“Minnis hits out at Ministers who failed to table audits” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “Free National Movement leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has criticized Cabinet ministers who have failed to table audits of government institutions as required by law, saying the issue highlights the need for greater accountability measures in government.

Dr. Minnis was responding to revelations in a Tribune article last week about gaps in the public record concerning audits of the Public Hospital Authority (PHA), the Water & Sewage Corporation (WSC), he Bahamas Broadcasting Corporation, the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC), the College of the Bahamas (COB) and the Hotel Corporation of the Bahamas.

‘The Government has shown a wanton disregard for transparency, accountability and the rule of law’ Dr. Minnis said Friday.”

With the Budget Debate set to commence in very short order and while the country is being distracted by the Gender Equality Referendum, it is my person opinion that the present government is making an attempt to distract from their current fiscal failings; as has been seen in the audit of the Department of Social Services, the Road Traffic department and the Urban Renewal Program.  It must indeed be quite embarrassing when you had hoped to speak to the success of tax reform in Value-Added Tax (VAT), as you continue to claim that it is exceeding all expectations yet there has never been a repeal in any area to aid in the lives of the average Bahamian citizen; when you seek to speak to the ‘tightening of the fiscal belt’, the reigning in of public expenditure even to the point of cutting subsidies to the College of the Bahamas, the deficit reduction but yet each and every government institution that you audit shows an ‘unexplained’ loss of public funds.

How does one present a complete and concise economic picture of the country when a lot of the economic statuses of the institutions that make up the ‘bigger picture’ have just not been provided?  It is simple, you cannot provide a clear and concise picture, so with these glaring omissions to what should be the final Budget Debate before he next General Election; a reason for the present government to prove why they should remain in power, there seem that we will still be left with more questions than answers but this has been this governments way, to provide more questions than answers while expecting not to be questioned.

Now before I am accused of misleading the public, lest I be compared to this government, let me just clarify that just because audits have not been tabled does not mean that they have not been carried out but could it be that the ministers responsible have just failed, for whatever reason to table the audits?  The obvious concern by the rest of us is that maybe something ‘bigger’ is being hidden.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

On June 7^th, 2016 the Bahamas will go to the polls for a Gender Equality referendum that has been delayed for over fourteen years.  Many are of the opinion that some of the questions being asked are a waste of time and can rectified by Parliament and the money better spent on correcting other issues in our constitution.

Today, two branches of government, the Executive and the Judicial, are caught up in a legal battle and it would seem that the constitution is insufficient to offer clarification.

“Mitchell: Injunction is nonsense” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “As a Supreme Court Justice was hearing a constitutional motion from Save The Bays (STB) regarding private emails being read in the House of the Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell was in Parliament yesterday, again blasting an injunction issued by Justice Indra Charles that prohibits MP’s from releasing those emails.

Mitchell dismissed the injunction as ‘nonsense’.

‘I want to make this clear,’ he said.

‘I do not consider myself bound by an injunction issued by any court in so far as it applies to any attempt to stifle what I say and do in this place.  I will act accordingly.’

STB members are seeking a declaration from the court that they have a right to privacy under Article 23 of the constitution and that it is an entrenched fundamental right which trumps parliamentary privilege.”

A line has been drawn; one side seeks to invoke privacy laws as laid out by the constitution and the other seeks to violate these same laws by seeking to use parliamentary privilege as laid out in Article 53 of the constitution but this is only made possible by “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Parliament may make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the Bahamas (Article 52), which would tend to suggest that ‘good governance’ is a factor in the application of Article 53; so if the minister seeks to ‘act accordingly’ will he err on the side of caution by not violating article 23 of the constitution?

One of the main issues of these emails, beside them being private is the manner in which they were obtained.  The good Minister for Marathon, Jerome Fitzgerald claims that he found them in his political ‘garbage can’ and I can only feel that that he can only be referring to his mind when he uses this term but how did you obtain private emails of private citizens?

Mr. Mitchell actually makes a very relevant point when he asks, “You know even if we broke the injunction what was the court going to do?  How were they going to enforce it?, he asked” and this is where the constitution would have to make a clarification on which article actually trumps the other and what would be the possible ramifications for members of parliament violating the article.

