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VOLUME:114 No.216, OCTOBER 2ND, 2017

HO US E & 16 THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: $1

INSIGHT: PEOPLE WANT TO FEEL SAFE. PERIOD

PAGES

Eugene’s killing: Man in custody

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are questioning a man in connection with last week’s double shooting, which led to the death of eight-year-old Eugene Woodside Jr and a man in his twenties.

Chief Superintendent Solomon Cash, attached to the Central Detective Unit, confirmed this yesterday, adding the man had been brought to CDU last Thursday to assist with the investigation.

Still grappling with the tragic ending of the boy’s life, loved ones and friends gathered in a celebration of Eugene’s time on earth yesterday, describing him as a “gem”.

In a service at the Holy Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Fire Trail Road, worship leader Natasha Bosfield said it was with “mixed feelings” that members gathered.

As the service continued, Eugene’s pregnant mother Kendera Woodside was slumped over in her seat weeping for her son, a large photograph of the third grader just several feet away from where she was sitting.

“The Woodside family is carrying a heavy cross today but He said my grace is sufficient,” Mrs Bosfield told parishioners during the service.

“When I tell you I know all your hurt and your pain SEE PAGE TWO

YASMINE COOKE TAKES MISS UNIVERSE BAHAMAS CROWN

PM INSISTS CAMPBELL NO DUAL CITIZENSHIP

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net TRANSPORT and Aviation Minister Frankie Campbell does not have a Haitian passport, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told The Tribune yesterday.

Concerns about whether Mr Campbell had dual citizenship were raised after Mr Campbell referred having “two passports” on the Darold Miller Live talk show in a SEE PAGE SIX

BACKPAY DEMAND FOR AG’S LAWYERS

MISS Island Luck Yasmine Cooke was last night crowned Miss Universe Bahamas. Yasmine was awarded the title after competing against seven other contestants in the Atlantis Theatre.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net LAWYERS in the Office of the Attorney General haven’t received increments and salary increases in accordance with the industrial agreement the government signed with the Bahamas Public Service Union in 2013 and they’ve now taken their fight for what they believe is owed them to the Office of the Prime MInister.

US WOMAN’S BODY DUMPED IN BUSHES

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

AN ELDERLY American woman was found dead in bushes in north Cat Island Sunday, leading police to launch a homicide investigation into this death, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said.

She was one of two people killed this weekend, after a man who was shot outside his home at Marshall Road early Sunday morning died in hospital.

HOME

Janice Mildred Kissinger’s lifeless body was discovered after police activated a missing person’s alert on Sunday morning for the 74-year-old US citizen who resided on the island, but was temporarily staying at Shanna’s Cove Resort in north Cat Island.

Police said she was last seen on Friday at 3.30pm at the resort.

She had been asked to look after Shanna’s Cove, while friends - the resort’s owners - vacationed outside of the country, sources told The Tribune.

SEE PAGE THREE

SEE PAGE 12

McALPINE WANTED SEAT IN CABINET

BANKS RAISED FEES BY 186%

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN banks have increased fees for cross-border transactions by as much as 186 per cent over the last five years, due to growing pressure on their international ties.

A recently-published International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper further exposes the impact correspondent banking ‘de-risking’ is having on Bahamasbased institutions and their clients, with wire transfer fees alone having increased by 20 per cent since 2012.

It reveals how the fee increases, and extra time spent on compliance and administrative work, have negatively impacted the financial services industry and a wider Bahamian economy that is primarily based on international trade and services exports.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net PINERIDGE MP Rev Frederick McAlpine admits while he was disappointed initially about not being appointed to the Cabinet, he now sees it as “a blessing in disguise” so he can better serve and help the people of his constituency.

He said as an MP, his responsibility is to all residents of Pineridge SEE PAGE SIX

PAGE 2, Monday, October 2, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

Eugene’s killing: Man in custody FROM PAGE 1

today, God can make it right if you surrender.”

Mrs Bosfield later offered words of comfort to relatives, saying, “We are here for you.

“Purpose will come of this.”

And when the church paused to pray, they asked for God to keep Eugene’s parents in “perfect peace” and strengthen them at this time.

Eugene, who was studying his spelling words when he was shot in the

chest by a stray bullet which entered his home last Monday, died in hospital a short time later.

The second victim, Dennis Moss, also died in hospital.

Police believe he was the gunman’s intended target. The killings came more than a month after an eightmonth-old boy was killed in his Bain and Grants Town home.

His mother and father were also shot during that attack, but survived the incident.

EUGENE WOODSIDE’S pregnant mother, Kendera Woodside, is comforted at a service at the Holy Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Fire Trail Road. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 2, 2017, PAGE 3

US WOMAN’S BODY DUMPED IN BUSHES

‘COMMUNITIES ARE TURNING INTO CEMETERIES’

The gruesome discovery, police sources said, also came after an SUV owned by the victim was found burned. Kissinger was found with cuts about the body, sources also said.

Three suspects are in custody assisting police with this investigation, according to Senior Assistant Commissioner Stephen Dean said.

Meanwhile, police said they have no motive for the shooting death of the man who died in hospital.

These incidents JANICE mark the MILDRED 106th and Kissinger 107th homicides for the year.

Police have not released the male victim’s identity, but this newspaper understands he is Paul McPhee, a father of one.

According to police, shortly before 3am the victim had arrived at his residence when a man armed with a handgun approached and shot him before fleeing on foot.

He was rushed to the hospital and was listed as stable, but later died.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander said investigators had not established a motive for any of these recent killings.

“Officers are on the ground with the incident that occurred on Marshall Road,” ACP Fernander said Sunday. “With that, we don’t know the motive.

With that one, all we know is that shots were fired and neighbours came out and saw the individual lying there. It is still early in the game, so we can’t say anything further at this time.”

Regarding the Cat Island incident, ACP Fernander said: “We can’t determine exactly what the motive was at this time.

“That is something that we are working on and hopefully the suspects that we have in custody will be able to clarify some things to us. At this time, I can’t say either if there were noticeable injuries on the victim’s body.”

The two recent murders come after an eight-yearold boy, Eugene Antonio Woodside died in hospital after a stray bullet ripped through his wooden home in Chippingham last Monday.

A man, Dennis Moss, who was thought to be the intended victim and believed to be in his twenties, also died in hospital after the double shooting.

Police are appealing to the public to share information on any illegal/ suspicious activities in their communities, no matter how small or insignificant the tip may seem.

The public is urged to anonymously contact the police at 919 or Crime Stoppers at 328-8477 in New Providence or at 1-242-300-8477 in the Family Islands.

TWO white teddy bears now hang from the tree where Dennis Moss ran a car wash.

The 24-year-old entrepreneur was killed in a hail of bullets last Monday evening as he was walking through a short cut on Farrington Road.

It was an incident that would also claim the life of eight-yearold Eugene Woodside Jr, as he sat inside his home doing homework with his older sister.

Inner-city communities are rapidly becoming cemeteries, according to Khandi Gibson, president of Families of All Murder Victims (FOAM), as she advocated for safe spaces to shelter at-risk youth.

With an office in Farrington Road, Ms Gibson recounted numerous area murders within the past few years, telling The Tribune the violence has only increased with little to no support for poor communities terrorised by gun violence.

She placed two teddy bears on the spot where Moss, who she said was a friend of hers, would hang out and wash cars.

FROM PAGE ONE

MAN SHOT

BY POLICE A MAN is in hospital after he was shot by police during a confrontation on Saturday night.

Police said the incident occurred after 8pm when police were patrolling the area of Montrose Avenue and Wulff Road, however police did not give further details.

The man was taken to hospital where he is said to be in stable condition.

Police said an imitation firearm was seized during the incident.

By SANCHESKA DORSETT Tribune Staff Reporter Sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

back of this office there was another young man killed and about a year ago another man got killed across the street as well, come on man!”

Ms Gibson added: “Something needs to be done. These boys are being gunned down on the street in cold blood. We need a solution. We are in a crisis in this country. Our Bahama land should be a beautiful place, it is not. We are not safe. No one feels safe. We are in fear.”

DENNIS Moss and Eugene Woodside Jr. Ms Gibson said she hopes to erect a tent for a car wash in his honour and hire neighbourhood children to give them a chance to earn money and “get off the streets”.

“The communities are now turning into cemeteries,” she said on Friday.

“The guys hang here they don’t want them hang here, they go across there, they don’t want them hang them there. So where must they hang? Where can they come together, if the police see them together they will arrest them. Where is their freedom? They saying don’t hang out but DJ (Dennis) got killed walking through the (short) cut.

“The other day two brothers got killed right across the street, in the

Attack The brazen daytime attack in the densely populated area came after the gunman chased Moss, who was running between houses in the Rosebud Street area. Eugene was killed by a stray bullet.

Moss’ grandmother, 75-year-old Florence Rolle, told The Tribune that she just wants to know why someone killed her “baby boy”, who she described as a loner. She said the Chippingham area is no longer the calm, peaceful community it once was. The sound of bullets is an almost weekly occurrence, she said.

“I feel very bad about what happened, it was sad and shocking news

and I did not expect that to happen.

He never bothered anyone, he stayed to himself, he never messed with no one.

“He never carried on with the boys that hang around on the blocks, not to my knowledge,” she said.

“I don’t know what happened, the police haven’t told us anything. I feel very bad that the little boy died too and it was nice that the prime minister visited their house, it is so sad what happened.

“They are my neighbours and I feel their pain too.

“It is a hard time for everyone. We are all just trying to deal with it. This area is so violent now, not like how it used to be. It’s so much shooting, so much death.”

Last week, police said they had found the getaway vehicle they believe was used by the person responsible for the senseless daylight shooting.

The silver coloured Nissan minivan was found in bushes on Boyd Road, near a cemetery.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

MILLER: GOVT SHOULD EXPLAIN WHAT SPARKED WSC AUDIT

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

announced that until October 9, Mr Laville and Ms Edgecombe would be replaced

by Acting General Manager THE government should Robert Deal and Acting explain outright what Chief Financial Officer Cheri sparked a forensic audit into Hanna. As October 9 is a the Water and Sewerage Cor- public holiday, it is expected poration and the placement they will return to work the of two executives on admin- following Tuesday.

A source at the corporaistrative leave, former WSC Chairman Leslie Miller said tion told The Tribune Friday yesterday, telling The Trib- police escorted one senior une he was “shocked” to officer home to retrieve his learn of the situation at the laptop.

“The board wishes to water provider.

