Headline News
LA dodges basic wage debate
(CNS): Despite government claims that it is committed to a minimum wage, it was not prepared to debate the subject during Monday’s legislative proceedings. Both the premier and the labour minister said that a committee stage amendment brought by the independent member for North Side was irrelevant to the changes government was bringing to the labour law and it should never have made it to the floor of the legislative committee. Attempts by Ezzard Miller to insert a clause into the government’s bill removing the 12 week cap on workers compensation and to introduce a minimum wage of $5 were, after a long protracted battle, thwarted. This was Miller’s third attempt to get government to introduce a minimum wage which has failed.
Government fought for some time during Monday’s committee session not to allow the amendment to go to a vote and invoked a number of standing orders as well as chapters in Erskine May, the UK’s handbook on parliamentary procedure, to stop the amendment being brought before legislators. Although the speaker had allowed the motion for the amendment to be placed on the agenda, the premier said that Miller’s amendment was not only irrelevant but was procedurally incorrect, inadmissible and the speaker and the clerks should never have accepted it.
“This has no business before the committee. It is irrelevant and should be withdrawn,” the premier said, adding that government should not be forced into a vote over such an important issue when the clerk and the speakers were wrong to accept the motion in the first place. The premier said the member should withdraw the amendment and government should not have to vote on it.
Miller said it was music to his ears that government had realized there were rules in the Legislative Assembly but strongly disputed the accusations that he was out of order, that there was anything procedurally incorrect, or that the bill was irrelevant, adding that the amendment was properly before the House.
He also pointed to various standing orders as well as the precedent not only on this particular issue but on other historical legislative changes in the parliament’s history. Miller expressed his disappointment that the government members seemed so reluctant to debate a bill that was designed to help the working people and refused to withdraw his amendment. “I am not withdrawing the amendment,” he said, adding that the speaker and the clerks were correct in accepting and circulating the proposal. “Government cannot cop out on a vote by saying someone erred and I’m not withdrawing it and helping government out of this one,” he added.
The opposition supported Miller in his arguments that the amendment was procedurally correct and that there should be a vote on the amendment. Alden McLaughlin, in his new role as leader of the opposition, described the government’s behaviour as preposterous. He said it was very clear the premier regarded the subject as very political but the speaker should not allow those considerations to stand in the way of the proposed amendment being dealt with as it should be.
During the lunchtime adjournment McKeeva Bush spoke with the press and acknowledged the political sensitivity of the subject but he said the UDP was fully committed to introducing a minimum wage in the right way. He said there were still many issues to iron out and that his government was not prepared to just rush through an amendment in this way. “The UDP is committed to it but we can’t say at what rate,” he said, adding that it could well be more than $5 and that there were “tremendous matters” still to be considered when it came to the actual legislation for a minimum wage.
With both government and opposition in favour of a minimum wage it would seem that its introduction should not be such a legislative difficulty. However, the matter has been in the political arena for discussion for several years and no administration has yet been ale to pass it. Bush said that he, of all politicians, was the one that had helped to improve legislation when it came to labour laws and he was committed to getting this through as well.
“There will be a minimum wage,” he promised.
However, it was clear when the legislatures returned after the adjournment that it would not be the day that the minimum wage finally made it to the country’s statute books as the premier insisted that the procedure was incorrect and the amendment irrelevant. Although the government had taken a vote in the past on Miller’s amendments and voted ‘no’, this time it seemed particularly reluctant to take the amendment to a vote at all as it continued to argue points over procedure and relevance.
Eventually, the speaker saved the government from having to vote ‘no’ and said that the motion had to be withdrawn as the member had not supplied an amendment to the schedule of the law with his amendment to the bill. Miller asked several times for clarity on her position as he said he was not entirely clear what schedule the speaker was referring to, and was told she was referring to the schedule in the law.
Speaking after the House adjourned, Miller said he had to accept the ruling by the speaker but he was still not sure what she meant by an amendment to the schedule of the law because the labour law has no schedule. “In the end it seems that the government, despite what it claims, is reluctant to commit to a minimum wage,” he added. “We could have had one today if they were,” he said.
The opposition leader, who also supports a minimum wage, was concerned about what had happened with the amendment as he said the North Side member’s bill was properly before the House and should have been voted on. “How can the speaker approve a motion to amend the bill, circulate it to members, allow it to come to the floor of the committee and then after three hours of debate and browbeating by the government rule it to be unintelligible, incomplete and irrelevant?” McLaughlin asked rhetorically.