Minister Mitchell goes on to ensure that all these emails are important because “When the facts reveal that there was, in fact a conspiracy to destabilize the government…..”, if this has not been proven to date and the minister has to violate Article 23 of the Constitution to do so then I would suggest that he has already lost this battle, but yet he forges ahead.

“Mitchell also sought to assure this constituents that he would not ‘blink or stutter’ and [he would] continue to serve unswervingly their interest in this place”, if only he had stepped forward in the Baha Mar crisis – serve the best interest of the people, but if by serving their best interest and ‘acting accordingly’ he seeks to act against the constitution itself, then what great purpose has he served?

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

“Halkitis: FNM playing politics with Road Traffic Dept” – The Nassau Guardian

Except from this article; “Minister of State for Finance, Michael Halkitis said he is not surprised that the Free National Movement (FNM) is avoiding responsibility for the ‘long-standing’ issue of fraud and malfeasance outlined in the auditor general’s report on operations at the department of Road Traffic.

The report found among other things, that a minimum of $10 million at the department had been lost due to a ‘severe lack of order and control around the safe guarding of assets, collection of revenue and reporting of the same.

The general audit covers the period July 1, 2012, to June 30 2015.”

I find it quite interesting that any minister of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) would seek to take any report produced by the Auditor General’s office and prosecute anyone based on same said report when they refused to take action when the Auditor General’s report questioned certain practices within Urban Renewal but now they seek to make claim that others are making matters ‘political’, this is shameful.

Looking beyond the fact of Mr. Halkitis claiming that this matter is being made political by the Free National Movement, he then goes on to clarify his government’s position on the matter, “I don’t expect to them (the FNM) to take responsibility, because this is political season and I can say that over the four years of this administration, we have had precious few constructive intervention from the Free National Movement on any topic,” Halkitis said.

Having said that; we know these things are long-standing – I’m not going into a, it happened under yours or it happened under ours; discussion – it is long standing.”  I recall a ‘when pigs fly’ comment by a PLP minister but also like to point out, Mr. Halkitis, this is what you just did , gotten into what you claimed you would not get into but leaving all of this alone; there is still is the matter of how the auditor general’s report are only relevant when this governments says and it seems to have become pretty relevant in what this minister calls ‘political season’, after he has openly admitted that his administration has had four years to deal with working on correcting the problem; the ‘long-standing’ one that he claims that ‘the previous administration failed to identify’ and only seems to have taken his administration four years to identify, even after claiming “….the prior Christie administration had made efforts to modernize road traffic, but the Ingraham administration didn’t continue the plans.”, I feel Mr. Halkitis is being a tad bit dishonest here but if one were to take him at this word one would question why they spent millions on Junkanoo-Carnival, re-vamped Urban Renewal but allowed the corruption to continue at road traffic for over four years, are they that incompetent and inept at governance?

In no way do I look to excuse the previous administration for not identifying the problem in this department and others but to have ‘work’ begin in them to ‘correct’ these problems one year before a general election just is a bit suspicious to me, especially when the auditor general’s reports are now being used to make this corrections in light of the way in which his report was handled in the Urban Renewal matter, may I remind the Minister of State for Finance that his government went out and commissioned an ‘independent’ report when the auditor general issued one on Urban Renewal, maybe someone at Road Traffic needs to request another audit done, this government has turned the system into a joke.

So, Mr. Halkitis, wishes to end his comments with, “The fact of the matter is that this administration has identified where the weaknesses are, and we’re addressing it, and that is the bottom line” and I continue to winder will this be the same bottom line with urban Renewal?

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

“DPM: PLP did nothing wrong in 2002 referendum” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Following a call by former Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett for the government to apologize for campaigning against the 2002 constitutional referendum, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis said the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) did not , so it has nothing to apologize for.

‘A person will only apologize when they accept that they did something wrong.’ Davis said”

Here I feel is the most critical problem with the Progressive Liberal Party and why they continue to fail, “A person will only apologize when they accept that they did something wrong”, it seems to be in their nature to continue to be unable to accept their wrong doings.

In 2002 a question was brought to the people in the form of a referendum, asking for the removal gender discrimination from the Constitution, the Progressive Liberal Party voted for the bills in the House of Assembly and then promptly went out and campaigned against them. At that time they claimed that they campaigned against it because the church was not consulted on the matter, I would like to point out that the church was consulted on the Gaming Referendum; the rest is history.

