On November 6, 2026, Union Senator Glenfield Dennison staged a public demonstration outside the main headquarters of Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) in Belize City, as part of his ongoing nationwide public education drive addressing the nation’s escalating cost-of-living crisis. Holding a placard emblazoned with the slogan “people over profit”, Dennison directed sharp criticism at the telecom giant’s executive leadership, alleging that the company consistently prioritizes corporate profit margins over the financial well-being of ordinary Belizean households.
As a key example of this alleged misplaced priority, Dennison cited BTL’s widely contested attempted acquisition of rival telecom firm Smart, a move that consumer advocates warned would reduce market competition and drive up household utility and telecommunication costs for thousands of local families. The senator also made a defiant public statement rejecting fears of potential detention, openly stating he would not be intimidated by law enforcement action, and that he was fully prepared to face arrest if that was the price for amplifying the struggles of working-class Belizeans grappling with surging daily expenses.
His appearance at BTL’s headquarters coincided with the one-year anniversary of a landmark ruling from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the Irving Marin severance case, where the court sided with former BTL employees who had spent years fighting the company for unpaid severance packages. Dennison emphasized that BTL’s refusal to honor fair severance payments for long-tenured staff directly reflected a culture of corporate greed that put shareholder returns ahead of the workers who built the company’s operational foundation. “The employees here have built BTL and will continue to build BTL long after the board of directors is gone. And so to the board of directors, put people first, but definitely put people ahead of profit,” Dennison stated during his address to gathered supporters. He went on to issue a direct, unorthodox call for authorities to arrest him if his solo advocacy campaign was deemed unlawful, saying “I wish they would arrest me. Please come arrest me. Unno ker me for protest because it my one man education campaign. Unno please bring it.”
Local resident Emily Turner, a concerned Belizean who attended the gathering, echoed Dennison’s concerns, noting that BTL leadership’s actions over recent months, including the attempted Smart acquisition, amounted to a betrayal of local stakeholders. “I think that, in the past couple months, we saw how the leadership of this company would have gone to lengths to, in my mind, sell out the Belizean or sell out this company by buying Smart. And I think we cannot lose focus on them. We have to keep an eye on them,” Turner said.
Dennison confirmed that his public educational campaign will continue through the coming week, before he joins the broader “Enough is Enough” mass protest scheduled to take place in Belmopan on Friday, November 13. The event is expected to draw hundreds of demonstrators from across the country calling for urgent government action to rein in skyrocketing living costs and unaccountable corporate practices.