It appears that Attorney Fred Smith QC and the group “Rights Bahamas” is “hell bent” on creating more problems within the Bahamian society than they seek to solve and the question is, to what end?  What exactly is their ‘end game’?  Because right now their agenda does not seem to be to the betterment of those whom they claim to defend.

“RIGHTS BAHAMAS PLANS TO TAKE SHANTY TOWN CASE INTERNATIONAL”

Excerpt from press statement; “Human rights group Rights Bahamas is planning to take its shanty town case to the International community, attorney Fred Smith QC, told The Tribune on Friday.

Speaking outside the swearing-in-ceremony of Chief Justice Stephen Isaacs, Mr. Smith described the government’s actions against shanty towns as an attempt to ‘ethnically cleanse’ the country of these villages.

On August 5, the Supreme Court ordered the government and utility providers to halt any planned service disconnections or evictions in shanty towns pending a judicial review of the Minnis administration’s policy to eradicate those communities.

Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson granted the interlocutory injunction blocking evictions and service disconnections just days ahead of the government’s August 10 deadline during a telephone conference with human  right attorney Fred Smith QC, and Attorney General Carl Bethel on Saturday.

On Wednesday, Mr. Bethel told the Senate the government has hired a team of high-powered lawyers headed by Harvey Tynes, QC, to take on Mr. Smith and his team in the matter.

The next day, Rights Bahamas, of which Mr. Smith is the former president, released a statement criticizing the government’s intention to pay lawyers outside the Office of the Attorney General, calling it a ‘waste’ of money.

When asked what the next steps are regarding this legal action, Mr. Smith said: ‘Rights Bahamas is going to the United nations Humans Rights Council and also to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to also present to the international world this terrible attempt to ethnically cleanse the Bahamas of villages composed mainly of people whose heritage is Haitian.”

So now Rights Bahamas has to lay out its case; which is that The Bahamas government is seeking to ethnically cleanse the country of these villages which it just may be doing, as Mr. Smith plays his words game with the term “ethnically cleanse”, seeking to suggest that the government is attempting to rid the country of an entire sector of actually persons, while the government merely seeks to regulate these shanty towns and bring them up to standard worthy of human habitation, why is Mr. Smith distracting from this fact?  Is it because it simply does not serve his narrative what is his narrative?

Mr. Smith must realize that ALL residents of these shanty towns are being ‘targeted’ so for him to say “…..this government is targeting an ethnic community and it is an international crime to do this”, is misleading as it would suggest that only persons of Haitian heritage live in these shanty towns and are being unfairly targeted.

Mr. Smith and Human Rights speaks to the basic human rights and due process which must be afforded to any illegal migrant or anyone building illegally in these shanty towns but refuses to speak to any laws being broken by these persons and also glosses over the fact the nowhere has it been suggested that these persons would not be afforded their due process.

They have been given over eight months to prepare their cases, Mr. Smith is quite aware of this and is being extremely disingenuous as he wishes to present a case to save the way of life for people which he must even see and being substandard and even inhumane; even if most of them see this as a step up from where they have migrated. 

I ask Mr. Smith, why doesn’t Right Bahamas attempt to give those in these communities a hand up instead of fighting for them to continue to live a way of life which you would fight against if they were forced to live under these conditions?

As I have mentioned before, Mr. Smith seems to be going about bringing out wars without compromise, which only serves to further foment discord between Bahamians and Haitians, this is being seen in the case of the valedictorian of Doris Johnson High School who has been accepted by a number of colleges and has received partial scholarships and while we all wish to reward his excellence in academics the reality is that he may not get the chance because of his citizenship status.  At one time many Bahamians would have come to his aid and some still have, while others now take the unfortunate stance of “Why help a foreigner, when our own need help?”

END