MONTEGO BAY, St James — Montego Bay will get a facelift by January, Mayor Councillor Leroy Williams announced last Thursday at a press conference following the monthly sitting of St James Municipal Corporation. “In collaboration with the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) we will be spending in excess of $40 million to repair sidewalks on St James Street,” he said. Work will also be done on other sections of the city but St James Street will be the focus. Sidewalks will be paved using multicoloured bricks, improvements will be done to the drains, and work will also be carried out on signage — all in an effort to make the city more visually appealing. It is expected to complement ongoing road repairs. “The residents of Montego Bay would have noticed that we have been doing several infrastructural works in the various divisions. There are several areas that the municipal corporation has repaired the roads,” noted Williams. “I am sure that this will significantly add to the beautification of the space.” The mayor also announced that the corporation will be doing work to beautify the entrance of Cornwall Regional Hospital, which has been undergoing a massive upgrade for years. “We intend to build a bus shed, plant trees, and construct a beautifully designed sign that will say, ‘Welcome to Cornwall Regional Hospital’,” he said, adding that both projects will get going in the early part of the new year. “We expect to start these projects in January, and I’m confident that these two projects will add to the development of the city of Montego Bay,” he said.

Jamaica AIDS Support For Life (JASL) has welcomed proposed amendments to the Domestic Violence Act while calling for a more comprehensive review of the legislation. Policy and advocacy officer at JASL Patrick Lalor told the Jamaica Observer that the amendments taken to Parliament last Tuesday by Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange, while a step in the right direction, more needs to be done. In opening the debate of the amendments to the 1996 legislation Grange said there are several areas which were identified where changes could be made in the short term to improve its operation. She told the House that the amendments represent some critical areas that can immediately impact the scourge of domestic violence and assist victims in their search for security and redress to these acts. Among the proposed amendments is one that provides for increased penalties for breach of a court-issued protection order from $10,000 to $1 million, with the possible prison sentence moving from a maximum of six months to one year. Under the Domestic Violence Act, 1996 the court may issue a protection order if it is satisfied that the accused has used, or threatened to use, violence against, or caused physical or mental injury to a person and is likely to do it again. The protection order prohibits someone who is abusive — whether verbally, emotionally or physically — from entering or remaining in a particular residence, place of work, place of education, or any particular place that could affect a prescribed person. Addressing a Jamaica Observer Press Club to commemorate International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2023 in November, Lalor had described the fine and prison sentence for breaches of a protection order as a joke as he pointed out that he had seen perpetrators destroy the order and declare that he “can pay the $10,000”. With the change proposed by Grange, Lalor told the Observer that the increase in penalties is critical for JASL. According to Lalor, JASL is somewhat concerned about the insertion of the section that allows the minister to amend the monetary penalty under the legislation subject to affirmative resolution but will accept that “for now”. “When you look at it in the context that the minister has promised to name a joint select committee to review the legislation, [it] is really what we have been calling for, because there are so many other things that we have been asking for that are not in these immediate changes,” he said. “The most critical that I can say right now is a definition of domestic violence, which is a major shortfall and very critical to be in the legislation. So we welcome these changes within the context that the minister will name a joint select committee in short order so that a comprehensive review of the legislation is done,” Lalor told the Observer. “We don’t want these minimal amendments to [be the end] because we still want a full review to be done so that we can ventilate some of the other things that we want to see, because we are taking about the definition of domestic violence; we talk about how breaches are going to be operationalised…and so much more that needs to be discussed,” added Lalor. In addition to the increase in fines and prison sentence proposed by Grange, the Bill increases the number of people who can make an application for a protection order under the legislation. They include the spouse or parent of an individual in respect of whom the conduct has been made or is likely to be made. “Where violence is used or threatened against a child or dependent, application can be made by a person with whom the child or dependent normally resides or resides on a regular basis, parent, or guardian of the child, or a dependent not mentally disabled,” Grange said. In addition, a new provision seeks to prohibit certain actions which may affect the victims of domestic violence. “This amendment takes into consideration the myriad ways a devious mind can seek to cause prolonged damage [through] violence to the life of an abused person,” added Grange. Under this section, an application can be made to the court for a protection order against a respondent in respect of alleged conduct to prohibit the respondent from entering or staying in the prescribed person’s household, entering any area specified in the protection order where the residence of the prescribed person is located, harassing the prescribed person, damaging property of the said prescribed person, and dealing with the property of the prescribed person in a way that can be considered abuse of the prescribed person.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Four more people have been charged in connection with the case of 13 members of the St James-based religious group Qahal Yahweh, who were arrested in June this year following a police raid at their Montego Bay compound. The quartet made their first appearance in the St James Parish Court on Friday. They are Omar Johnson, Jevaughn Johnson, Vera Woolery and Melisha Thompson. Twenty members of the religious group Qahal Yahweh were taken into custody by the police on June 30 at their Paradise Avenue compound in Montego Bay, during a joint special operation of the security forces. There had been allegations of child abuse and assault at the compound, prompting the raid. Thirteen persons were subsequently charged. During Friday’s hearing the clerk of court informed the court that she had not had the opportunity to peruse the case file and was not in a position to say whether the four defendants could join the 13 defendants on the mention list or whether it should be separated. The clerk also indicated to the court that, after reviewing the file, the prosecution would require two additional witness statements in respect of the 13 defendants. “Every time the matter comes before me, I’m told of something else…We need to move forward…We cannot have a case like this on the mention list for a year,” said Presiding Judge Sasha-Marie Smith-Ashley. “I have not been able to look at this file and so I am respectfully asking for a date when I can properly look at this file,” the clerk said. At that point, King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie said he concurred with the sentiments expressed by the judge. “Your Honour, I agree with the sentiments expressed by the bench…We were told from September 15 this year that there were further statements to come in relation to matters on the mention list, two further witnesses statements, and this has continued until today… Your Honour, what I’ve been asking for in respect of this matter is a trial date,” the attorney stated. Smith-Ashley concurred with Champagnie, stating that the court requires a trial date, which was set for January 26, 2024. All 17 persons had their bails extended until that date. The initial 13 accused individuals charged are Rebecca Gallimore, Christopher Anderson, Nekeisha Harding, Derrick Clarke, Roanalee Maitland, Alicia Meadley, Fabian Nelson, Franchain Paris, Jodian Spence, Jose Foskin, Oral Spence, Rayon Letman and Ingrid Williams. The charges came only three weeks after the children of many of the accused were placed in State care. The police confirmed that investigators removed several exhibits, photographs, and other material of evidentiary value from the compound. The Qahal Yahweh compound, which is two doors away from the late Kevin Smith’s Pathway International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, made headlines in 2019 when authorities raided the property, leading to the arrest of the church’s leader and the removal of three children from the compound. The raid followed months of complaints from residents related to allegations of human trafficking, abduction, child abuse ,and sexual assault.

Simmering anger within the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s officer ranks could lead to a head-on collision with the Government over the State’s failure to move the needle on negotiations for a better increase in on-call allowance. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Wayne Cameron, who chairs the Police Officers’ Association (POA), which represents gazetted officers from the rank of superintendent to commissioner, told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday that the Government has not responded since the association rejected an offer of a 15 per cent increase in the allowance last month. As such, his colleagues, he said, were “restive”. “December, festive season, no added money, the officers are not happy, and with good reason, because traditionally the practice is that when December comes around we would get a little money here or there. There’s no money, so they are rightfully restive,” SSP Cameron said. The Sunday Observer had contacted Cameron after seeing his communication to POA members in which he said that the discussion around on-call allowance “is now at a troubling juncture”. In that letter Cameron outlined that the offer of the 15 per cent increase across all ranks was made by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke in a telephone discussion early last month. He said that the POA executive discussed the offer but “flatly refused” it on the basis that it was “paltry”, given that the POA’s proposal is for the allowance to be increased to 40 per cent of basic salary. “The minister promised he would return to us timely and that he’ll request of the commissioner of police and the minister of national security to sit in our next meeting,” Cameron said. “Since then the POA has not gotten a new offer, neither a new meeting date. This is the case despite several communiqué to Mr Wayne Jones, deputy financial secretary; the minister himself; and other members of the bargaining unit,” Cameron said in the note to the POA members. Pointing out that service pay is now 20 per cent of basic salary, while the on-call allowance is at an average of 8.5 per cent of basic salary, Cameron said the 15 per cent offer “is an insult to the officer corps as we’d be moving up by less than seven per cent”. In his discussion with the Sunday Observer, Cameron explained that the salary increases granted under the Government’s compensation review in April this year resulted in an erosion of the on-call allowance from 20 per cent of basic salary to its current average 8.5 per cent. “Before the compensation review it formed a substantial portion of an officer’s salary package, now it doesn’t,” he said. “We are saying to the Government, we need to fix this.” He said that unlike cops in the junior ranks, police officers are not placed on an overtime system as they are regarded as always at work. “When an officer is not at his desk, he is at home, the moment you take up the phone and call him he’s actually working. So the on-call allowance is for the extended hours and for the inconvenience placed on an officer, as a manager, because I could be doing my private thing when you call me, but I have to put that down to address the situation that I am now being called up on, either to clarify a situation, to give advice, or to give instructions,” he explained. “So we need to get this [allowance] back up to where it was or above,” he told the Sunday Observer. “We are saying that the fact that we do extended hours, added hours, and we can be called at any time, then the on-call allowance must be given attention. If we are working at the executive level, then we should be paid at the executive level,” he argued. Cameron, in his note to the POA members, said that at the last heads of agreement meeting the slate of outstanding allowances should have been settled from June 30, 2023. “This means that the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service is not only in breach of our agreement but has been displaying little or no regard to this bargaining process,” he said. “Also, given the fact that we are now in the middle of the festive season, officers have a legitimate expectation to see a difference in their salary package. I’ll just advise officers that the POA executive is contemplating its next move as the new week approaches. We’ll also advise as soon as a response is had,” he said. Asked when the executive would next meet with POA members, Cameron didn’t give a date; however, he said if they do not get an answer soon, that meeting “is on the horizon”.

Jamaica’s former prime minister and Caribbean elder statesman PJ Patterson has commended last Thursday’s summit between Guyana and Venezuela in Argyle, St Vincent, and described the outcome as “a welcome sign of relief” for the hemisphere. Patterson, one of the region’s most respected voices, said the summit established several significant precedents which deserve due commendation and indicate a path for the future. “It was a Caribbean initiative which demonstrated the intrinsic value of collective regional action. Caricom stepped forward in united efforts to face the challenge of preserving the territorial integrity of Guyana, a founding member State and headquarters of the Caribbean Community,” he said. Patterson added that the summit “demonstrated that in a world of unprecedented turbulence, diplomatic skills and negotiating expertise can still be deployed to avert military conflict”. He also said that the meeting “asserts that the Caribbean and Latin America, despite the colonial rivalry and exploitation by European powers, constitute one hemispheric family”. That, he argued, highlights the merits of our full engagement and present leadership of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). At the end of the two-hour summit convened by St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to broker a peaceful solution to the border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana, both sides pledged not to resort to force to settle the matter. Gonsalves read a joint statement issued after the summit in which both sides promised to resolve the dispute “in accordance with international law” but noted that while Guyana believes the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the proper jurisdiction for the matter, Venezuela has rejected the court’s recognition over the issue. The meeting took place after months of escalating discord that has raised fears in the region of a potential military conflict over the oil-rich Essequibo region, a remote area of 160,000 square kilometres (62,000 square miles) which makes up two-thirds of Guyana. Venezuela, which has long claimed ownership of the Essequibo, ratcheted up its rhetoric after Guyana, which has governed the area for more than 100 years, started issuing licences for oil companies to operate there following ExxonMobil’s discovery of oil in Essequibo in 2015. The discovery gave Guyana, which has a population of 800,000, the world’s biggest crude reserves per capita. On December 3, the Maduro Administration held a controversial referendum in which 95 per cent of voters, according to officials in the Government, supported declaring Venezuela the rightful owner of Essequibo. Venezuelans were also asked to vote on whether or not to reject an 1899 decision by an arbitration tribunal that had set the border with Guyana but which Caracas insists was “fraudulently imposed”. Also on the ballot was whether Venezuela should reject the authority of the ICJ in The Hague to adjudicate the dispute, and whether or not to grant Venezuelan citizenship to the people living in the Essequibo region. Patterson, a former Caricom chairman, said while the “far-reaching agreements” at the St Vincent summit do not constitute a final settlement, they provide mechanisms to bolster healthy, productive, and peaceful relationships between neighbours. He also said the summit “constitutes a model for devising consultative approaches to address other long-standing border disputes in south and central America”. No praise, he said, is too high for presidents Ali and Maduro “for their preparedness and courage in accepting the terms of the Argyle Declaration”. Patterson also said that Prime Minister Gonsalves, who is the current chair of CELAC, revealed his astute skills and considerable experience, with extensive support from Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, “through his trusted emissar, Celso Amorim, who were the principal interlocutors”. “Commendations are due to all the Caribbean prime ministers who were in attendance, to representatives of the UN secretary general, Caricom, and the CELAC Troika, to endorse the declaration and pledge to facilitate its timely implementation,” Patterson said as he urged Caribbean citizens to “applaud and encourage this bold step to fashion a Caribbean where peace and harmony prevail”.

SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Two months after a heated exchange with councillors, chief executive officer of Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC), Marvalyn Pitter has been temporarily reassigned to St Catherine Municipal Corporation. The transfer, announced at Thursday’s meeting, takes effect January 1. Pitter told the Jamaica Observer that the move was unexpected. “When you are a public servant, based on the Act you can be transferred [but] it is not something I was looking forward to, based on the number of developments, the achievements that I would have wanted to just wrap up here in Westmoreland. One such is the local sustainable development plan; and there are several developments coming on scene,” she said. Pitter joined the WMC in 2019. Before that she was at Portland Municipal Corporation. Her transfer comes on the heels of verbal sparring at the October monthly meeting over whether a meeting chaired on August 10 by Councillor Ian Myles (Jamaica Labour Party, Little London Division) was legally convened. Pitter’s initial assurance that the August meeting — at which only councillors aligned to the JLP were present — was indeed legal was rebuffed, leading to a number of sharp exchanges. Danree Delancy (People’s National Party, Bethel Town Division) threatened a lawsuit to challenge the authenticity of the minutes prepared by Pitter. The August meeting had been specially convened during what would have normally been the summer break, to address issues including the alleged use of expletives by Councillor Devon Thomas (PNP, Savanna-la-Mar North Division) during a heated July 13 meeting. It was at the July meeting Delancy was ousted as deputy mayor and Myles voted in. After a letter was read on Thursday informing the council of her transfer a crestfallen Pitter said, “It is what it is. We will see what will happen until January 1. I appreciate this council very much; we have come a far way, we have had a lot of challenges, but one of my mantras is: ‘There are always lessons to be learnt.’ “ Myles rose to acknowledge her contributions to the WMC. “She has done tremendously well. And when I speak you know I speak with that boldness, and that level of confidence, and just a genuine self that her tenure here and the services rendered was one which would have uplifted this parish,” he told the meeting. “On behalf of the citizens of Westmoreland I want to personally acknowledge what you’ve done and say thanks. I hope that you continue to be the person that you are; continue to be that industrious person. And I’m listening for even greater things when it comes on to you. We are going to miss your presence, we’re going to miss your service, and we’re only hoping that he who is coming has prepared to walk into big shoes and fill that void,” Myles added.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Pointing to a multimillion-dollar investment made in the development and expansion of Sangster International Airport (SIA) in St James, which has contributed tremendously to the rapid growth of the tourism industry, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang said Thursday there are no regrets about the decision taken to divest the Government-owned port 20 years ago. Back then there were arguments for and against the planned divestment of the asset which was badly in need of upgrading. While Dr Chang supported the idea, in general, his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which was then the parliamentary Opposition, was against it. As reported by the Jamaica Observer in 2002, the JLP had argued that it would be better for the then People’s National Party-led Government to borrow the US$200-million a Canadian-led consortium planned to spend to upgrade the airport and do the job itself. “Eventually, it came on-stream 20 years back and I think no one will have any remorse at this point in time,” Dr Chang said Thursday during a ground-breaking and 20th anniversary celebration ceremony held at SIA. The deputy prime minister congratulated Shane Munroe, chief executive officer of MBJ Airports Limited — operators of SIA — and his team for a job well done. “The team has done a fantastic job. You are looking at about US$500 million that has been invested in the Montego Bay airport to ensure that we have an airport of an international standard that can accommodate our visitors here and keep the growth of the tourism industry in place,” said Dr Chang. During the event, ground was broken for a US$18-million immigration and security expansion project and Dr Chang, who is also the national security minister, said he is particularly looking forward to its completion. “The reality is, we are having a challenge in accommodating all our visitors,” he said. He pointed out that the facility is needed urgently and pointed to congestion seen at the facility on Wednesday and Thursday. “The nature of tourism is that almost all the flights want to come in between 12:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon because of the booking and the exit from the hotel. So, you find that when you come in here at 3:00, there are eight flights on the ground. You’ll find out [that] between a three-hour period up to 30 flights are trying to come into the airport. When that happens and you have five, six thousand people on the ground, then there will be a crowd. Even when we have a bigger arrival area, in any terminal, five, six thousand people at any one time will be a crowd. What we have to ensure is that we have better ease of entry,” reasoned Dr Chang. He noted that efforts are under way to address these issues, such as the installation of six eGates which will increase the speed of movement through the airport. In April 2003 MBJ Airports Limited was awarded a 30-year concession agreement by the Government to operate, maintain, and develop SIA. MBJ is owned by Desarrollo De Concesiones Aeroportuarias SA (DCA), a subsidiary of Mexico-based Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP), with a 74.5 per cent interest, and Canada-based Vantage Airport Group with the remaining 25.5 per cent. Previously named Montego Bay Airport, the facility opened on February 18, 1947. It has been voted the Caribbean’s Leading Airport by the prestigious World Travel Awards for the past 13 years.

Six eGates now being installed at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay are scheduled to be tested this morning as Jamaica’s border security officials continue their drive to improve efficiency and service for travellers. Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wynter will be among the officials testing the eGates which are basically automated passport control systems that use biometric technology to authenticate the identity of passengers. It was not clear on Thursday when the six eGates will be commissioned into service, but with Jamaica projected to welcome more than one million visitors from the United States alone for the upcoming winter tourist season, PICA is likely to press for them to be up and running as quickly as possible. On Thursday the Jamaica Observer learnt that an additional three eGates are being installed at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, but the total number will increase to 15 soon. The gates, which are a feature at many airports worldwide, scan the passport and take a photo of the passenger’s face, which is then compared to the digital image stored in the passport’s microchip. They serve as an alternative to using desks staffed by immigration officers, thereby allowing passengers to avoid queues and get through passport control much faster. Additionally, they free up immigration officers to concentrate on more critical border security duties. On September 1, 2023, PICA introduced an electronic declaration form which replaced the paper C5 Card. The online C5 passenger declaration form, which must be completed by travellers entering Jamaica, is aimed at facilitating the efficient movement of passengers. Last Saturday as well, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said that before the end of the year airline passengers will have access to 100 immigration kiosks, moving up from 80, thus easing congestion in the arrival halls.