Mr Miller said when he advise all staff that we have an immediate served as chairman under the ordered former Christie administra- forensic audit of the corpotion, neither he nor WSC’s ration,” Mr Gibson said in board of directors were his message to staff. “The aware of anything “unbe- audit is being carried out by the accounting firm Ernst & coming” at the corporation.

In view of this, Mr Miller Young. All staff members are said he was “concerned”, asked to fully cooperate with adding the move created the the auditors and to provide suspicion of wrongdoing. them immediate and unfetHe warned this could hurt tered access to any and all the reputation and work- information, files and other ing relationships of General documents requested.”

When he was contacted, Manager Glen Laville and Chief Financial Officer Mr Miller said: “I was Sandra Edgecombe with shocked when I saw the headline. When you are doing a their colleagues.

On Friday, The Tribune forensic audit it would be reported that these two some suspicion of wrongdosenior officials and possi- ing or something.

“Quite frankly the board bly others at the WSC were placed on administrative and I were not aware of leave while Ernst & Young anything unbecoming at performs a forensic audit of the corporation under our tenure. The year and a half I the organisation.

In a message to staff, WSC was there, we weren’t aware Chairman Adrian Gibson of anything that needed

to warrant an audit of the corporation.

“When you do those kinds of things you are bringing people’s reputations into serious disrepute. I am very concerned about what’s going on.”

He continued: “Of course the board has the right to do whatever it deems as necessary and say that an audit is necessary. However they do cost a lot of money. We are talking about anywhere from $50,000 and up so you got to have some justification in doing these things.

“It is important they bring a justification of this because Bahamian money is involved.

“When we were there we didn’t have any major disputes with the management of the corporation. They were professional people and they are certainly qualified people there,” Mr Miller said.

“One can only assume this is leaning to some end. People’s reputation is at stake.

“As a manager, if a fella comes in and sends me home and my friends asking me and drawing their own conclusions it’s a serious embarrassment and impediment on those persons.

“Now certain staff members will look at the person in a not so friendly manner,” Mr Miller also said.

DOMINICANS IN THE BAHAMAS JOIN TOGETHER TO PROVIDE RELIEF

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WITH some of their families and friends displaced

by Hurricane Maria, Dominicans living in the Bahamas are banding together to provide relief for those in need.

“I have cousins right now who are living in their cars because their home is destroyed and they refuse to leave,” said Eleanor Garraway-Philip on Saturday, one of more than 20 people who attended a meeting of the soon-to-be reconstituted Bahamas-Dominica Association as it works through the logistics of providing relief to Dominicans.

“We have people at home in my family who have ranged from no damage to minimal damage to having lost everything. We’ve all been impacted to some extent. (One group living in the Bahamas), their family home (on Dominica) is no more. It’s disintegrated. It’s unliveable. Whether business or personal possessions, everyone has been affected,” she added.

While grateful that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced plans to relax immigration rules mainly to accommodate Dominican children to enrol in school here, Dominicans living in the Bahamas

THE BAHAMAS Dominica Association held a meeting on Saturday.

PHOTO: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff believe many of their countrymen and women won’t look for safe haven here, preferring to go to countries nearer to home.

“We’ve had many, many offers of people here who are opening their homes or want to but we’ve had no indication of anyone wanting to take advantage of that situation,” Mrs GarrawayPhilip said.

Dominicans living in the Bahamas have independently provided assistance to their relatives since Hurricane Maria struck that island.

However, the group’s first big foray into providing relief will take place

when a Royal Bahamas Defence Force vessel leaves with supplies on October 10 for Dominica.

Donalson Fredericks, who works with the Office of Disaster Management in Dominica and attended Saturday’s meeting, said shelter is a paramount concern for Dominicans right now.

“At present, the people of Dominica would benefit a lot more from shelter,” he said.

“I’m talking about tents, tarpaulins and, of course, food.

Clothing is not really a priority at this moment but water and food, these are the main priorities.

SEE PAGE SIX

This audit comes as similar actions have affected other government institutions, including Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the National Insurance Board (NIB).

In May, for instance, The Tribune reported that senior

officials at the National Insurance Board were told to take their vacation leave in preparation for an audit.

Cecile Williams-Bethel, senior deputy director of operations, Theresa Burrows,

SEE PAGE SIX

PAGE 4, Monday, October 2, 2017

The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”

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The balancing act of a Bahamian politician IT IS said that “a politician is a person running for office who flipflops on issues as the polls change.”

While the politician makes promises he might not deliver on once elected, “the statesman is a person who stands by his ideals and does everything in his power to do what he believes is right for the people of his country.”

It is at times like these that we wish the politicians would disappear and leave it to statesmen to chart the future of this country.

Last week Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit flew to Nassau, where there is a small Dominican community, to seek help for his people whose island was recently destroyed by category 5 Hurricane Maria.

During the storm Mr Skerrit had reported: “So far the winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with.

“The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and this apparently triggered an avalanche of torn away roofs in the city and the countryside.”

The island’s hospital in Roseau, Dominica’s capital, was also hit. Radio stations stopped broadcasting during the night. By dawn the scene was one of total destruction.

Apparently, Dominica does not have hurricane shelters, and so the schools had to be converted to shelters.

Now that the storm has passed, leaving devastation in its wake, there are no schools for the children to attend as those using them as shelters have no homes to which to return.

While Dominicans try to rebuild their island and their lives, their children’s education has to continue. And so Prime Minister Skerrit flew to his friends in the Bahamas a week ago Sunday to seek help on behalf of the children of Dominica.

While here Mr Skerrit met, not only with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, but also with Opposition Leader “Brave” Davis, who cannot pretend not knowing anything about Mr Skerrit’s plea for help almost as soon as he landed. No secrets were being kept from the Opposition leader.

Prime Minister Minnis immediately agreed in principle to assist by temporarily relaxing immigration rules to accommodate those children of Dominica who want to continue their education in the Bahamas.

The details had to be worked out — already Dominican families here are offering to assist.

But politician Davis on learning that certain Bahamians were complaining that “charity begins at home”—and

apparently must stay at home – pretended to have a senior moment while the politician in him tried to decide on what side of the fence to settle.

He then decided to take the middle road. It was his opinion that before the prime minister agreed to accept the Dominican students, he should have engaged in discussion on the move and offer Bahamians concrete details.

As he shuffled and shifted to position himself on the right side of history he considered that once it did not require a strain on the public purse, it might be something Bahamians could rally around.

Of course, he did not think of the public purse when he expected government to find $14 million for three clinics for a handful of constituents in Cat Island thus depriving the Princess Margaret Hospital of the funds it desperately needed to bring it up to standard to serve all the people of the Bahamas — including his Cat Island constituents.

Of course, the election was just around the corner and he had to have something grandiose to show his constituents for his stewardship.

Again it was the politician seeing only a small segment of a large picture and making the right decision for himself, but the wrong decision for the country.

Having decided that the Bahamas would accept the students, the details now have to be worked out.

Other than the agreement to help, there were no further details to give the Bahamian people.

So no secrets were being kept from anyone.

Just let’s imagine Mr Davis drowning at sea.

One of those standing on shore agrees to throw a life line to him.

But before he can be pulled ashore, his rescuers have to know how long it is going to take to pull him in and once he gets to shore what he will expect of those rescuing him.

Until his rescuers can sit, debate and decide on the terms of his rescue he is left, bobbing up and down, gasping for breath, not knowing which one will be his last.

He is left completely at the mercy of those on shore as they agree the terms of his rescue.

This is the ridiculous position Mr Davis finds himself in. Prime Minister Dr Minnis has agreed that the Bahamas will come to the rescue. Once agreed, the details can be worked out later to the satisfaction of Mr Davis and his supporters.

Stupid, our readers say. We agree, but what can one expect of a politician!

Where our own Christian values have gone EDITOR, The Tribune.

AS our Prime Minister sheds tears in Parliament over the distress of the people of Dominica, and fellow MP Fred McAlpine, warns that charity begins at home (and presumably stays at home), and talk show hosts rail against the inhumanity of a few uncaring Bahamians, who would leave the people of Dominica to stew in their own juice, The Punch today carries

a story that tells of where perhaps our own Christian values have gone.

“Popular Preacher” Neil Ellis (Punch adjectives) is lavished by his eight thousand parishioners, to a thirty-two thousand dollar cash gift, to go along with their equally generous gift to him and “Queen Patrice” (his wife) of a luxury cruise to the Mediterranean cities of Europe.

So that he would be properly dressed for the

luxury cruise, his devoted parishioners threw in five custom made suits, so that he would not look shabby.

Presumably, hopefully, the Christian Council will roundly condemn such open and inopportune vulgarity and perhaps the Gideons will make a gift of eight-thousand and two Bibles to this particular institution.

BRUCE G RAINE Nassau, September 28, 2017.

THE TRIBUNE

Rev McAlpine lacks good judgment EDITOR, The Tribune GIVEN his narrowminded and ungracious response to the Government’s proposal to welcome some students from Dominica in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, thank God Prime Minister Hubert Minnis did not appoint Pineridge MP Rev. Frederick McAlpine to the cabinet.

Dr. Minnis likely realized that Rev. McAlpine is not cabinet material, which the reverend has proven in his recent comments. In his response to the Government’s proposal, Rev. McAlpine demonstrated that he lacks the capacity for serious deliberation and thoughtfulness.

His response was kneejerk and petulant. He lacks good judgment, the primary quality of a leader. One hopes that he remains on the backbench. This is not the caliber of individual we need in the cabinet.

Rev. McAlpine says he is only a messenger. This is nonsense. MPs are not elected to rubber stamp the thoughts of constituents.

They are elected to deliberate on the issues of the day and make considered judgments on the matters before them.

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net Rev. McAlpine says he is a nationalist. He is trying to hide behind the banner of nationalism. One can be a nationalist and an internationalist at the same time. It appears that the reverend gentleman is actually a xenophobe. In his additional comment about Haitian children in government-operated schools he demonstrated his xenophobia in spades.

Rev. McAlpine may be entertaining on the election stump, but he has failed to demonstrate moral wisdom and moral leadership in this instance. One would have thought that as a cleric he would have shown compassion and Christian charity to children and young people from Dominica, whose country has been destroyed.

Sadly, even the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Widow’s Two Mites, recounted by the Prime Minister in his communication to the House of Assembly, did not move this reverend gentlemen’s heart, which seems

hardened by xenophobia in this instance, unconverted by the suffering of God’s people in Dominica.