The Progressive Liberal Party, campaigning against the 2002 Gender Equality Referendum, actually set the progress of women’s rights and equality back my at least fourteen years but yet today, as they seek to bring the referendum back to the people, they would claim that, and I quote “I did nothing wrong when I voted against it.’  Philip Davis says today but what is the reasoning that he is now giving as to why he voted against the referendum against the advancement of women’s rights back in 2002?  Bear in mind they have already said that it was because the church was not consulted.

“Davis told reporters outside the House of Assembly yesterday, that in 2002, he was voting against the ‘process’ and not the bills themselves.

‘I didn’t vote against no because I did not believe in the rights of the sexes, but rather because it was included in a number of other amendments, that bred confusion’, he said”

The referendum questions of 2002:

1. The removal of gender discrimination from the constitution.
2. The creation of a national commission to monitor the standards of teachers.
3. The creation of an independent election boundaries commission.
4. The increase of the retirement age of judges from 60 to 65 (or 68 to 72 for appellate judges).

The Deputy Prime Minister acts as if the people are not confused today by the questions put forth by his administration but a major difference now is that the Free National Movement today is not encouraging a “no” vote in the upcoming referendum but rather that people become educated on the questions and the possible ramifications on the future of the country and vote their conscience. 

I feel that the deputy Prime Minister is either conceding to his ignorance or is calling the rest of the people of the Bahamas ignorant because he implies that the only way to have avoided any confusion in any of the questions in the 2002 Referendum was to vote ‘no’ to all of the questions instead of becoming educated to what were the ramifications of the each and every question and voted your conscience, the Deputy Prime Minister is being very disingenuous and misleading  in his present explanation.

As I read the questions from the 2002 referendum, I am quite mystified as to the ‘confusion’ that Deputy Prime Minister spoke to and how the present presentation of the questions has provided any clarification.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

“And Moses said unto the people fear ye not stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord: Which he will show you today. For the Egyptians who ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more.”

Exodus, 14: verse 13 & 14

Michael Pintard shared this stricture verse with the audience at his, “This Change is Unstoppable” event last night and indeed the event, the talk that he gave was a very timely one, with one of the main focuses being the systematic manner in which this present government attempts to threaten and intimidate anyone that stands up against it and he went on to explain why Bahamians should come together to remove them from office.

“Pintard: I will not be intimidated.” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “Former Free National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard last evening declared that he would not be intimidated and forced into silence, asserting that the only way for Bahamians to socially mature, would be through a systematic change of the current political model.

Speaking at his “This Change is Unstoppable” event, the veteran politician criticized both the PLP, and to a lesser degree the FNM for what he described as the ‘disgraceful’ concept of governance perpetrated by successive regimes.

The former Senator contended that the masses are suffering while the elite are left to flourish at their expense. 

Mr. Pintard further implied that the ‘concepts’ being fabricated by those that wish he would step away from front line politics, have been used to ‘cover up’ the supposed sinister wrong doings by members of the Christie administration.”

Indeed, the government in the past four years has been involved in some of the most underhanded and sinister plots that have taken the country backward instead of forward, plots mired in some of the most corrupt practices that we have ever seen.  A road of corruption, mismanagement and poor governance.

During the Bank of the Bahamas (BoB) fiasco; a former Free National Movement Chairman and Senator’s home was searched and belongings seized as the government looked for ‘the leak’, which was never found, that was revealing the record losses at the financial institution and the manner in which they were being covered up. 

Of course this ended with the losses being ‘transferred’ to newly created government entity; Resolve Bahamas, which was charged with recovering the losses.  To date the BoB is experiencing losses and the works of Resolve Bahamas is unknown.  Just think about it, the government creates a debt recovery agency to transfer its losses to and to oversee the recovery of said losses; this is unbelievable.

During the Peter Nygard/Louis Bacon Sage, this government again showed its attempts to threaten and intimidate persons into silence and/or submission, as it targeted anyone ‘associated’ with Louis Bacon; whom they claimed was/is an enemy of the state.

It is interesting the lengths that this Progressive Liberal Party went though in this matter to protect ‘one of its own’, a foreigner that has been known to contribute greatly to their party; “if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us”, one PLP MP once said, we just did not know how deep ‘we’ went with this party.