A men and boys’ forum to spotlight the role of males in eliminating violence against women and girls saw several appeals for outlets for men to release seething anger, birthed by harsh encounters with significant females in their lives, which has pushed some to even murder. “Mi really appreciate a forum like this because a person like me, as wi jus’ discuss, yuh see how easily my anger wake up because mi have a whole heap a anger inside a mi. Mi a somebody weh kill woman already and go prison and mi innna mindset right now weh mi deh pon di verge fi kill somebody else again, that’s why mi appreciate a setting like this,” a self-confessed former convict told the forum staged by the United Nations (UN) Women Multi-Country Office Caribbean on Thursday. The event was supported by the Men’s Unit in the Bureau of Gender Affairs in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, under the European Union-UN Spotlight Initiative at ROK Hotel in downtown Kingston. “Mi nah pretty up nor sugar-coat nutten, mi a talk because mi need help, mi need help. Based on my assessment, I think God make us to flow in a specific order and once we go against that and start to attack the core of manhood, this a some a the result weh yuh get, because is like you a go against the flow of nature,” he said harshly. A second male, in expressing appreciation for the forum which, he said, would be useful in managing his anger, revealed that his inner hurt stemmed from a childhood encounter in which his mother greeted him with a cup of hot water to the face on his returning home from a neighbourhood party which he had attended without her consent. “Jah know, star, from dat day mi a tell yuh seh mi get evil, from dat day mi nuh laugh wid people, mi quick fi kill yuh, quick fi do yuh anything. Mi dark; when mi seh dark, mi dark, mi dark like midnight,” he told the transfixed gathering. “Yuh si woman, woman fi always understand demself and know seh a man wear di pants. Mi nuh deal wid woman who talk to mi any and any way. A mi do all talking, yuh si mi,” he said. He, however, detailed his struggle to correct his behaviour as he claimed his “evil” ways brought him respect. “Mi still know good and bad, but mi nah tell nuh lie. Mi evil, but mi rather be evil still, ennuh, because mi get more respect, mi get more honour. Yeh, mi nah go tell nuh lie, mi rather be evil… it gimme da buzz deh, an mi get girls because she love mi likkle evil ways how mi gwaan. A real thing mi a tell yuh, it draw woman how mi flex because she say it make me more hardcore,” he told the shocked audience. That childhood experience, he said, has powered him to the present day. “Di bad energy and dem things deh, it really start from the parents; how dem deal with the yute dem. In my term mi never deserve that, hot water mi mother throw inna mi face and mi never forget dat day and mi still love mi mother. If anybody ramp with my mother you know how dat go, but mi never deserve that,” he ended. Motivational speaker, fitness lifestyle and transformational coach Kevin Wallen, in appealing for “understanding” for such men during the forum, said there is a need for an outlet for males to express themselves. “I have worked in the prisons for many years and I worked with mostly men and what we found is that a lot of them have a level of anger inside them and there is no place to put it. There is nowhere to express it. At least when you hear the story out full, then we can have a decent conversation, but most a the things dem is like the thing just bottle up inside and wi angry, so to create a space where men want to speak and as soon as wi voice get a little passionate and one or two badword cuss, everybody start get ‘fraid. But we need those moments because we are bottled up right now,” he stated. Detailing a story of a wife beater whose behaviour was traced back to a public beating and embarrassment by his mother when he was a child, Wallen pointed out that through analysis it was realised that anger, which was never expressed, had found its way into the man’s marital relationship. “A whole heap a wi a struggle with that. I don’t know that a lot of men that I speak to in the prisons that is wicked them wicked why them and the woman get into whatever. It’s something that’s in them head and they feel like there is no other way to deal wid it, and him can’t talk about it because it wrong pon so many levels, so nobody don’t want to give them a listening ear, and I am saying we need to be careful because we have been doing the same thing for years,” he stated to applause and murmurs of ‘Yes’. UN Women Multi-Country Office Caribbean Representative Tonni Brodber, speaking at the start of the meeting, said solving family violence will go a long way in cauterising violence overall. “A lot of times we talk about we have to end crime but we don’t recognise that the investment to end crime does not happen in the prisons only. It happens in the homes first, and if you aren’t addressing family violence, if you aren’t addressing the normalisation of violence for children, you are not going to have a situation where crime is not a reality,” she said. “Men more likely to get engaged in violence with other men are more likely to have witnessed violence in their homes are more likely to

Hugs, shared laughter and some tears marked the highly anticipated Christmas Family Day for Spouses and Children of Inmates at Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston on Thursday. The event, which was being staged for the first time since being put on pause in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, began about 8:00 am with hundreds of families and children sitting in covered waiting areas listening keenly for their numbers to be called to get registered. Following registration, they went back to the seated areas, and the children were encouraged to make Christmas greeting cards at a crafts corner for their incarcerated family members. A bounce house and entertainment from different talents kept the waiting families occupied as the day flowed. Sometime near noon the first batch of inmates filed out of a secure tunnel connected to the prison and into an open area known as ‘Brick Yard’. The inmates, who were dressed in white T-shirts, took seats on metal chairs clutching the gifts of snacks and other craft items they had made and awaiting the opening of the outer gate. As the gate was opened, broad smiles came across the inmates’ faces. “Mi see mi babymother,” or “Mi see mi daughter and wife” some declared as their loved ones approached. One girl sprinted across the yard, slowing down only when she got close to her ageing grandfather to hug him and shower him with kisses. An inmate, who said he has been incarcerated for the past 14 years, was especially excited to meet his second granddaughter for the first time. He said when he last saw his daughter in 2018 she had put his hand on her stomach and told him that he was going to be a grandfather for the second time. “Mi excited fi meet her,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “Mi can’t wait fi see all of them.” The joy on his face when he spotted his family from the crowd and the pride when his granddaughters and daughter hugged him were noticeable. His daughter, who identified herself as Sanika, said that it has been a difficult time since her father was convicted more than a decade ago. They did not disclose what the man, who is in his late 50s, was convicted for. “Boy, it’s kinda rough, because we miss him very bad. I wish him coulda come back home but we just have to keep strong and have faith in God that him can come home soon,” Sanika said, tears running down her cheeks. Sanika disclosed that she, along with her girls, woke up about 3:30 am and travelled from from Montego Bay, St James, to get to Tower Street by 8:00 am. The family caught up on all that has been happening while the grandfather played with his grandchildren and took photos together, in an effort to pack in as many memories as possible in the 15 minutes allotted for each meeting. “The 15 minutes that we have to talk is bad, very bad. They should have given us at least half-hour or 45 minutes, but I understand. A lot of people out there who want to see their families, so we just have to do what we have to do. At least we see him this year because for the past three years we never got to see him because of COVID, so me just happy fi see him,” the emotional daughter added, looking at her father. The grandfather told the Observer that he has another eight years left in his sentence and that he is looking forward to being free and selling his craft items made out of matchsticks, in order to make a living. “Me have eight years left; me call it say a two World Cups. I jus’ a keep my sheet clean and make my craft because I want be a millionaire,” he said. Other inmates could be heard enquiring about their children’s schooling and offering advice to them to remain in school. The other inmates, some of whom have never had family come to visit, were also cheered on the day. They were given packages courtesy of the Justices of the Peace of Jamaica Kingston Association, with Custos Steadman Fuller offering words of encouragement that the men were not forgotten. A mix of emotions settled over the area as family members grabbed one last hug or a kiss on the cheek and a last goodbye before leaving loved ones to return to their cells to count the days until they can see their families again.

RIGHTS Group Jamaicans for Justice, in taking note of a recent indication by the Jamaican Government that it is contemplating hate speech legislation, says while “high levels of discrimination against vulnerable groups is a real concern, standalone hate speech legislation cannot be the initial step in this conversation”. In a statement issued to the media late Tuesday evening, the rights group said, “while the organisation agrees that minority groups, such as those within the disabled community or others who are discriminated against based on gender or sexual orientation, require increased legislative protections, the organisation urges caution that the Government does not unintentionally or intentionally reintroduce criminal libel or sedition legislation in the country”. Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who was the featured guest on the monthly discussion forum at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC, said, to address the chronic levels of violence in Jamaica the country will, among other things, have to treat with the issue of “hate speech”, though it “is not a feature in the Jamaican society”. “Many of you in the diaspora live in societies where speech that deliberately targets violence at a group or a person is treated within law; in Jamaica there is really no such thing. We have to consider that…These are things that we are studying, but, as a democracy, they will have to go through a process of social discourse so that we can treat with it,” Holness said then as he urged Jamaicans in the diaspora to share their expertise and advice with family and friends at home on the importance of controlling violence. On Tuesday, the JFJ, in taking further note of subsequent comments by the minister responsible for information Robert Morgan, who in a media interview, while assessing the contemplation of the legislation, said “there are many actors in the society who seek to incite violence against other members of the society using certain language, gang members, persons who have an interest in undermining the State”, and that statement diverged from the intended scope of hate speech law. According to the JFJ, this stance was “aligning more closely with the scope of sedition law, where individuals may face criminal sanctions if they raise criticism against the State”. “Such a statement raises concerns that Jamaica may be taking a regressive rather than progressive step,” it stated, while pointing out that Jamaica in 2013 repealed its sedition legislation, contributing to its noteworthy press freedom ranking, currently standing at 12th in the world out of 180 countries. “JFJ contends that existing defamation provisions adequately safeguard against reputational damage and there is no need for alternative provisions to do the same. The organisation also hastens to point out that threatening language is already a criminal offence under the Offences Against the Person Act. Hate speech, on the other hand, entails abusive or threatening speech or writing expressing prejudice based on ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or similar grounds. JFJ emphasises that hate speech legislation, unlike sedition laws, is designed to address discrimination without impinging on the critique of the Government,” the rights group said. In the meantime, the group, in noting that “based on the general understanding of hate speech” it is “not against greater legislative and constitutional provisions as there are documented high levels of stigma and discrimination against minority groups in the country”. However, it called for “expanded constitutional protection for vulnerable groups and the establishment institutional human rights framework to promote and protect the rights of such vulnerable groups”. “For avoidance of doubt, JFJ asserts its full support for a dialogue on enhanced protections for vulnerable groups. We further call for greater constitutional protection where the constitution is broadened in scope expanding freedom from discrimination to include sexual orientation, gender identity, disabilities and health status as protected categories. In other words, JFJ contends that foundational groundwork is essential to fulsomely address the issue of discrimination before hate speech laws can even be contemplated. This foundational work also includes the introduction of a broad anti-discrimination legislation,” the JFJ said. Over the weekend two influential church umbrella groups here, in warning the Government against going in that direction, called on the prime minister to explain exactly what he meant by his comment on hate speech.

BALACLAVA, St Elizabeth — There are split views from two councillors in this south-central parish whose divisions are being affected by a near-one-month ban on entertainment events following recent crimes, including murder, with one representative saying the measure is “draconian”, for the festive season. “While we understand the rationale for it, it is a bit disappointing that this murder has led to such a draconian measure by the police,” Councillor Everton Fisher (People’s National Party, Balaclava Division) said on Wednesday. Fisher, a former mayor of Black River, was reacting to a letter sent by head of the St Elizabeth police, Acting Superintendent Coleridge Minto to the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation outlining that entertainment events are prohibited in Goshen, Balaclava, Oxford, Union, Content, and Elim. “In light of the recent increase in murders in the division…list of police areas are banned from conducting/ hosting public events such as dance, party, round robin, drink out, etc,” the letter read in part. However, grand market will be permitted on December 22 for Balaclava town centre. The letter, dated December 12, 2023, stated that the ban will be reviewed on January 8, 2024. Fisher said he is concerned and troubled about the effect the ban will have on the festive season. “The police, we all agree with, have to take whatever necessary action they have to take to curtail or to curb crime, but for me in the Yuletide it has really put a dent on the whole community. People have travelled and others have booked their flights for the holidays and so it is concerning,” he said. “Essentially we have to support the police in whatever initiative they have to treat with crime, but for me it is very disappointing that many people who have come home to enjoy the festive season, most of it will have to be scaled down,” he added while pointing a possible major economic impact “In Balaclava there are a number of parties and promotions that have to be cancelled. People have to move parties as far as Evergreen, which is at the Manchester border, so it has really affected a lot of people,” said Fisher. Last week he called on residents to amicably resolve conflicts following four murders overnight including one in Union district, Balaclava where Lennox Leachman, 46, was shot and killed at a party. “Many people made preparations prior to that incident and now many of them are forced to cancel,” said Fisher. Minority leader in the local municipality and councillor for Braes River Donovan Pagon (People’s National Party), however, said he supports the police’s decision. “Having six murders within [48 hours] is cause for concern and one has to look deeply into this situation and what corrective measures the police have taken, one has to back the police on this one,” he said. “Although, I know it is the festive season and people have already gone ahead and planned to keep their cookout and various dances, it is so unfortunate that the police have to do what they did. One has to understand the police position. We don’t want any recurrence of this murder situation. This thing has to stop and our area, my division, is normally a very peaceful division,” he said while adding that areas have been like a ghost town in the evenings. “The feeling, especially in Elim, is very sombre and in and around Goshen there is a down period there right now. Everything is not back to normal as yet. It is visibly lonely any time after 6:00 pm, especially Goshen,” said Pagon.

“AM I being arrested and charged for murder,” were the words that Everton “Beachy Stout” McDonald allegedly used on August 5, 2020 when police detectives popped in on him at his business establishment in Port Antonio, Portland. Beachy Stout was eventually arrested and charged in connection with the July 20, 2020 murder of his second wife, Tonia McDonald. He was jointly charged with Denvalyn “Bubbla” Minott and Oscar Barnes for the killing. Beachy Stout and Barnes are now on trial in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston for Tonia’s murder after they pleaded not guilty to the crime. Bubbla, however, was given a 19-year-and-ten-month prison sentence for his involvement. He confessed to being the person allegedly contracted by Beachy Stout for $3 million to carry out the hit. However, he alleged that he subcontracted the mission to Oscar Barnes who completed the job. Tonia’s partially burned body was found on the main road in Sherwood Forest, Portland, beside the razed motor car she was driving. The lead police investigator in the case, a detective sergeant who is assigned to the Major Investigations Division (MID) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, on Wednesday, during the trial, continued where he he left off in his testimony on Tuesday. The investigator, who is the eighth witness in the case, told the court that after Bubbla was arrested, police received assistance from him to begin a clean sweep arrest of all the alleged key people linked to the murder. “We went to Mary Shine Enterprise where we met with Mr Everton McDonald. I again introduced myself and the team to him,” the detective sergeant said, pointing out that he had met with Beachy Stout before on an earlier occasion after the death of his wife. “I informed him on the progress of the investigation and told him that he was a suspect, and I cautioned him. I told him that he was not obliged to say anything unless he wished to do so. I told him that whatever you say will be taken down in writing and given in evidence. I told him that he was a suspect. I arrested him for reasonable suspicion of murder. I asked him some questions and told him that he would need an attorney to be present during the interview. He said Mr Richard Harris was his lawyer, and I told him I would have to make arrangements with Mr Harris for the process. When I told him this I was in his business place. He was then removed from his office and taken inside a service vehicle parked downstairs. Before the investigator had delved into his account of what happened when he went to arrest Beachy Stout, he revealed a sequence of events leading up to the moment. The events unfolded during a process which the policeman described as a “drive through”. “On August 3, 2020 I was at my office on Spanish Town Road. I was briefed by a detective constable with respect to an operation carried out in Norwich district in Port Antonio, Portland, at the dwelling house of Denvalyn Minott. The detective constable handed me a blue and black Samsung A31 cellular phone. I also received receipt and a pair of Clarks. The detective constable told me something about the phone in relation to Bubbla when he handed it to me. “Minott was escorted to a detective inspector’s office where I identified myself to him and told him of the investigation. I showed him the phone and asked him something in relation to it. The telephone was submitted to the Communication, Digital and Cybercrimes Division (CFCD) and I made a request. I briefed a detective corporal and gave him certain instructions in regards to an interview he conducted with Denvalyn Minott. By that time Minott was only a person of interest who we believed could assist the investigations further,” the policeman said. The cop had told he court Tuesday that he and members of his team visited Beachy Stout at his business establishment in Portland at the end of July 2020, after his wife was murdered. The purpose of the visit at that time was to gather certain information on the deceased, her relatives, and friends. He said he spent a very long time at the establishment as he had to show empathy during his interview, seeing that Beachy Stout’s wife was just murdered. The detective sergeant claimed that the businessman was very cooperative and made him and his team feel comfortable by getting chairs for each member of the investigative unit present in his office. Beachy Stout agreed to giving them a statement, which he allegedly signed. However, less than a week later, Beachy Stout’s legal woes began to unfold, according to the detective sergeant in court on Wednesday. He said when Bubbla handed over the cellphone to the police that triggered search warrants. The cellphone in question was allegedly the same one on which more than 120 recordings of Beachy Stout’s phone calls with Bubbla were recorded. “I obtained a search warrant and I, along with other members of my team from MID, proceeded to Port Antonio, Portland. This was August 3, 2020 when we again met with Everton McDonald. The warrant was to search his house. By this time the status of Mr McDonald was that of a person of interest and because he and his wife shared the same dwelling. We did not find anything incriminating or unlawful. “Sometime later that day a detective corporal contacted me and shared certain information with respect to an interview he conducted with Bubbla. Mr Minott was taken into custody for reasonable suspicion of murder. On August 4, 2020 I gave certain instructions to have Minott escorted to MID offices. I obtained a statement that was recorded by a detective corporal on August 3, 2020. I read through and based on what I read I cautioned Mr Minott, and he said, ‘Officer, I will carry you go to the area where I met

THERE were screams of joy at Port Antonio Primary School when it was revealed the school would receive a $1-million gift from alumnus Michael Lee-Chin and the NCB Foundation (NCBF). During a tour of the school, Lee-Chin, chair of NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG), surprised the school population with the revelation that the institution was his pick for the NCB Foundation’s 2023 Grant a Wish programme. Lee-Chin, along with NCB Foundation Chair Thalia Lyn, visited the school on Thursday, December 7, where Lee-Chin first handed over his NCBFG chair’s allocation of $400,000 to Acting Principal Terri-Ann Palmer before NCBF Chair Lyn added her portion of $250,000 to the pot. But that was not all. “I have high aspirations for you…and I told the [foundation’s] chair Lyn that we can do better than $650,000, we’ll be upping the donation to $1 million,” Lee-Chin said as the acting principal clapped with joy. “I wish I could scream and shout like the children, but I had to contain myself. I am ecstatic and thankful,” Palmer said after the presentation. “I really appreciate this unexpected gift…as many of our public schools are limited to the funds from the Government. When we receive assistance from the private sector, it is an honour and privilege that we make the most of.” She listed three projects into which the funds could be channelled. “We are operating in the original container building, and all aspects of the compound need refurbishing. One of our goals is the computer lab. Also, we need somewhere to house our sporting department.” Palmer further explained: “We have been national champions in football, so we need a structured resource room to improve our offerings to the students beyond football and athletics.” Some students were also gifted vouchers to start their own savings accounts with NCB. The school caters to 607 students in the parish capital and shows very few upgrades since Lee-Chin attended the institution in the early 1960s.

GOVERNMENT legislator Delroy Chuck is insisting that the Integrity Commission (IC) wraps up its illicit enrichment investigation into six parliamentarians, as well as several other public officials, and submit its report to Parliament without further delay. Chuck, the justice minister, gave the charge at Tuesday’s meeting of the IC Oversight Committee, after highlighting the issue of the commission’s clear-up rate for investigations. “We need to hear from the Integrity Commission when are those reports of the six and 28 [public officials going to be ready], whether those matters have been cleared up. And if they have not been cleared up the commission should report on them [to Parliament] as soon as possible because it shouldn’t be too difficult for the IC to demand responses from whoever those…persons are,” he said. Pointing to a pattern of the IC completing investigations long after they commence, Chuck argued that it should not take the commission a year to investigate and clear up the matter of illicit enrichment allegations. “I would hate to think that in the next annual report we’re going to hear from the commission that in fact the six have not been cleared up. If they have not cleared up, investigate them and report to Parliament as quickly as possible,” he said while also noting that the six parliamentarians under the enrichment probe continue to remain a mystery. Chuck, who is also a member of the IC Oversight Committee of Parliament, further pointed out that from the few meetings the committee has had with the commission there is an impression that their focus is only on high-level officials and politicians. “They should look at certain other areas of government where allegations are made generally in the public about bribery, paying people to get things done, and where the people feel public officials are corrupt. Investigate, use the Protected Disclosures Act, and urge more information or more disclosures so that more corruption can be investigated at all levels,” he said. He said the Government wants the commission to succeed but that success must be measured by how well the country is doing to stamp out corruption — and especially to get a better Transparency International corruption rating. Jamaica currently has a score of 44 out of 100 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Added Chuck: “It would be nice if the Integrity Commission could find ways and means to show how we are stamping out corruption, and what measures are being used to stamp out corruption. Forty-four put us at about 70 overall across the world so we really need to improve our number to 50 or 60,” Chuck said, explaining that 100 is no corruption while zero is all corruption. Opposition Committee member Phillip Paulwell was in agreement that IC investigations tend to take too long for completion, and questioned whether they have sufficient staff members to perform all the functions given to them in a timely manner. “Sometimes these report come almost stale-dated because the issues under consideration took place many years back, so perhaps we could probe that to see if in approving resources for the Integrity Commission, if there’s a need for more staffing to do these investigations. We should hurriedly grant such resources to the commission,” he said. But Chuck responded to say that, to the best of his knowledge, the IC has been given every resource, personnel that they have asked for, noting that they got a budget of close to $1.5 billion this fiscal year. “For the last six years the commission would have spent way in excess of $5 billion, and I’m saying that we want the IC to succeed. And the question of success is to show that corruption is being dealt with or being deterred across all levels of the society — and that is the measure [by] which we feel that we would be getting value for money. “It cannot be that we’re spending $1.5 billion and we are not stamping out corruption at all levels. In other words, it would be regretful that in two, three years we can’t say to the international community, after spending another $5 billion, that we have not deterred corruption at all levels of the society. It’s very important for us to focus and see how best we can deter and eliminate corruption at as many levels of the society as possible,” he insisted. However, Committee Chairman Edmund Bartlett said that while he would not comment on the speed at which the commission completes its investigations, it is required that the body works with the efficiencies that enable it to give Parliament “the highest and best reports”. “I wouldn’t want to suggest that they should speed up anything or slow anything. There’s no need for any kind of catalytic suggestion in that regard but I would make the point that there are perhaps some questions that the committee wants to have clarified, and perhaps the timing of our meetings with the commission could then be structured to enable, on a regular basis, to have some of these questions and matters addressed,” he suggested. He proposed that the commissioners be invited to the next committee meeting “to look at these and other issues that are of concern to us, as together we work to make the whole process better and to enable an efficient and effective commission solving the problems that Minister Chuck is very concerned about, and all of us in the society are very, very concerned about — the matter of beating this dragon called corruption”.

