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Mac won’t back OMOV
(CNS): Although the opposition leader had an opportunity to make some political capital over the government's U-turn on its election promise for the introduction of ‘one man, one vote’, McKeeva Bush still doesn't back the voting change. He told CNS that the people of West Bay whom he represents don’t back it and he believes it would create significant problems for Cayman in the future. He said the matter should be decided by the people and there is no certainty that the return of a PPM government was a vote for OMOV, as he stands by the results of the July 2012 referendum. Bush said that the ballot was decided in accordance with the constitution and not hi-jacked by him, as has been suggested. and Cayman voted against it.
Bush said the campaign for OMOV in single member constituencies began against the backdrop of a "disastrous" global economic downturn.
"The PPM's wanton disregard and understanding of the situation after its … mismanagement of our local economy, with huge projects and no money, yet leaving the largest loan bill the country ever faced – the country could not continue with a protracted ‘campaign’ and that's what was going on then," he said as he recalled the events of 2012 which led him to call the referendum.
Insisting that the referendum wasfair, he said that although the petitioners had asked for a November referendum it was still a people-initiated ballot. He said that calling elections in November in the midst of the rainy season, which plagued past elections, would have cut voter numbers.
Convinced that the petitioners had collected enough signatures to meet the constitutional mandate for a referendum, he said he had moved quickly to deal with it as they wanted. He said the referendum put even more pressure on him and his then UDP administration at a very difficult economic time, and whether the vote had been in November or July, it was initiated by the people and the requirement to have more than 50% of register electors vote 'yes' before it passed was a constitutional hurdle that had nothing to do with him.
"I had asked them (the campaigners) to wait and take the OMOV question during the election in May 2013," Bush said, as he defended his actions over the ballot. "They would not understand, nor did they care about what the country was going through, and would not agree. They said no and then asked for November, roughly 6 months from the 2013 election. That was unreasonable."
Bush insisted that it was a people-initiated referendum, regardless of the dates, and he followed the constitution, which had been crafted by the current premier, who, he said, had "put in that foolish benchmark!"
"If people had come out to vote, my reading was they would have voted against it. And if they went and voted for it, you would not have heard one squeak about which process was used," the opposition leader said. "The proposal is to change our democratic voting system. This a matter that ought to be voted on to be agreed by the voters of this Island. Changing the democratic franchise should not be done without more serious thought given to it."
He said while people may say that the present system is not fair, it is a democratic process still practiced successfully for various kinds of systems of governance in Commonwealth countries.
"It has worked for us for over 180 years and I don't believe our people are worse off for it.
What is being proposed will bring many problems that Cayman won't hurdle in years to come. Those who propose it now have got caught in their own trap and now feel that once they put it in their manifesto it must go ahead. While they crucified me for the OMOV, as they think it will get rid of me and those who run on my ticket, no one knows if they were elected because of the OMOV proposition," Bush added.
But, he said, whatever the outcome on this issue now, he believes that some people will not be elected again.
"There are those who will suffer at the hands of the voter for misleading them and doing nothing for them," the opposition leader stated.
During the last debate on the issue Bush was absent from the chamber and did not add his vote to the government's, which was one of a chain of events that saw the government face a tie on the vote of the private members motion brought by Arden McLean, the independent member for East End, in the face of the PPM government's sudden about face on an issue that many believe did get them elected.
With a number of Cabinet members mysteriously absent from the chamber at the time of the vote and the support for the motion from Bush's two West Bay colleagues, Bernie Bush and Captain Eugene Ebanks, his eastern district fellow independent Ezzard Miller, as well as the government's own Bodden Town backbenchers Anthony Eden and Alva Suckoo, the vote came down to six no’s, six yes and several absentees. The speaker then cast the deciding vote to defeat the motion.
However, the issue is far from dead. While McLaughlin seems steadfast now that the system will not change in this administration because he doesn't have the full support of his non-PPM government members, others are not willing to let the issue go away.
As pressure from the community as well as organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce mounts on government to fulfill the promised to change the electoral landscape before the 2017 election, backbencher Al Suckoo has committed to bringing a motion to the House that he believes will show the there is considerable support from the government benches, flying in the face of his leader’s claims. Arden Mclean has said that the issue if far from resolved and he too is planning another private member’s motion.