Rev. McAlpine embarrassed the Prime Minister and his colleagues.

He especially embarrassed Dr. Minnis, who was moved to tears by the plight of Dominica.

The Pineridge MP publicly rebuked his leader.

Rev. McAlpine also embarrassed the good people of Pineridge.

Dr. Minnis continues to work hard to bring employment and opportunity to all Bahamians, including the people of Grand Bahama.

He has rejected the false choice that the only way to care for our own people is to reject the plight of our Caribbean neighbour in their hour of need.

In the Sermon on the Mount and in other parables, Jesus teaches us that care for our neighbour is one of the most essential attributes of following Him. For some, it is okay to send our neighbours a few dollars. But God forbid that we allow them to come under our roof.

MS Nassau, October 1. 2017.

Honeymoon period is over for the FNM EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE honeymoon period for the Free National Movement (FNM) is over and done with.

The real job for the PM and his crew is about to begin and the necessary heavy lifting will not, I submit, be a cake walk.

It is a remarkable and unprecedented political phenomenon that the FNM was elected to high office without making a single concrete electoral direct promise.

Yes, during the never ending, seemingly, campaign, that party and its fragmented leadership cadre did refer, casually, to a number of issues which they had with the then ruling Progressive Liberal Party.

The vast majority of the voters simply wanted to see the backs of Christie & Company. Any political ‘rag doll’ would have been embraced.

The PLP and its then Minister of Foreign Affairs & Immigration were rightly roundly castigated and condemned for a drastic change in the long cockeyed public policy initiatives relative to the admission of children born in The Bahamas to parents of illegal migrants or undocumented individuals.

The powers that then were required voluminous documents and proof of legitimate residency within the nation.

Tens of thousands of Haitian migrants were, of course, unable to supply these documents, many of which were lost or destroyed by the 2010 earthquake which killed close to 100,000 persons and millions more homeless.

This would have been the ideal time for our politicians, across the board, to have sat down in a conclave and debate and determine the ‘best’ solution to the so-called Bahamian-Haitian Diaspora and the undocumented status of such ‘innocent’ children.

What did we do? Save and apart from former PM Ingraham (Papa) unilaterally and without the benefit of known law, released several raw born Haitians from The Detention Centre as a ‘humanitarian gesture’.

We have not seen or heard about them since. We should have moved to grant residency to all such children 18 years and older with a clear path to citizenship within five years subject to obvious requirements and national security concerns.

While we are able to appreciate and understand the offer made by the Minnis administration to take an unknown number of students from Dominica into our educational system, the people of this country have yet to be informed of the details. In fact, with different statements coming from several cabinet members, this whole proposal seems fraught with potential negatives.

If we wish to really assist Dominica, et al, let us mobilise a contingent of Defence Forces Officers; BPL lines men and technicians and some police officers and dispatch them to that nation to assist

in the rebuilding and recovery efforts.

This is a classical case of a bad public policy initiative 3.0 We have tremendous challenges in our educational system. After years of being ‘forced’ out of our schools, socalled Bahamian-Haitian students are still not being admitted on a timely basis or at all. In addition, we have scores of ‘homeless’ Bahamian children living at The Princess Margaret Hospital, for years in some cases! What is Minnis and crew proposing to do with these little “darlings”? In addition, PACE needs to be better funded and expanded. Whatever happened to proposals for a form of National Youth Service for our young men and women?

We are able to break the bank, so to speak, to take in Dominica’s students but are reluctant to do the right thing for our own?

To bring in these students is a bad public policy initiative and, obviously, not well thought out.

Minister Brent Symonette says that it is the Christian thing to do! I am not aware of his affinity and/or embrace of Christianity but he was silent for years when our Bahamian-Haitian students and adults were being denied access to education; the main stream economy and, of course, legal immigration status.

He and the rest of our politicians all know about the so-called Haitian communities throughout The Bahamas where residents live by stealth in the most inhumane, polluted and dangerous environment ever witnessed.

The Bahamas Christian Council says that it ‘supports’ the government’s proposal, even if it has little, if any clue, as to the details.

This is the same group which the FNM administration is demanding that the associated churches open up their accounts and financial reports for scrutiny. Mind you, the MPs still have yet to fully disclose and we will, perhaps, never know who or what contributed financially to the FNM and the PLP during the May elections. I am sure that the DNA got a little something also, but, will we ever know?

Minnis will live to regret the societal and political fallout from admitting students and, by extension, parents and guardians into our fragile environment, across the board.

It is well written that the inhabitants of a country must always be hospitable to the strangers within our gates. I have no problem with this, but, let us be clear, it refers to strangers within our gates not those whom we invite in willy-nilly at the expense of indigenous and first generation Bahamian-Haitian students and adults born in The Bahamas. To God then, in all things, be the glory.

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr Nassau, September 26, 2017.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 2, 2017, PAGE 5

‘POTENTIAL FOR PRIVACY TO BE VIOLATED’ WITH BILL BAHAMAS’ GDP INCREASES

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

Former AG encourages Bahamians to pay close attention to legislation

THE potential exists for politicians to violate the personal privacy of Bahamians under the Minnis administration’s Interception of Communication Bill, former Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said Sunday as she encouraged Bahamians to pay close attention to the bill.

“The current government has decided that the executive - including the minister of national security - should have the right to intercept communications,” Mrs Maynard Gibson said in a statement to The Tribune, referring to provisions in the newly tabled bill that differ from those included in the bill the Christie administration tabled earlier this year.

“This is, in my view, a bad decision. The pre-May 2017 complaints made by the FNM - and others, including their political hacks - definitely apply to the bill tabled in the House of Assembly last week.

The bill gives politicians, and those subject to political influence, extensive powers. The former government outright rejected the notion that the executive should have such power.

“From 2014 - the handing down of the Maycock decision

by the Privy Council - to the tabling of the bill, the former government’s national and international advisors spent much time benchmarking and advising on the Interception (of) Communications Bill.

Guidance “The upshot of those consultations included final determinations that every order for the interception of communications must be issued by a Supreme Court judge – a member of an independent judiciary - being free from any, or any perception of, influence or interference by the executive. It also determined that the commissioner of police - and no one else - would be the ‘authorised officer’ who could approach the attorney general seeking his consent to apply to the Supreme Court for an interception order. Both of these prerequisites comported with the guidance of the Privy Council.”

The former senator added: “I urge Bahamians and all persons within our borders to pay close attention to the bill tabled by the current government and the potential for

politicians and those under the influence of politicians to violate personal privacy.”

Tabled in the House of Assembly last week, the bill has been altered from the version the Christie administration brought to Parliament in several ways.

For one, it features the provisions that currently exist under the Listening Devices Act, an act the bill would repeal if enacted.

These provisions give the minister of national security and the commissioner of police power to authorise the use of listening devices for specified periods of time.

Criticism Mrs Maynard-Gibson frequently responded to criticism of the Christie administration’s bill earlier this year by emphasising that their bill would remove this power and place all authorisation of communication interception solely in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Public uproar over the PLP’s bill was significant enough that the former administration pulled it before the general election.

Members of the Free National Movement were among the fiercest critics of the bill, along with the human rights group like the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association and the We March movement.

State Minister for Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson, who tabled the bill last week, said in February that the Christie administration’s version was a “dangerous bill.”

Last week, Mr Johnson said that unlike the previous administration, the Minnis administration will allow for a substantial consultation period on the bill before debate begins in Parliament.

Attorney General Carl Bethel met with representatives of civil society organisations, including We March leader Senator Ranard Henfield, to discuss the bill Friday. The National Intelligence Agency bill, also tabled last week, was also discussed.

In a statement to the press, Mr Bethel emphasised that the bills have been tabled as a “prelude to a series of national consultations prior to passage and that all views would be considered and purposive, positive suggestions carefully reviewed and where desirable implemented in the final versions of the bills, which would be submitted to the House for passage.”

NEW VERSION OF LEGISLATION ‘DIFFERENT FROM LAST GOVT’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister for Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson said the way the Minnis administration has introduced its Interception of Communication Bill is different from how the Christie administration did so with their version of the legislation, saying the two approaches cannot be compared.

He was responding in the House of Assembly after Official Opposition Leader Philip “Brave” Davis suggested the Minnis administration has been hypocritical for tabling the bill.

The former administration pulled the bill to allow for further consultation in response to uproar from civil organisations.

The version of the bill the Minnis administration tabled Wednesday is not substantially different from the Christie administration’s version.

And although Mr Johnson sought to contrast the two administration’s approaches to how the bills were introduced to the public, The Tribune understands that stakeholders from several civil organisations have been highly critical of the government’s decision to table the bill before public consultation has taken place.

ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel, centre, and Minister of State for Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson met with representatives of civil society organisations, the National LEAD Institute, ORG and Our Carmichael, to discuss the Interception of Communication Bill and National Intelligence Agency Bill on Friday. Pictured from left, Senator Ranard Henfield, Director of Public Prosecution Garvin Gaskin, Peggy Williams of Our Carmichael, Mr Bethel, Chauntez Wilson of ORG, Mr Johnson, Kenrah Newry, Marco Rolle, and Troy Clarke of the National LEAD Institute.

PHOTO: Franklyn G Ferguson “This government is not tabling this bill in the dead of the night when nobody is watching months before the election and we do not need a chorus of citizens and civil society groups to force us into consultation,” Mr Johnson said Thursday.

“We’re bringing this bill to the Bahamian people under the disinfecting light of the sun and we intend to engage with civil society and every citizen in an open and transparent way, proactively, not reactively.

“How anyone can seek to create this false equivalency is beyond me. The last administration ran an entire intelligence agency without governing legislation.

“We are looking to remedy the mistakes of the past so that our law enforcement

officers can access the tools of the future.

“Reforming the process through which a citizen’s communications may be intercepted is vital for protecting the privacy of Bahamians and by requiring independent oversight by the Supreme Court, we can avoid constitutional challenges to convictions that rely on the intelligence our law enforcement can gather.”

Mr Johnson also provided insight into the new administration’s legislative agenda.

On the government’s proposed anti-corruption legislation, he said: “The Anti-Corruption Commission Bill will transform the anti-corruption regime in the Bahamas by providing for the establishment of an AntiCorruption Commission.

“The Corruption Investigation Bureau Bill will transform what is now the Corruption Investigation Unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force into the Corruption Investigation Bureau era, an autonomous body under the Office of the Prime Minister.”

Mr Johnson also said the government expects to table a number of bills that will impact land issues in this country.