THE head of the 25,000 strong teachers’ union says while the battle lines are not yet drawn on the issue of gender identity in schools here, the matter needs to be discussed openly. “I don’t think there is a war on the whole matter of gender identity just yet; however, on the basis that this remains a current and topical issue, on the basis that this is a matter that is confronting us as global citizens, it is something that as a nation we now have to take seriously,” Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Leighton Johnson told Tyrell Morgan, host of virtual talk show Heart to Heart, on Monday. Gender identity, according to the World Health Organization, “refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth”. According to the JTA head, subscribing to that definition would spell chaos for Jamaica. “Let’s look at the implications of all of this: In our country we have schools that are gender-based, we have all-female schools, we have all-male schools…if, as a nation, we were to subscribe to this new definition of what gender is based on — one’s intuition based on how one feels at a particular time — then this has serious implications for how we operate as an education sector,” he contended. “These are the conversations we must have. As a nation, the Church, and any other group, we need to continue to stand against this kind of thinking. Of course, there are those who will want to promote this modern thinking, there are those who would indicate that our position is archaic and outdated and doesn’t have a basis, but I would continue to promote the thinking that we are a Christian nation and it is the Bible that defines our morality,” he said. “I don’t believe at this point Jamaica is at the place where we can accept the repercussions of allowing this kind of thinking to become the mode of operation in our nation,” Johnson declared. Addressing the issue of same-sex relations being introduced in sex education curriculum offerings, Johnson said, while there are individuals within the system who subscribe to this, it is not accepted by the sector. “There are those who are enthused, they believe that there is a space now for us to engage in conversation to test the temperature of our system to see exactly what our response is…there are individuals within our space, within schools, that have dabbled in or have chosen alternative lifestyles…there are individuals within our schools who would want to promote an alternative lifestyle…but the school rules are clear,” Johnson said. “In many instances the school rules outline, unequivocally, that in terms of sexual orientation and being engaged in open sexual activities — whether heterosexual or homosexual — these are not to take place in the open because they are considered inappropriate for the space,” the JTA president said. While pointing out that “no education system will stifle or suppress or prevent an individual from practising a particular persuasion or sexual orientation”, Johnson, who declared that “the JTA will continue to promote the lifestyle defined by the Bible”, said, “If you choose to be of this persuasion it ought not to be taken into the school.” “So, therefore, schools treat orientation pretty much the same way, whether heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual, any form of sexual conduct on the school compound, these are considered inappropriate and must be treated in accordance with the school rules which, in many instances, are in alignment with the constitution,” he said. Added Johnson: “We are currently trying to identify a philosophy of education. I believe it is urgent and necessary for us to clearly indicate what we deem necessary and fit for our students to learn in sex education and ensure, as best as possible, we stick within those parameters.” Jamaica, he said, “is a Christian nation, and being a Christian nation, of course, our morals are guided by the principles of the Bible and that we say without apology. Therefore, as a nation that has a rich history and, as a nation that is struggling to define its culture, I think right here is the perfect opportunity for us to design our curriculum to define and create the kind of student we want to produce from our school system, and I believe now is the time for us to ensure that the kind of student we want to develop is the kind that our culture will be able to identify,” he said.

A detective corporal, who on Tuesday said he played a supporting role in the investigation of the July 20, 2020 murder of Tonia McDonald in Portland, testified in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston that Oscar Barnes, the man accused of stabbing the 32-year-old woman to death, was never placed on an identification parade. Barnes is currently on bail. Tonia, who was the second wife of Portland businessman Everton “Beachy Stout” McDonald, was stabbed multiple times and her throat slashed on the Tallington main road in Sherwood Forest, Portland. The Toyota Axio motor car she was driving was set on fire and her partially burned body was found beside the vehicle. Beachy Stout, who is on trial for her murder, along with Barnes, allegedly hired a man by the name of Denvalyn “Bubbla” Minott to kill her. Minott allegedly subcontracted the hit to Barnes. Minott, who was taken in for questioning in relation to a warrant under the Firearms Act, confessed to his involvement in Tonia’s killing and was eventually sentenced to 19 years and 10 months in prison. He not only implicated himself, but went a step further to implicate Beachy Stout and Barnes and agreed to turn Crown witness. Facing questions from Ernest Davis, one of two attorneys representing Barnes, the detective corporal denied that there was no concrete evidence which caused Barnes to now be on trial. Vincent Wellesley is the second attorney representing Barnes. “On August 5, 2020, with Mr Minott in the vehicle, we were heading to Portland but something happened when we got to Annotto Bay, St Mary. Mr Minott showed me an area and told me something about a person. He pointed out the person to us. Before he pointed out the person, he never gave us a description of him. We didn’t conduct an identification parade because it was spontaneous,” the policeman told the seven-member jury on Tuesday. The detective corporal continued to give an account of the events which, he said, unfolded on the day of Barnes’ arrest, claiming that they were led by what Minott had told him and his team. “When the vehicle stopped, we approached this man. I had no previous description of the person. When we arrested the person, that was when we ascertained his name. I am not sure of the total number of statements Minott gave, but I don’t recall if he mentioned Oscar Barnes in his statements. Mr Minott told me that he did not know his name, but I was there when he was pointed out. I do not agree with you that the identity of Oscar Barnes is questionable. In his statements, Minott mentioned the man he contracted and his location, and so forth. I took no details about the face of the man. I don’t have a written account of that,” the policeman said. He told the court that he was aware that Barnes’ house was searched, but could not speak to whether any items of clothing were taken from him to form part of the investigations. “I cannot say specifically if DNA or anything at all connects Mr Barnes to the murder. I wasn’t there, but I am aware that a car was seized as part of our process. There was a search and nothing offensive found,” he said. A request was made to presiding Judge Chester Stamp, by Barnes’ attorney, Earnest Davis, to issue an order so that the same motor vehicle that was seized, could be released from the custody of the police as it is of no further interest to them in relation to the case. Justice Stamp told Davis to put his request in writing and address it to the relevant parties. The eighth witness in the trial, a detective sergeant, also took the stand on Tuesday. The detective sergeant was the lead investigator in the Tonia McDonald murder. The policeman, who has been a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force for 28 years and a member of the Major Investigations Division (MID) for 11 years, told the court that the matter was the second high-profile case he had investigated over the span of his investigative career. “This is considered a serious high-profile case, based on the the status surrounding the victim and the husband of the victim. I was not the only investigator. There were several others who assisted. I received information of a witness who could assist with investigations and I interviewed and recorded a statement, during which useful information was gathered in relation to a name that was given. I provided the name to members of my intelligence unit at MID, but even at that point I did not have a suspect. I recorded several statements up to that point. I physically took them,” the lead investigator told the court, before explaining that 11 days after the murder he went to visit Beachy Stout at one of his business establishments in Portland to empathise with him. “On July 31, 2020, I along with my team went to the Mary Shine Enterprise, located at 8 William Street in Port Antonio, Portland. This enterprise is owned by Beachy Stout and Tonia McDonald. I met with Everton McDonald. We were invited to his office upstairs. I introduced myself to him and introduced the other members of my team. I spent a very long time because I empathised with him, knowing he lost his wife. “I told him of our approach towards the investigation and I asked him several questions in relation to himself, his wife, their associates and family members. Mr McDonald was very cooperative. He also made us comfortable by providing us with chairs. He was seated around a desk and we faced each other. I told him I was requesting a written statement from him, in regards to what he had told me. He agreed and I recorded the statement.”

MONTEGO BAY, St James — A digital forensic officer on Monday read aloud what he said were texts from the phone of young Shineka Gray’s accused killer, Gregory Roberts, who boasted of making a sacrifice as he warned his ex-girlfriend to repay money she had fleeced him. Roberts is on trial for the 2017 murder of the 15-year-old Green Pond High School student. Detective Inspector Kamar Smith, who is assigned to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC), told the St James Circuit Court that on February 4, 2017, he was at the office of the Communication Forensics and Cybercrime Unit (CFCD) when his supervisor asked him to conduct digital forensic analysis on a specific matter. He was a detective constable at the time. The cop, who has served 12 years in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), stated in his evidence-in-chief, led by prosecutor Renelle Morgan, that he was given a white Samsung Galaxy mobile phone belonging to Roberts. He said he attached it to a UFED touch device. That is a portable device used to access and collect data from the widest range of digital devices using Cellebrite UFED without altering the information. The officer stated that after extracting the information from the cellphone he copied it, then showed it to the investigating officer who pointed out some items he said were valuable to the investigation. These included photos and text messages sent and received. According to Detective Inspector Smith, he prepared a digital forensic report that included an analysis of his findings as well as two compact discs (CDs) containing information of evidential value. The officer read aloud some of the texts that were allegedly sent and received from Roberts’s Samsung Galaxy phone on January 29, 2017: Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend at 8:22 pm: “I’m going to make you know me now… I’m going to video myself.” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 8:58 pm: “I’m making a video now with myself doing something.” Message from Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 9:02 pm: “Please don’t hurt me… I’m scared.” Message from Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 9:06 pm: “Please don’t hurt my daughter.” Message from Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 9:07 pm: “I bring the money back.” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 9:19 pm: “It’s over now baby… I just made a sacrifice.” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend at 9:58 pm: “You will hear what happen, but make sure I get ge… (sic)” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 11:03 pm: “Let [ex-girlfriend] know I want back the money she scammed.” Message from Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 11:09 pm: “You gave to her what nobody never tell you to do (sic).” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 11:13 pm: “She made a deal with me which you know about.” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 11:14 pm: “So, make she know that.” Message from Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 11:20 pm: “Sorry, no refund.” Message to Roberts’s ex-girlfriend’s mother at 11:24 pm: “You still don’t take me seriously after I show you what I…” The officer also testified that he saw certain calls to and from Roberts’s phone and that one of the images that he extracted was a thumbnail which was copied to the CD. He stated that the thumbnail depicts a female lying on the ground with what appear to be two human hands over her and red-like substance similar to blood. He said she was clad in a tiger-stripe skirt. The image was shown in court and matched what the officer had described. When the prosecutor asked the police witness if he saw a video during his analysis, he said ‘no’, but explained that a thumbnail indicates that an actual video existed. He went on to say that while he didn’t see a memory card in the phone, it did have the capacity to hold one. When asked if he could see a date or time on the thumbnail, Detective Inspector Smith said ‘no’, explaining that a thumbnail is a small version of the actual image or video and does not typically carry that information. The trial, which began on November 23, has so far heard from 14 of the 18 witnesses. Eleven witnesses gave sworn evidence, and two other statements were read into evidence. Gray’s body was discovered in bushes in Irwin, St James, on February 1, 2017 with multiple stab wounds. Roberts and Mario Morrison were subsequently arrested and charged with the schoolgirl’s murder. Morrison pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to life in prison. The trial continues on Tuesday.

ON the heels of recent indications by head of the judiciary Chief Justice Bryan Sykes that high-income earners continue to find creative ways of ducking out of jury duties, a call is being made from the defence bar for the prosecution of such persons and an increase in the existing penalty. Making the pitch in a letter to the editor on Monday, veteran defence bar attorney Peter Champagnie, King’s Counsel, in denouncing the practice said, “Beyond seeking to increase the daily stipend that a juror gets for jury duty, the prosecutorial arms of the State need to bring to book the recalcitrant ones amongst us who fail to answer the call for jury duty. “The penalties for failing to attend for jury duty should not be minuscule, as they are now. The penalties must have meaningful punitive effects on the pockets of such individuals who shirk their responsibilities,” Champagnie declared. Jury trials resumed in April 2022 after being suspended from March 2020 when Jamaica recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus. Jurors are chosen from all parishes, and the number selected varies depending largely on the case count before the Circuit Court. Jurors are not summoned for specific cases but are called for a particular period and placed in a pool from which they are then empanelled for different cases, after orientation. The Jury Duty Act stipulates who qualifies to serve. Any Jamaican living in the country between the ages of 18 and 69 and who has a Tax Registration Number (TRN) or is registered to vote can be selected for jury duty. The Court Administration Division (CAD) is responsible for issuing summonses to people for jury duty. Summonses are issued to the police for distribution to selected citizens who are expected to report to the court specified on the date stipulated. Failing to turn up for jury duty when summoned can result in a fine not exceeding $10,000. According to the attorney, “The unwillingness of some members of our society to serve as jurors when called upon [has] also emerged as [a factor] likely to impede any timely delivery of justice.” In declaring that it is a “necessity for the public’s contribution to go beyond the often vile comments made on social media platforms when a judge’s ruling does not accord with their own alternative set of facts” the attorney said “it is shamefully preposterous that, invariably, only members of our working class seem interested to serve as jurors”. “To a large extent, those who can afford to and are members of our articulate minority find every excuse not to carry out this most important civic duty. They, nevertheless, have the most to say about our system justice,” Champagnie noted. “Unless and until we abandon our emotional and knee-jerk reactions to treating with our crime problem we will continue to endanger the gains made within our justice system. Sustained gains will only be preserved when those of us unaffected have the same passion for justice as those who are directly affected by it,” he said further. Chief Justice Sykes, speaking at Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (MBCCI’s) Annual Awards Banquet at Montego Bay Convention Centre at the beginning of this month, said due to the refusal of persons from certain employment categories to take up jury duties, the burden falls disproportionately on the lower-income earners. “In Montego Bay, in fact western Jamaica, you know one of the most intriguing things? When it comes to jury service you can’t find people from the hotel industry — and there are so many hotels from Trelawny. They can’t find people in the financial sector, they can’t find managers — whether junior or senior — to serve as jurors,” he said. “The only persons we find — and I’m not saying anything is wrong with them — but they turn up: fishermen, … domestic helpers, practical nurses, and so on,” the chief Jjustice said while adding that those who are reluctant to serve often submit letters from their employers. “So when the police happen to find someone from middle management, from the hotel, financial sector, and other sectors to serve, you know what happens? A letter comes in to say, ‘Mr John Brown is desirous of serving and he takes his civic responsibility very seriously, however our company is engaged’ — in whatever the critical exercise is — ‘and so he won’t be available,’ ” Sykes said. He also noted that the period of unavailability often coincides with the entire duration of the Circuit Court. Justice Sykes told the gathering of business interests that offering to be available for jury is among the “things that we need to do to fix the question of crime, not just in Montego Bay but all over”. In January this year the country’s chief prosecutor, Paula Llewellyn, King’s Counsel, in responding to sentiments during a Rotary Club of Kingston meeting, said the “pittance” ($2,000 per day) paid to jurors could be the reason individuals have shunned the summons, while noting that public perception about the issue is skewed. “It should be noted that jury duty is not an opportunity for individuals to earn a living; it is part of their civic duty,” the DPP said while noting that the recommendation for the increase in jury allowances is the purview of the Court Administration Division (CAD). In March this year director of the Court Administration Division (CAD) Tricia Cameron-Anglin told the Jamaica Observer that an increase is in the making for the stipend paid to jurors. She noted that the $2,000 per day stipend currently given to jurors is “really low”, noting that at times court workers have had to reach into their pockets to subsidise jurors. The stipend for jurors has not been increased for almost 10 years. Last April, reports from the CAD indicated low juror turnout, specifically in the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew, St James, Clarendon, and St Catherine.

FORMER chairman of the board of management at University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) Wayne Chai Chong has scoffed at claims that the board he headed was “dysfunctional”, which led to it being dissolved by Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton. In his announcement that the UHWI board had been dissolved, Tufton reported that the resignation of Chai Chong came after a series of discussions on the strategic direction of the hospital and deliberations on the way forward for critical projects which, he said, the chairman noted he was unable to lead. According to Tufton, the decision to dissolve the board was taken following a meeting with its members to discuss the way forward. “The meeting also agreed that key strategic actions would need to be taken to realign the institution. Included in these actions are the recruitment and appointment of a new chief executive officer (CEO), and the reinstitution of a new board of management to improve the governance, management, and operational efficiency of the institution.” Last evening the health ministry announced that Cabinet has approved the appointment of banker Patrick Hylton as the new UHWI board chairman. Hylton, who will serve a three-year term, has been appointed along with realtor Dwain DeAndre Cox, the ministry said. But in his first public statement since resigning just over one week ago, Chai Chong said he walked after Tufton decided to overturn a decision of the board to replace the hospital’s acting CEO with another senior director. According to Chai Chong, among the tasks given to the board by Tufton when it was appointed in November 2022 was “to hire a transformational CEO who could push the board’s agenda, bring accountability to management, and unleash the engagement of the staff members at all levels of the institution”. He said before the search started the board recognised that the Government’s salary would not be sufficient to attract the quality individual needed, and it sought and received permission to have the private sector top up the salary of the selected person. “The board unanimously approved contracting a professional recruiting company to conduct a CEO search and selection that would have to stand the scrutiny of any audit. The recruiting professional has worked for many of the largest companies in Jamaica, and for the GOJ [Government of Jamaica], and is accustomed to meet strict recruitment rules that demanded transparency and documentation,” said Chai Chong. “Over 40 international, regional, and local applications were received. Six compelling candidates met the requirements to be shortlisted for interview. Although the acting CEO for the hospital applied for the position and did not meet the minimum scoring, he was also afforded an interview spot to make a total of seven candidates. “The hiring process was totally transparent, compliant, fully documented, and professionally conducted for the purposes of the board’s ratification. The HR [human resources] subcommittee of the board unanimously selected an overseas candidate to be the new CEO, and it is at this point that the board started to receive unwarranted pushback and derailing from a number of elements,” Chai Chong said. “It is this untenable situation that eventually led to my resignation,” added Chai Chong as he pointed out that the pushback led to the selected candidate not taking up the position. He said at this point the board received advice that it was at risk of having to permanently appoint the acting CEO, “who was not suitable for the role, especially in the context of a need to transform the UHWI”. He said the board made the decision that, unless certain, it was in the best interest of the hospital to have another senior director assume the role of acting CEO, if even for talent succession development purposes. “I met with the…minister who disagreed with the board decision and expressed his wish for the acting CEO not to be removed and for the CEO search to be restarted. I awaited his decision to overturn the board’s decision to move forward, after which I respectfully tendered my resignation,” said Chai Chong. He added that he led a brave board, with members who were willing to tackle the issues which have, for years, been the source of the decline of UHWI and which issues, left unattended, have been causing a fair amount of disenchantment, even among staff members. Chai Chong said among the discoveries and actions taken by the board were the implementation of the Hospital Information Management System, which had languished in the works since 2017; and an internal audit which discovered a number of irregularities in contract awards and purchasing practices. He said his board also detected incidents of suspected fraud in the hospital’s payroll department, and arrests were made, while it took steps to increase its billings and collections where in excess of 30 per cent of the potential billing revenue of the hospital was either being written off or not collected.