We have two foreigner fighting over Bahamian soil and the government decides to side with one of them and threaten any and every one that does not follow their lead in this matter, even a Court Justice, just because she would not allow them to break the spirit of the law by invoking ‘parliamentary privilege’ to violate another’s persons Constitutional right to privacy, this is unbelievable.

As far as I am concerned, the present government has shown it propensity for illegality and nothing can be incriminating than the Marathon Gasoline spill matter, as they continue to attempt to cover up their mismanagement of this matter through threats and intimidation, they should be shame of themselves but we have come to know that they know no shame.

“Permit me to define what may qualify as a conspiracy.  A gasoline leak that is eventually brought to the attention of the government and the government, despite the recommendation of the report they commissioned to inform the residents, then makes the decision to not tell the residents or public about the potential dangers; for a full year Ministers maintain a code of silence.

‘Imagine a member of Parliament visiting your home and sitting and talking about your future traveling possibly with his bottle of water and watches you as you drink from your contaminated well; and never bothers to tell you that you may be at risk.”, this is the type of government that serves the Bahamas today.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

“Nottage: Vote Hurt by Same-Sex Marriage talk” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “With momentum ahead of the June constitutional referendum appearing to be with the ‘no’ campaign, National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage said yesterday that talks of same sex marriage will negatively impact the vote on amendments to the Constitution.

‘It will impact the vote negatively because the question and amendments have nothing to do with that’ he told reporters during an interview following a House of Assembly session yesterday.’

‘The fact that these matters are being brought up now is a bit mischievous because it would appear as if there are very responsible people in our community who are prepared to suggest that (the bills have to do with same sex marriage) when they know full well they are not connected.”

Excerpt from [the] Prime Minister (Perry Christie) tabling of four Constitutional amendment bills.

Bill #4: The Bahamas Constitution (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill, 2004.

Finally, Bill #4 seeks to end discrimination based on sex.  This involves the insertion of the word ‘sex’ into Article 26 of the Constitution so as to make it unconstitutional to discriminate on whether someone is male or female.

It is for me to caution, however, that the bill makes it clear that the existing exception will continue to apply. In particular, this bill will not make same –sex marriages lawful.  Such unions are already treated as void under the Matrimonial Act and the genesis of this particular legal position pre-dates the Independence Constitution.  This will not change under the proposed amendments to Article 26.”

The Prime Minister’s clarification to this situation is about as clear as that of Dr. Bernard Nottage leading up to the ‘Gaming Referendum’/Opinion Poll, when asked to give clarification to the question, “Do you support the regulation and taxation of web shop gaming?”, the question was how do you regulate and tax something that is illegal but the answer from Minister Nottage at the time was that legalize was implicitly implied in the word regulate, this lead to unnecessary confusion, the failure of the ‘Gaming Referendum’ and of course the rest is history and the question now is, are we headed in the very same direction?

As the Prime Minister proclaims “Not on my watch”, implying that the success of Bill #4 will not lead to same-sex marriages on ‘his watch’ because as he put it, “Such unions are already treated as void under the Matrimonial Act”, I would like to ask if we change the Constitution to PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION based on ‘sex’ and two of the same ‘sex’ wish to wed, then will the Matrimonial Act trump the Constitution which will now say that you cannot discriminate based on sex?

Yes, Dr. Nottage is right that some mischief is being created by some people, but the minister must also admit to the fact that a lot of the negativity toward the upcoming referendum has come about due to the confusion created by an inept and incompetent government.

Then there is the issue of the distrust created by the overturning of the ‘Gaming Referendum.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

As the present government of the country prepares to ‘jump da line’ destroying the present culture of the Bahamas by attempting to force another to fit, I would like to ask how exactly how does Junkanoo-Carnival advance Bahamian culture and achieve its goal?

What its basic goal?

“Christie : Carnival is here for good” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Expressing confidence of Bahamian buy-in to Junkanoo-Carnival, Prime Minister Perry Christie said while the event is a work in progress, it will get better every year and it is poised to be a ‘big event’ that will benefit the Bahamian people ‘mightily’.

Speaking to The Nassau Guardian at the Music Masters competition on Friday night, Christie said the song competition was evidence of carnival working.

‘I’m seeing thousands of Bahamians who are also enjoying themselves,’ he said.

‘I think this is work in progress.

‘It’s going to get better and better each year, like for example the song competition.”