“One of the bills I love is the Proceeds of Crime Bill, which will consolidate, strengthen and modernise provisions to the prevention, prosecution and cross-border cooperation on money laundering, terrorism financing, corruption, human trafficking and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

27.6 PER CENT TO $10.7BN

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net THE level of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Bahamas increased by 27.6 per cent from 2012 to now, the National Accounts Section of the Department of Statistics announced Friday.

The GDP level in 2012 was $8.4bn and now stands at $10.7bn, officials said.

Clarice Turnquest, assistant director with responsibility for the Establishment Section and National Council in the Department of Statistics, said a number of sectors contributed to this growth.

She said: “The level in 2012 was $8.4bn and is now $10.7bn, a 27.6 per cent increase. This higher level will affect a wide range of indicators where it is used as a reference point. For example, trends in public expenditure, revenue and public debt are typically analysed in terms of their ratios to nominal GDP.

Growth “The preliminary results reveal that the gross domestic product in constant prices for 2016 had a growth, in real terms of 0.2 per cent.

The industry growth at constant prices was due mainly to increases in the industries of construction, 24 per cent, wholesale/ retail trade – seven per cent and business services of professional and technical nature six per cent.”

She said the sectors that contributed mostly at constant prices were consumption by households and government consumption. These grew by 1.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.

Gross fixed capital formation also grew by 3.4

per cent, due to mainly ongoing capital works, as well as major repairs from Hurricane Matthew, Ms Turnquest said.

“The import of goods and services sector, which normally has a dampening effect on GDP growth, increased by 3.4 per cent led by growth in imported services of 21 per cent.

Review “Consistent with the department’s revision calendar of GDP series, GDP for 2012 to 2016 will be subject to further review and any revisions will be included in the 2017 National Accounts Report in April of next year.”

The changes in GDP incorporate the introduction and revision of major data sources; implementation of the revised United Nations System of National Accounts-SNA 2008, which is a shift to using the double deflation method in the constant price series and the use of a new benchmark 2012 Supply and Use table (SUT).

This SUT is the third compiled by the department, with previous released in 2002 and 2007.

It is a comprehensive matrix, which tracks the supply of goods and services available in the Bahamian economy and corresponds with consumption and production by business, households and government.

Inputs for the SUT used by officials were the 2012 Household Expenditure Survey (HES), aggregated data from value added tax, results from the expended Business Establishment Surveys and other data from the Central Bank of the Bahamas and tourist expenditure measures.

PAGE 6, Monday, October 2, 2017 FROM PAGE ONE short clip that began circulating on social media last week. It is not clear when the show was taped.

Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts has since called on Mr Campbell to clear up the matter.

“Frankie Campbell made a statement on the Darold Miller show that he has two passports,” Dr Minnis told The Tribune on Sunday. “What he meant was like every other Cabinet minister who all have two, including myself, a red one a blue one, that’s what he meant.

“People should stop trying to spew venom or misinformation,” the prime minister added.

The red passport Dr Minnis referred to is a diplomatic passport given to high-ranking persons.

When asked if Mr Campbell has a Haitian passport, Dr Minnis said yesterday: “No - he has two passports just like me and every Cabinet minister. I spoke to Frankie Campbell and he will make a statement (in Parliament) when he arrives in town. People should stop trying to put out rumours and false information or misinterpretation (of Mr Campbell’s words).”

In the short clip of his interview on the talk show, Mr Campbell discussed how his Haitian mother arrived

PM INSISTS CAMPBELL NO DUAL CITIZENSHIP in the Bahamas on Potter’s Cay Dock in search of a better way of life.

“She is from the north of Haiti,” Mr Campbell told the talk show host.

“She is 77 years old. She came here as an immigrant…on a boat…landed right there on Potter’s Cay…illegally… she told me that she had to wait in the cemetery for sometime overnight… hide she did Darold…she came here looking for a better way of life. I think (in) the process she found a better way of life but I’m satisfied that she has produced some children who would’ve contributed to the upliftment of the Bahamian community. I believe I am one of them.”

Asked by Mr Miller if he is “straight,” Mr Campbell said: “I’m privileged today to have two passports, so I’m legal Darold and for the record I don’t support in any way form or fashion illegal landings. . .”

Some in the PLP had latched on to Mr Campbell’s comments, suggesting he is running afoul of the law.

The Constitution states in Article 48 that no person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly who is a citizen of another country having become such a citizen voluntarily, or is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgment of

allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.

“There (has) been much commentary on social media surrounding recent comments made by the minister of transport and aviation while he was a guest on a local talk show,” Mr Roberts said at a party meeting Thursday.

“He said his mother came to the Bahamas illegally and that now he has legal papers and the proud holder of two passports.

“Many Bahamians interpreted that to mean the minister currently holds dual citizenship. I call on the transport minister to bring the rumour mill to an end and clarify his comments once and for all.”

When The Tribune contacted Mr Campbell yesterday, he said: “I don’t want to respond at this time. I’m satisfied that those who had the due diligence to do so, did what they had to do.”

Mr Campbell, who is in the United States, was referring to the vetting process of the FNM’s candidates committee.

He added that “responsible” people would have viewed the full video of his appearance on the Darold Miller Live show to see the context in which his comment was made.

THE TRIBUNE

DOMICANS IN BAHAMAS

FROM PAGE THREE

“Most of our shelters were not made as shelters and that is posing a serious problem when it comes to getting students back into the school system because the schools are used as shelters,” he said. “A lot of houses have been smashed and persons have been living in the shelters.”

Dominica is in need of building supplies as well.

“Most of the business places providing building materials and supplies have been demolished and as a result persons have been in there looting and as a result nothing can be salvaged,” Mr Fredericks said.

“We need to galvanise lumber, also plumbing materials for the restoration of water.”

The group is planning to host a fundraising event for Dominica on the grounds of 1erCru, Gladstone Road, on November 4, the day after Dominica’s independence anniversary.

On Friday, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he was upset about rumours spreading in his country about political interference in the

FROM PAGE ONE regardless of their politics, and stressed he would continue to stand up for his constituents in the House of Assembly.

The Grand Bahama MP held a non-partisan constituency meeting on Saturday at the Foster B Pestaina Centre, where he revealed plans for the Pineridge constituency and invited representatives from the Department of Social Services, the Ministry of Works and NEMA to address any concerns and questions.

“People know that I am an FNM MP, and I saw somebody asking a question on Facebook about who is the MP’s boss?

“I want to get this clear; I am not a member of the Cabinet of the Bahamas.

“Yes, I was not appointed to the Cabinet after this being my second non-consecutive time in Parliament. I am no stranger to Parliament; I spent five years in the Senate, I know how the House works. And you all know (former Prime Minister) Hubert Alexander Ingraham would not have kept me there if I was doing fool.

“Was I disappointed? At first I was, but I mean this from the bottom of my heart, not being in Cabinet is a blessing in disguise,” he said as the room erupted in applause.

“Me being out and not in is helping me to help you.”

In response to the question on Facebook, Rev McAlpine said: “God is the ultimate boss, but the boss is the people of Pineridge.”

He indicated that no matter what happens, some parliamentary seats are always sure seats for the Free National Movement.

“There are people in the House of Assembly don’t care what they do; they get in again.

“So the place where they represent, don’t matter if the government change tomorrow, they still going to win. And

distribution of storm relief supplies, according to regional news outlets.

“This talk about food supplies and partisanship with food supplies and politicians are the ones dealing with the delivery of supplies, this is total nonsense,” Mr Skerrit said during a press briefing on Friday.

“As the PM of this country, I sleep on the floor. As the prime minister of this country I bathed this morning from a bucket of water. I don’t eat corned beef, I don’t eat sardines. So where the hell am I going to put or stack up corned beef in my home or anywhere else?”

MILLER ON WSC AUDIT FROM PAGE THREE NIB senior deputy director of business support and administration, and Dr Baldwin Carey, who died in the interim, were given letters asking them to take their vacation. Raymond Wells, deputy director of IT, was directed to do the same.

Several employees of BPL have been fired after an audit

by Ernst & Young uncovered a litany of issues there.

McALPINE WANTED SEAT IN CABINET even though those people in their seats, they can’t help me because they can’t vote for me,” he said. “. . . People just don’t want people to say ‘yes sir, yes sir, yes sir’ – you get voted out,” said the MP. Rev McAlpine said when he spoke out in the House of Assembly last week, he was not trying to “usurp authority” or insinuate that the country should not help the people of Dominica.

In the House of Assembly on Wednesday, he broke ranks with his party by criticising Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ plan to relax immigration restrictions for some students and citizens of Dominica after their island was devastated by Hurricane Maria.

His stinging criticism came hours after Dr Minnis became tearful while explaining the plan and speaking about the plight of the Dominicans.

“I was not rebuffing our prime minister, I was not rebuking our prime minister, I was not insulting the prime minister, I was representing the views of Pineridge,” said the MP on Saturday, who was applauded by his constituents.

Rev McAlpine said that he felt that the country could assist by way of financial assistance, and should perhaps consider giving $200,000 to Dominica.

The country donated $100,000 to the Bahamas after Hurricane Matthew last year.

“I also said we can further help them by allowing some of our young men who are not employed to go down to Dominica and assist them and do as the Chinese do in our country, pay our people and the money still come up here,” he added.

Rev McAlpine also noted that individuals had indicated

that he was insensitive for asking if Dominican children will be properly immunised before coming here to study.

He pointed out that all Bahamian children must be vaccinated before they could get in any school, and that it should be no different for the Dominican children.

“All I am simply saying is, you can’t make it hard for me, and easy for others,” the MP said.

“Am I wrong for asking the questions that are pertinent - I told y’all I would stand for y’all, and keep standing.

“So, whatever we can do to help the people of Dominica, let’s do it in Christian love and charity, but let’s not do it when I know my people roof leaking, when my people can’t get their children in school, when my people sleeping in cars, when my people lights are off, when people don’t have a job and I am not supposed to say anything about that?

“People don’t know where the next meal is coming from.

My responsibility is you, and if I am guilty of looking out for you so be it,” he told constituents.

“I am not usurping authority.

I respect our prime minister, and I think he is doing the best he can with what he has, but he that got ears to hear, I come to speak for Pineridge.”

“Not one person sitting in that House - all 39 of us not one of them got a vote in Pineridge.

“So when I say what they think I must say, not one of them got a vote to help me get elected,” the Hotel Corporation chairman said.