A declaration by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that Jamaica is mulling legislation to treat with “hate speech” has been met with consternation by powerful church umbrella groups here who, in warning him against going in that direction, say the proposal is payback for opposition from religious quarters against the country becoming signatory to the new African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-European Union (EU) pact — the Samoa Agreement. Last Wednesday, Holness, who was the featured guest on the monthly discussion forum from the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC, said to address the chronic levels of violence in Jamaica the country will, among other things, have to treat with the issue of “hate speech”, though it “is not a feature in the Jamaican society”. “Many of you in the Diaspora live in societies where speech that deliberately targets violence at a group or a person is treated within law; in Jamaica there is really no such thing. We have to consider that…These are things that we are studying, but, as a democracy, they will have to go through a process of social discourse so that we can treat with it,” Holness said as he urged Jamaicans in the Diaspora to share their expertise and advice with family and friends at home on the importance of controlling violence. Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on the weekend, president of the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance (JEA), Bishop Dr Alvin Bailey said the suggestion was highly suspect. “His proposal is a cause for concern considering that the situation will lend us to urgently consider it, to so cause us to introduce hate speech laws… said Bailey who is also bishop of Holiness Christian Church and chairman of Jamaica CAUSE (Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation). “We don’t have anti-Semitism, we don’t have racial discrimination, and we don’t even have overt classism present in Jamaica, or anything that would cause us concern about hate speech. The only thing on the agenda is the seeming cry of the LGBTQ community for us to give recognition to their increasing prominence and to their practices,” Bailey told the Observer. “In many quarters they are trying to gain legal recognition for their gender specifications, and so to speak out against those things in some other countries it would constitute hate speech. With their increasing prevalence in Jamaica I am just tending to believe that this is where the Government is going — to protect the practices of the LGBT community,” Bailey said while taking pains to point out that the difficulty the Church has is with the practices of the community and not the individuals. “I want to say ‘practices of the LGBT community’ and not persons, because presently we have had them in Jamaica for the longest while and there is no phobia that sees us bashing them, beating them, ostracising them or anything. That which the Church is very vocal about is the practice of homosexuality and all the practices distinct to the LGBT community,” the JEA head noted. “Especially against the background of the ACP-EU agreement that we believe has elements in it that would cause us to acquiesce to their prominence in Jamaica, and their laws that they would like to pass in Jamaica, and the trends they would like to see established in Jamaica, I think this could very well be a derivative of the Church’s opposition to the ACP-EU agreement as the Church is clear that there are some aspects of it that we are not comfortable with, which is a contravention of our laws and our Christian culture,” he stated further. According to Bailey, it is believed that the financial standing of the community might have some influence on the Government’s change of heart. “We have gotten from reliable sources that there are elements of the political parties that are prone to accept donations from this community, and any time this becomes public we are going to speak out about it. So I have no doubt in my mind that this Government might be inclined to give consideration to the recognition of laws and statements that sympathise with the practices of the LGBTQ community. But the Church unequivocally and unconditionally will continue to speak out frankly, bluntly, in the strongest biblical language possible [and] with the quotations of verse and theology against the practice of homosexuality. Especially as we know that the savings law clause in Jamaica protects our buggery legislation, we will continue to speak out against it,” Bailey declared. The churchman is, in the meantime, adamant that no such move will catch the church community off guard. “There has to be dialogue. And when the dialogue comes we will participate very vociferously to ensure that nothing is done to give any level of prominence to that practice in Jamaica. The Church is against it, I am personally against it — and I speak as the bishop of the Holiness Christian Church, I speak as the president of the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance, I speak as the chairman of Jamaica CAUSE, and I can say on behalf of the Church widespread that the practice of homosexuality is unbiblical and so it will not get any sympathy from anyone,” he stated. In the meantime, senior pastor of Hope Gospel Assembly and one of the country’s foremost church leaders, Reverend Dr Peter Garth told the Observer that church leaders will be calling on the prime minister to explain his statement in detail. “We don’t believe in hate speech. There are some things that are right, and some things that are wrong, and if the Bible says some things are wrong, we will say that it is wrong. If that is regarded as hate speech then a lot of us will end up in prison,” Dr Garth told the Observer unflinchingly. “I am not really worried at this moment, but certainly we will seek audience with the prime minister to find out what he means by what he said, because I am sure that he will not

MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Coalition for Forests is continuing its call for participatory budgeting in the local forestry sector. The coalition, which is made up of 27 Jamaican NGOs, is headed by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), in partnership with the Caribbean Coastal Area Management (C-CAM) Foundation and the Jamaica Conservation Development Trust (JCDT). The alliance was formed two years ago and has received funding of €290,065 or over $41 million from the European Union for its forestry management project. Speaking to the Jamaica Observer recently, senior technical officer at CANARI Lehome Johnson said that the coalition is amplifying the voices of its members, who have called for a seat at the table. “When we talk about participatory budgeting, it’s simply having a say in our public financial management system, in the way the Government does and prepares the budget, while also trying to influence an increase in the amount of resources that are allocated for forest conservation and management across the island,” Johnson explained. While furthering his point, Johnson told the Observer that an increase in allocation would provide greater resources and benefits in the overall goal of forest conservation. Jamaica’s forest areas are home to several endemic trees, 31 species of birds, and 21 species of bats. “We recognise that if there is an increase in allocation for forest management and conservation, then it is going to be beneficial for everybody, because Jamaica’s forests give what we call ecosystem services. They support life,” Johnson explained. “Our forests provide clean water and air. We are in an age where we are talking more about climate change, adaptation, and mitigation. Our forests help us in that regard because they help us to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and also to mitigate climate change by acting as sinks. It absorbs carbon from the environment,” the senior technical officer added. In addition to that, Johnson said that the alliance is seeking to develop and engage in strategic dialogue with key government agencies to foster partnerships “that extend from influencing budget allocation towards forest conservation and management to evaluation for accountability”. At the same time, Johnson said the involvement of NGOs in forest management and conservation supports the guiding principles under existing and proposed policies on forest conservation and management. He said that in the Cockpit Country alone, the voluntary contribution of the members of the coalition’s Local Forest Management Committees (LFMCs) and the Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency (STEA) was over $8.5 million in 2022. Johnson said that the sum exceeded funds given by the Government of Jamaica and other funders. He said that it further highlighted the work being done by local NGOs. “We also want to point out that there are a lot of Jamaican NGOs working in forest conservation and they are delivering a lot of results. We think that since they are delivering these results then they probably need to be included in the budgeting process, and have a say in the amount of resources that are allocated for forest conservation and management,” Johnson told the Observer. Johnson said that NGOs in the coalition are hoping to build additional partnerships with the Government as they strive for the same goal. However, additional aspects will look at building awareness for the work of the NGO and encouraging the best practices of the people who come into contact with the country’s forest areas. “We don’t want it to seem as though this is a competition for funding, but what we are saying is that civil society organisations can be seen as partners. There is funding available privately, and if the Government partners with these organisations then we will be able to unlock that funding,” said Johnson. “The aim is to highlight the work that non-governmental organisations and other civil society groups are doing concerning forest conservation and management across the island. While also improving the engagement and awareness of our citizens in terms of forest decision-making, especially as it relates to the availability of funding for forest conservation and management activities,” Johnson told the Observer. The next phase of the project involves the implementation of workshops, and meeting with government representatives, said the senior technical officer. “The coalition’s efforts represent a pivotal step toward sustainable forest management in Jamaica. By empowering CSOs to actively participate in budgeting and financial planning, the potential for positive change in forest conservation and community well-being is substantial,” he pointed out.

PRIME Minister Andrew Holness on Friday met with five Grade 6 students from rural Jamaica who had written to him highlighting concerns about a number of issues affecting Jamaica, and commended them for showing interest in the country’s development. “I think it’s a very good initiative that from a young age you participate in the democracy of the country,” Holness told the students — Natanyah Walters, Eashan Edwards, Tajaire Gayle, Arianna Boothe, and Jenell Campbell, all 11 years old — at a meeting in his office, a day after he had returned from a business trip to the United States. “There are many countries around the world where citizens are not able to tell the Government how they feel. This is not the case in Jamaica… from an early age we encourage our young people to be vocal about how they feel about their country and the issues they face, and historically… governments pay attention and listen. So the invitation here today is to exemplify this, to show Jamaica that the Government listens, the Government pays attention, and that your voice matters,” he said. Holness had invited the students from Snowdon Primary and Infant School in Manchester to Jamaica House after the Jamaica Observer last Sunday reported that they had written individual letters to him drawing attention to irresponsible practices among some Jamaicans of lighting fires, beach pollution, blocked drains, overfishing as it relates to parrotfish, and creating a dust from highway construction. The students had actually intended to send the letters directly to Holness but chose instead to send them to the Observer, knowing that he would see them when they were published. “When the PM read the letters in the Observer last Sunday he was moved and immediately directed that he meet with them. He left the the island for a working visit to the US Monday morning, returned Thursday night, and this was his first meeting back in office on Friday morning,” Press Secretary Naomi Francis told the Sunday Observer on Saturday. “The students and teachers were literally overjoyed. They sat with Prime Minister Holness and outlined the environmental issues as they saw it and were very vocal in giving their recommendations for solutions. They were grateful and fully utilised the opportunity to meet with the head of government for their chance to impact change,” Francis added.‎ During the meeting, which was attended by the school’s Principal Denise Campbell-Brown and the students’ teacher Kristen Chedda, the five children reiterated their concerns and offered solutions to the problems. Holness, in response, commended them for not only highlighting the issues but offering answers. In relation to Arianna Boothe’s concern about overfishing, particularly as it relates to the danger to coral reef by catching parrotfish, Holness said he agreed with her and stated that a part of the solution to many of the problems we face, whether it is global warming, garbage disposal or pollution “really comes down to how we behave as citizens… What are we willing to forego in order to protect a global good?” He said the process of public education is working but acknowledged that it may not be “fast enough”. “But there is hope that you, a very young child, would have seen this as something important enough to raise with the highest level of leadership in the land, and that is how we have to change Jamaica. We have to get people to change themselves because it is easier to get people to comply than to enforce,” he said, and encouraged the student to “make an appeal to our fishermen, and to our consumers to change how they consume fish”. Jenell Campbell’s focus on dust from highway, and other road construction, affecting people with asthma got special attention from Holness who told the students that he is asthmatic. “When I was growing up I suffered from very serious asthma attacks so I totally appreciate the discomfort and the public health crisis that our lack of control of air pollutants is causing,” he said. “So again, let me say that the approach that you have taken is very good — and in this instance Government has to take full responsibility. It is the duty of Government to ensure that it puts in place all the protective measures for the citizens when these roadworks are taking place, and I must confess that we have not done a very good job of it,” he said. He acknowledged her suggestion to sprinkle the roads during construction, pointing out that while it is being done the authorities “will strive to do better” — even as they recognise that it is “almost impossible to 100 per cent control the dust emissions from these roadworks” as they are being done on existing infrastructure. Eashan Edwards’ point that too many people are polluting the island’s beaches and that this can lead to marine pollution as well was hailed by the prime minister as “a very enlightened position”. Responding to her suggestion to erect anti-littering signs on beaches and impose a “small” fine for people found guilty of littering, Holness said while enforcement would have some impact, behavioural change would generate greater results. “How do we get [people] to have a deeper appreciation of the environment… because travel waste is a major thing in Jamaica. You drive along the roads and you see it littered with plastic, and people are just walking past it and it doesn’t offend them. It’s as if it means nothing to them that their environment is polluted,” the prime minister said. He suggested that every Jamaican citizen should become an environmental warden and regard pollution “as a disrespect to them, to the point where they would turn to their friends and say, ‘Don’t do that.’ “I see that in you, that it is something that bothers you, and that you will become an advocate in your class and with your friends to create a new Jamaican who is not waiting on the Government or depending on tougher

MONTEGO BAY, St James — As Jamaica grapples with the death of five-month-old Destiny Brown, allegedly at the hands of her mother, psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj believes that major intervention is needed in anger management and conflict resolution across the island. “The entire nation is impacted by… just the very nature of the reported incident, but for me, it is telling us there are two things that are severely and sadly missing in terms of the Jamaican psychological space. We need a lot more training and instructions on anger management and conflict resolution,” Dr Semaj told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday. Destiny was allegedly thrown from the roof of a two-storey dwelling in Barrett Hall, St James, by her 28-year-old mother. The baby died on Thursday at Cornwall Regional Hospital where she was receiving medical treatment for the injuries sustained during the fall. The mother of the child has been admitted to a hospital in western Jamaica, as she also allegedly attempted suicide by leaping from the building and ingesting bleach. The incidents were reportedly stemming from a domestic dispute between the woman and her partner, 41-year-old Dweight Brown. Dr Semaj pointed out that with Jamaica’s steady reports of violence stemming from disputes of various natures, there is evidence that more needs to be done to tackle an obvious lack of understanding of how disagreements are to be handled. The psychologist also told the Sunday Observer that a lack of anger management and conflict resolution skills can be observed across the island. “If we can look at how many incidents, including this one, that were triggered by our anger management problem and not adequately knowing how to resolve a conflic, we can see that at every level, people are not getting help and understanding how to diffuse anger and so many things that we do in anger, 99 per cent of the time, we regret it. So those are the two areas that jumped out at me. The nation is not handling those two areas with any amount of effectiveness,” Dr Semaj stressed. “So many of these domestic partner disputes, community disputes, family disputes, stranger disputes, and road rage disputes all come down to those two things — [lack] of anger management and conflict resolution skills,” he added. Bringing focus to the psychological impacts that the incidents have on Jamaicans, Dr Semaj challenged the media to play its part in bringing information depicting proper anger management and conflict resolution skills to its audiences. He told the Sunday Observer that agencies and community groups should also step forward to bring across the necessary intervention. “The media probably has nothing to help diffuse things. If the media could help people to work [on] anger management and conflict resolution that would be beneficial. Schools could also help people to work on anger management and conflict resolution,” Dr Semaj suggested. “So if we could just really take some time to focus on those two areas. It’s incredible the impact at the personal, interpersonal, and community level with the wanton level of violence in our society,” the psychologist added. The tragic incident was allegedly witnessed by the woman’s eight-year-old daughter who alerted her stepfather. He explained that the mother also attempted to get a hold of the young girl before her alleged suicide attempts. Questioned on how the family may move forward from the incident, Dr Semaj told the Sunday Observer that they will not be able to process the trauma alone. “Moving on will largely be a result of the intervention and the resources that are provided, because it is very hard when you are in the middle of pain and grief. Not many people can adequately process it, so it is important that [support] is given whether it be by the Church or the State, social workers, and community members,” Dr Semaj explained. The Jamaican people, too, will need help to process the incident, he argued. “Everyone who read about it experienced some negative emotions as a result of this incident. Everyone, starting with those who are directly involved, the family and the community, there is pain and there is grief and there is also fear that this can happen again. It could have happened to me and so people are a lot more fearful,” Dr Semaj said.

YOUTH leaders representing the Commonwealth’s 56 countries have urged leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai to move beyond speeches and deliver concrete action to safeguard the planet. Their call is at the heart of a new report launched on Friday during an intergenerational dialogue organised by the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network (CYCN) and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The report outlines the climate concerns of young people in the Commonwealth and proposes specific actions for governments to engage them in decision-making, underlining that the “hope of tackling climate change lies with youth”. During the dialogue, youth leaders expressed disappointment at the lack of action taken by countries in response to a wealth of recommendations they had presented at COP26 in Glasgow. As countries negotiate the outcomes of COP28, they called on governments to focus on creating conditions that allow young people to share their experiences on climate risks, showcase their work and influence policymaking. Opening the dialogue, the Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland, KC, described young people, who make up 60 per cent of the Commonwealth’s population, as “humanity’s greatest asset”. “Young people are among those facing the harshest consequences of the climate crisis. Despite this, they embody the spirit of hope, using their ingenuity and passion to deliver tangible climate solutions. “It is our duty to engage and listen to young people on policies and practices shaping climate mitigation and adaptation efforts across all levels,” said Scotland. “The report’s recommendations offer countries a blueprint to engage young people as strategic partners in climate action for their future — a future that relies on the health of our planet,” added Scotland. Jamaican Chevaughn Brown, who is the membership lead of the CYCN, said the report gave young people a voice in shaping their future. He added: “A common future can be achieved if we treat the future as the present. With decisive planning and making the right choices, climate change can be just stories of what could have been a distant past.” The dialogue was designed to provide young people with a platform to engage with leaders, including the Commonwealth secretary general, on climate risks and support structures for youth-led climate action, innovation, and ocean conservation.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — “Mommy killed my little baby sister” were the heartbreaking words that alerted 41-year-old Dweight Brown to the tragedy unfolding at his Barrett Hall residence on Wednesday evening. Brown’s five-month-old infant Destiny was allegedly thrown from the roof of his two-storey dwelling by her 28-year-old mother. The baby died on Thursday at Cornwall Regional Hospital where she was receiving medical treatment for the injuries sustained during the fall. Brown, a truck driver and tour operator in St James, told the Jamaica Observer that the tragic incident stemmed from a dispute between his mother and his partner. According to the businessman, the women had a disagreement while he was away in Portland for work. He told the Observer that this dispute also opened the floodgates for another argument between him and the accused woman; however, this time it was about infidelity. “So she a say how mi have woman here and mi gone wid woman. Honest to God, mi never gone wid no woman. The time is slow and mi drive a truck, so mi glad fi the likkle work,” said Brown on Friday. “Mi come home now and she start antagonise me. Mi say, ‘Babes, I really don’t want to talk about this now. I am tired.’ So mi lie down in the bed,” the man added. This was when the unfortunate situation unfolded. The woman allegedly exited the room and took the infant to the roof of the house where she threw her off. Her actions were reportedly witnessed by Brown’s eight-year-old stepdaughter who alerted both him and his mother. The child’s frightened screams were heightened as her mother reportedly tried to also get hold of her, Brown said. Equally surprised and confused, Brown said he ran outside to pick up baby Destiny and while looking back at the house, he saw the mother of his child preparing to leap from the building. “So mi go out there and see the mucus a come through the baby’s nose and mouth. By the time…mi look up, mi see she and mi say, ‘Why you haffi do this?’ And she say, ‘You nuh lef?’ So mi say, ‘how [mi] lef and you still here?’ Mi say, ‘Babes, I love you’ because at this point she wah jump off now. So I said to her, ‘Babes, don’t jump. I love you. Don’t do this, yow’,” Brown recounted of the devastating day. He said that the woman jumped from the building and landed on a scaffolding. In his attempt to help the mother of his child, Brown told reporters that he placed the baby back on the ground and caught her during her fall. However, Brown said that this was not the end of her attempt to take her life. He said that the woman’s eight-year-old daughter had become hysterical and tried to run for cover. Brown believed that the woman would have tried to harm the child so he called for additional help. “Mi put down the baby and start calling for help because mi nuh want she kill the eight-year-old,” he said. “I was so weak. I alone couldn’t deal with her because it’s [like] she had some force with her,” Brown added. The man reported that his distressed partner also drank bleach in her attempts to take her life and when he removed the bottle with the substance from her person, the woman allegedly tried to use a knife to inflict wounds to her torso. “I don’t know if she got any stabs but she jammed herself. Then she took the knife to try cut her neck and mi start bawl out,” Brown told the Observer. As he stood reflecting on Wednesday’s incidents, Brown said that he still remains in a state of disbelief. The father of four said that he believes his partner’s actions were done out of spite as he adored baby Destiny. “I cya sleep. I cya come to the terms that a mother would really do this to their flesh and blood,” said the man as he fought back tears. He continued: “It keeps rehearsing in my head, what could I have done to save this baby? Mi a try go back in the memories to see what I could have done to save this child. I don’t even have a place here. That’s how I feel. My baby normally sleeps beside me every night.” When asked if there were signs of trouble before this incident, Brown said that their relationship was fairly new. He explained that he met the woman, who would become the mother of his child, a little over a year ago. “I don’t know the history of her. It is just one year since I was talking to her. I met her at the gas station and I rented a place for her, [but] she never go there and stay,” he said. Brown said that, as a couple, they learned they were expecting a child early in the relationship, so he stepped up to offer her all the support that he could. “It’s not like I was not playing a fatherly figure or [giving] support. She had everything that she desired. It is not like she a go hungry; I am a businessperson. I gave her support in every form,” he said. As he grapples with the reality of the death of his child at the hands of his partner, Brown said that the woman’s eight-year-old daughter is also struggling to understand what took place on Wednesday afternoon. “I think she has to have some serious intervention – some counselling – to go over that and…it is going to be a long-term thing because it is terrible,” said Brown.