As a result the two men could be in a race to see who gets this issue back on the parliamentary agenda first. Either way, however, once the topic hits the floor of the LA again, either the government front bench will be hanging their future political careers on its failure or the motion will pass, forcing the premier to come clean regarding the real stumbling blocks.
Migrants choose to return to Cuba
Passport issue tops JMC meet
(CNS): The UK's decision to repatriate its passport process is one of the specific areas of concern for most of the UK's overseas territories and was one of the main items on the agenda at the Overseas Territories Heads of Government pre-Joint Ministerial Council Meeting held in Cayman last week. With the exception of the Falkland Islands, where the decision has been made for its citizens to adopt a British passport and abandon their own unique territory passport, all of the other leaders, including Cayman's own premier, are concerned about this issue. At a press briefing following the two-day OT talking shop, Alden McLaughlin outlined a number of difficulties with the repatriation and said it didn't appear it would be resolved "anytime soon."
The annual gathering of OT leaders ahead of the yearly meeting with the UK, on home soil this time for Cayman and chaired by McLaughlin, provides an opportunity for the UK's territories leader to discuss their position on a range of priority issues relating to the UK's white-paper regarding its remaining colonies before they all meet with the UK minister and foreign office Mandarins in London in December.
Of the various issues causing concern, the move by the UK to bring all printing of British passports back to the UK appears to be a difficult one. In the final communique from the meeting, the leaders stated that a major aim was: "Ensuring the security and protection of our borders and the safety and welfare of our people, including access to all passports, specifically emergency travel, despite the UK’s new policy to repatriate the printing of all passports to the United Kingdom by the end of this year."
The passport issue not only raises concerns about cost but also the issue of travel to the United States, which is of particular concern to the regional territories and Cayman as it may require some British passport holders to get visas to travel to America.
The repatriation is scheduled to happen by the end of this year but given the recent challenges at the UK passport office, with long delays in the delivery of full passports, the UK government created a one year passport renewal to get past the delay for those with pending travel plans but these passports won't support the US visa waiver system known as ESTA, which means holders may have to go through the ordeal of applying for a US visa, which also takes months and will already have begun impacting Caymanians and other territory citizens.
McLaughlin was pessimistic about this "issue being resolved anytime soon”, as he warned that in order to meet the UK repatriation requirement and retain the country's name on Cayman passports, things would be problematic.
The overseas territory leaders pointed out that this problem was not of their making. At a press briefing last week Fabian Picardo from Gibraltar said it was a "unilateral decision taken by the UK" without consultation.
McLaughlin also explained that the way Cayman Islands passport holders' information will be sent to Britain has still not been sorted. He said he believed it would transmitted via the local passport office to the UK for processing and then once issued it would be sent back to Cayman.
Among the other issues discussed by the OT leaders was economic diversification, the principles of good governance in the administration of all the territories and the rights their citizens people to self-determination, as well as environmental concerns. In addition, the financial services sector and the thorny issue of an open register of beneficial ownership of offshore companies was also on the agenda.
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Jail for mental health patient
(CNS): While lamenting the lack of a proper treatment facility for prisoners suffering from mental illness, on Friday Justice Quin sentenced Debbie Ebanks to 12 months in prison after she pleaded guilty last week to robbery and related offences stemming from an incident in May when, half-naked, she threatened people with a machete, stole food from Café del Sol and Burger King, and smashed a display cabinet. However, in an unusual move, the judge decided the sentence would be partially suspended if and when Ebanks became suitable for release based on the recommendation of a mental health team and her probation officer.
The justice, defence attorney Fiona Robertson and crown counsel Elizabeth Lees all agreed that Ebanks, 39, was in need of treatment for her dual diagnosis of mental illness and drug addiction, but there are no suitable facilities to care for her in Cayman.