Rev McAlpine announced plans for the establishment of a Pineridge Educational Learning Centre, a community festival; and the Pineridge Constituency Association.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS

insight@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2017

We are losing the fight. People want to feel safe. Period.

By MALCOLM J STRACHAN

T

HE agonizing cries from Kendera Woodside, mother of Eugene Woodside, may have been enough to raise all the hairs on your body. Tortuous screams rang out from the backyard of their home, as family gathered during a visit from the Prime Minister and an entourage including his wife and some prominent pastors from the community. As a nation, we sincerely sympathize with Mrs. Woodside, who said that she had just told her mother that she would not have to bury her children and that they would outlive her mere moments before her son was slain by a bullet unintended for him.

To be able to watch your child grow up and create a life for themselves is what most parents pray for; perhaps, none more than a mother. From the initial bond that takes place during pregnancy, to the first moments when the baby is born and each milestone that follows throughout their precious lives, the nightmarish end of your child being taken from you so violently is nothing short of tragic.

For this family, whose hearts are undoubtedly shattered from pain, the fact that Eugene is no longer with them must be the hardest thing they’ve ever had to deal with.

Unfortunately, as they try to make sense of Eugene’s tragic passing, Tonio and Kendera, must be left with a plethora of questions that are rarely answered when a loved one is killed.

There are no justifications when a child is that young and innocent. It cannot be blamed on the company he kept or any mischief he would get into.

There are no explanations for the death of someone so young.

He was harmlessly in his room doing homework, which is completely the opposite of what one expects of a murder victim in recent times. As gunfire echoes through our capital’s streets, many are of the belief the retaliatory nature of murders provides a layer of security to regular civilians. However, on an island that is 21 miles long and seven miles wide, any of us can become an innocent victim.

When we played as kids, our parents told us, ‘rock don’t have no eye’. The same can be said for a bullet that travels on average 2,500ft. per second.

Unless you have the reaction time of an Olympic sprinter, there is not much that can save you if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But how does the safety of one’s home become the wrong place? How does a young boy doing his homework, whose life, hopes and dreams are much further ahead of him, constitute as the wrong time? He wasn’t a bad boy. He seemed to have the security of his parents, who were also at home with him when he was killed. Why him?

We are sure these questions, among many others, are circling in the minds of his parents.

It was not more than a few weeks ago that another Bahamian couple lost their eight-month-old baby boy to gunfire. How are these families expected to go on – realistically go on? What’s unfortunate is we are so ‘Christian’ in our

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis comforting the family of Eugene Woodside yesterday after the eight-year-old was killed as he did his homework. Photos: Yontalay Bowe support we only offer scripture as comfort. This is not to say anything is wrong with that. At the end of the day, God is our sole comforter, but perhaps, we should be minded to note families who have lost their children would much prefer to have their children than God’s comfort in their losses.

These families need the security of feeling that once they are doing all of the right things – providing structure for their kids, being active in their school and home lives, ensuring they have a foundation in spirituality, and they themselves are not participatory in any criminal activity that would endanger their family – that should feel secure.

After all, the murders are only of a retaliatory nature.

Are they not?

What the Minister of National Security and Acting Commissioner of Police do not understand is that Bahamians aren’t conceptualizing crime based on statistical data.

Their concern isn’t the fact ‘murder attempts are down’. Besides, wouldn’t that mean since murders are up the shooters are becoming more accurate in hitting their target? No. People want to feel safe.

Period.

Perhaps what we should be considering is the fact these bloodthirsty villains lack fear for the police and care for their fellow man when they wildly shoot in densely populated areas.

This endangers average Bahamians and increases the risk of innocent people being hit by stray bullets in this case, a defenceless little boy.

We’re not sure if the powers that be understand what we really want in the wake of all this violence gripping the capital city.

We want to see that lawmen in this country are, in fact, winning the fight on crime. The numbers suggest something much more calamitous. Based on analysis done by the Nassau

confident the government that promised – just like the previous government did – to stem the nation’s crime epidemic, actually showed the capability of doing so.

Looking through one lens at what seemed to be the prime minister’s exploitation of the Woodside family’s loss could have been viewed as being in poor taste. It loses its effect when we’re not seeing the desired results on our streets. It also is diminished when the government is deploying large contingents to assist the people of Dominica.

It is a noble gesture

HON. MARVIN DAMES, MP for Mount Moriah is pictured speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday. Photos Shawn Hanna Guardian we are losing this fight. The analysis reveals that in the first seven months of the year, the country recorded an alarming one murder every 2.5 days. Based on the study, which was published at the end of July, there were 82 murders – only six behind the total in 2015, the year recorded as our bloodiest in history. Now, homicides are up by at least 41%, with Eugene Woodside and the intended target in the double shooting, Dennis Moss, becoming the nation’s 104th and 105th murder victims.

If you take those chilling numbers and couple that with the fact that there is no obvious plan, nor leadership on the Royal Bahamas Police Force, one can become quite unnerved and doubtful that we can become victorious in our uphill battle against crime.

The prime minister, whose leadership is now more important than ever before, has garnered some mixed feelings towards his

contingent’s visit with the bereaved family last week.

On one hand, it is very prime ministerial to visit with a family in the time of the crisis – especially coming on the heels of revealing his human-ness in the House of Assembly earlier last week while discussing the government’s plans to assist Dominica. On the other hand, it seemed very staged and exploitative as the prime minister’s entourage bombarded the grief-stricken family with flashing cameras and strangers preaching sermons, as if they had all the answers.

If any of you have gone through a moment of paralyzing grief, you would know the last thing you need is for someone who doesn’t feel what you’re going through to pretend as if they do. The truth is, they don’t. Who feels it, is the only one who knows it.

What would be most encouraging to all of the families who have lost loved ones is if they were

much-needed scrutiny. The slaps on the wrists given to officers caught procuring and partaking in alcohol while on the job speaks to greater issues that need to be addressed in the force.

Also, our laws need to be addressed. Bail, while being a constitutional right, has to become less lax for certain offences. Any offender for violent crime should be remanded to the Department of Corrections until trial. The risk of that individual being released and being murdered is increasingly high, even being noted

by Court of Appeal President, Dame Anita Allen, as a “death sentence”.

We’re not sure if the powers that be understand what we really want in the wake of all this violence gripping the capital city. We want to see that lawmen in this country are, in fact, winning the fight on crime. and the “Godly thing” to do to help our neighbors.

However, while we seek to assist those in need beyond our borders, we must also remember that our systemic issues existed before hurricane season, and will most certainly continue if the government does not learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Just as Prime Minister Minnis took to the wheel and steered the ship during the evacuations of the southern islands, he similarly needs to lead the charge in the country’s fight against crime. The Prime Minister and National Security Minister, Marvin Dames, have both voiced their support of the death penalty being restored in The Bahamas.

Beyond being proponents of capital punishment, the necessary steps need to be made by the government to ensure this measure can be included in a crime prevention strategy going forward.

The police force itself is not precluded from some

Finally, the communities must also understand their level of accountability in the fight against crime.

For those people who have sympathized with the families all over our country who have experienced tragic losses due to murder, as well as those harboring family members known to be involved – you all have a responsibility to prevent our children from dying on our streets, and in the most unfortunate cases, in their homes.

This fight against crime will not be won over night.

But a persistent and deliberate effort, devoid of poli-tricks and pandering will go a long way in putting a dent in what thus far has been a lose-lose battle. We must take back our streets from the violent thugs and murderers who would make us prisoners in our own homes. It is time to put our shoulders to the wheel and get on with the job of making our communities safe again.

PAGE 8 MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2017

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

CARIBBEAN STATES WILL NOT SHUT UP OR BE SHUT OUT World View

By SIR RONALD SANDERS

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto.

The views expressed are entirely his own)

THE rights of Caribbean states in the international community are once again being threatened.

This time the spokesman is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, Benjamin N. Gedan, who wrote an Opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal on September 25 entitled: “For Venezuela’s Sake, Dismantle the Organization of American States.

Tiny Caribbean states have outsize power, and many are in thrall to the Caracas regime.”

Ordinarily, Mr Gedan’s view, to which he is fully entitled, would attract little attention or response. But the fact that it was published in The Wall Street Journal, suggests a high level of organisation in service to a deliberate agenda, particularly as he is not a regular columnist of the Journal. It is who and what is behind the publication of Mr Gedan’s Opinion piece that is of greater concern.

Here are the basic points he makes: The Organisation of American States (OAS) should be “disbanded” and replaced “with a body no longer dominated by small Caribbean countries” which he contemptuously

dismisses as “the smallest and least productive members”.

According to him, Caribbean countries “over the last two years” have “paralyzed the OAS” which has “failed to address the crisis in Venezuela”. In disparaging terms, he declares that “these countries, most of which are less populous than Staten Island, control 14 of the organization’s 34 votes”. And, in a very broad and sweeping claim, he asserts that Caribbean countries “have wielded their influence to thwart all attempts at defending human rights and democratic institutions”.

Then he delivers his final solution for these countries: “OAS members should immediately dissolve the organization and replace it with a body that assigns Caribbean members a single, collective vote” which would be “cast by the Caribbean Community secretariat”.

Incidentally, while according to Mr Gedan, “there are exceptions, such as the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica”, he did not hesitate to recommend that they should be lumped-in with all other Caribbean states in being restricted to “a single, collective vote”.

Further, he says, “The Caribbeans should be encouraged not to boycott the new organization”. In other words, Caribbean countries should cut their own throats or be “encouraged” (whatever he means by that word) to do so.

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HALL OF HEROES In his condemnation of Caribbean countries for what he says are their thwarting of human rights and democratic institutions, he neglects to inform his audience that the Caribbean as a whole has an enviable record of upholding democratic institutions and human rights and is without parallel in the hemisphere for religious and racial tolerance, freedom of expression and political liberty.

Interestingly, in his zealous avowal that Caribbean countries have “held the OAS hostage” and “obstructed” it from measures addressing the crisis in Venezuela, he makes not a single passing mention of Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic

and Nicaragua which have consistently voted against any proposed resolutions or declarations aimed at Venezuela, and which have been in the forefront of resisting intervention in its internal affairs. One is left to wonder what differentiates the Caribbean from these countries in Mr Gedan’s mind.