IT now appears that security concerns — including the increasingly fractious dispute between Guyana and Venezuela — were at the top of the agenda during Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s just concluded visit to the United States. Holness, who left the island on Monday, did not give any indication of the purpose for his “working visit” before he departed, but addressing the monthly discussion forum ‘Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks’, in Washington, DC on Wednesday, he left no doubt that his trip had a key security component. “There are many threats emerging in the region so it is important that Jamaica makes our position known and we used our offices to communicate what those threats are, but more importantly, to reaffirm the partnership [with the US],” said Holness. He pointed out that the Jamaican delegation held talks with key American security officials including Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Attorney General Merrick Garland and critical committees of the US Congress. According to Holness, the trip was part of Jamaica’s strategic mission to ensure that the country remains “front of mind” in foreign policy for the US which is a critical partner of the Government. “It is all about the peace mission and the productivity mission,” added Holness as he pointed out that the US is a key partner with the Jamaican Government in its “Plan Secure Jamaica”, which covers all elements of making Jamaica a safe place. The prime minister also indicated that he will be attending a meeting of Caricom Heads of Government today to discuss the Guyana-Venezuela dispute over the Essequibo region. Holness said his Administration firmly believes in the principles of sovereignty and the territorial integrity of countries. “We could never support any country that violates the territorial integrity of another; that’s in our national interest as a small island developing state. So, whenever that happens, we speak out strongly against that. “We believe in the sovereignty of a country and non-intervention in the…internal affairs of a country. Jamaica’s voice has been consistent and loud in this regard and respected internationally,” said Holness. He pointed out that Jamaica continues to build capacity to be a strong partner in ensuring peace in the Caribbean. In the meantime, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith told the forum that the Government welcomes the unanimous ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Venezuela should refrain from taking any action which would modify the situation that currently prevails in the disputed territory. According to Johnson Smith, the court’s order strongly supports the position of Guyana, which is shared by Jamaica, that the Government of Venezuela should refrain from any action which would seize, acquire or encroach upon, or assert or exercise sovereignty over the Essequibo region or any other part of Guyana’s national territory. “Jamaica stands in support of that position and continues to hope for a peaceful resolution of the issue within international law and as determined by the ICJ. The matter was sent to the ICJ by the United Nations (UN) years ago. “Venezuela has not acknowledged the jurisdiction of the ICJ in that matter, but they have been present and we continue to hope that calmer heads will prevail and that the circumstances, which do seem to be becoming more tense and more frictional, that they can be solved,” said Johnson Smith. She noted that the matter is to go before the UN Security Council today when Caricom heads will also be meeting to discuss the issue. The Security Council will meet in a closed session. “We will hear from [Guyana’s] President [Irfaan] Ali at that time and also hear what would have come of the UN Security Council meeting,” added Johnson Smith. The US on Thursday announced joint military flight drills in Guyana in what is seen as the latest sign that Washington is alarmed at the threat from the Venezuelan Government. “In collaboration with the Guyana Defence Force, the US Southern Command will conduct flight operations within Guyana on December 7,” the American embassy in Georgetown said in a statement. It said the flights are part of “routine engagement and operations to enhance security partnership”, with Guyana.

THE theft of five laptop computers from the Hope Road, St Andrew, offices of the embattled Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) early Thursday morning will not impact the Financial Investigations Division’s (FID) probe into a more than US$30-million fraud at the financial entity. Chief technical director of FID Selvin Haye was to quick to rubbish speculation, mainly on social media, that the break-in at the company would stymie the long-running probe. “It won’t,” Haye said, then declined to say anything more and directed the Jamaica Observer to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which is now in charge of operations at SSL. “The FSC has control of SSL through a temporary manager. Questions should be directed to the FSC. The FID should not be questioned at this time,” declared Haye. But when the Observer contacted Keron Burrell, the executive director of the FSC, he said he had “no comments at this time”. The break-in occurred hours after the FID, in a media release, said it had submitted a new file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to determine if additional charges are to be laid as its probe has uncovered that more than 200 account holders have been fleeced of more than US$30 million, or close to $5 billion. The FID said in a statement on Wednesday that continuous investigations have revealed that the figure had jumped past US$30 million from the initial US$12 million which was reported. The number of clients scammed has also climbed from roughly 30 to more than 200 and counting. Meanwhile, Opposition spokesman on finance Julian Robinson expressed shock at the theft of the computers. Robinson said the development raises critical questions about the integrity of the ongoing investigation and added that the Opposition was deeply troubled by the security breach at SSL which, he claimed, poses a significant risk of compromising crucial information vital to the investigation. “It is unacceptable that potential evidence, stored within these laptops, might be tampered with or destroyed, hindering the pursuit of justice. Just Wednesday, the Financial Investigations Division disclosed that the scale of the fraud under scrutiny was even more extensive than initially believed. Therefore, the revelation of this theft is profoundly unsettling,” said Robinson. “The PNP is insisting on a comprehensive and high-level inquiry into this matter, given the strong indication that these actions are aimed at obstructing justice and obliterating evidence,” he said in a press release. The People’s National Party, said Robinson, wants the FID to urgently implement robust security measures to safeguard all assets and information related to the SSL case. “This incident underscores the urgency for heightened vigilance and reinforced protections to prevent any further compromise of the investigations. We implore the Jamaica Constabulary Force to do more to ensure the preservation of the investigation’s integrity. Taxpayers’ resources have been extensively invested in untangling the complexities of the SSL situation, and any compromise resulting from negligence or deliberate actions would be an egregious disservice to the public.” But as word spread about the break-in at the SSL offices, cybersecurity consultant Trevor Forrest gave the benefit of the doubt to the people in charge of investigating the matter, saying that he hoped they properly backed up all the data relevant to the case, which, he said, was stored on the computer devices at SSL. “I doubt the people going in and stealing the devices would prevent investigators from carrying out the investigations as they need to. If it happened before the FID went in or anybody else went in, then we would have some cause for concern. What I believe investigators would have done is make a copy of all hard drives as part of evidence gathering,” Forrest said. “So, even if people steal the devices, the data would still be in the custody of the investigators. That would be the standard operating procedure to mitigate instances like this. There is a process they have to go through when collecting data to make sure that what they would present in any court case is not tampered with, assuming they followed investigatory practices for this kind of thing, which I am pretty sure they did,” Forrest said. In the meantime, Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay, head of the police Corporate Communications Unit, confirmed that there was a report of a break-in at SSL but refused to confirm reports that the stolen computers include one that was being used by the company’s chief financial officer. So far, only one person, Jean-Ann Panton, a former wealth advisor, has been arrested and charged in relation to the major fraud case. She was indicted on three counts of larceny as a servant, five counts of forgery, five counts of uttering forged documents, three counts of falsification of accounts, 13 counts of engaging in a transaction involving criminal property and three counts of breaching the Cybercrimes Act. When Panton appeared via a video link in the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning for a plea and case management hearing, she was ordered remanded until May 27, 2024, to give her attorney-at-law Sylvester Hemmings time to finish reading close to 1,000 pages of case files.

PAC Kingston Airport Limited (PACKAL) — operators of the Norman Manley International Airport — in responding to jitters amongst commercial aviation operators about plans to shutter the Tinson Pen aerodrome at Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston and relocate it to the airport, says consultation and data will guide its input. “We agree that several issues need to be included in this very, very important assessment of the suitability to relocate the operations of Tinson Pen to Norman Manley, many different things need to be taken into consideration,” chief executive officer of PACKAL Fernando Vistrain Lorence told individuals at a recent forum put on by PACKAL. The plan to remove the aerodrome is aimed at facilitating further expansion of the Kingston port and has been on the table from as far back as 2006. Prime Minister Holness during the budget debates in April this year directed the Port Authority of Jamaica, the Airports Authority of Jamaica, and the National Works Agency to develop a comprehensive plan to facilitate the takeover of the Tinson Pen lands for more storage space and reduce congestion at the terminal. Speaking at the forum Lorence said, “Mixing cargo operations with general aviation or commercial operations with general aviation, this is very important, we know it. Currently we are doing an assessment with a company from Spain, they are doing an analysis with the land we have available, we are doing that part.” The Airport CEO, who said a first draft of that study will be presented this month, said that internal assessment is a first step. “We will check if we have capacity for hangars or if we don’t have capacity at all. We are doing our part and we will provide the information or the results of this assessment to the Airports Authority of Jamaica and they will advise us on what will happen. We will be guided by the Airports Authority of Jamaica,” Lorence stated. He was responding to concerns over the proposed move by general aviation stakeholder Christopher Reid who said discussions for the relocation were being done “without the input of the industry”. “I am one that was unceremoniously removed from Norman Manley nearly 50 years ago and placed at Tinson Pen under protest…I am here today to tell you 50 years later that the improvement in aircraft maintenance as it relates to corrosion was a huge step forward moving to Tinson Pen. Obviously a lot has happened in terms of our highway access, the traffic consideration, much has changed at Tinson Pen and I only caution us about removing it without adequate discussion with the stakeholders as it relates to the proximity of the airport to the end-users and its usefulness,” Reid a former president of the Aircraft Owners and Operators Pilots Association said. According to Reid, who also runs Airpak Express from Tinson Pen, the conditions which were cited as the reason for the initial removal of the aerodrome to the current location. “One of the prime reasons we were relocated from Norman Manley was the fact of separation of traffic. Aircraft travelling as well as passenger travel. One of the justifying reasons is that there was not enough land space at Norman Manley to safely accommodate both general aviation and airlines particularly in the context of flying schools where you have low qualification pilots intermingling with airline traffic and the potential disaster and that was accepted as a bonafide reason for moving us to Tinson Pen,” Reid pointed out. “I don’t know that there is any more land space today at Norman Manley than there was in 1973 when we were moved. In fact, the forecasts say we will have less land space as global warming continues its trend and our coastal areas are submerged. So I don’t know what has changed and why Tinson Pen should now be moved back to Norman Manley because today, separation of traffic for security reasons is now more of a concern than it was in 1973,” Reid persisted. “We have infinitely more concerns about the types of passengers being intermingled between the two, particularly in the absence of a physical separation as they have in most international airports for general aviation where the general aviation traffic is on the other side of the airport completely and connects only by a perimeter type arrangement; there is no direct access from general aviation to the main terminal,” he said. “So I only caution that all of the considerations for any such relocation are taken into consideration and that we don’t make a retrograde step and cause ourselves to be the subject of some investigation and hopefully not an accident down the road,” he added. Tinson Pen was originally built in the 1940s as a military airfield and was later converted into a civilian airport in the 1960s. The airport provides general aviation services, such as charter flights, air ambulance services, and cargo operations.

THE Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is challenging a research paper about the situation within the island’s prisons presented by human rights organisation Stand up f or Jamaica (SUFJ) on Wednesday, which highlighted several barriers to justice for inmates. At the launch of the paper, entitled ‘Justice for All’, held at The University of the West Indies (UWI) Regional Headquarters in St Andrew, Mona, director of medical services at the DCS Dr Donna Royer Powe ripped into the paper, arguing that it did not present an accurate picture of the situation within penal institutions. “I’m very, very passionate. I’ve been there 18 years and a lot of people there do a lot of hard work, and I don’t like to see things that don’t totally represent us and the reality on the ground,” she said. Dr Royer Powe was first out of the blocks in challenging the data after it was presented by researcher Jennifer Jones. Dr Royer Powe took task with the fact that only six people were interviewed for the study. “I don’t think it is fair to the department or to the other 3,000 and something inmates to use this as their voice. Six former inmates represent less than one per cent of the inmate population, so that is not a true reflection of what might be happening,” she said. She also questioned the fact that no time span was given in terms of when these ex-inmates were actually incarcerated and when the interviews were done. “You are presenting these ‘facts’ in 2023. I have been with the department for 18 years. So some of these things, I don’t know if they happened 20 years ago or 10 years ago but they’re not the current situation,” she argued. The paper, which was launched with the support of the European Union, looked in some detail at the experiences of six former inmates — four males aged between 30 to early 50s, and two females, aged 43 and 48. They were selected by SUFJ for their ability to articulate their thoughts and experiences and as inmates involved in the skills training programmes run and funded by SUFJ. In addition, two prominent and experienced human rights lawyers were interviewed. The researcher said an attempt was made to interview the director of corrections or a senior representative “but unfortunately this was not possible”. The study pointed out that there are several barriers to accessing justice in Jamaica. These include socio-economic disparities, a strained legal structure, economic obstacles, high legal costs, limited legal aid services and shortage of legal professionals. The researcher said that for persons in rural areas, the geographic distribution of legal resources also poses difficulties for those individuals. Additionally, the researcher said there is a need for ongoing efforts to enhance legal literacy and awareness among the custodial population, empowering them to navigate the legal system effectively. Further, Dr Royer Powe drilled into a specific area of the study which focused on prisoners who have no attorney including the late 81-year-old Noel Chambers who died in 2020 after spending 40 years in prison awaiting trial for murder. According to an Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) report, Chambers was initially deemed unfit to plead. He was eventually declared fit to plead, but the case never made it back to court. She pointed out that after Chambers’ death, measures have been put in place to address the issue of mentally ill people who are unfit to plead, including the building of an infirmary in 2021. “So we have tried to correct things that were highlighted. We knew we had some shortfalls and an infirmary was retrofitted where we have hospital beds, we have now employed psychiatric nursing aides, psychiatric aides, nursing aides on a 24-hour basis. So we’ve employed about 12 persons who are put on 24-hour shifts, three of them on at a time to provide nursing care for inmates, which we never had before,” she said. Further, in terms of inmates who are kept in the department, who are on the court’s pleasure, Dr Royer Powe said it is something she has been trying to address for the past 18 years she has been at the department. “The Department of Correctional Services cannot take an inmate to court. Whether we know they’re there 50 years and their case has just come up, we cannot just take them to the court. You must have a date…it is not our problem. It’s a problem in Jamaica in terms of the legal system, and how it is connected,” she said. “So something is missing in the connection because we do the fitness to plead for the inmates. But even if they’re fit to plead, the psychiatrist can’t walk with them to court because which court is waiting or expecting them and you mentioned if they do not have a lawyer to advocate for them, there’s no way they’re going to court. So this thing of persons being lost…we can never lose anybody, every day a roster is done. We know exactly that we have 1,700 inmates at Tower Street and if one is missing, nobody is going home, we have to stay and check until we find that one inmate, so we’ve never lost anybody,” she said. She further noted that in addressing the mental health situation in penal institutions, in 2020, the DCS got approval for 11 psychiatrists. “We currently have four full time and three sessional. It’s not because of lack of advertising, but UWI is not producing the number of psychiatrists we need and then when we get them we don’t have the space. So we have a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a doctor fighting for the one office in an institution. So they have to be rotating. We actually have a full-time gynaecologist as well,” she said. In response, executive director for SUFJ Carla Gullotta said the interviews were done in the last six months “so they are not old”, arguing that the DCS should not be on

Attorney Isat Buchanan’s foul-mouthed comments aimed at Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn and Justice Minister Delroy Chuck have resulted in him being suspended for two years, effective December 5, 2023. Additionally, he has been fined $500,000 by the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) which ordered that he pay costs in the amount of $20,000 to the GLC. The decision was handed down on Tuesday by the committee which described the language used by Buchanan in a YouTube programme as “offensive, profane, vulgar, foul, and obscene”. In the YouTube programme, called Pawdna Draw TV, Buchanan had quoted from a recording done by convicted killer Adidja Palmer, better known as Vybz Kartel, in which he instructs the DPP to commit a sexual act. Buchanan, who is representing Kartel in his appeal against his conviction before the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council, resigned as chairman of the People’s National Party’s Human Rights Commission in August after public outrage at his comments. The GLC said that at the commencement of the hearing before the Disciplinary Committee, Buchanan’s attorney, Valerie Neita-Robertson, KC, had indicated that her client would not be contesting the matter and was prepared to admit to the complaint laid by the complainant, Denise Kitson, KC, who is also chair of the GLC. Kitson described the language used by Buchanan as profane and his conduct as dishonourable and obscene. She said she had received several written and verbal communication from not only members of the legal profession but also concerned citizens who deplored Buchanan’s conduct. The GLC said that Buchanan, after being sworn, gave evidence that he was not contesting the complaint and specifically that he was not contesting that he had breached canons I (b) and VIII (b) of the profession. The GLC said the panel then indicated to Neita-Robertson that her client could give evidence as to sanction; she could make submissions or do both; call other evidence or come back on another occasion. However, Buchanan elected to proceed with a sanction hearing as he wanted the matter behind him. The GLC reported that Buchanan’s evidence in summary was that: a) The show is a live show on YouTube and there is a comments section where questions are asked, and he responds to the questions. He is a co-host of the show. b) On the day of the video, he was medicated. c) There are certain dates in his life that cause him to be under stress. d) The show that he was on caters to a certain demographic of Jamaicans, the majority of whom are uneducated people and if he is not animated and not using profanity he cannot bring the point home to these persons. e) He was quoting from a Vybz Kartel song and he did not know, before the complaint was lodged, that he ought not to quote offensive language. Buchanan also told the panel that he has no defence, he appreciated that what he said was distasteful, and he was disappointed in himself. Additionally, he said he has suffered personally as he resigned from the PNP, as well as his teaching position at The University of the West Indies, and was kicked out of his office because of this matter. He also said he was not a misogynist and wished for guidance from the panel. Neita-Robertson made submissions in which she indicated that her client was genuinely sorry, had already paid a price, and asked the panel not to suspend him as he has learnt his lesson. In outlining its decision, the GLC noted that on the YouTube programme Buchanan, in addition to suggesting that the DPP should perform an oral sexual act on a part of the male anatomy, had referred to Minister Chuck as a “constitutional paedophile”, using more profane language in his accusation. “We are in no doubt that the language used by the attorney in speaking of these matters and persons associated with law and the legal profession would have had a widespread damaging effect on public confidence in the profession and the legal system overall. His behaviour and language are not consistent with the standard of ethical behaviour which society expects from attorneys or which all of us as attorneys expect from each other,” the GLC said. The committee said it listened to the video recording of the programme “in horror”, as the language used by Buchanan was “offensive, profane, vulgar, foul, and obscene, and it does not detract from the vulgarity by contending that he was merely quoting from a song written by Vybz Kartel. The attorney clearly endorsed the sentiments expressed by Vybz Kartel as it relates to the DPP. He did not separate himself from it/refute it. Indeed, the attorney expressed admiration as he said in describing the song that ‘it is a poetic rendition that has Shakespearean marvel … it is a very poetic song’ and then he repeats the same foul, offensive language again with respect to the DPP, not once but thrice,” the panel noted. The panel also said that, although it invited Buchanan to offer evidence of his claim that he was medicated at the time of the broadcast, “he called no further evidence either as to character or otherwise”. It said it regarded the fact that Buchanan did not contest the matter and had apologised to Llewellyn as mitigating factors. However, in arriving at its decision it took into account the fact that he did not explain what form his attempts to apologise to Minister Chuck took. Additionally, the panel said that notwithstanding that Buchanan was found guilty of professional misconduct in October 2022 in a complaint involving Canon 1 (b) in relation to the DPP, not even a year later, he goes on a public programme and again disparages the same DPP. “Clearly, he learnt nothing from this first complaint. He did not, as one would have expected, temper his behaviour and become more meticulous with the required standards of the profession… In

