MLAs face busy day
(CNS): The country’s legislators are return to the Legislative Assembly on Monday to face a packed agenda. The lawmakers are expected to be debating seven pieces of legislation as well as dealing with parliamentary questions. This will be the third meeting of the tenth sitting of the 2010/2011 session and includes some controversial bills, along with the Advisory District Councils Bill, the Health Practice (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is coming up for debate. This will facilitate medical tourism and allow doctors from anywhere in the world to be registered to practice in Cayman. The Wastewater Collection & Treatment Bill, 2010, which will facilitate the privatisation of the country’s sewerage system is also expected to be debated, among others.
The Water Production and Supply Bill, 2010, The Water Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2010, The Prisons (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2010 are also on the table for debate.
This sitting of the legislature is the first since the House adjourned on 9 December when the country’s politicians had spent the entire day castigating reporter Brent Fuller over a news article he wrote, which was published in The Caymanian Compass, drawing attention to plans by MLAs to discuss amendments to the Freedom of Information Law behind closed doors.
Accusing the reporter and the paper’s editorial in connection with the article of insulting the Legislative Assembly and its members, the House voted in support of a motion tabled by independent MLA Ezzard Miller requesting the attorney general to investigate whether Fuller should be prosecuted, as well as to revoke his “right” to report on the Legislative Assembly.
Shortly after the session AG Samuel Bulgin said he would not be moving forward with a prosecution but it has not yet been clarified whether Fuller will be allowed back in the Assembly building.
The Caymanian Compass has, however, stated that it intends to boycott the proceedings and report on the events via other means, such as Radio Cayman’s evening broadcasts.
Category: Headline News
here is my issue with a lot of blogger and a general consensus that we must have in place programs for foreigners to be able to invest in cayman.
on the contrary. you are sadly mistaken.
where are the programs that are conscientiously designed to promote savings of locals. I hardly see them anywhere. they are but a footnote or a well designed mortgage scheme. it’s savings and productivity that enrich a nation. productivity will come from intellect in a service based economy.
educate the nation and stop convincing them to spend every paycheck on a new blackberry every month. get them off of bbm, out of the disco every night there is a special i mean come on. the island should be paragon of restraint not of profligacy.
savings man savings…
I would pesonnaly like see the high crime rate adressed first and create an adequate armed task force to deal with it a.s.a.p. As far as Doctors from any country being allowed to practice here I have great reservations about this.More need to be discussed on the subject;remember that there are many excellent Doctors in Cuba as well; I ask our members to really think of the long term effects on this rather then amending our laws for quick $$. Which job preference should be reserved for local caymanian population only first and then ….. I also agree that the rollover policy needs to be adressed urgently. We are loosing many good people who don’t necessarry want residency or status that could in return jeopartise their nationality of their country of birth. Many love it here, their children were born and grew up here and let them keep the nationality of their parents in which one day may want to return or retire to their Country of birth .Very few will either invest or make long term plans if we don’t address it and I beleive would ease tensions between caymanians and expats. We will raise the population without unbalancing the Caymanian population as far giving status we all know what happened the last time and should only be given to persons of close connections( marriage,parents or at least one grand- parent I beleive) or duly earned endorced by other Caymanians only similar to the old Cayman Protection Board which was 12 per year at the time. Those are my personnal views not affiliated with any political movement or anyone else for that matter.
Time to get over this Brent Fuller thing. XXXX The Compass does not do as good a job as CNS so the loss of their overall reporting is not a big deal.
Just to set the record straight –
Brent is a well qualified, experienced and award winning journalist who was working in Houston, Texas before coming to the Cayman Islands.
This post is libellous and should be pulled.
I was rather hoping that the Compass would send Brent Fuller to see in the Speaker had the balls to kick him out after all of the negative publicity they have received on the issue.
Forcing the Speaker and the rest of the tyrants to back down would be a moral victory for all of us anonymous bloggers, and a big step forward in keeping democracy alive in the Cayman Islands.
I agree with you. The editor and/or publisher of The Compass should have Brent Fuller there this morning when the LA doors open (perhaps in the company of an attorney).
This is a confrontation worth having. This issue should be settled with a bang—not with a whimper.
From the CNS report I understood that the Speaker had suspended Fuller’s privilege to attend the L.A. "for the remainder of the week" exactly one month ago. Mr. Fuller turning up at the L.A. this morning would therefore not have settled any issues. Of course if he had attended within the week he would simply have been ejected.
What about the rollover. Nothing mentioned anymore about that….
nothing like dangling a carrot to tease us!
I believe there are a number of good citizens that it would be next to impossible to replace if they are forced to go. Many arrived around the time of Ivan and are about to berolled over in the next few months. If legislation does not change now – and they have to leave for more than one month, they will be forced to establish themselves in a job elsewhere.
This will truly be a serious, and in some cases fatal blow to the businesses who will not be able to survive one more loss. It is already difficult to keep many of the Caymanian businesses from failing in this recession.
Many of those same good citizens are also very community minded and will be a loss to the Caymanian people that have grown to care for them deeply. I hope and pray along with you that this issue is addressed now – before it is too late.
This is to 10:42, yes we need to change our legislation. give them residency with the understanding it is valid to work only.
The most serious changes needed to the Cayman Legislation, is to remove the law that qualify one to own a trade and business license….at the moment you only need to prove you are a caymanian.
yep…just more hot air from mckeeva…….when will the journalists on this island ever follow up on all his broken promises?