There are a few questions to ask oneself as the Prime Minister makes these statements; one, did Junkanoo-Carnival get ‘better’ this year, is the song competition a sign of it getting ‘better’, is this the same song competition that is a part of our Independence celebrations and what is the primary objective of Junkanoo-Carnival?

Let me re-clarify my position on Junkanoo-Carnival, I feel that it is a foreign culture that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government is attempting to force onto the Bahamian culture and by adding ‘Junkanoo’ to the front of it, has attempted to convince visitors to our shores that it is indeed a part of our culture; it is not.

Then that brings me to the question of what is the primary objective of Junkanoo-Carnival?  At its inception, many were convinced that it was to bring visitors to our shores; the ‘Heads-in-Beds’ concept; a touristic stimulus of sorts.  If you create an event interesting enough then people would come to ‘experience’ it, to date has this been the case?  The Prime Minister speaks of ‘seeing thousands of Bahamians enjoying themselves’ and I have nothing against this but was this the primary purpose of the event when it was first conceived? 

With the timing of it all, being around the very same time the Progressive Liberal Party won the government in 2012, then many believe that the event has been put together for Bahamians to enjoy themselves but what about all of the money being spent under the guise of bringing people to our shores, has the government deceived us yet again?

Last year’s Junkanoo-Carnival operated at a deficit and there was talk of compensating some of the vendors, I do not know if this was ever done but this year’s Junkanoo-Carnival, which the Prime Minister said would/should be better, created less of a buzz than it did in its first year which it ran at a deficit, so I guess we will have to ‘jump de line’ for the final figures on this JC as we did with the first one to get an idea if it idea did do better.

I doubt it.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END

Reading Alfred Sears in today’s dailies and one would get the impression that he were about to run for Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and not only attempting to re-gain the Fort Charlotte seat for the Progressive Liberal Party.  If I were Prime Minister, Perry G Christie I just may suspect some ‘funny business’ at the next Progressive Liberal Party Convention this fall, that is if the present leader of the PLP sees the necessity of a General Convention.

“Sears; Abolish monarchy, limit PM’s powers” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article, “Insisting that Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is best suited for the Bahamas to address the myriad national challenges, former Attorney General and PLP candidate of Fort Charlotte yesterday presented a package of recommendations to foster a ‘safe, cohesive’ and economically robust Bahamas.

In an opinion piece Sears said has decided to re-enter front line politics at a time of ‘great challenges’.

He said the PLP is best suited by its experience in nation building, commitment to social justice, nationalist orientation, regional sensitivity and political courage to pursue a transformational agenda to place the Bahamas on a more sustainable economic path and foster a more socially cohesive society.” If I am not mistaken, these would be along the very same lines of promises the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie made as he made his first bid the office of Prime Minister when he first became leader of the PLP, surely Mr. Sears must be aware that for him to have a chance at all of this then he must first win at Convention……my dear God could this mean that…………

Alfred Sears name numerous things that must be done in order to have a path to a safe, cohesive and economically robust Bahamas and one question that I have is has he been keeping these things to himself until now and why hasn’t the Progressive Liberal Party already put them, at least at part, into place within the past four years?

Several of the things that Mr. Sears has put forth in his opinion piece are;

1. He suggests the power to appoint the Chief Justice and Justice of Appeal should not be responsibilities of the Prime Minister and provided to the governor general, who would act on the recommendation of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission”, good idea, as soon as we remove the naming of the Governor General from the Prime Minister.
2. He suggests the creation of an independent electoral boundaries commissions, this we have heard many time before from this very same government, they are presently in the position to do something about it.

Indeed, Mr. Sears goes on with many examples of what he feels needs to change or introduced and I am amazed at the manner at which he is just coming of age, so to speak.  One that I have found of some interest is “Sears also recommenced the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund, the re-establishment of the national youth service, tax free excerption for residents in ‘ova da hill’ communities and free tertiary education both technical, professional and academic for all Bahamian citizens.”

In his statement within this opinion piece, with which some we are already very familiar, Mr. Sears begins to finish with, “The forgoing recommendations are amongst some of the new and exciting opportunities that the Progressive Liberal Party should pursue, in my opinion, in order to unleash the creative imaginations and intellect of the Bahamian people, reduce crime, expand opportunities for the next generation of the Bahamas and also to realize their full potential.”  Is Alfred Sears, admitting that the Progressive Liberal Party never attempted these things or failed at them and suggesting that if he were Prime Minister he can bring them about?

