a pattern or practice investigation into the police department soon after Floyd’s death, but then-Attorney General Bill Barr was hesitant to do so.
DEMONSTRATORS gather at the scene of the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant. Photo: Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch via AP
BLACK TEENAGER SHOT BY POLICE OFFICER IN OHIO COLUMBUS, Ohio Associated Press
THE fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, a Black teenager seen on video charging at two people with a knife, came within minutes of the verdict in George Floyd’s killing — causing outrage by some over the continued use of lethal force by Columbus police. Officials with the Columbus Division of Police released footage of the shooting on Tuesday night just hours after it happened, a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of recent high-profile police killings that have led to clashes. The girl was identified by Franklin County Children Services, which said in a release that the 16-year-old Bryant was under the care of the agency at the time of her death. The ten-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police had been dispatched after someone called 911 saying they were being physically threatened, Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when Bryant starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down. Bryant then charges at another girl or woman, who is pinned against a car. From a few feet away, with people on either side
of him, the officer fires four shots, and Bryant slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her. A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!” The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.” The race of the officer wasn’t clear and he was taken off patrolling the streets for the time being. Bryant was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such an instance. Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is now reviewing the killing following an agreement with the city last summer for all police shootings to be handled by the independent investigators under Attorney General Dave Yost’s office. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim but defended the officer’s use of deadly force. “We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters. The shooting happened about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the killing of Floyd.