The government’s bill, which was the only piece of legislation for the day, amends the labour law to remove the 12 week cap on severance pay, compensation or pension benefits to employers who have worked for more than twelve years. The change was supported by both sides of the House and was eventually passed.
The members of the LA are due to return to the country’s parliament on Wednesday at 10am
See government’s bill and Miller’s proposed amendment below
Man acquitted of male rape
(CNS): A forty-year-old man from West Bay has been acquitted of rape of another man in connection with an alleged incident in January last year. The man was accused of forcing a 32-year-old man to have anal and oral intercourse against his will inside a van at a garage located in West Bay on the night of 8 January 2010. However, the judge, who was sitting alone in the case, returned a verdict of not guilty on Friday afternoon when she said that there was no corroborating evidence for the complainant’s account, which, she said, raised serious doubts about his version of events. Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop said as she delivered the verdict that she had “reasonable and not flimsy doubt” that the accused was guilty and the crown had not met the burden of proof.
The judge explained that since neither the medical report nor the scientific evidence supported the crown’s case against Leonard Ebanks, it came down to the complainant’s word againstthe accused, who vehemently denied the accusation. Although she said it was curious that the complainant would make up such details about what could be seen as a humiliating attack, the two men were known to each other and had a history of dispute. She said it was possible that the complainant had a motive to lie, as he said he was being bullied by Ebanks.
Given the description of the rape, which the complainant described as a lengthy, forced, rough and painful, that he was injured and in discomfort for several days after the event and that it was the first time he had ever had anal intercourse, the judge said common sense told her that there would have been some medical evidence of this rape. But, she noted, the medical exam conducted less than five hours after the alleged attack showed no lesions, tears or injuries to the alleged victim.
The judge also found in her ruling that the forensic evidence did not support the crown’s case. She said that although some of the accused’s blood was found in the van on a coil of electrical wire, Ebanks had admitted stealing from the van the previous evening and had dropped the coil on his shin, opening up a wound he had sustained that day. There was no other DNA in the van belonging to the defendant, despite the fact that the complainant had said his attacker did not use a condom.
The complainant’s DNA was, however, found in the van and on a tissue from the van mixed with another unknown person’s DNA but not that of the accused. Nor was any of the accuser’s DNA found on the complainant’s clothes or vice versa, despite the alleged close proximity of the assault and the arrest of Ebanks hours after the alleged attack. DNA found on the accused’s clothes was that of a female, and during his defence Ebanks had consistently stated that he was with two women and another male friend when the complainant said the rape had taken place.
According to the complainant, as he walked along a road in West Bay that night he was stopped by his attacker who threatened to hurt him unless he helped him moved some stolen tools in the garage on the road. The complainant said he felt something metal on his neck and believed all through the attack that the rapist had a gun. This, he said, was why he never attempted to run away, even though they had both had to climb over a fence to get to the garage and that during the alleged rape the attacker was not actually holding a weapon.
The defendant had persistently denied the allegation, stating that he was drinking with his three friends on the night in question but had been at the garage the night before, where he did steal a drill. He said the only time he was alone on the night of the allegation was when he walked to an address in Birch Tree Hill, where he purchased crack cocaine.
Both Ebanks and the accused had taken the stand during the three day trial and both men’s previous convictions had been aired in the court, calling into question both men’s character and credibility, the judge explained, and although she said that someone’s bad character did not necessarily mean a person would lie and although it was strange that the complainant would make up such a detailed rape, she did not think his account was credible.
Taking everything together, as the case boiled down to word of mouth, the judge stated, and given that the scientific evidence leant more support to Ebanks’ assertion that he did not commit the rape, she handed down the not guilty verdict.
Drugs found at Brac dump
(CNS): A small plastic Ziploc bag wrapped in customs tape containing what appeared to be illegal substance was found at the Cayman Brac dump by a member of the public mid-day Saturday, 19 February. CNS was called to take pictures of the bag, which was found unopened and hidden in a small purple duffle bag in a far corner of the island’s landfill. The Brac resident said she found the Ziploc bag at around 12:30pm and wondered how anything that had apparently been seized by customs could end up discarded at the dump. So, she told CNS, she opened it and looked inside and saw what she estimated to be 5 to 6 ounces of ganja and ganja seeds.