Mr Gedan also infers that the Caribbean is for sale. He boldly states that “Caribbean governments, in return for Venezuelan assistance, have held the OAS hostage”. Curiously, he sees no contradiction in stating that “no amount of American aid balanced the scales”. But, if the Caribbean is indeed for sale why would the Venezuelan

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Not for the first time, the principled position of Caribbean countries in relation to the internal affairs of Venezuela has been cast in insulting terms, not applied to others. The allegation of bribery comes easily to the accusers who readily brand their targets, ascribe unsavoury reasons to their actions and pillory them in the media. Caribbean countries have lived with these calumnies from the beginning of their experience as sovereign states.

At one time or another, but repeatedly, Caribbean countries have been disparaged because they dare to take positions that are disliked by elites in powerful countries.

There are a few things that need to be stated in response to Mr Gedan. It is not the Caribbean that deprived the OAS of a constructive role in Venezuela.

The region took no sides in the internal political division in Venezuela. At all times, the region promoted dialogue by the Venezuelan protagonists, recognising that no sustainable solution can be imposed from outside and that encouraging one side or the other is

destined to prolong conflict and end in failure.

Had the OAS, as an organisation representing the consensus of its member states, through its Permanent Council, taken a collective stance of neutrality with regard to the Venezuelan protagonists; criticised the behaviour of all political players; called for an end to violence; and held itself ready to offer its good offices to help Venezuelans resolve their internal issues, it would have fulfilled the stated objective of its Charter. Instead, some states sought to bend the rules of the Organisation to suit their bilateral purposes and “the crusading Secretary-General”, as Mr Gedan described him, deprived himself and the OAS of the role of honest broker.

The Caribbean upheld the rules of both the OAS and the Inter-American Democratic Charters, and they did so firmly, because small and powerless countries in the international system depend on the preservation of rules for their own protection. Bending or discarding those rules in relation to any country weakens and erodes them, opening small countries to abuse for whatever reason, including holding a different view.

That is not to say there is not strong debate within the Caribbean of how the Venezuelan matter should be handled; there is. But that debate will certainly not “encourage” (to use Mr Gedan’s euphemism) Caribbean countries to accept the notion that our sovereign states should be relegated to “a single, collective vote”.

He may regard Caribbean countries as “the least productive” of the OAS members, and in doing so, show utter disregard and intolerance for dissenting opinion (much like dictators), but he can be assured the Caribbean will stand up for its rights in the international community.

As a footnote to all this, Mr Gedan stated in his Opinion-piece that “the democratic charter has become an empty threat”.

It was a revealing characterization of the Charter as “a threat”. It was never the Charter’s intention to be used to threaten member states; the purpose of the Charter, as stated in its very first principle, “is to promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of non-intervention”. All Caribbean countries, without exception, are committed to upholding the spirit and letter of the Charter. What Caribbean countries will not support is the twisting of the rules of the Charter for intervention in any member state of the OAS, large or small.

We will also not shut up or be shut out.

• Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 2, 2017, PAGE 9

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

INSIGHT

GAIN AN EDGE A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIGHER EDUCATION

MONDAY, OCTOBER, 2017 PAGE 9

GAIN AN EDG

A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIGHER EDUCAT

Making the transition to university life

V

ALTIO Julius Cooper was considered a shy, unassuming high schooler with a brilliant mind. At the tender age of 14, the Nicholl’s Town native and North Andros High School prodigy achieved five BGCSE’s inclusive of Mathematics and English while only in grade 11.

At the time, his guidance counselor and principal dubbed him as “One of the most intelligent students in Andros.”

Valtio successfully met direct entry requirements to the then College of The Bahamas - now University of The Bahamas (UB) and was encouraged to apply.

The shift from high school to university and more specifically in Valtio’s case, from family island life to the unknown bustling capital city, can be daunting and stressful for many high school graduates.

“The environment on Family Islands and that of Nassau drastically differ; however, at the age of 15 with my hopes of gaining new knowledge and experiences, I packed up and took flight into a place that will forever be etched in my memory and heart,” recalls Valtio.

Education

“People often ask me, ‘How have you been able to accomplish so much at such a young age?’ I share with them that before committing to and engaging in anything, I make a conscious decision that, regardless of the task, I will be all that I can be.”

Valtio Julius Cooper

Each spring approximately 5,600 young Bahamians across the archipelago graduate from public and private high schools with the intention of pursuing tertiary education or entering the competitive job market. According to research led by UB’s Campus Life Director Darvin Toussaint, for new students entering the institution during autumn 2016, their top five concerns were: meeting new people and making friends (45%); home sickness (40%); getting along with potential roommates (36%); paying for university (32%) and adjusting to the university environment (17%).

In several key ways, university life differs from the high school experience which may come as a shock to first-year students. Students on university campuses will experience larger class

YOUR

sizes and larger overall student population. Registration for required courses and designing course schedules are the responsibility of the student.

Additionally, instruction is in lecture format requiring students to take good notes and pay keen attention during course activities.

Self-direction and internal motivation along with a big dose of personal responsibility is a must.

“People often ask me,

‘How have you been able to accomplish so much at such a young age?’ I share with them that before committing to and engaging in anything, I make a conscious decision that, regardless of the task, I will be all that I can be,” explained Valtio.

Despite the changes and possible challenges a new environment may present, Valtio, a Biology major with a Chemistry minor, who has dreams of becoming a sports medicine physician delved into the UB experience with eyes to see, ears to hear and hands to embrace his exciting new home and beloved institution.

“UB offers a campus life experience and quality education that caters to the holistic individual.

From campus clubs and activities to on-campus resource facilities, the adjustment to university life can be easily delved

into and advantageous to those willing to take on the challenge. Further, the transition from Andros to the University of The Bahamas was made easier because of a loving and caring faculty who always went above and beyond to ensure that I was comfortable,” said Valtio.

Valtio’s motivational story as a family islander who transitioned to New Providence to attend UB and thrived, became former Admissions Recruitment Officer Darvin Toussaint’s inspirational story during his family island recruitment exercises.

Punchline “I would often share his story of triumph and my punchline would be, ‘Valtio did it and so can you’. I am so proud of him!

“He persisted and despite challenges and setbacks, never lost his focus and graduated Summer 2017 with a B.Sc. Biology with minor in Chemistry degree,” says Darvin.

Valtio made the shift to university life notwithstanding bouts of homesickness, financial challenges, having to learn a new city, develop new friendships and juggling classes, finals and extracurricular activities, but he kept a positive outlook and persevered.

“My mother, my family and the University of The Bahamas are my greatest supporters.

“Their support provides me with the assurance that my future is bright and the future of others could be as well if, a nation seeks to ingrain in every man, woman, boy and girl the values, morals, and ethics that made it possible for us to arrive at this point in our history.

“It is upon this premise, now as a graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry, that I thank the University of The Bahamas for cultivating within me the spirit of par-excellence,” said Valtio.

CHOICE FOR THE FAMILY @JOYFMBAHAMAS WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOYFM1019

UNIVERSITY of The Bahamas B.Sc. Biology with minor in Chemistry graduate Valtio Julius Cooper from Nicholl’s Town, Andros.

PAGE 10, Monday, October 2, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

PAGE 10 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2017

INSIGHT

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

Proper parenting will help prevent crime I

F we want to stop violence, we need to understand what causes it in the first place. Young men and women who carry out acts of serious violence are often experiencing deep-rooted problems. The majority of youths in custody are themselves victims of abuse. Some experience suffering and violence at home; the struggle many of these children have experienced so early in their short lives is a key factor in their violent criminal behaviour.

Children start developing their sense of self as babies, when they see themselves through their parents’ eyes. Your tone of voice, your body language and your every expression are absorbed by your children. Your words and action as a parent affect their self-esteem more than anything else.

PARENTS how involved are you in your children’s lives?

How well do you think you know them? Do you attend regular parent teacher association (PTA) meetings? Or better yet do you know the names of your children’s teachers?

How about their friends and their friends’ parents?

Police advice

By SERGEANT 3150 NATHALIE RANGER

Do you know what your kids are doing after school?

We have been hooked on to our phones, or social media or somewhere else while we should have been paying attention to our children.

Parenting is a skill which must be practised diligently – it is one of the most challenging jobs in the world to raise a problem-free child who is a proper balance of morals, values and discipline.

Each child is different and so is the parent. The idea of rearing a child differs from parent to parent.

If this is how your kids live their lives, this is what they will do when they visit their aunt or cousin. They simply would not know how to behave appropriately. Discipline is the only way your kids grow up knowing right from wrong. Parents need to do some real hard work to raise kids who know how to behave properly. There will be times when kids will test their parents, by breaking rules, hence parents need to establish and clearly communicate the consequences of breaking those rules.

Are you too carefree as a parent, giving your children the power to decide everything?

In such cases, kids become their own masters, going to bed late, getting up late, and doing absolutely everything at their own will. Owing to hectic lifestyles and both parents working, no one does the work of disciplining the kids as life is already chaotic.

PARENTS are you giving your children any of your time?

Guilty of being glued to your phone’s screen when your child is demanding you play with him/ her? Got an official call and cannot listen to your child telling you about his/her day? Stop! Your children do not just need food or money from you, they want to speak to you, share their experiences

and sometimes need to hear your comforting words.

Communication is the only thing that will strengthen your bond, not expensive gifts. The deal should be to be the parent your children want to hug and spend time with, not the ones who are like ATM machines. Kids may

“Parenting is a skill which must be practised diligently – it is one of the most challenging jobs in the world to raise a problemfree child who is a proper balance of morals, values and discipline. Each child is different and so is the parent.

The idea of rearing a child differs from parent to parent.” inadvertently perform odd behaviour to attract parent’s attention.

At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents Put your children on a schedule!

Kids are more likely to pick up negative activities or fall into the wrong crowd when they are not on a schedule. After school programmes such as subject lessons is a great option to ensure your child has an advantage in class.

Other options such as sporting teams, music and band participation are also great options.

I know as parents you get so busy trying to provide the best for your children that you just do not view these things as important, but an involved parent is a more informed parent and it lessens your children’s chances to succumbing to peer pressure, experimenting with drugs, becoming teen mothers and getting involved with gang activities.

Children who are properly cared for become more competent and independent adults.

Speak life into your children!

Labelling children as lazy or dumb and using these words in public can significantly hurt a child and lower his/her selfesteem. Likewise, if you criticise your kids’ efforts or look down upon him/ her by comparing with others achievements, then your child may develop

feelings of jealousy and resentment.

PARENTS let us raise good productive children • Do not turn a blind eye when your child is doing wrong • Do not start disciplining your children at the adolescent stage. At this stage, their mind-set is already developed and is open to peer pressure.

