Articles - News

   This week, the Saint Lucia Labour Party presented two of its major policy statements on critical areas highlighted as priorities for a new Labour government. The Saint Lucia Labour Party is committed to revolutionizing the education sector, by introducing Universal Pre-School Education by 2015 as well as providing bursaries to every child entering Secondary School. The SLP articulated plans to provide support for students who are preparing for the CXC examinations by making a laptop computer available to each form four student and providing financial assistance to under-privileged students for payment of CXC fees.

The health of the nation can no longer be treated with such scant regard, as obtains now. The SLP reinforced its commitment to ensuring that every St. Lucian as access to quality health care. As such, the SLP commits to implementing Universal Health Care in the period ahead. The Saint Lucia Labour Party will make significant improvements to our Primary Health Care Units and will put an end to the inconvenience and hazard of having the only hospital in the South at a sporting facility.

The SLP team will next week continue to unfold and share its plans for build a better St. Lucia.

Better Days are coming with the Saint Lucia Labour Party.

   The US Embassy has revoked the American visa belonging to Housing Minister Richard Frederick.
So says Micoud North MP Jeannine Compton-Antoine. Embassy sources have since confirmed this is true stating, “The visa for Richard Frederick has been revoked.” We spoke to Housing Minister Richard Frederick who said he was “shocked and utterly surprised by this development.” The Minister also wanted to know “why now?”


Compton-Antoine has no answers about what could have led the US government to make this decision – revoking the visitor visa belonging to the Minister. The Housing Minister also wanted to know, “why would Jeannine know this before me?” We understand that is customary for the US Embassy not to inform anyone if their visas have been revoked. It is something they find out when they attempt to visit the US. Compton-Antoine says this is a development that warrants an explanation from the Prime Minister.

In May this year the US Embassy revoked American visas belonging to Jamaican Energy Minister James Robertson and his wife. Jamaican artistes including Beenie Man, Jah Cure and Sizzla also had their visas revoked this year – all without public explanation.

   Micoud North MP Jeannine Compton-Antoine has confirmed she was sent to the US Embassy in 2008 at the behest of Prime Minister Stephenson King. The meeting took place during a well documented leadership struggle within the party when the Prime Minister was facing opposition from varying factions within the UWP. Compton-Antoine says the purpose of the meeting was to seek help from the US Embassy in ensuring the country remained stable.


During the meeting which took place in the early evening in Barbados Compton-Antoine met with a number of officials from the US Embassy based there. She also met with Police agents of the US government, namely the FBI and CIA. While she would not reveal what was told to her in the meeting – the MP admits the Prime Minister did follow some of the dictates of the US Embassy.

Minister Richard Frederick discussed the Wikileaks document on his Radio 100 Can I Help You program this morning. He acknowledged the existence of the documents – stating they pertain to thousands of people around the world including him – labeling them just information recorded by the Embassy based on personal accounts.
And in response to the statement from the Micoud North MP about his alleged role in the country’s instability in 2008, Minister Frederick says, “contrary to the assertion made by the Micoud North MP I was planning nothing.”

   What yesterday morning transpired in the House was as predictable as a Philip Pierre’s response to questions about Kenny Anthony’s stewardship as finance minister in the time of Rochamel and Grynberg: “I don’t know!”
Among those who still care about meetings of parliament, enough to be aware of yesterday’s session, there couldn’t have been many who did not expect the reluctant leader of the opposition to challenge the Speaker, if she ruled that the scheduled meeting could go on without a deputy.
Also expected were the ho-hum agreeable echoes from the MP for East Castries. In any event, it was he who opened the morning’s circus, following the Speaker’s invitation to the unresponsive House to nominate a replacement for Marcus Nicholas, an independent MP since his resignation from the ruling party.
Little of what Pierre offered had anything to do with the Speaker’s earlier ruling that it was evidently not convenient for the House to elect a new deputy. Obviously in campaign mode, the East Castries representative inquired about the reason the government side had found it inconvenient yesterday morning to nominate a replacement for Marcus Nicholas, then answered his own question. Along the way, he threw the usual Labour epithets at his colleagues on the government side, including the darkest motives for their refusal to step down to accommodate the election of a new deputy Speaker. Meanwhile, he neglected to mention why it was not convenient for his own side to offer up a candidate for the vacant post.
His efforts having gone nowhere, as far as the Speaker and the rest of the House were concerned, Pierre’s leader pathetically attempted a rescue operation. Sounding every bit like a village preacher, he pompously decided that the important issue centered on what he considered the proper interpretation of a line from the Constitution, at Section 36: that if the office of deputy Speaker falls vacant any time before the dissolution of parliament, “the House shall as soon as convenient elect another member of the House to that office.”
As one observed the opposition leader’s ham-fisted performance, the thought that repeated itself went something like this: “If he knows so much about the Constitution, then how to explain the several unconstitutional laws enacted in his time? If as he claims he understands the Constitution better than anyone else, then how to explain Rochamel and Grynberg and the apparent usurpation of the governor general’s authority?”
The Speaker remained unimpressed. Not even the normally boisterous MPs on the other side saw the need to challenge the leader of the opposition’s interpretation of “as soon as convenient.” After all, the Constitution also speaks unambiguously of actions to be taken immediately, as soon as possible, and as soon as practicable. What is so difficult about those words? I daresay their meaning is clear. As clear as “as soon as is convenient.” Convenient to whom? The whole parliament, by the Speaker’s quite understandable reasoning, if not by the opposition’s arcane dictionary.
In the end the Speaker over-generously permitted out-of-order repetitive protestations that recalled the heyday of Speaker St Clair Daniel. In his day Kenny and Company would’ve been shown the door for contemptuous House misbehavior after a ruling from the chair. The current Speaker actually allowed the SLP MPs to stand while she was speaking. That never would’ve happened in Daniel’s time in the lion’s den. But then, perhaps this Speaker knew she would not have to tolerate for long the demonstrated unparliamentary shenanigans. After the wannabe George Odlums had stood ignored for several minutes, they strode out as expected, on the heels of their leader-for-life. Ah, but Pierre was not yet quite finished. Possibly concerned about his mousey image, and despite the Speaker’s protests, he squeaked repetitiously for several uncomfortable minutes before fizzling out.
He picked up his Odlum-style purse and, like Elvis, left the building.