Justice Quin said everyone understands Ebanks is bright and intelligent and doing her best to give up cocaine, and that “everyone wants to see Ms Ebanks out and cured”. He referred to the pre-sentencing report of psychiatrist Dr Marc Lockhart, which said that she would be best served by uninterrupted treatment with a partially suspended sentence, with time in prison also to help treat her drug abuse.
“The concern is the use of the machete. Ms Ebanks could be a risk to others and a risk to herself. To Ms Ebanks’ credit, she accepts her guilt but has a serious drug problem,” Justice Quin said. “It’s clear the doctors feel a period of incarceration with medical treatment would be beneficial.”
In arguing for her client, Robertson said there was a complete lack of proper facilities to treat people like Ebanks. Calling the situation “deplorable and more like a Third World country”, the attorney said that incarceration does not work for Ebanks and that her client would want immediate release so she could be treated in the community. “She feels continued incarceration adds to her difficulty.”
Robertson pointed out that Ebanks had been attacked three times in prison – she has been in Fairbanks for the last two months – and has now been placed on lockdown for her own protection. “She is the victim. Instead of getting help, she is getting harsher treatment than anyone.”
She added that because society has failed, Ebanks has been placed in Fairbanks, that there is no proper separation facility for prisoners suffering from mental illness.
Ebanks’ uncle, Reginald Delapenha, who spoke at the sentencing, said he was committed to assisting any way he could and agreed she should stay under care. But, while he understood the need for incarceration, “as a society we obviously haven’t provided a suitable environment” for treatment of the mentally ill.
“This is a problem the community has struggled with for a while. Clearly, there is not a great priority in addressing this,” Delapenha said.
Ebanks, who is homeless, addressed the judge, pleading not to be sent back to Fairbanks and describing some of the hardships she has faced over the last 15 years, including living in abandoned cars.
Justice Quin referred to the professionals involved in her case, telling Ebanks, “These people are really trying to help you. Nobody wants to see you incarcerated; they want to see you get better.” He added that the 12-month sentence was appropriate for the offence, and accepted Dr Lockhart’s “strong” recommendation for her treatment.
“It is quite clear that there is a desperate need for a mental health facility. It is not fair, not right, not human that people can’t get that treatment. Today’s hearing demonstrates a chronic need.”
Justice Quin said that he would be happy to review Ebanks’ case at any stage to assess if she were suitable for release, adding that it was regrettable that he was constrained by the legislation to the facilities that are available.
Fire smoulders at the George Town dump Saturday
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Fire Service has said there was another fire at the George Town dump, Saturday. Fire officers identified a small area to the rear of the landfill that was smoking and appeared to be a surface fire. Immediately the crew jumped into action to start extinguishing the fire, officials said, while waiting for the excavator to overturn the garbage. Fire Chief Roy Grant requested that the fire trailer pump be brought to the scene straight away as it was beleived that the fire may be deep seated, and the immediate demand for water supply could be met the fire service added.
Borden obsessed, witness says
(CNS): Tracy Watler, the first witness in the trial of Brian Emmanuel Borden and David Joseph Tamasa for the murder of Robert Macford Bush on 13 September 2011, told the court Friday how Borden had on several occasions asked her to set up circumstances where he could kill Bush. While he was still in prison and in the months between his release on 5 October 2010 and the night of the shooting, he constantly asked about him to the point where, Watler said, he appeared obsessed with Bush.
Watler (24) said that she had met Borden when she was about 14 or 15 and they had had an intimate relationship when she was about 16. Sometime while Borden was still in prison they had resumed their friendship and she had started to visit him regularly. During this time they would talk often on unmonitored cell phones and, she told the court, he mentioned Bush during almost every phone call and asked where he was.
She said that Borden asked her three or four times if she would help him to “set up” Bush when he got out, which she took to mean help Borden to kill him by taking him to a particular location.
On one occasion, Watler said, she was on the phone to Borden while she was with Bush, who was having an argument with his then girlfriend. “Brian asked me to tell Robert that when he got out of prison he was going to kill him,” she said. But when she relayed this message to Bush, he just walked off with a grin, she said. “I don’t think he took me seriously.”
After Borden was released from prison their relationship had become intimate for about a month, she said, but was adamant under cross-examination that she had been the one to break up this relationship and, far from being jealous when he began seeing someone else, had in fact been relieved.
