标签： Jamaica

OCHO RIOS, St Ann — At a regular sitting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation held Thursday, People’s National Party Councillor Ian Bell, who represents the Beecher Town Division, delivered a pointed rebuke of St Ann’s top health official, calling out Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tamika Henry’s prolonged absence from the body’s monthly general council sessions.

Bell stressed that local municipal representatives have been denied critical access to the region’s top public health leader for a full 24 months, noting that Henry has only sent formal apologies for her non-attendance month after month without resuming in-person or virtual participation. “We deserve direct answers from the chief medical officer about the ongoing state of public health in St Ann, and we have a right to know why she has refused to join these meetings for two full years,” Bell told fellow council members. “This broken pattern of non-attendance is simply unacceptable and cannot continue.”

The criticism comes at an odd moment: just recently, Dr. Henry and her twin sister Dr. Tamara Henry-Gilpin, who serves as Chief Medical Officer for neighboring St Mary, were profiled by local St Ann publication *North Coast Times* for their decades of combined service in the medical sector and their reputed commitment to advancing local health care across both parishes.

This public celebration of Henry’s work only deepened Bell’s skepticism around her commitment to municipal transparency, he said. “If she is truly as dedicated to her role as the profile claims, she should honor the requirement to attend these local board of health meetings and engage directly with elected representatives,” Bell argued. He added that the current workaround of having Chief Public Health Officer Delroy Scott stand in to deliver presentations on Henry’s behalf is functionally ineffective.

“Multiple times, council members have posed pressing public health questions to Mr. Scott, but he does not hold the authority or the inside information to answer them — and we cannot fault him for that gap,” Bell explained. “I’ve watched council meetings from other parishes across Jamaica, and every single other region has their chief medical officer present to report directly to representatives. St Ann is the only outlier here.”

Scott, who was in attendance at Thursday’s meeting, acknowledged the criticism and addressed Bell’s concerns directly. He confirmed that scheduling conflicts are the primary barrier that has kept Henry from attending sessions, and committed to relaying the council’s frustrations to the CMO after the meeting.

A growing procedural and political dispute has erupted in Jamaica’s parliament over a decision by the parliamentary Ethics Committee to summon sitting MP Dennis Gordon for a second round of questioning, a move that the opposition’s senior leadership argues lacks legal and procedural foundation.

Phillip Paulwell, Leader of Opposition Business in the Lower House, outlined his objections in an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Friday, stressing that the committee has no inherent authority to reopen a matter that was already formally reviewed, approved and signed off by the full House of Representatives. Under existing parliamentary rules, Paulwell argued, the Ethics Committee can only revisit a closed case if the full Parliament issues a formal referral back to the panel for further review. Without this required step, he said, the committee’s current action is legally invalid.

The controversy traces back to Gordon’s earlier application for a standard exemption that allows MPs to conduct business with government entities. The Ethics Committee reviewed Gordon’s request during a closed-door sitting, approved the application, and submitted a formal recommendation to the full House of Representatives, which subsequently gave final approval to the exemption. The matter was considered settled until recently, when fellow MP Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn raised concerns that information Gordon provided during the original closed-door review conflicts with details that have since become public. This prompted the Ethics Committee to vote to summon Gordon back for additional questioning.

Beyond challenging the committee’s jurisdiction in this case, Paulwell warned that the unprompted move carries the clear appearance of unfair political targeting, a problem that risks eroding public confidence in parliamentary institutions. “It does give that appearance, and that’s why I have cautioned against it because as parliamentarians we have to make sure that the processes are evenly and impartially dealt with, and not due to witch-hunt or any other such motivation,” Paulwell told the outlet.

Paulwell also highlighted that the current handling of the case breaks with decades of established parliamentary practice. For his 30 years in the legislature, he explained, all exemption applications have been handled entirely in camera to protect the privacy of MPs’ personal business dealings. The public airing of details from Gordon’s case, he said, represents an inappropriate departure from long-standing norms that ensures fairness for all members.

The opposition leader added that this precedent-setting move could have lasting negative consequences for parliamentary governance. Inconsistent application of core procedural rules, he argued, weakens public trust in the legislature as an impartial institution. To resolve the impasse, Paulwell confirmed he will demand formal clarification from the government when the House of Representatives holds its next sitting next Tuesday. He said he expects Leader of Government Business Floyd Green to provide a clear explanation for the committee’s actions to move the process forward. As of Friday, Gordon has not issued any public response to the Ethics Committee’s summons.

A historic swearing-in ceremony held at King’s House in St Andrew on Thursday brought eight members of Jamaica’s judiciary into new, higher-ranking positions, with Governor General Sir Patrick Allen officiating the formal event.