   St Lucia was very close to declaring a state of emergency in February of this year after 13 people were killed in just two months. There were loud cries for the police to take action and for the government to do something about crime. St Lucians were living in fear.
National Security Minister Guy Mayers says St Lucia’s situation at that time had similarities to what is currently going on in Trinidad with rising crime, especially murders although Trinidad’s is more serious.
The Trinidad government instituted a limited state of emergency weeks ago with a curfew from 9pm to 5am. This week the curfew times were relaxed to the hours of 11pm to 4am but the limited state of emergency was extended for three months. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was forced, despite heavy criticism, to declare a war on crime and since the curfew over 1000 people have been arrested. Persad-Bissessar’s justification at the time of the decision was that “there comes a time in the history of a nation when we have to take very strong action; very decisive action.”
For Saint Lucia’s part Mayers was quoted in the Trinidad Express as saying that the government considered the effect a curfew would have on the island’s tourism-driven economy.
“We operate as a region, so we are looking on with interest at what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago,” Mayers, who is also the head the Regional Security System said. “And, yes, at the height of the problems we were having here earlier this year, a state of emergency in the hot spots was certainly one of the options that were considered. When you are going through that kind of difficulty, you have to weigh all of your options, but we did not think we had reached a point where we needed to implement such a measure in St Lucia.”
Saint Lucia did however launch ‘Operation Restore Confidence’ that saw local police making their way into known crime hotspots, conducting searches and arresting offenders.
But as the hard hand of the police and army is criticized in Trinidad, the Royal St Lucia Police Force’s Operation Restore Confidence has also been questioned. So far for the year local police have killed 11 persons, with no word yet on whether Inquests will held to investigate the deaths. The island has already recorded 27 murders but no one can deny that the police force has become more visible and there has been an increase in the solving of crimes.
Case in point this week the police arrested and charged two young men in the shooting death of a young woman from Babonneau who was killed in Wilton’s Yard. The key to the case, the STAR was told, were tips from persons in the community. The young woman, 24-year-old Lisa Isidore was shot on August 26 by masked men while she was in Wilton’s Yard. The two young men charged for her murder were only 20 and 22 years old.
Family members of the young woman heaped praise on the people who helped to solve the case by giving the police tips.
This is a far cry from the St Lucia months ago when the police were begging St Lucians for help and some other citizens were even advising St Lucians not to help the police suggesting that the police could not protect informants.
The police have also been beefing up their community policing initiatives with help from overseas sources. And the STAR has been assured the police is putting even more resources into better community relations.
“We have seen a marked increase in people trying to help the police. The latest murder we solved was because of help from people,” said Press Relations Officer Trevor Constantine.
“Operation Restore Confidence sent a strong sign to people that we were serious about crime. There has been a decrease in the level of crime taking place in the country. You see police constantly patrolling the hotspots and people see that and that makes them feel differently about the police. We execute more search warrants and recover stolen goods and people come to us to recover their items. So Operation Restore Confidence has really allowed us to get the public to engage us again. There is a level of confidence now.”
Constantine also spoke to the effective use of community policing.
“We have really been trying to meet with the public on a one on one basis and we educate them about how as a community they can better protect their property. We don’t want normal law abiding citizens to see the police as an enemy. We are working together.”
The PRO added that police officers themselves feel better about the work they do.
“There is more of a positive attitude from officers, a pride with the job,” admitted Constantine. “The change in the relationship between the public and the police is especially seen when we approach people for information they are more forthcoming. This is what we are looking for, a partnership. It helps all of us achieve our goals. When police officers go out into a community and they are received well they also feel good about their jobs.”
Constantine added that Operation Restore Confidence “will not stop” because “there are so many trouble spots in St Lucia that we need to keep tackling. And we just hope the public sees our efforts and continue to help.”
Acting Police Commissioner Vernon Francois has often spoken about the role of the public in helping to solve crimes and has also called on St Lucians in the past not to let criminals take over.