Watler said she was also friends with Robert Bush, the victim, and he had told her that he was in a sexual relationship with Mayra Ebanks. Around the same time Brian Borden also told her that he was having sex with Ebanks, she said.
Around the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 Watler went to live with a relative whose boyfriend was a friend of Bush. Borden was in favour of her going to live there and she told the court that she understood why: it was because she would be close to the two men.
In July 2011, she said, she spoke to Borden every day and once or twice he asked if he could sleep with her, and she believed this was because he knew that Bush slept on the couch if he had had too much to drink. Borden had told her, she said, that it would be easy to kill him. She said he used to call if he knew Bush was at the house and would ask her to let him know when he left.
One night, Watler said, after she had taken the garbage out, he called her and asked her why she was taking the garbage out so late. “You watching me, or what?” she asked him. He asked her to tell her when Bush, who was sleeping there that night, was leaving but instead she turned her phone off. In the morning there were about four or five missed calls from Borden, she said, and when he called her again late that morning he told her, “You made the mosquitoes bite me up,” which made her believe that he had been outside the house all night waiting.
Once, when Bush was sleeping on the couch, Borden had asked her if she could open the window so he could shoot him. It was said in a joking way, Watler said, but she thought that he was serious and told him she didn’t know the code for the alarm on the window.
About a week before Bush’s murder, around the time of her birthday, which is 5 August, Watler was celebrating at a nightclub when Borden called her, she told the court. She thought that he asked her if Bush and his friend were drinking at her apartment.
“I thought it was a question but he said, ‘I’m not asking you, I’m telling you that they are there.’ He asked me if I could let him know when I get home if he was still there,” she said. Watler said she told him she would but in fact she had no intention of going home that night. The next morning she found she had a number of missed calls from Borden and later he asked her why she hadn’t called him.
The trial continues in Grand Court Monday morning.
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Fire at unoccupied home in Bodden Town
(CNS): Investigators from the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and the Cayman Islands Fire Service were still at the scene of a structural residential fire located at Lemuel Circle, Northward Road, Bodden Town, police said Saturday lunchtime. The fire was reported by passing pedestrian at 6:13am on 19 July and when they arrived fire officers determined that it was in a smoldering state that was confined to one room of the house. Police said the residence was unoccupied at the time and there are no reported injuries. The scene is still under investigation.
Anyone who was in the area at the relevant time and heard or saw anything that may assist with the investigation is asked to called Bodden Town Police Station at 947-2220, the RCIPS tip line on 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers on 800- 8477((TIPS).
Driver robbed at knife point
(CNS): A taxi driver reported to the police that he was robbed at knife point late last night. The RCIPS received a report at 11:45pm on Friday 18 July that the male victim, who received minor injuries during the incident, was dispatched to a service call at Deckers Restaurant and Bar on West Bay Road. When he got there, he drove to the rear of the building, where the two male suspects, who had their faces covered, got into the taxi and demanded cash. They were then driven to the roundabout near AL Thompson and were last seen on Sound Way George Town, police said. The suspects, who stole an undisclosed sum of cash, both had dark complexion, were slim built and wearing dark clothing.
Anyone who was in the area(s) at the relevant time and saw or heard anything suspicion is asked to contact George Town Police Station at 949-4222, the RCIPS tip line on 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS).
WB shooting trial begins
(CNS): The trial of Brian Emmanuel Borden (29) and David Joseph Tamasa, who have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Robert Macford Bush in West Bay on Tuesday 13 September 2011, began Thursday in a judge-alone trial before Justice Alex Henderson. The crown contends that one of the two shooters was Borden and the men were firing ammunition supplied by Tamasa. The prosecution says that both the defendants later boasted of their part in the killing of Bush to a friend, who will be a key witness in the trial.