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

“Judge unlikely to face House……Gomez would be ‘surprised’ if Justice was called upon.”

Excerpt from this article; “Central and South Eleuthera MP Damian Gomez is called before the Committee on Privilege after being named last week in a resolution to determine whether she or others should be held on contempt of the House of Assembly.

While confirming that he still has plans to rescue himself as Chairman of the committee, Mr. Gomez Q.C. explained that parliamentarians were asserting their privilege when they sit in the lower Chamber, Justice Charles is also ‘immune from process’ when she sits on her bench of her court room.

The former state minister for legal affairs affirmed that the Save the Bays Director Fred Smith Q.C. and attorney Ferron Bethel – who were also named in the resolution – will be brought before the committee to determine whether they committed an offense.”

So now it would seem that since the ‘principle’ cannot beat up a ‘teacher’ it will continue to take it out on a ‘student’, because the student made the first complaint to show the ‘principle’ in clear violation of his duties as they are laid out by the law?  And when and where did Damien Gomez QC loose himself enough to rescue himself’ and exactly from what?

These ‘dealings’ that he Mr. Gomez has before him are indeed interesting; whereas elected officials seek to use ‘parliamentary privilege’ to evade a person’s private life to expose not only what is unproven but also the whereabouts of where they came from are quite questionable, and then use the law, any way that they can bend it to make that person or anyone else that stands in the way the ‘bad guy’

Also as an injunction has been put in place by the Supreme Court to stop further illegal invasion of privacy by this government as they continue on this quest, how will only bringing Director Fred Smith Q.C. and attorney Ferron Bethel before the Committee on Privilege now serve you?  Are agents of this government seeking to make the court order null and void, in which case the Justice would have been in earlier and……..let me stop before I get put before a ‘select committee’.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END

Last week the Attorney General’s office sought to set aside an injunction put in place by the Supreme Court to stop certain persons within the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government, the attorney general being one of these persons, from revealing the personal and private emails of members of the environmental group Save The Bays to the general public.  Since this time some persons have come out chastising the Supreme Court Justice for what they saw as her attempts to silence the ‘voice’ of the Executive, while it is my opinion that the Justice has only made the attempt to protect the constitutional rights of private citizens against a lawless Executive that seeks to invade the privacy of individuals to prove that the Save The Bays environmental organization is really a political organization with the intent of destabilizing the Progressive Liberal Party government.

Today Justice has stood her grounds, even in light of clear attempts of intimidation by members of the Executive, “A resolution was moved in Parliament last Monday by Mr. Fitzgerald to determine whether Justice Charles…….should be held in contempt of the House.

“Injunction over emails remains despite challenge” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “The answer whether parliamentarians can use privilege to disclose confidential information of private citizens has far- reaching implications beyond the Bahamas, a Supreme Court said on Friday.

Justice Indra Charles made the statement at a hearing in which representatives from the Office of the Attorney General sought to have the judge set aside an injunction that seeks to prohibit respondents including Marathon MP, Jerome Fitzgerald, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson, from appropriating, publishing or disclosing emails, even in Parliament, belonging to Save The Bays (STB) members.

The Justice, in this case, as set herself up as the last line of defense between the average citizen and the Executive branch of the government that has lost sense of right and wrong and is willing to do whatever it takes to ‘make their case’ even if it means breaking the law.  The steps that the Executive has taken in this matter can only be described as democracy in decay, a sign that Karl Marx saw of a move toward fascism, as they seek to use parliamentary privilege to openly invade the person lives of Bahamian citizens without just cause.

As Justice Charles has made her ruling she also states, “I do not make orders lightly,’ the judge added.  ‘If there’s going to be an application to discharge, it has to be heard in full she said.”

So now the government and its agents will have to prepare an argument as to why they feel that should be able to violate the constitutional rights of other citizens of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas but as they prepare said arguments they will have to meet the standard that Justice Charles has already set because if you were to leave it to this government they will probably just say “because we said so”.

Justice Charles said the issues at hand are obvious and will be expanded upon by both parties.

‘Is parliamentary privilege absolute if someone complains that their constitutional rights have been infringed upon, bearing in mind the walls of Parliament is sacred?  Is the Constitution the Supreme Law of the land?  The judge asked.”

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.