SUPREME Court Judge Justice David Batts has come out swinging in defence of the freedom given to the Jamaican press in covering matters before the courts, warning that there should be a reluctance to “impose fetters on the media” given the importance public opinion plays in how the judiciary wields its power. In a recent address to the Jamaican Bar Association, Justice Batts, who made it clear that he was speaking independently, said while the relationship between the courts and the media has come a “long way” … “it is clear more needs to be done to sensitise judges and the media about the protocol as we give real meaning to the ideal of ‘open justice’ “. Said Justice Batts, “the media, whether public or private — meaning all methods of conveying information and/or commentary — is essential to the provision of information about our courts. This is useful in two respects. First is the inherent value in a democracy of public knowledge about public institutions and, in particular, the law and how it is administered. But secondly, it is an important mechanism whereby the unelected judiciary can be restrained from excesses”. “Inherent in a separation of power is a risk that the unrestrained exercise of power by the judiciary can itself become a source of tyranny; public opinion on the exercise of that power is an important safeguard. In a democracy, conveyance of information about the court and its decisions is therefore critical. We should, for this reason, be reluctant to impose fetters on the media,” the Supreme Court judge noted. Justice Batts, in noting further that “public observation of trials and the judicial process helps to ensure fairness, reduces mistrust, and encourages confidence” warned that “all this may be lost if trials are held in secret and without a jury or if restrictions are placed on reports about what has taken place in open court”. “Just as a properly funded and organised jury system acts as a bulwark against autocracy, so too does public observation and commentary on the work of the judiciary. Public observation and comment, in the modern world, is greatly facilitated by media reporting,” he noted further. In pointing to the comprehensive Media Protocol developed by the Court Administration Division which, among other things, issues detailed guidance to media practitioners who report on court proceedings and provides guidance on coverage while a trial is in progress, Justice Batts said the protocol, which serves to reinforce Jamaica’s proud record of open justice, “in part accounts for Jamaica’s positive rating for public confidence in our system of justice”. As such, the respected jurist said, “it is regrettable that our courts, in the name of security, have taken on the aura of fortresses”. “The police interrogation of all who enter, as to purpose of visit and name of case they are attending, is a disincentive to public attendance. I contrast it to visits I have made to courts in England at various levels where, although screened for weapons, I was asked no question about my identity or the purpose of my visit, or even if I was an attorney-at-law — that in a country which has had IRA and other terrorist experiences” Justice Batts argued. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) was established in 1919 to halt British rule in Northern Ireland. It fought for independence and a reunified republic, using bombs among its attacks on public figures and military targets. In 2005 the IRA formally announced an end to its armed campaign, saying that units have been ordered to dump arms. It also said in a statement that, “All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.” Noting that he has “long had concerns about the fact that the administration of justice appears to be isolating itself from public view and participation”, Justice Batts said “an open-door policy to the media is an important counterweight to that development”. Justice Batts, who said he had canvassed members of the media to hear their concerns ahead of his presentation, told his audience that practitioners had expressed, among other things, discontent with “the increasing practice by judges and the police of barring the media and the public from cases that are not in-camera, and the perception that journalists must ask the Court Administration Division permission to get into the simplest of cases, forcing practitioners to rely on second-hand information”. Other grouses included access to courts and documents and court orders, and judgments not being readily available to reporters when handed down or delivered. There were also concerns that media houses have failed to provide even the basic training for journalists who cover the courts, and that journalists do not take the time to understand the nuances of court reporting. Other peeves were that media houses have a limited capacity to assign dedicated reporters or teams to cover a single trial for one or two weeks, and that the court should issue summaries of judgments as is done at the Privy Council and the Caribbean Court of Justice.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Mario Morrison, who was convicted for the murder of 15-year-old Shineka Gray, was on bail for another murder, committed with a knife, at the time of her death in 2017. He was granted bail in October 2016, three months before the schoolgirl was killed. The other murder charge still hangs over his head as the case is still before the court. Those were some of the details that emerged on Monday as the murder trial for Morrison’s co-accused, Gregory Roberts, continued. Throughout the day, defence attorney Leroy Equiano sought to establish the role Morrison played in the teenager’s demise. Last week Morrison testified that he, at Roberts’s request, recorded Roberts stabbing Shineka to death. “…He passed the phone to me, saying, ‘Dog, video this for me,’…And I’m videoing now, he had the knife and started to stab her… She started crying and bawling, even saying, ‘Lord, this is what you going to do to your daughter?’ ” Morrison testified. On Monday, during cross-examination, Equiano asked Morrison, “Did you have a knife that night?” Morrison answered no. “Did you threaten the girl or give any orders?” the attorney asked; again Morrison replied, “No.” “Did you stab the girl?” the attorney pursued. “No, I did not stab her; the only thing I did was to hold the phone,” Morrison replied. “The only thing you admitted to was that you had sex with the girl and that you did not force her. Is that correct, sir?” the attorney asked Morrison, who replied in the affirmative. “Did you participate in any killing?” Equiano inquired once more, but Morrison flatly said no. When asked again if he had sex with the teenaged girl against her will, Morrison said no. By law he is guilty of murder because of his actions at the scene. The revelation that Morrison was on bail at the time of Shineka’s murder will no doubt fuel long-running concerns that individuals on murder or gun charges typically commit other offences while they are on bail. For the June 2022 opening of the Easter Term session of the Westmoreland Circuit Court, 17 of the individuals before the court were on bail for murder. They were among 32 people charged with serious offences that were committed while they were on bail, Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey told the Jamaica Observer at the time. Bailey had been providing data in a pushback against defence lawyers who took issue with the claim that a large number of individuals on bail were reoffending. The Government, pummelled by urgings to get a handle on crime, had also pointed to the need to tighten the legislation. However, Minister of Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte came in for criticism last June when she signalled changes to the Bail Act that would see individuals charged with murder and gun-related charges denied bail. An amended Bail Act was passed on July 25, 2023, four years after Gray’s death. The Green Pond High School student was found dead in bushes in Irwin, St James, with multiple stab wounds on February 1, 2017. Morrison pleaded guilty to her murder in September 2022 and was sentenced a month later to life imprisonment. Ten of 18 witnesses have already provided evidence in the ongoing Roberts trial. Eight witnesses gave sworn evidence, and two other witnesses’ statements were read into evidence. The trial continues Tuesday.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Chief Justice Bryan Sykes is denouncing some category of workers in western Jamaica, including middle management and beyond, who he accused of being reluctant to serve as jurors. Sykes, who was speaking at Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (MBCCI’s) Annual Awards Banquet at Montego Bay Convention Centre Saturday night, underscored that lower income earners are most willing to volunteer for jury duty. “In Montego Bay, in fact western Jamaica, you know one of the most intriguing things? When it comes to jury service you can’t find people from the hotel industry — and there are so many hotels from Trelawny. They can’t find people in the financial sector, they can’t find managers — whether junior or senior — to serve as jurors,” he said. “The only persons we find — and I’m not saying anything is wrong with them — but they turn up: fishermen, … domestic helpers, practical nurses, and so on. And so, the burden of jury service falls disproportionately on these persons,” he added. He explained that those who are reluctant to serve often submit letters from their employers. “So when the police happen to find someone from middle management, from the hotel, financial sector and other sectors to serve, you know what happens? A letter comes in to say, ‘Mr John Brown is desirous of serving and he takes his civic responsibility very seriously. However, our company is engaged’ in whatever the critical exercise is ‘and so he won’t be available’,” Sykes said. He noted that the period of unavailability often coincides with the entire duration of the Circuit Court. The chief justice stressed that there are implications for the justice system because “when we don’t have enough jurors it means that the cases can’t be tried”. “So now think of yourself as a rational criminal. Yes, you are here and you’re arrested and charged [but] you don’t know about the conviction rate, you don’t know about the delays in getting the forensic certificates, you don’t know that we have a jury problem. So if I am a criminal or you are a criminal, why would you be concerned about what the penalty is? That can’t be a concern of yours because the likelihood of the penalty being imposed on me is not very great,” Sykes argued. “And criminals, like everybody else, they do their risk analysis — moral suasion hasn’t stopped them,” he added. He told the gathering of business interests that offering to be available for jury is among the “things that we need to do to fix the question of crime, not just in Montego Bay but all over”. “Commerce relies on the predictability and reliability of a legal system, and it is the responsibility of the judiciary to operate in a manner that promotes economic growth and innovation. I and the judges and the employees within our court system are committed to ensuring that our legal system remains agile, transparent and responsive to the changing needs of the Jamaican society,” Sykes said. “Significant reforms are needed to the criminal justice system in Jamaica, and we have begun to work on them but we need the support of those who provide these vital certificates. I must emphasise that nothing that is done to create excellence can be done in isolation. It will take strong partnership between the legislature, the executive and the private sector to bring about the Jamaica that we want to see.” He added: “So the reform that is required will make our judiciary more efficient so that the next occasion when I hear from, whether the current president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce or another president, he will be able to say that among the problems that he has is not crime. That is why we need the reform. And so the bedrock of a stable and economically prosperous Jamaica, one of those is an effective and efficient legal system.” During Saturday night’s awards ceremony, which was held under the theme ‘Celebrating Business Excellence’, executive chairman of Caribbean Producers Jamaica Limited (CPJ) Mark Hart was inducted into Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s prestigious Business Leaders Wall of Fame. He followed in the footsteps of his late father, business titan Anthony “Tony” Hart, who was inducted into the wall of fame in 2015. Mark Hart, a luminary in the business sector, is renowned for his extraordinary accomplishments and steadfast commitment to the community. He exemplifies the qualities that define the MBCCI’s Business Leaders Wall of Fame — inspiring leadership, dedication to service, innovation, and professional achievements.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for St Catherine North Western, the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Hugh Graham, is on thin ice after missing more than 60 per cent of the sittings of the House of Representatives since the start of this year. Fellow Opposition MP Dr Peter Phillips, the former Opposition leader who represents St Andrew East Central, has missed approximately 80 per cent of the sittings of the House so far this year, but in his case the Parliament is aware that he is dealing with a medical issue which provides a valid excuse. Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) representative, the MP for Clarendon Central, Lester “Mike” Henry, has missed 57 per cent of the sittings from the start of the year, but he also has medical reasons for his absences. There is no such medical issue on the record at Gordon House for Graham, who could face sanctions. According to official attendance records from Parliament seen by the Jamaica Observer, Graham, the first-term MP who has indicated that he will not be seeking re-election, was absent from 39 of the 61 sittings (54 per cent) between January 10 and November 8. Graham submitted apologies for his absence on just two occasions and was missing from six consecutive sittings, which could be grounds for him to be booted from Parliament before the scheduled end of his term in 2025. On the motion for adjournment during the sitting of the House last Wednesday, Speaker Juliet Holness reiterated her stance on imposing the rules surrounding the attendance of MPs. “There is, in fact, one member who has been absent for 80 per cent of the sittings of the House, approximately 80 per cent with and without excuse, and having been written to outside of the required time for attendance,” Holness said without naming the MP or the period she was referencing. “If you have missed six consecutive sittings within a period of 21 days the Standing Orders require that you must give the Speaker a valid reason for your absence within 15 days. However, in the Speaker exercising leniency, a member who is absent more than 70 per cent of the time without giving any excuse to the Speaker makes it a challenge for the Speaker to be lenient,” said Holness as she declared that this was not a member from the Government side of the benches. “And that is why I am ensuring that I am extremely lenient; however, this stands now as [a] warning. Anyone who runs afoul of the Standing Orders in respect of attendance — whether it be from the Opposition or Government side — will be held firmly liable in keeping with the Standing Orders, and there will be no leniency accorded to that member,” added Holness. That was the second time in recent weeks that the recently elected Speaker warned MPs about the absence from sittings of the House. At the start of the sitting on November 8, Holness noted: “There are some individuals who, for whatever reason, are absent from the House for an extended time. Please be advised that we will be checking the records so that the individual or individuals…having been absent from the Parliament over and above what is in keeping with our Standing Orders will appreciate, you will be read out of the Parliament,” she said at the time. The Observer’s check of the attendance record of the House showed that between January and February Graham was absent for six of the 10 sittings. It was a similar story for April and May, where he missed 11 of the 23 sittings while submitting apologies for only two of his absences. Graham was absent for all four sittings in April and missed seven of the nine sittings in May, though not consecutively. In May, he showed up for the first sitting on the 2nd, then was absent for the next two before showing up for the fourth. He was absent for the rest of the month. The businessman-turned-MP was then missing for seven of the 10 sittings between June and July and missed both sittings of the House in September. Graham was also absent for all seven sittings of the House in October with no apologies. He was missing for the first three sittings of the House in November up to the 8th, which is the last attendance record provided to the Observer. Phillips missed 49 of the 61 sittings, while Henry missed 35. The JLP’s Karl Samuda was absent 18 times with five apologies while his party colleague Audley Shaw missed 17 sittings, twice because he was on official business and twice because of illness. Prime minister and MP for St Andrew West Central Andrew Holness missed 26 sittings, with five apologies; while Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding was absent for 10 sittings with four apologies. MPs for St Catherine South Eastern Robert Miller and St Andrew North East Delroy Chuck had perfect attendance records, while Manchester Southern MP Robert Chin was absent from only one sitting, and Westmoreland Eastern Daniel Lawrence missed three. All four sit on the Government benches in the House. Former speaker of the House, and former MP for Trelawny Southern Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert had an almost perfect attendance record, missing only five sittings, all with apologies until she resigned on September 21, 2023, while Kingston Central MP Donovan Williams, who missed only four of the 61 sittings, has a 94 per cent attendance record. Parliament’s Standing Orders state that any member who is prevented from attending a meeting of the House should notify the Speaker in writing as early as possible of his/her inability to attend. It further states that if any member is absent from any one session of the House for more than six consecutive sittings, without the written leave of the Speaker, and such absences occur during a period not exceeding 21 days, that member vacates his/her seat in the House under Section 41 of the Jamaica (Constitution) Order in Council, 1962.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Seventy per cent of people surveyed across almost 50 communities in Montego Bay said the St James police are ineffective and not trustworthy. Respondents also called for cops to be sent to another parish, after a year in the western resort city. The study was conducted by researches at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC), in partnership with Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI). The results were revealed last Friday during a crime summit hosted by the chamber. “One of the key highlights is that of trust; trust of the police is a really big issue. And I say trust, but from the survey and from the business community it really talks about a lack of trust in the police force,” Assistant Professor Dr Cecile Dennis said during an MBCCI President’s Forum put on at The University of the West Indies Western Jamaica Chaper’s (WJC) lecture theatre in Montego Bay. “Perceptions of the police: [For the survey question] ‘On a scale of one to five (one being the lowest and five being the highest), how much would you say you trust the police?’ And only 20 per cent said that they trusted the police. That is significant,” added Dr Dennis. She revealed that among the recommendations from those who participated in the survey was the annual transfer of police stationed in St James. “When you look at the recommendations, they are emotionally charged, they’re really charged. For example, we have seen the recommendation that the police personnel assigned to the Montego Bay area should not be in this area for longer than a year at a time — so residents are saying they need to be rotated frequently,” she said. “Some residents talk about building trust, training and retraining the police to interact with persons — [and] not just to interact but to understand the role of confidentiality in protecting the citizens when they do provide information to the police,” she added. Dr Dennis further noted that the majority of responders felt that when the police patrolled their community there was greater control over crime, “and when the police patrol the commercial district there was a more positive impact”. “Seventy per cent of the respondents rate the police response to crime as not effective at all. However, patrols were viewed as more effective than the zone of special operations strategy,” Dr Dennis said. She noted, however, that community members felt that the police were under-resourced. “Persons in the community were also sympathetic towards the police force; they identified that they were lacking in significant resources. Individuals felt that [way] when they reported, for example, that they did not believe that the state of emergency or the zone of special operations were effective,” she revealed. Dr Dennis said the study was conducted online over a four-week period. “Our participants came from 43 communities across the Montego Bay area, which is a good spread, and those communities range from what we’ll probably call lower-, to middle-, to upper-income communit[ies]. From the business community we got really rich data because those were interviews and we had, I believe, business persons from about six sectors. So we got perspectives, for example, from the transportation sector, security sector, we got from the education sector, we had persons in business retail finance and entertainment,” she said. The forum was held under the theme: ‘Understanding crime in St James — exploring the root causes and social intervention strategies’.

Three months after voicing displeasure at the manner in which the Union of Technical Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) handled their compensation review package, government-paid medical technologists are still awaiting payment. And according to Donaldo Montaque, a senior medical technologist at Cornwall Regional Hospital, the professionals are “severely disappointed, demoralised and demotivated” as they head into the Christmas season “struggling” to stay afloat. Montaque explained that the medical technologists were relieved after the union signed the wage agreement earlier in September. However, that feeling was short-lived as they still were not in receipt of the anticipated payments during that pay cycle. He told the Jamaica Observer that correspondence from the Ministry of Health and Wellness indicated that provisions would have been made to hand these monies over to the medical technologists, but their union told them otherwise. “We made an initiation to sign on September 5. We could have got payments in September based on the fact that several groups got payment within the month because the ministry made provisions to do a multi-payment. They paid the salary and gave the other payments during the month. However, UTASP were the ones doing the signing and they said that the payment agreement was made for October,” said Montaque. “October 25th came and still no payment was made to the medical technologists, so we said, in the worst-case scenario, we will get it in November, but up to now we are still waiting on payment. We gave them two months and still no payment,” the senior medical technologist complained. As the countdown to Christmas begins, Montaque told the Sunday Observer that the professionals were growing weary and anxious as they wish to enjoy the festive season with their families. However, with the current salary of approximately $95,000 per month before taxes for a junior medical technologist and $120,000 monthly for senior professionals, Montaque said the festive season isn’t proving to be a joyous time. “The med techs are disgruntled, based on the fact that another Yuletide season is coming around and the prices for everything have gone up and all the other people within the hospital have got their salary increases. Med techs are still grappling with the effects of…the prices of goods and services going up, so we are still suffering based on the economic times,” Montaque said. Documents obtained by the Sunday Observer indicated that with the compensation review, the minimum salary for a junior medical technologist would increase from $1,146,743 to $2,998,418 per annum as of April 1, 2023. At the same time, senior medical technologists would be looking at a minimum of $3,477,245 — a major jump from their usual $1,290,712 a year. That was welcomed by the professionals. In the meantime, Montaque told the Sunday Observer that the medical technologists received word from UTASP’s chief delegate Franklyn Whyte that their payments were being delayed due to the health ministry awaiting the costing from the South Eastern Regional Health Authority (SERHA). Noting that the documents containing their costing were already sent to the health ministry by Western Regional Health Authority, Montaque described the wait as “unbearable”. “Some people have taken out loans to help through the hardship, so the retroactive payment that should be received will have to go back to paying for monies that were borrowed,” Montaque said. “Going into the Yuletide season, people want to get gifts for their families and have a proper Christmas dinner, but there is no certainty that the payments will be made. There is no certainty or guarantee that the payments will be made even after we had a strike in September,” he added. When contacted by the Sunday Observer, UTASP General Secretary St Patrice Ennis reiterated that all health regions, except SERHA and University Hospital of the West Indies, had produced their costing to the health ministry as requested. “And they need that, the costing for the individual med techs, from the respective regions so that they could forward that to the relevant unit at the Ministry of Finance for the payment of monies to be handed over to the Ministry of Health,” said Ennis. “All the other regions, including those med techs employed by the Ministry of Health directly, have gone in and it is the intention to make payment on the 15th of December,” Ennis added. As it relates to the medical technologists employed in the other regions, Ennis told the Sunday Observer that there was no guarantee that they would be paid at that time. “The ministry, as I understood it, wanted to make payment to everybody at the same time, but that is not what was done, historically, so we asked that the payment be made to those whose costing have already been submitted,” said Ennis. Efforts to obtain a comment from chief delegate Whyte were unsuccessful. However, a Sunday Observer source shared that he stepped down from his position on Friday through a WhatsApp message. “It’s not lost on me; the level of dissatisfaction and disappointment with my handling of recent wage negotiations, neither have I forgotten the commitment I have made concomitant to the signing of the contracts. Therefore, effective December 1, 2023, I will relinquish the position of chief delegate, leaving the way clear for a candidate of your choosing. Thank you for the confidence you placed in me in the past and Godspeed,” Whyte reportedly said. Ennis confirmed that the union is now without a chief delegate.