• Start disciplining at the toddler stage • Have structure in your child’s life • Know their whereabouts at all times • Do not leave your children uncared for to be at risk. Get involved with every aspect of their lives.

• Give your children a strong foundation of discipline and godliness.

• Boost their self-esteem • Set limits and be consistent with your discipline • Make communication a priority • Tell your children that you love them and show that your love is unconditional • Teach them that manners, respect for themselves and others will take them through the world • Be more aware, attentive and alert, get more involved.

Let us make the Bahamas a safer place to live, work, visit and play!

Racism disguised as nationalism

By MARGARET BELL in Washington

I

T IS easy to find revolting the nativistic, white supremacist ideology that seems to be acceptable to American President Donald Trump. Especially since the violent, tragic clash this summer in Charlottesville, VA, between race-baiting ultra right marchers and their opponents from the liberal left, public opinion polling has revealed most Americans condemn Trump for his ambivalent response to expressions of racial hatred many felt were lodged securely in America’s past.

Despite Trump’s persistent unpopularity on such issues, and the dismissal of such key White House advisers as Paul Manafort, there is plenty of evidence in the U.S. and especially in Europe that on matters of race and immigration there persists a rising social and political sentiment which condones nativism and jingoism masquerading as a kind of populist nationalism.

Just last week in Alabama, a fiery bigot and former judge won the Republican nomination to compete for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the present American

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ALTERNATIVE for Germany candidates and new elected faction leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel.(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

FORMER Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.

Though Trump had campaigned for his opponent, Roy Moore prevailed, and his extreme social positions have given rare, flickering hope to the state’s Democratic party that it might capture a southern Senate seat in the upcoming general election.

Moore, 70, is best known for refusing, as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, to remove

from a state office building a monument honouring the Bible’s Ten Commandments. This was even after he had been ordered to do so by a higher U.S. federal court on the constitutional grounds of separation of church and state.

Moore was suspended for this judicial insubordination, but ran again and was elected Chief Justice again.

He was then suspended once again, this time for continuing to

enforce a same-sex marriage ban even after the U.S. Supreme Court declared such a ban unconstitutional.

Moore is clearly no social liberal. In fact, he may be a spiritual heir to the infamous segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace, whose popularity in the state 40 years ago propelled him to national prominence.

Wallace ran for president a couple of times, and seriously complicated American presidential politics before he was disabled by an assassin’s bullet.

Another election of exponentially greater potential significance took place in Germany in the past fortnight. While Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor since 2005, was re-elected to her post, her ruling Christian Democratic Union party lost 65 seats in the German parliament and she will need to cobble together

a majority coalition with new partners by the end of this year.

Her pre-election partners were the SPD, the Social Democratic Party, once the proud home of

an institution which has both vexed and inspired Europe for decades and from which Great Britain has famously decided to leave.

Merkel’s partner in this effort has been French President Emmanuel “Though Trump Macron, but it is likely his had campaigned for ambitions for the EU have been at least delayed if not his opponent, Roy derailed by the German Moore prevailed, election results. and his extreme To ensure her parliasocial positions have mentary coalition, Merkel have to back off to given rare, flickering will some degree on her suphope to the state’s port for the European Union.

Democratic party Even as right-wing that it might forces forced Merkel capture a southern into unwelcome comSenate seat in promises and France’s National Front sorely the upcoming tested Macron in his most general election.” recent electoral battles, similar movements are making waves elsewhere Willy Brandt and Helmut in Europe.

Schmidt in the 1970s. Now The similarly nativist Merkel will need to find Party for Freedom has common ground with the made electoral inroads liberal Free Democrats in the Netherlands, and and perhaps others to find Austria’s Freedom Party is her majority. expected to gain strength Many of the losses suf- in elections there in a few fered by Merkel’s party weeks. became gains by the right Ironically, all of these wing, anti-immigrant right-wing advances are Alternative for Ger- rolling in as the centenmany (AfG) party, whose nial rapidly approaches of numerical representation the 1917 Russian Revonow allows it for the first lution which ushered in time to organise and vote 73 years of Communist in the German parliament. rule in the world’s largest This all deals a severe nation. blow to the European And in a further irony, Union, whose champion the current Russian govMerkel has become as she ernment rejoices in these tries to simultaneously destabilising right-wing reform and strengthen gains.

THE TRIBUNE

Painting the Lanes Pink...and the streets MARIO’S Bowling held its annual Paint the Lanes Pink event yesterday, a bowling and fundraising expo raising money for the Bahamas Breast Cancer Initiative Foundation (photos below left by Shawn Hanna). And, on Saturday, the Rotaract Club of South East Nassau Centennial hosted the Paint the Streets Pink fun run and walk - proceeds of which went to the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group (photos on right of page by Terrel W Carey).

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Monday, October 2, 2017, PAGE 11

PAGE 12, Monday, October 2, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

ROBERTS: WHERE WERE PM’S TEARS FOR OTHER STORM VICTIMS? PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts said while many Bahamians are concerned about the plight of Dominicans, whose island has been devastated by Hurricane Maria, they also question where were Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ tears for other storm victims.

In a speech given to PLP supporters last week, Mr Roberts also questioned why there have been no tears from the prime minister for the young victims of gun violence.

Emotional Last Wednesday, while giving an emotional contribution to the House of Assembly about the government’s plans to relax immigration restrictions for some Dominicans in the wake of the storm, Dr Minnis at times wiped away tears. He also pushed back at those who have expressed anger over the government’s humanitarian response and called

Biblical admonition that we should be our brother’s keepers but ask when Bahamians will receive relief from the hurricanes from 2016,” he said.

Parts of the Bahamas were damaged by Hurricane Joaquin in 2015 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016; both storms happened under the PLP’s watch.

Violence

AN EMOTIONAL Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis in the House of Assembly last week while talking about the situation in Dominica. PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts (inset) has asked where the Prime Minister’s tears were when it came to other victims of recent hurricanes.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

on Bahamians to display Christian charity. The decision has become a polarising one, with some praising the plan and others angry about efforts to assist foreigners when they say many Bahamians are hurting.

Mr Roberts said: “Many Bahamians share Dr

Minnis’ concern for our brothers and sisters of Dominica but ask where was the prime minister’s tears for the people of Barbuda whose island was so terribly impacted by the hurricane that all residences were evacuated to Antigua? Where was the prime minister’s tears for

the other islands of the Caribbean impacted by recent hurricanes?

“We did not see any tears for Ragged Island, Salina Point, Acklins and Inagua from the prime minister and we wonder why.

“Thinking Bahamians accept and believe in the

“PLPs and FNMs have asked where were the tears from the prime minister for young innocent children who lost their lives through gun violence: the eight-month-old gunned down in Rupert Dean Lane; the 16 and 17-year-old boys in Fox Hill and most recently eight-year-old Eugene Woodside of Rosebud in Chippingham,” Mr Roberts added.

“The honourable FNM member for Pineridge admonished his party and government to be more responsive to the needs of Bahamians, echoing

the great dissatisfaction of Bahamians everywhere with the government’s response in the wake of Irma.

“Bahamians are asking when will the prime minister and his minister of national security deliver on its election promise to reduce murders. Minister Dames said he had the answer.

“He promised that the Bahamas would be safe under an FNM government.

“He said he knew the thinking of criminals and had the strategy to out think and out manoeuvre them but alas, murder is up some 40 per cent over 2016.”

Mr Roberts said the FNM has made many accusations about the Christie administration but is “short on policy” and has no job creation plan.

As the party heads into a convention later this month, Mr Roberts said the Official Opposition will continue to hold the government’s feet to the fire.

BACKPAY DEMAND FOR AG’S LAWYERS FROM PAGE ONE

In a letter dated September 5th and sent to Dr Hubert Minnis, a prosecutor described their complaint as needing “urgent” attention.

“I feel a sense of duty to bring to your attention an urgent matter concerning discriminatory practice of the Office of the Attorney General in denying lawyers, over these many years, and who are duly employed in the civil service, benefits and salary increases that have been brokered and obtained by the Public Service Union

on behalf of all civil servants in the Bahamas, including ourselves, that has been practised from my knowledge and belief from time immemorial,” the prosecutor said.

“This unjust practice ought to cease under your administration, in my humble opinion.”

Attorney General Carl Bethel and State Minister for Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson could not be contacted yesterday.

Nonetheless, in the letter, the prosecutor said prosecutors in the criminal department and

“I believe that many senior persons in the Public Service are either blissfully unaware or intentionally malicious in denying the lawyers in the Office of the Attorney General our due and just entitlements under the said Industrial Agreement referred herein.”

Prosecutor’s letter to the Prime Minister civil litigators in the civil department of the Office of the Attorney General have had overdue increments and salary increases since 2014.

“Any lawyer in our office that has been duly

FINANCIAL CONTROLLER

employed as a ‘permanent and pensionable ciil servant’ prior to and including 2013 is entitled, according to the law stated in the attachments, to our overdue increments and salary

increases,” the prosecutor said.

“I believe that many senior persons in the Public Service are either blissfully unaware or intentionally malicious in denying the lawyers in the Office of the Attorney General our due and just entitlements under the said Industrial Agreement referred herein.

“Without us, the prosecutors in the Office of the Attorney General, no court, including ten Supreme Courts or the Court of Appeal, can function because the courts

need a prosecutor to either present the evidence in these murder, rape, armed robbery, unlawful sexual intercourse, fraud or forgery cases, inter alia, or to answer the Court of Appeal, on behalf of the government of the Bahamas in any contentious litigation matter.”

The prosector said the issues in the letter to Dr Minnis have been raised with the Mr Johnson, Director of Public Prosecutions Garvin Gaskin and the accounts department of the Office of the Attorney General.

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THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 2, 2017, PAGE 13

THE NATION’S YOUTH GO ON THE MARCH

HUNDREDS of the nation’s schools and youth organisations marched in unity yesterday towards Clifford Park as part of the Bahamas National Youth March.

The event kicks off a month of activities celebrating the nation’s youth.

PHOTOS: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff

PAGE 14, Monday, October 2, 2017

IS CLAIMS FATAL STABBINGS OF TWO WOMEN AT FRENCH TRAIN STATION MARSEILLE, France (AP) — A man with a knife stabbed two women to death Sunday at the main train station in the southern French city of Marseille as he reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar!” — an attack the Islamic State group claimed was the work of one its “soldiers.”