On the night of his death, 28-year-old Robert Macford Bush was picking up his girlfriend, Mayra Ebanks, at the junction of Capts Joe and Osbert Rd and Birch Tree Hill Rd in West Bay, as he was in the habit of doing, when two gunmen approached the car from behind and began shooting. Bush started to drive away but lost control of the car, which crashed into a wall, trapping him inside as the gunmen, one armed with a shotgun and the other a 9mm handgun, approached the driver’s side of the car and shot him twice in the head at close range, injuring Mayra Ebanks with shotgun spray as she sat in the passenger seat. The pathologist concluded that both shots would have been fatal.
In his opening statement, Andrew Radcliffe, QC, the lead prosecutor, said that Borden was one of the shooters and the other was Keith Montaque and they had been given a heads-up that Bush was on his way.
A series of messages between Mayra and a phone belonging to David Ebanks, which the crown believes was being used by Jordan Manderson and was telling him that Bush was coming, ended at 11:08pm that night. At 11:14pm the David Ebanks phone sent a Blackberry messages to Brian Borden, who was in the vicinity of the murder according to cell site evidence, and not, as he had claimed to police in a statement before he was a murder suspect, at home at the time. The 911 call after the shooting made on Mayra’s phone by Tishara Webster, who had arrived on the scene and taken the phone from Myra, who was screaming and hysterical, was made at 11:20pm.
Radcliffe explained to the court that the content of Blackberry messages is stored on the devise itself and nowhere else. He said that at 11:25pm, just a few minutes after the killing of Bush, the David Ebanks phone removed Borden as a contact, thus deleting forever the content of all messages between those phones – though not the fact that they were made. However, while the Ebanks phone initiated the removal of the contact between them, it took until 11:52pm (27 minutes) to achieve this.
The prosecutor said the only possible explanation for this was that Borden’s phone was switched off between those times and suggested that Borden knew enough to understand that this action would delete all the messages – perhaps by watching television – but did not understand that both phones had to be turned on to complete this action. Radcliffe invited the conclusion that the timing of this indicates that it was done in order to hide their criminal involvement.
The prosecutor said that an off duty police officer who was on the scene very quickly recognised Bush and saw that at that time he was still alive. USG officers arrived within five minutes of the 911 call and cordoned off the scene. When the paramedics arrived within 15 minutes of the 911 call, they tried to save Bush but could not find a pulse.
Radcliffe said that later, in mid-2012, while Borden and Tamasa were being given a ride by their friend, Marlon Dillon, Borden bragged about killing Bush as they passed the murder spot. After they dropped Borden off, the conversation continued and Tamasa boasted to Dillon about his role, which was supplying the ammunition. The prosecutor said that when Dillon told police about this he could not possibly have known that the cell site evidence would support it.
Tomasa has denied to police that he was friends with Dillon and claimed he only knew Borden slightly. Both the defendants, Radcliffe said, have also denied that this car trip ever took place.
Bush had been warned by Tracy Watler that Borden wanted to kill him, Radcliffe told the court. After he was released from Northward prison in October 2010 and repeatedly up to August 2011, he had asked Watler to set up circumstances so that he could do this but she had refused. Radcliffe suggested that this hatred stemmed from the fact that they were from rival gangs but jealousy may also have been a motive, since Borden had previously had a sexual relationship with Mayra Ebanks, something he had denied in a police statement in September 2011.
The crown believes that Jordan Manderson not only tipped off the shooters, Borden and Montaque, but may have also supplied the weapons. Manderson, the crown said, had previously told Mayra Ebanks that anyone wanting to kill Bush would have to contact him to “get the things”, which she took to mean guns. On the day Bush died, the crown said, Manderson had been at her home and had received a cell phone call and she was close enough to him to recognise the voice as being Borden’s. She could hear that he was telling Manderson that he was coming “for the things”, Radcliffe said.
The trial continues in Grand Court this morning.
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Murder defendant to wait 2 years for day in court
Government seeking holistic approach to job seekers
(CNS Business): The National Workforce Development Agency is looking to partner with other agencies for those clients looking for work who have needs above and beyond what the NWDA can offer, according to the Employment Minister Tara Rivers. Speaking to CNS Business, she said that for example, they will be working with the Department of Children and Family Services for those clients who may need assistance with the housing or other social issues, and the Health Service Authority for those people who may have mental health issues need counselling or other help to deal with those barriers. Read more and watch the video