The batch of appointments includes two acting Judges of Appeal: Justices Lorna Shelly-Williams and Carolyn Tie-Powell will hold their new posts from April 20, 2025 through to July 31, 2026. Two additional full appointments went to Tracey-Ann Johnson and Andrea Martin Swaby, who took office as permanent puisne judges starting April 13.

Completing the lineup of elevated roles, Master Kamar Henry-Anderson and Chester Crooks have been appointed acting puisne judges, while Christine McNeil and Yvette Wentworth-Miller will step into acting positions as Masters in Chambers. All four of these acting appointments will run from April 13 to July 31, 2026. During the ceremony, each of the eight appointees formally completed the required Oath of Allegiance and Judicial Oath to officially take up their new duties.

In his keynote remarks to the newly appointed judicial officers, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen emphasized that the appointments are a direct recognition of the group’s decades of accumulated legal expertise, as well as a clear signal of the Jamaican public and government’s deep trust in their personal integrity and commitment to public service.

He further noted that this round of judicial appointments strengthens Jamaica’s long-standing commitment to upholding the rule of law and ensuring the fair, unbiased administration of justice across all levels of the court system. “These principles form the bedrock upon which we encourage public confidence in our courts,” Sir Patrick told attendees.

“As you assume your duties, we depend on you to carry your share of the responsibilities in our society. Similarly, we depend on you to uphold this delicate equilibrium, resolute in your independence and unwavering in your commitment to justice, thereby preserving the dignity and integrity of Jamaica’s judiciary,” he added in his closing charge to the new appointees.

A heated political clash unfolded at the monthly session of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation in Jamaica on Thursday, sparked by a sitting councillor’s sharp rebuke of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president over public allegations of sexual activity in hurricane-run school shelters.

The controversy traces back to comments JTA President Mark Malabver made earlier this week during the opening of the JTA Education Conference in Hanover. Malabver, who also serves as principal of Yallahs High School in St Thomas and previously held the role of People’s National Party (PNP) candidate and caretaker for the St Thomas Western constituency, told delegates the union had received credible reports that displaced shelter residents were engaging in sexual acts where children could see them at some western Jamaican schools still being used as emergency housing months after Hurricane Melissa hit the island.

Though the schools named in Malabver’s claims are located in western Jamaica, the issue landed on the agenda of the eastern St Thomas municipal meeting due to Malabver’s deep professional and political ties to the parish. Dean Jones, a Jamaica Labour Party councillor representing the Trinityville Division, opened the floor with a blistering attack on the JTA leader, accusing him of exploiting his union position for political gain.

Jones argued that proper protocol required Malabver to escalate any confidential claims of misconduct to relevant state bodies — specifically the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Local Government — before airing the unconfirmed allegations publicly. “I want to say to the president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association that, if you’re seeking political mileage, you need to look elsewhere. You cannot politicise the office that you’re sitting in,” Jones charged. “He’s one of the worst presidents that the JTA has ever seen in the history of this country, and for that reason, you need to apologise to the nation for that statement that you have made about what happened in the shelter. You should have done due diligence. You should have called the person that is in charge before you go publicly and say these things.”

Jones emphasized that neither he nor his party condone the alleged behavior, but insisted due process must take priority over public grandstanding. “We agree, we are not condoning what you said happened in the school, in the shelter, we are against it. But at the end of the day, due process must follow. Go and do the right thing. Speak to the relevant authority before you come public,” he added.

Jones’ remarks drew an immediate pushback from Hubert Williams, a PNP councillor representing the White Horses Division in St Thomas, who countered that dismissing the claims out of hand ignores the far more urgent question of their veracity and the ongoing disruption of education from prolonged use of schools as hurricane shelters.

Williams noted that months after Hurricane Melissa displaced hundreds of residents across the island, schools should be returned to their core function of teaching and learning, rather than continuing to operate under disruptive shift systems or with entire classrooms blocked off for shelter use. “Where we would have a problem is if what Mr Malabver said was not factual. But I think once he is saying something, we can’t prove that what he’s saying is not factual… if these statements are factual, then the people of Jamaica should know about it,” Williams argued. “It is my honest opinion that the school must be restored to its original function. And if these things are going on, I think what we should do as a people, is since Mr Malabver made his statement, do the necessary investigation to find out if Mr Malabver is just trying to cause trouble. Because these are worrying things that we should be really concerned about, if it’s true, more than just shake them out like that.”

In his original remarks, Malabver called the reported incidents “deeply troubling” and warned that the prolonged use of school campuses as emergency shelters has created learning environments that are unsafe and unsuitable for students. Following the public controversy, Jamaica’s Ministry of Education confirmed it had not received any formal complaint about the alleged incidents prior to Malabver’s public comments, but has launched a formal investigation into the claims to determine their accuracy.