FIVE Grade 6 students of Snowdon Primary and Infant School in Manchester have written individual letters to Prime Minister Andrew Holness expressing concern about a number of issues affecting Jamaica, and offering solutions. The students — Natanyah Walters, Eashan Edwards, Tajaire Gayle, Arianna Boothe, and Jenell Campbell, all 11 years old — drew the prime minister’s attention to fires, beach pollution, blocked drains, overfishing as it relates to parrotfish, and highway construction. “We had actually intended to send the letters directly to the prime minister but chose instead to send it to the Jamaica Observer, knowing that he will see them when they are published,” Kristen Chedda, the students’ teacher, told the Sunday Observer. Here are the letters: Blenheim Town District Newport PO Manchester September 29, 2023 The Most Hon Andrew Holness, ON, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister 1 Devon Road, Kingston 10 Jamaica Dear Prime Minister Holness, I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing expressing concerns about the impact of a certain human activity on our beloved country, Jamaica and to offer a potential remedy to address this issue. It’s really scary to see so many fires happening around us. Not only do they harm our environment, but they also put people’s homes and lives at risk. I think one of the reasons for these fires might be that some people don’t know how dangerous fires can be, especially when they are not controlled properly. Here are some ideas for how we can help reduce the number of fires: 1. Education: We can start by teaching children and adults about fire safety. Schools could have fire safety classes and there could be community workshops to raise awareness about the dangers of fires. 2. Strict rules: We can make stricter rules about when and where people can use fires, like for cooking or burning leaves. If people follow these rules it might help prevent accidental fires. 3. Firefighters: We could also make sure our firefighters have all the tools and equipment they need to quickly respond to fires and put them out safely. 4. Community watch: We could encourage neighbours to look out for each other and report any suspicious activities or unsafe practices that might lead to fires. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, Prime Minister Holness. I believe in our citizens and I believe in you to help make it safer. Yours sincerely, Natanyah Walters Blenheim Town District Newport PO Manchester September 29, 2023 The Most Hon Andrew Holness, ON, Prime Minister Office of the Prime Minister 1 Devon Road Kingston 10 Jamaica Dear Prime Minister, I have been noticing a problem caused by human activity. This is why I am writing this letter to you. Firstly, the problem that I have been noticing is that many iconic Jamaican beaches are being polluted. This can be for many reasons. For example, when children are playing on the beaches building sandcastles, they leave all their building tools — such as plastic cups and plastic spoons — on the beach. Secondly, after eating snacks or drinking juices most people leave their garbage on the beach. When they do this, they are causing a huge problem for marine life. Thirdly, when people leave their garbage on the sand it gets washed into the ocean or it gets blown into it. After this happens, many fish may try to eat the garbage, and some may choke to death or some may catch diseases from the garbage, which would naturally lead to death. Finally, after all that I have said I believe that I have found a solution to this problem. My solution is that we could put up signs around the beaches so that the other citizens will get to see them. I believe that these signs should say things like, “Don’t be a part of the pollution instead be a part of the solution”, or “Another trash on the beach is another marine life gone”. Thank you for reading my letter. Your citizen, Eashan Edwards Newfield District Newfield PO Manchester September 29, 2023 The Most Hon Andrew Holness, ON Prime Minister Office of the Prime Minister 1 Devon Road Kingston 10 Jamaica Dear Prime Minister, It has come to my attention that many of our community drains have been clogged over the past years and have been causing problems whenever we have heavy rains. People are posting on social media that the prime minister is not doing a good job. This is because most of the time cars tend to shut off in the middle of the road when there are heavy rains. This is all because of the clogged drains. Also, the issue is causing mosquitoes to breed in the drains and causes dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases. May I suggest a solution to the problem? Firstly, you can get someone to clean the drains or set a camera to see who is throwing the garbage in the drain, or on the road. Yours sincerely, Tajaire Gayle Blenheim Town District Newport PO Manchester September 29, 2023 The Most Hon Andrew Holness, ON Prime Minister Office of the Prime Minister 1 Devon Road Kingston 10 Jamaica Dear Prime Minister, It has come to my attention that the parrotfish species is at risk. In the South Pacific this is largely due to overfishing of the bumphead parrotfish who having an unfortunate habit of sleeping in natural aggregations at predictable locations in shallow water, meaning fishermen can quickly find a spare dozen of them at once. However, due to these fishing pressures parrotfish can become extinct. Fish help to build up corals, meaning if it weren’t for the parrotfish, corals would quickly become suffocated by seaweeds on reefs around the world — which is what is happening in Jamaica and in the Pacific. May I suggest you put up signs and put out warrants that state, “Let’s stop fishing in this area” or “Parrotfish will become extinct”. If this matter continues, parrotfish will

JAMAICA has been ranked among the safest countries in the world, respected international analytics firm Gallup Inc has stated in its 2023 Global Law and Order report. The Gallup report has Jamaica sharing company with New Zealand, Costa Rica and Cyprus, in a story published by Breaking Travel News — regarded as the leading online resource for travel industry executives around the world. “The report gauges people’s sense of personal security and their own experiences with crime and law enforcement. Results are based on nationally representative, probability-based samples among adult populations, aged 15 and older, in 141 countries and territories throughout 2022,” Breaking Travel News said. The report also said Jamaica scored 75 out of a maximum 100 points, which ranks the island among the safest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, coming slightly ahead of the US territory of Puerto Rico at 74; followed by Brazil, 73; Argentina, 70; Mexico, 66; Venezuela, 66; the Dominican Republic, 64; Peru, 61; and Ecuador, 59. Topping the list was Tajikistan at 96, Finland and Iceland both at 92, while the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada all scored 83 points. Breaking Travel News said when it contacted Delano Seiveright, senior advisor and strategist in Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism, he declined to comment extensively on the report but said, “The safety of every Jamaican and every visitor matters greatly. Notably, the crime rates against visitors remains extremely low, hovering at around 0.01 per cent, and already our visitor numbers are double-digit percentages ahead of 2019 and 2022. Jamaica is abuzz like never before, and millions have visited over the years without incident.” On Thursday, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said the upcoming winter tourist season will be the best in Jamaica’s history. According to Bartlett, 1.05 million airline seats have been secured from nearly 6,000 flights coming into the island out of the United States — Jamaica’s biggest source market — during the winter season which begins on December 15. The surge in airlift, he said, represents an increase of 13 per cent over winter 2022/2023, when Jamaica recorded 923,000 airline seats.

Leoda Bradshaw and co-accused Roland Balfour, who were implicated in the murder of parliamentarian Phillip Paulwell’s 10-month-old daughter and her mother, will be spending Christmas behind bars. This comes after a Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered that they be remanded until March 6, pending the submission of a number of outstanding documents from the prosecution. Bradshaw and Balfour stood stoically before the presiding judge, Justice Vinette Graham Allen, when they were remanded. During the proceedings, prosecutor Andrea Martin Swaby indicated that the outstanding documents include the forensic material and certificate as well as statements from investigators. Justice Graham Allen ordered that on or before January 31 the statements from investigators should be submitted. The forensic material and certificate were ordered to be submitted on or before February 29. Bradshaw, who shares a child with Paulwell and is a United States Navy culinary specialist, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder, two counts of conspiracy to kidnapping, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of capital murder. Meanwhile, Balfour, a 30-year-old assistant graphic designer of a Kingston address and Bradshaw’s cousin, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder, two counts of conspiracy to kidnapping and misprision of felony. On September 9, 2023 news came that 27-year-old Toshyna Patterson and her daughter, Sarayah Paulwell, were feared abducted. Bradshaw was taken into police custody on October 5, 2023 and the following day Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey confirmed that she was a prime suspect in the abduction of the two and would face charges. Prosecutors say the mother and daughter were taken to Warieka Hills where they were shot and killed and their bodies burned. Two other men implicated in the murders have since been convicted, after they accepted a plea deal from prosecutors. They are Richard Brown, otherwise called Richie, and 29-year-old Roshane Miller. On Friday, Justice Graham Allen showed her displeasure at not being provided with the necessary documents which, she said, would allow her to be able to conduct her duties fairly. This was revealed when defence attorney Deborah Martin requested that the judge make an order for the transcript of hearing and sentencing, as well as the plea negotiation agreement for Brown and Miller, because they are relevant to her client’s case. Expressing her irritation at the prosecution, the judge said, “The court has nothing… I have to understand the context in which I am working. I can’t just make an order in a vacuum like this. No! I have nothing to assist me to understand that. The role of the court is to ensure that the proceedings are conducted in a fair and proper manner to both sides, that’s my role. I can’t conduct anything fair when I have nothing… This case management court has nada!” Responding, Martin Swaby said: “It’s unfortunate that you’re not seized of a bundle, because notices and all attached statements together with a voluntary bill of indictment were filed in the Supreme Court in relation to this matter, My Lady.” However, Justice Graham Allen replied, “This is my first encounter with this case… voluntary bills of indictment, when they come down, as I understand it, would be in this court.” Speaking on the transcripts requested by Martin, the prosecutor revealed that the hearing and sentencing for Brown and Miller were in-camera cases, which means the public was not privy to those details, making it more difficult for the lawyer to get the documents. However, Martin Swaby said in relation to the other two accused individuals who were before the court under the Plea Negotiations and Agreements Act of 2017, those proceedings were done in-camera, and those documents are under seal by order of the court. Interjecting, Justice Graham Allen said, “If they are sealed by the court, they are sealed by the court. How then could a judge of a concurrent jurisdiction sit in appeal of another judge in a concurrent jurisdiction? It would be very improper of this judge.” Answering the judge, Martin said the defence team was unaware that the documents had been sealed. In spite of this, Martin stated that she remains steadfast in her desire to have sight of the documents and will be using other methods to acquire them. “We are absolutely ignorant of what transpired, save for press releases that have been published by the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] telling the public what she chooses to tell them while we are in ignorance,” the attorney said. Brown, of a Kingston address, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to murder, two counts of conspiracy to kidnapping, and two counts of kidnapping and is now serving a minimum of 20 years in prison before being eligible for parole. Miller, an air-conditioning technician, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to murder, two counts conspiracy to kidnapping, and misprision of felony and is serving seven years and 10 months in prison.

HEAD of the Centre for the Investigations of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), Senior Superintendent Maldria Jones Williams is urging people who are victims of sexual abuse to make reports to the police within 72 hours of the incident. “Because that is the time period within which physical evidence is most accessible. We also have to take into consideration antiretrovirals if the person requires those. We also have to take into consideration if the person requires emergency contraceptives, which is most effective in 72 hours. “We have an in-house doctor at our facilities but if the doctor is not available, we have an arrangement with the Kingston and St Andrew Health Department. Outside of that, the police would take the person to a public hospital. After the medical we do some form of referral for psychosocial assistance,” Jones Williams said on Wednesday during a panel discussion at banner event to mark the recent commemoration of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) at Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston. The event was organised by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and was themed, ‘From Response to Preparedness: Eliminating Gender-based violence in Jamaica’. According to Jones Williams, there are numerous challenges that affect investigations into allegations of sexual abuse with some victims taking years to report the matter to the police for different reasons. “The first major challenge is delay. We find that a lot of victims are hesitant in coming to us. That delay reduces our ability to collect evidence and respond. Some victims come years after. We have a case that is over 30 years old. There is no statute of limitation when it comes on to sexual offences. “I cannot give an explanation as to why this individual would come forward after 30 years but at this point in time the individual feels strongly enough about the matter to come forward. The alleged perpetrator is actually up in age. In some instances, the victims share information with other individuals which would form part of our evidence gathering. Our approach is always victim-centred,” said Jones Williams. “We do what we need to do in terms of recording a statement, appreciating the report of the victim and ultimately conducting our investigations nonetheless. Many victims choose not to proceed for many reasons, some out of fear and sympathy. Most of the perpetrators are known to the victims. Some are relatives, close friends, lovers, and neighbours. Our procedure is to put the matter before the court and gave them the chance to tell the court that they no longer want to proceed. Our arrest rate is very high,” added Jones Williams. The CISOCA head also pointed out that some people tell lies and hold back certain information when making reports. She gave an example of a case where a 12-year-old girl accused a young man of sexually assaulting her in a bus in downtown Kingston. The young man gave the police a conflicting story to what the girl gave to them, which led cops to check the JamaicaEye camera surveillance network, which proved that the girl had given inaccuracies in her account. “The police held on to the bus and held on to the [alleged] perpetrator and somebody else. In Half-Way-Tree there was the 12-year-old bouncing in the driver side of the bus. She stayed there for about 20 minutes and bounced back out, smiling and laughing and having a jolly good time. She got caught and couldn’t explain herself, so she made up a story and gave it to us. We have to do our due diligence,” said Jones Williams as she noted that another problem is that some cases move too slowly through the court system. “There was a 14-year-old who was sexually assaulted and by the time she was 21, the matter was still before the courts. She went to college and moved on with their life. She couldn’t be bothered any more. We have quite a few victims who withdraw themselves and hide from us. Some of them migrate. Those are some of the issues we have in investigations,” added the CISOCA head.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Convicted murderer Mario Morrison on Thursday testified that 15-year-old Shineka Gray fought for her life as Gregory Roberts stabbed her to death after they both had sex with her. He also related to the St James Circuit Court the horrific details of how she begged for her life to be spared as he recorded the young girl’s gruesome killing, at Roberts’s request, using Roberts’ cellphone. Morrison, who kept a smile on his face throughout most of his testimony, told the court that Roberts asked him to record the murder because he (Roberts) was going to make a “sacrifice”. That word has been a recurring theme throughout the trial so far. “We picked up a young lady at Courts [in downtown Montego Bay], and she was waiting on a taxi to go to Bogue Village. He (Roberts) stopped at the UDC [Urban Development Corporation] and had sex with her. Then [Roberts] said he wanted to pick up something at Granville, and the young lady was saying she wanted to go to Bogue,” Morrison said in his evidence in chief. “After reaching Irwin, he said to the female, ‘You not going to give the ‘dog’ sex or head?’ Then after, she was like, she wanted to go home… He videoed himself hugging the girl. Afterward, he passed the phone to me, saying, ‘Dog, video this for me,’…And I’m videoing now, he had the knife and started to stab her… She started crying and bawling, even saying, ‘Lord, this is what you going to do to your daughter?’” Morrison testified. Asked by lead prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby if he noticed anything about Gray while she was being stabbed, Morrison said, “She was actually fighting for her life at one point”. Morrison also spoke of receiving Gray’s phone from Roberts the day after her death, placing his SIM card in it and making two calls, as well as the role he played in leading police to the location of her body. “When you were arrested, did you give a caution statement?” Martin-Swaby asked. “Yes ma’am,” Morrison replied. “Did you tell them you had sex with her?” the prosecutor asked. “No, because I was just trying to free myself,” Morrison replied. It was also revealed in court that in July 2021 Morrison had discussions with his attorney, and the prosecution and defence entered into a plea deal, following which he was sentenced to life in prison. However, Morrison stated in court on Thursday that he had intended to enter a guilty plea as early as 2018. “How did you feel that night after you had sex with her?” Martin-Swaby asked Morrison. “I was embarrassed because I know I could have saved her life,” Morrison said. When the prosecutor asked the witness if everything he had said was true, he replied, “I am telling the truth and nothing but the truth.” Under cross-examination, defence attorney Leroy Equiano told Morrison that he had lied to the police in order to implicate someone else. “The first thing you told the police is that you wanted to free yourself. Isn’t that so?” the attorney asked, to which Morrison replied in the affirmative. “You said you had sex with her in Irwin. Was it inside or outside the car?” the attorney asked. “It was outside the car,” Morrison replied, adding that Shineka agreed to have sex with him because Roberts instructed her to do so. Roberts and Morrison were arrested and charged with Shineka’s murder after her body was found with multiple stab wounds in bushes in Irwin, St James, on February 1, 2017. The trial continues on Monday, December 4. So far, the court has heard from seven of the prosecution’s 18 witnesses in the case against Roberts.

STARTING after the Integrity Commission (IC) announced that four of its employees are to be charged for failing to submit their 2019 statutory declarations, the State-owned oil Petrojam Limited on Wednesday indicated that it has instituted measures to reduce the possibility of a recurrence. According to Petrojam, each of its 255 employees has an individual responsibility to file his or her declaration. However, to encourage full compliance, it has instituted several measures to promote the urgency of this requirement throughout the organisation. “In collaboration with the Integrity Commission, as early as January of each year, a drop box is placed in the Human Resource Development and Administration Department to facilitate the submission of the declarations. Historically, employees have been able to submit their declarations either directly to the IC’s office or through the IC’s drop box at Petrojam. “According to the company’s records, last year 215 staff members opted to submit their declarations by way of the drop box,” said Petrojam in a media release. The company said annually it stages an extensive internal education campaign, as early as December, to promote compliance among staff. Flyers and posters and weekly messages are also sent to staff, reminding them of the March 31 deadline. “Petrojam has also worked closely with the Integrity Commission to highlight to staff the importance of the timely submission of these reports. The IC has from time to time made presentations to Petrojam’s staff, emphasising the significance of adhering to the Integrity Commission Act and outlining the consequences of non-compliance. “The last presentation was in 2021. Instructional videos produced by the Integrity Commission, with information on how to complete and submit the forms are also shared with the Petrojam team,” the company said in its release. “We underline Petrojam’s commitment to continuously raising the bar of transparency and accountability and good governance. We consider the Integrity Commission a valuable partner in accomplishing this goal and will continue every effort to promote compliance with this regulatory requirement among our staff,” added the company. In a report tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the IC’s Director of Corruption Prosecution Keisha Prince-Kameka ruled that Petrojam’s customer service representative Wayne Salmon, process engineer Michael Wilkinson, terminal technician Sydney Brown, and administrative assistant Sheryll Blair should all be charged for a breach of Section 43(1)(a) of the Integrity Commission Act for failure to file a statutory declaration for the period ending December 31, 2019. In the reports, the commission’s Director of Investigation (DI) Kevon Stephenson said all the cited employees, who have a legal obligation to file a statutory declaration with the commission, failed to do so during the review period, without providing reasonable cause. Stephenson said that, having failed to adhere to that obligation, the four employees were notified by the commission, given time to comply, and when the time for compliance elapsed they were given a further extension, but “to no avail”. He said they were given a further opportunity to discharge their liability by way of paying a fixed penalty to Tax Administration Jamaica as well as to submit the outstanding statutory declaration to the commission, but, again, without success. “Based on the foregoing, the DI finds in all of the circumstances of this case that a referral to the director of corruption prosecution is justifiable,” said Stephenson.

The prosecution has filed a notice of appeal challenging the sentences handed down by Supreme Court judge, Justice Leighton Pusey earlier this month to taxi driver Andre Thomas for his role in the 2016 murders of American missionaries Harold Nichols and Randy Hentzel. Thomas was in July this year declared guilty by a jury after he opted to stand trial, maintaining throughout his four week-long hearing that, despite observing the murders, he did not participate. On Friday, November 10 Thomas was sentenced to life imprisonment for each murder with eligibility to apply for parole after 30 years. He was, however, given a reduction of four years because of time spent on remand, making it so that the time spent behind bars before he is eligible to apply for parole would be 26 years. Ironically, his co-accused and cousin Dwight Henry, who pleaded guilty to two counts of murder under a plea deal and became the prosecution’s main witness, was sentenced by Justice Pusey in January this year to life in prison without the possibility of parole until after 28 years. Henry had testified against Thomas, saying that he killed only one of the men, while his cousin shot and chopped the other. Thomas, the Jamaica Observer was reliably informed, was taken into custody about two months before Henry. Justice Pusey, in sentencing Thomas in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, said he had “struggled to find” factors that would lessen the St Mary man’s culpability for the “senseless” killings. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, however, is contending that the sentence was unduly lenient, given that Thomas, being a co-conspirator, had opted to go to trial and had received a lesser sentence in comparison to Henry who pleaded guilty and gave evidence in the matter. “It needs to be reviewed; the person who takes you to trial will always get the higher sentence than the one who pleads guilty,” Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, King’s Counsel, told the Observer on Tuesday. She said to allow the judgement to pass undisturbed would have a “chilling effect” on the willingness of individuals to engage the prosecution under the Criminal Justice (Plea and Negotiations) Act (plea bargain). Defence attorney Alexander Shaw, commenting on the matter at the Observer’s request, said: “The parity rule is to be regarded as a fundamental principle to any rational and fair system of criminal justice, and so in circumstances where a sentencing judge diverts from that principle, the reason must be glaring so as to not undermine the confidence in the criminal justice system and that is not to say that individuality and proportionality are not sacrosanct principles that the court should adhere to… “But in circumstances where an accused pleaded guilty, there is a legitimate expectation that he would receive a lesser sentence than his co-accused who went to trial, unless it is that, even though they are convicted for the same offence, their roles were markedly different so as to justify the variance in the sentences,” Shaw added. The Appeal Court, in a 2019 judgement, referenced a Caribbean Court of Justice ruling featuring a circumstance similar to that of Henry and Thomas and said that court’s guidance “demonstrates that the principle of parity underscores the necessity for a sentencing judge, when sentencing a second accused who is tried separately from another who had been previously sentenced, to ensure that there is consistency in punishment”. Nichols, 53, and Hentzel, 49, were missionaries for the Teams for Medical Missions in Pennsylvania. They went missing on Saturday, April 30, 2016, after leaving their Tower Isle, St Mary, homes on motorcycles to visit a site where they had planned to do charity work the following week. When they did not return home, a search party later that day discovered Hentzel’s body lying face down, his green helmet still over his head, with his arms bound “tightly” behind his back by a piece of cloth torn from the green T-shirt in which he was clad. Nichols’ body was found some distance away on the Sunday afternoon. Justice Pusey, in noting that the facts of the case are “well-known” and “unfortunately notorious”, said that while there had been conflicting statements from both men as to the extent of Thomas’s involvement in the murders, what was clear to the jury was that, “Mr Thomas was present and that he was a willing participant.” During the four week-long trial, the Crown called 23 witnesses to support its case. The defence only called Thomas, who gave an unsworn statement saying that, despite observing the murders, he did not participate in the killings. Thomas, the court also heard, had been convicted for sex with a person under 16 in 2017 while on remand for this crime. He had been given a suspended sentence for that offence. Community residents gave a negative account of the cab driver’s lifestyle in the social enquiry report compiled by probation officers ahead of sentencing.