French soldiers shot the man to death after the attacks and authorities were working to determine if he had links to Islamic extremism.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who went to Marseille to meet with local authorities and troops on the scene, said police have video that shows the man attacking a woman and running away, then coming back and attacking a second woman.

The video shows the man running toward soldiers who were rushing to Marseille’s Saint Charles train station.

The soldiers fatally shot him and both women died of their injuries, Collomb said.

Some witnesses reported hearing the assailant shout “Allahu akbar!” Arabic for “God is great,” Collomb said.

The Paris prosecutor’s office, which oversees all terror cases in France, said it had opened a counterterrorism investigation into the Marseille attack.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said in a statement Sunday night that the assailant was acting in response to IS calls to target countries in the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS extremists in Syria and Iraq.

‘LONE WOLF’ SUSPECTED IN CANADA ATTACKS

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — A car and knife attack on a police officer outside a football game and a high-speed chase of a moving van that left four people injured was the work of a single suspected terrorist, a Somalia refugee who was known to police, Canadian authorities said Sunday.

Marlin Degrand, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said officers took a 30-yearold man into custody. Police declined to identify the man because he had not yet been charged, but said pending charges included terrorism and five counts of attempted murder.

Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht said an Islamic State group flag was found in the car that hit the officer, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it a terror attack.

The suspect was known to both Edmonton police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Degrand said he was flagged in 2015 for extremist ideologies and police interviewed him at the time, but he said charges were not warranted after an “exhaustive investigation.”

Degrand said the suspect is a refugee from Somalia who had applied for refugee status.

The incident took place outside a Canadian Football League game at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.

Police released graphic video showing a white Chevrolet Malibu ramming into a police officer standing in front of his cruiser. The officer flies into the air and the Malibu then crashes into the police car.

The driver gets out and appears to stab the officer, who wrestles the suspect to the ground and then rises as the suspect flees on foot.

The Edmonton police chief said Constable Mike Chernyk was released from the hospital overnight with stab wounds on face and head and abrasions on his arms.

A few hours later, a U-Haul van was stopped at an impaired driving checkpoint north of downtown, on Wayne Gretzky Drive.

Knecht said the name of the driver was similar to the name of the registered owner of the car that hit the officer. He said the van then sped off toward downtown with police in pursuit. Police said the vehicle swerved at pedestrians at crosswalks throughout the chase.

Four people were hurt.

The van eventually flipped near a downtown hotel and the suspect was arrested after a Taser was employed.

No shots were fired by police or the suspect.

THE TRIBUNE

OJ SIMPSON IS FREED, WITH NO WORD ON WHERE HE WENT NEXT

By KEN RITTER and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Officials at a remote Nevada prison where O.J. Simpson was set free early Sunday after nine years for armed robbery arranged the former football and Hollywood star’s dead-of-night departure to avoid public scrutiny.

It worked. Simpson signed release paperwork just before midnight and disappeared into the darkness minutes into the first day he was eligible for release. Through efforts by prison officials to keep the time and place secret, there were no journalists outside the prison gates to capture the moment.

Though publicity-prone in the past, Simpson was neither heard from nor seen publicly as the day wore on — apparently taking the advice of people in his inner circle that he avoid the spotlight.

Simpson was released at 12:08 a.m. PDT from Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada, state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press.

She said she didn’t know the name of the driver who met him and took him to an undisclosed location.

Video Keast recorded and released a brief video on social media in which Simpson is told to “come on out” and he responds “OK” after walking through an open door and toward a parking lot bordered by desert scrub brush.

“I don’t have any information on where he’s going,” said Keast, who also took photographs showing Simpson — in blue jeans, denim jacket, eyeglasses, ball cap and white sneakers — signing documents about 10 minutes before midnight. He left the prison with four or five boxes of possessions in the car, she said.

Tom Scotto, a Simpson friend who lives in Naples, Florida, said by text message an hour after the release that he was with Simpson.

But Scotto did not answer texts asking where they were going or whether members of Simpson’s family were with them.

Along with Simpson’s sister and oldest daughter, Scotto had attended the July parole hearing at the same prison where Simpson went after his conviction for a botched 2007 heist at a Las Vegas hotel room — prison time he avoided after his 1995 acquittal in the killings of his ex-wife and her friend.

The 70-year-old Simpson said at the hearing that he wanted to move back to Florida, where he lived

FORMER football legend O.J. Simpson signs documents at the Lovelock Correctional Center, on Saturday, in Lovelock, Nevada.

(Brooke Keast/ Nevada Department of Corrections via AP)

previously. That return did not appear imminent.

Florida’s Corrections Department “has not received any transfer paperwork from Nevada” about Simpson that would be required for him to live in the state and be monitored there, spokeswoman Ashley Cook said Sunday.

Though Florida’s attorney gen-

“We understand we may have to take him, if he was a model prisoner. And two of his children live here, so that’s his hook for coming to Florida. If we have to accept him, I certainly want conditions placed on him.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi eral has urged corrections officials to object to Simpson’s return, the department previously has said it would be required to accept a transfer if it met certain criteria.

“We understand we may have to take him, if he was a model prisoner. And two of his children live here, so that’s his hook for coming to Florida,” state Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “If we have to accept him, I certainly want conditions placed on him.”

Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, and state Parole and Probation Capt. Shawn Arruti, who has been handling Simpson’s case, did not respond Sunday to messages seeking comment about Simpson’s whereabouts.

LaVergne said recently that Simpson looked forward to reuniting with his family, eating a steak and seafood and returning to Florida.

Simpson also planned to get an iPhone and get reacquainted with technology in its infancy when he was sent to prison in 2008, his attorney said.

Interviews Both LaVergne and Scotto said in recent interviews with the AP that they thought Simpson should stay out of public view and focus on family and friends.

Keast said the overnight release from the prison about 90 miles east of Reno, Nevada, was conducted to avoid media attention.

No media were near the front gate at the time when Simpson’s car left the prison by a back road and entered nearby Interstate 80, she said.

“We needed to do this to ensure public safety and to avoid any possible incident,” Keast said.

She acknowledged Nevada prison officials misled the media with word about the timing and location of Simpson’s release. They had advised it would be no earlier

than Monday and possibly in Las Vegas, a 450-mile drive south of the community of Lovelock.

Simpson faces restrictions during five years of parole supervision, which could be reduced for good behavior.

He cannot use illegal drugs and can drink alcohol only if the amount he drinks is below Nevada’s blood-alcohol limit for driving. He also is prohibited from associating with felons or anyone who Nevada officials prohibit him contacting.

And he must tell the state where he’ll be living and when he changes his residence. The conditions still apply if Simpson ends up out of state.

Simpson lost his home near Miami to foreclosure in 2012. But two of his children, Justin and Sydney, also live in Florida.

It’s all a new chapter for the one-time pop culture phenomenon whose fame was once again on display when the major TV networks carried his parole hearing live.

He told officials that leading a group of five men into the hotel room confrontation was an error in judgment he would not repeat.

Simpson told the parole board that he led a “conflict-free life,” an assertion that angered many who believe he got away with killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles in 1994. He was acquitted the following year in what was dubbed the “trial of the century.”

VIOLENCE MARS CATALONIA INDEPENDENCE VOTE, HUNDREDS HURT

By ARITZ PARRA and JOSEPH WILSON, Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia’s defiant bid to hold a referendum on independence from Spain degenerated into ugly scenes of mayhem on Sunday, with more than 800 people injured as riot police attacked peaceful protesters and unarmed civilians gathered to cast their ballots in a show of force the regional president decried as “another shameful page” in the Spanish government’s history with the region.

Speaking in Barcelona after polls closed, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said he would keep his pledge to declare independence unilaterally if the “yes” side wins the disputed vote, adding: Catalonia has “won the right to become an independent state.”

Kicking Hundreds of police armed with truncheons and rubber bullets were sent in from other regions to confiscate ballots and stop the voting, and amateur video showed some officers dragging people out of polling stations by the hair, throwing some down stairs, kicking them and pushing them to the ground.

Anguished, frightened screams could be heard.

Police were acting on a judge’s orders to stop the referendum, which the Spanish government had declared illegal and unconstitutional — and Prime

Spain has become “the shame of Europe” with its iron-fist tactics, said Jordi Turull, spokesman for the Catalan regional government.

By day’s end, Catalan health services said 844 civilians had been treated in hospitals for injuries, including two in serious condition and another person who was being treated for an eye injury that fit the profile of having been hit by a rubber bullet.

Thirty-three police officers were also injured.

Broadcast SPANISH riot police swings a club against would-be voters near a school assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday. (AP) Minister Mariano Rajoy said going forward with the vote only served to sow divisions.

In a televised address after the majority of polls closed Sunday, he thanked the Spanish police, saying they had acted with “firmness and serenity” — comments sure to anger Catalans.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said the violence, while “unfortunate” and “unpleasant” was “proportionate.”

“If people insist in disregarding the law and doing something that has been consistently declared illegal and unconstitutional, law enforcement officers need to uphold the law,” Dastis told The Associated Press in an interview.

No one knows precisely what will happen if Catalan officials use the vote — chaotic as it was — as a basis for declaring the northeastern region independent, a provocative move that would threaten Spain with the possible loss of one of its most prosperous regions, including the popular coastal city of Barcelona, the regional capital.

Ballots It was also unclear how many of the region’s 5.3 million eligible voters were able to cast ballots, how their votes would be counted and how many votes had been confiscated by police.

Catalans favoring a break with Spain have long

wanted more than the limited autonomy they now enjoy, arguing that they contribute far more than they receive from the central government, which controls key areas including taxes and infrastructure.

The police aggression on Sunday was likely to only fuel the passion for independence, and the main separatist group urged the regional government to declare independence after the violent crackdown.

“Today the Spanish state wrote another shameful page in its history with Catalonia,” Puigdemont said, adding that he would appeal to the European Union to look into alleged human rights violations during the vote.

Officials planning the police operation may have failed to take into account the ubiquitous use of smart phones with video recorders as violent images were broadcast across the world.

At the Pau Claris School in Barcelona, amateur footage filmed by one voter showed police roughing up unarmed people standing in their way.

Amateur video from other locations showed similar tactics, with people seen being hit, kicked and thrown around by police, including elderly people with their dogs, young girls and regular citizens of all stripes. Many tried to shield themselves from being smacked on the head.

There were also some signs of provocation by activists.

In footage released by the Spanish Interior Ministry, some protesters were seen throwing objects and metal barriers at riot police.