NEW YORK, United States (CMC) — A new report is warning that several cities, including Kingston, Jamaica, without shoreline defences could permanently lose five per cent or more of their cities to sea level rises by the end of the century. “Without shoreline defences, under a worst-case warming scenario by the end of the century, five per cent or more of the following cities are projected to fall permanently below sea level, namely, Guayaquil, Ecuador; Barranquilla, Colombia; Santos, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Kingston, Jamaica; Cotonou, Benin; Kolkata, India; Perth, Newcastle, and Sydney in Australia,” said the report. New hyperlocal data released Tuesday by Human Climate Horizons, a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Climate Impact Lab (CIL), noted that the extent of coastal flooding has increased over the past 20 years as a result of sea level rise. It said as a result, 14 million more people worldwide who now live in coastal communities with a one-in-20 annual chance of flooding with global greenhouse gas emissions (SSP2-4.5) projected by the end of the century to expand this one-in-20 floodplain to areas currently populated by nearly 73 million people. The new hyperlocal data maps detailed the fivefold increase in susceptibility to flood damage along the world’s densely populated coastlines with the authors saying the data platform makes it possible to see where sea level rise impacts may most threaten homes and infrastructure. They said hundreds of highly populated cities will face increased flood risk by mid-century, relative to a future without climate change. This includes land home to roughly five per cent of the population of coastal cities such as Kingston, Jamaica. Flood risk exposure is anticipated to double to 10 per cent of the population by the end of the century. The study found that many low-lying regions along the coasts of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Southeast Asia may face a severe threat of permanent inundation, part of an alarming trend with the potential to trigger a reversal in human development in coastal communities worldwide. “By 2100, climate change is expected to cause the submergence of a significant share of land (five per cent) in the following small island developing states (SIDS) and associate members of United Nations Regional Commissions: Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, and Seychelles,” the report said. It noted that at the highest levels of global warming (SSP5-8.5), approximately 160,000 square kilometres of coastal land, an area larger than the territory of Greece or Bangladesh, would be inundated by 2100, compared to a future with no climate change. This includes the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) from November 30 to December 12 this year. With concerted action to reduce global emissions and put the world on track to limit warming below two degrees Celsius, 70,000 square kilometres of that at-risk land is projected to remain above sea level, the report noted. “”The effects of rising sea levels will put at risk decades of human development progress in densely populated coastal zones which are home to one in seven people in the world,” said Pedro Conceição, director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office. “The displacement of millions of people and the disruption of economic activity in major business hubs could introduce new elements of instability and increase competition for resources. Our new research from UNDP and Climate Impact Lab is another reminder to the decision makers going to COP28 that the time to act is now,” he added. These impacts include empowering global citizens and decision-makers with localised information on the projected impacts of climate change over this century on people and communities. In the report, the platform unveiled projections of local sea level rise and its impacts on humans under three future emissions scenarios. This data is derived from satellite and tidal gauge observations and model ensembles from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report. With geographic detail, the new data painted a stark picture of a world grappling with the consequences of melting ice in mountain glaciers and at the poles, and seawater expanding as it warms. “These projections are not foregone conclusions; instead, they can be a catalyst for action,” said Hannah Hess, associate director at the Climate Impact Lab. “Swift and sustained action to reduce emissions will affect how quickly and how much coastal communities are impacted. Reducing emissions not only mitigates risk but buys us more time to proactively respond and prepare for rising seas.” In addition to the latest sea level rise impacts, the platform illustrates how climate change is projected to influence temperature and its impacts on mortality, energy use, and the global workforce. “These projections are available under multiple scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions for 24,000 regions worldwide, shedding light on the implications for our collective future, revealing vast inequalities within and between countries, and pinpointing areas where the risks of unmitigated climate change are most severe,” the report said.

SANJA Elliott, the former deputy superintendent of roads and works at the Manchester Municipal Corporation who was in 2020 sentenced to five years at hard labour for being the “ringmaster” in defrauding that entity of millions, on Friday lost his bid to have the Appeal Court quash his conviction and free him. According to the Appeal Court, the “learned judge of the Parish Court did not err in arriving at the verdicts in this case”. In dismissing Elliott’s appeal against his conviction, the court further said, “The documentary evidence in combination with the evidence of the witnesses painted a compelling case against Mr Elliott. The various counts of the indictment were proved to the requisite standard.” The Appeal Court, in the meantime, said senior parish court Judge Ann-Marie Grainger, who had presided over the hearing, “must be commended for her management of the trial with an indictment containing such a large number of counts and so efficiently summarising and analysing the mass of evidence that was presented during the trial”. Elliott, following the trial which lasted more than eight months, had been convicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud, obtaining money by false pretence, engaging in a transaction that involves criminal property, possession of criminal property, and an act of corruption. Grainger, during the trial, rejected bail applications by lawyers, pending appeal, after imposing custodial sentences on Elliott and his three co-accused. They were charged on a 32-count indictment. Elliott was charged in 21 of those counts. Attorney Norman Godfrey, appearing for Elliott before an Appeal Court panel led by President Justice Patrick Brooks between May and November this year, had argued that, based on evidence led during the trial which showed that several witnesses were interfered with by the police, the no-case submission made on behalf of his client during the trial should have been upheld. Godfrey contended that the court should “frown upon” the conduct of the investigating officer who, even while a witness was giving testimony, continued to interrogate the individual and “used underhand methods” to get him to ‘give evidence contrary’ to the two statements he had previously provided to the prosecution. According to Godfrey, “the entire trial had been tainted by the misconduct of the police”. But on Friday, the Appeal Court, in responding to Godfrey’s insistence that the no-case submission should have been upheld, said the prosecution had “adduced sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case that Mr Elliott committed these offences against the Council”. “The learned judge of the Parish Court did not err in rejecting the submission of no case to answer in this regard,” it stated. In relation to the judge’s decision that there was a case to answer for the money laundering offences with which Elliott was charged, the Appeal Court said “the learned judge of the Parish Court was correct to reject his submission of no case to answer in relation to the stated counts”. On the issue of prosecutorial misconduct it said, “Based on the principles of law…and the learned judge of the Parish Court’s assessment of evidence, her conclusion that there was no prosecutorial misconduct cannot be impugned”. Addressing the attorney’s argument that his client did not receive a fair trial, the Appeal Court said, “Mr Godfrey submitted that considering the several complaints that Mr Elliott made, the conviction should be quashed. Mr Elliott, however, has been unsuccessful on every ground and so has failed to establish that he was not afforded a fair trial. This ground also fails.” In the case which drew national attention, former secretary manager and acting CEO of the corporation, David Harris, was sentenced to 16 months in prison at hard labour; former temporary works overseer Kendale Roberts was sentenced to 18 months at hard labour. Carpenter/gardener Dwayne Sibbles was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment at hard labour on the count of conspiracy to defraud, while TashaGaye Goulbourne-Elliott, wife of Sanja Elliott, got a non-custodial sentence and was fined $3 million. The evidence against Elliott was that he contacted the four main witnesses asking them for their taxpayer registration numbers (TRNs) and made arrangements with them for payments to be made out to them for work purportedly done for the parish council across Manchester. Those cheques were delivered to them directly or indirectly. They then cashed the cheques and gave the money to Elliott. The Crown said that Elliott’s salary from the corporation between 2008 and 2016 — when he was arrested — totalled just over $14 million after statutory deductions, and was incapable of supporting the lifestyle he led between 2013 and 2016 when he was arrested. At the time of his arrest in 2016, Elliott, the prosecution claimed, had a net worth of more than $255 million, owned three Honda motor cars, a Honda Ridgeline SUV, a Suzuki Jimny SUV, and several pieces of real estate. The prosecution said that he was simultaneously making large cash deposits into several bank accounts while paying out cash in large amounts in the construction of two residences.

FOUR employees of State-run oil refinery Petrojam Limited are to be charged for breaching the Integrity Commission Act. The Integrity Commission’s Director of Corruption Prosecution Keisha Prince-Kameka has ruled that Customer Service Representative Wayne Salmon, Process Engineer Michael Wilkinson, Terminal Technician Sydney Brown, and Administrative Assistant Sheryll Blair should all be charged for a breach of Section 43(1)(a) of the Integrity Commission Act for failure to file a statutory declaration for the period ending December 31, 2019. The indicative rulings were made public on Tuesday after they were tabled in the House of Representatives along with the accompanying investigative reports by the commission. The reports were received by the House last Wednesday. In the reports, the commission’s Director of Investigation (DI) Kevon Stephenson said all the cited employees, who have a legal obligation to file a statutory declaration with the commission, failed to do so during the review period, without providing reasonable cause. Stephenson said that, having failed to adhere to that obligation, the four employees were notified by the commission, given time to comply, and when the time for compliance elapsed they were given a further extension, but “to no avail”. He said they were given a further opportunity to discharge their liability by way of paying a fixed penalty to Tax Administration Jamaica as well as to submit the outstanding statutory declaration to the commission, but, again, without success. “Based on the foregoing, the DI finds in all of the circumstances of this case that a referral to the director of corruption prosecution is justifiable,” he said. According to the Government’s information brochure on statutory declaration, public officials and parliamentarians are required to annually submit to the Integrity Commission (IC), through the director of information and complaints, a declaration of their assets, liabilities and income for the calendar year just ended (or other period where appropriate). Currently, all parliamentarians and public officials in receipt of total annual gross emoluments of $3.5 million or more, as well as public officials who are so advised by notice published in the Jamaica Gazette, are required to file. IC commissioners have proposed that this threshold be moved to $12 million or more. Further, any other public official who, or category of public official which the commission requests in writing to do so is also required to file statutory declarations. The commission had first notified the public about the investigation reports in a press release last Wednesday, the day they were submitted. In the release, the commission said it anticipated that its investigation reports, which were submitted pursuant to and in conformance with Section 54 of the Integrity Commission Act, together with the associated indicative rulings, would be tabled in both Houses of Parliament as soon as possible. The matter of how IC reports are tabled in Parliament has been mired in controversy since former House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert withheld reports, noting that they would go to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee before being tabled. However, during the tabling of the reports on Tuesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives Juliet Holness reiterated her statement made on November 7 in respect of her ruling on reports submitted by the IC, stating that people have sought to distort what was said. “Reports of the director of investigation submitted under Section 54 (4) [of the Act] will be tabled as soon as possible after receipt by the Parliament, having regard to the serious nature of the matters that are contained therein….After it is tabled it will then be submitted to the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee for their consideration and report,” she said.

MOUNT SALEM, St James — Project manager for the multi-billion-dollar upgrading of the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) Vivian Gordon says completion is set for 2026 — a year later than the deadline last provided by Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton. Gordon provided the information during a tour of the hospital, on Tuesday, by Care for Cornwall Regional, a group of business interests within Montego Bay that shadows and oversees activities on the long-overdue project. According to Gordon, the project is currently in its third phase, which started this month and should end next March. This phase includes occupation and equipment procurement. He added that stage two, which will be completed within 30 months, includes design, build and installation of additional equipment. He said contractors had wanted another 36 months to complete the project but eventually agreed to 30. Tufton and the Andrew Holness-led Administration have taken a battering for the lengthy delays in completing the project. In July, Tufton said phased reopening would start by mid-2024 and the project completed by March 2025. However, the health minister has grown wary of providing deadlines as they have so frequently been missed. On Tuesday, asked to comment on the deadline provided by the project manager, he stuck to that script. “I stopped giving timelines long ago because we have had adjustments to timelines that I can’t justify on the basis of giving a timeline because a lot has changed in terms of scope. And what I’ve said to the populace is that the scope has substantially changed. We are building a new hospital, and therefore the timelines will change,” he told the Jamaica Observer. The health minister also stressed that the facility will be in use before 2026. “I know you’re stuck on the 30 months, but what you need to do is look at the fact that it is going to be phased in. So, we will start using the building sometime next year, and it will continue until we totally complete it,” he added. Meanwhile, co-chair of Care for Cornwall Regional Brian Jardim expressed overall satisfaction with the work being done at CRH. “We’re happy with what we saw today. Clearly, there’s a lot of work left to be done. Clearly, there was a lot of work to be done [in the first place]. The building had a lot of endemic issues with mould and moisture and, you know, it is a 50-odd-year-old building,” he told reporters. “We went from the basement right through the various floors of the building to see the work that has happened and is continuing to happen to get the facility up and running again. It can’t happen soon enough,” Jardim added. Established five years ago, Care for Cornwall Regional also provides assistance when possible — either on a commercial level, by providing expertise or raising funds to be used in purchasing equipment for the health facility. Jardim said Tuesday’s tour was aimed at getting a clear understanding of when the facility will be up and running at full capacity. “The minister gave us an excellent presentation on next steps and we’ve witnessed quite a transformation on the way, including the existing Cornwall Regional building and the new children’s hospital that’s being built, courtesy of the Government of China,” he stated. “We understand there’s another two to two-and-a-half year window. We’re looking at probably a 2026 completion turnkey… As Western Jamaicans, it’s a very critical part of our existence, both our team members, our families, our friends, to have a properly functioning medical care facility as the city grows,” the businessman added. Jardim also spoke of the importance of maintenance, going forward. “We got some assurances from the minister today, and we’re going to hold him accountable to it, that there will be a proper-running parallel company that manages the processes and the equipment and the maintenance of the building. This is like maintaining a very large hotel complex. It’s a lot of moving parts. He mentioned there’ll be, at certain times, up to 3,000 staff members in this facility [Cornwall Regional Hospital and Western Children Adolescent Hospital combined] — 700-odd beds. It’ll be the most beds on any hospital campus in the Caribbean. So, it’s not a small task. It’s not a small job and we, as members of the business community and as members of Care for Cornwall, we take it pretty seriously. We all need to shadow and give the help that we can to make sure that maintenance continues once it’s handed over,” argued Jardim.

SPOT VALLEY, St James — A teacher who said she was slapped several times in the face by a ninth-grade female student whom she had reprimanded is appealing to the education ministry to do more to ensure educators’ safety. The attack, which occurred at Spot Valley High School in St James, has triggered fear among staff as it is also alleged that the car tyre of a colleague who had helped transport the teacher to hospital was punctured the day after the incident. “A student draped and boxed me several times because I said, ‘Stop the fighting in class,’” the maths teacher, who asked not to be identified by name, told the Jamaica Observer. She said the matter has since been reported to the police. “I’m emotionally scarred, distraught. [I] don’t feel safe attending work none at all, because you don’t know when another student might feel the hype and want to try it again,” she added. She has not returned to school since. At least one of her colleagues has indicated an unwillingness to go back into the classroom if the student returns to school after her 10 days’ suspension is up. In a voice note, she expressed her dissatisfaction with the punishment meted out to the student. “Now the talk of the town is, ‘Pickney box Miss… and get 10 days.’ Ten days fi box down teacher? What is 10 days!” she raged. She said other educators are reluctant to work at Spot Valley High, and those who do are now uneasy. “Something has to be done about the pickney dem!” she demanded. The teacher who was allegedly hit in the face is pleading with the education ministry to intervene. “We need to have that reassurance and support from them so that we know that we are safe,” she appealed. She said, coupled with some students’ bad behaviour, the school also has breaches in its perimeter fencing and lacks sufficient security guards. “Safety in the parking lot for teachers’ properties [is lacking] as several vehicles in the parking lot have been damaged by students. Tyres have been slashed, tyres being cut by objects to puncture them,” she stressed. When the Observer contacted Spot Valley High Principal Richard Thompson he confirmed the teacher’s report. “Yes, there was such an incident on Wednesday last week. So far since the incident we have collected our reports from all parties, which included the teachers, and the student involved, and other students who would have been in the classroom at the time,” Thompson said. He noted that the student at the centre of the brawl has been suspended. “There is further investigation going on. The matter has been sent to the personnel committee of the board for them to do their continuous investigation and to call that matter — as it relates to the student — with the parents for further interrogation,” he revealed. “I can also confirm that on Thursday the right back tyre of a teacher’s van was slashed with a sharp object. As it relates to the perimeter fence, we would have been in dialogue with the Ministry of Education, which so far has done their procurement and have the matter being dealt with as to getting that perimeter fence up. So, yes, we do have a perimeter fence issue,” Thompson added. He said he and his staff are scared. “On Friday I would have seen my staff in a mood that… we were all in a scared mood. I would tell you myself we were in a mood where we were wondering what is really happening and if this is really happening here at Spot Valley High. So, we had a meeting and we would have come up with things that we could do in the interim until we get certain things in place,” he added. He said the Government has provided funding for the school to procure cameras and that process is near completion. “It is just a pity that it happened now. We do have funding for that and we have been speaking with suppliers. That is in place. We would have already paid half the amount of the money to get fencing so there is some form of feeling of safety. It is sad that this has happened although we would have had those in the pipeline coming to be done, starting as soon as December,” the principal explained. “It is sad that there is this attack on my teachers and staff on a whole. I think it is just for us as human beings to understand that our teachers, especially my teachers here, have taken their time to teach… Somehow it is not appreciated. There are some students, I can tell you, [who] do appreciate my teachers here. We just have things overwhelming here that is really affecting the learning process,” he said. Today’s educators, the principal added, have to play multiple roles. “We have to be here as not only as teachers but we’re here as security, as mothers, as grandfathers. [But] we really want to spend most of the time dealing with educating our youths,” he said. “The students that we’re dealing with here, they have a lot of problems, and the minister again has put things in place, but it’s for the few — they can only afford some students. So we have case management going on… we tend to put a lot of interventions in place, and we are really hoping for the best,” Thompson said. In June last year, following of series of attacks on teachers, then Jamaica Teachers’ Association President Winston Smith encouraged educators to stand up and fight back. In an interview with the Observer he said teachers should not roll over and play dead and let students think they are pushovers. “It doesn’t faze me if people want to castigate me for it, but I do not want my teachers to just sit down and allow themselves to become a victim,” a fiery Smith declared. “So,

A search for criminals who reportedly fled St Catherine to evade the security forces, following the declaration last week of a state of public emergency (SOE) in that parish, led to one man being shot and killed by the police at 72 Mountain View Avenue in Kingston on Monday, sparking outrage among residents. According to the residents, who blocked roads in protest, the killing occurred sometime after 5:00 am, and they insisted that the deceased, who is known to them as Scrubs, was not a criminal and was not wanted by the police. The residents described him as a man who was was “trying find his way through life”. According to the police, members of a joint Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) team went in search of criminals believed to be on the run from St Catherine when they were reportedly challenged, and during a gunfight Scrubs was shot. “Based on intelligence we understand that men were displaced from the St Catherine area due to the SOE. The men opposed the police when trying to apprehend them. One man was shot and injured. He was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead. As we speak, detectives are on the scene and we are also waiting for Indecom [ Independent Commission of Investigations] to commence their investigation,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Sheldon Gordon. “One JDF member was shot and injured during the incident. His condition is serious but not critical. The residents blocked the roads in protest over what happened. But I want to say that for criminals there will be no safe haven. If they flee, we will catch them anywhere they go, even out at sea. We are determined to catch them and bring back law and order. We want this place to be a place where people can live, work, raise families, and do business,” Gordon said before revealing that no guns were seized following the incident. Even with soldiers walking around with rifles in hand and masks on their faces, residents did not hold back their frustration when speaking to the media. The residents claimed that they could not think of one valid reason why Scrubs was shot and killed as he allegedly was the one who opened the door to allow the police and soldiers to enter his house. They said it was sad that he lost his house to fire some time ago and now he has been killed at the house to which he relocated. “The youth lives here. He was sleeping and they went and knocked on the door. The youth opened the door and they took him out and told him to pull another door. He told them he wasn’t going to pull the door because he doesn’t live in there and they just executed him,” one resident alleged. Another resident, a woman, was puzzled as to why the security forces chose to rough up the people after being allowed free entry into their homes. “If people are cooperating with you, why rough up the people. After 5:00 am they said they are looking for wanted men, and dem gwaan wid dem self and all rough up my stepson. The man that they killed doesn’t match any of the description for the people they were looking for. A long time this a gwaan. A 1999 dem kill my brother. Their excuse is always that they see a man run and that caused them to shoot. “It has to stop. It cannot continue. I have two sons who excel in high school. It could have been one of my sons this morning. They would have to kill me too. I can imagine what she [mother of Scrubs] is going through right now because I watched my mother deteriorate when they killed my brother. All they said was that somebody run. All now my mother can’t gain back her weight after they killed her son,” the woman said. One elderly woman told the Jamaica Observer that she was terrified by the actions of the joint police/military team on Monday. The elderly woman claimed that at one point a member of the security forces pointed a gun at her head. A male resident, at the same time, said that there has been peace in Mountain View for a good while now, but the incident on Monday could spoil things for them. He was perturbed by some of the things he said members of the security forces uttered during the operation. “The policeman was trying to pop off my bag from around my neck, and him tell mi seh based on Section 20 of some document he can take away our rights by putting a gunshot to our head,” he claimed. He added, “We put up with a lot of crap from the security forces. Scrubs was no wanted man. What should we do? Should we still laugh up with police after this?”