The resident left the bag with the CNS reporter and left the area, while we contacted the local Brac police. Two police officers arrived and took the possession of the plastic bag and also the purple bag it was found in. The officers estimated that the bag weighed about three ounces and could offer no explanation for how the drugs came to be at the dump. They said that suspected illegal substances seized by customs should be handed over to the RCIPS, who were responsible for destroying drugs.
A police spokesperson said that on Saturday afternoon police received a report that a small quantity of what appeared to be drugs was found at the Brac dump. “Officers attended the location and took possession of the package. Police enquiries into the incident are ongoing. Those enquiries will include liaison with customs officials," she said.
Drugs found at Brac Dump – old, not valid, not published
(CNS):tet A small plastic Ziploc bag wrapped in customs tape containing what appeared to be illegal substance was found at the Cayman Brac dump by a member of the public mid-day Saturday, 19 February. CNS was called to take pictures of the bag, which was found unopened and hidden in a small purple duffle bag in a far corner of the island’s landfill. The Brac resident said she found the Ziploc bag at around 12:30pm and wondered how anything that had apparently been seized by customs could end up discarded at the dump. So, she told CNS, she opened it and looked inside and saw what she estimated to be 5 to 6 ounces of ganja and ganja seeds.
The resident left the bag with the CNS reporter and left the area, while we contacted the local Brac police. Two police officers arrived and took the possession of the plastic bag and also the purple bag it was found in. The officers estimated that the bag weighed about three ounces and could offer no explanation for how the drugs came to be at the dump. They said that suspected illegal substances seized by customs should be handed over to the RCIPS, who were responsible for destroying drugs.
A police spokesperson said that on Saturday afternoon police received a report that a small quantity of what appeared to be drugs was found at the Brac dump. “Officers attended the location and took possession of the package. Police enquiries into the incident are ongoing. Those enquiries will include liaison with customs officials," she said.
Two more robberies reported
(CNS): A West Bay businessman was robbed of his takings on Friday night after robbers threatened him with a gun. Also on Friday at around midnight a man was taken to hospital after reporting that he was robbed and hit over the head with a bottle in the rest rooms at public beach. These two most recent incidents bring the total number of robberies on Grand Cayman so far this year to a dozen. In the first incident of the night in West Bay detectives say one of the robbers was wearing a Halloween mask. They said they have now launched an enquiry after the two men, one armed with what appeared to be a firearm threatened the man at his home before making off with the cash. No shots were fired in the incident and the man was not injured. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
At about 7.00pm Friday evening (18 February) the man locked up his business premises in the West Bay area and drove to his home in Crescent Close. He took a bag containing the cash into his home, leaving the front door ajar. He was then suddenly confronted by two men in his house who are believed to have entered through the open door. The suspect armed with what appeared to be the gun threatened the man and forced him to lie on the floor before they ran off with the cash. They are believed to have made off from the scene in what appeared to be a blue coloured, two door, soft-top vehicle, similar in shape to a Suzuki side kick.
The first suspect was described as about 5′ 7" stocky build and wearing a white shirt over his face with a Caymanian accent and the second who was wearing a Halloween mask said to be about 5′ 5” in height.
Meanwhile, shortly after midnight last night a man approached police officers patrolling n the public beach area and reported he’d been robbed. The man, who was attending the full moon party at Calico Jack’s said he had entered the male rest rooms on public beach when he was confronted by four males.
He said one of the men threatened him with a knife and demanded that he had over his wallet, watch and cell phone. One of the suspects struck the victim on the back of the head with what is believed to have been a bottle before the four suspects then left the rest room.
A short time later the victim reported the incident to police officers who called for an ambulance which took the man to the Cayman Islands Hospital, George Town, with a slight head injury. He was released following treatment but police said the victim is unable to provide descriptions of his assailants at this time.
Anyone who was in either of the areas at the relevant time or has any information about the incidents is asked to contact West Bay police station on 949-3999 or the confidential Crime Stoppers number 800-8477 (TIPS).
Cops plead for witnesses in Anna’s dissappearance
(CNS): It is now three weeks since George Town landfill worker Anna Evans disappeared from her workplace and officers involved in the enquiry are again appealing for any drivers or passengers who attended the landfill site on the day that Anna disappeared who have not yet spoken to police, to come forward. The last confirmed sighting of Anna was around noon on Thursday, 27 January at the landfill. On Thursday 17 February senior police officers met with Anna’s family and Mike Adam the community affairs minister to provide an update on the progress of the investigation so far.
The meeting included a question and answer session where members of Anna’s family talked directly to those involved in the enquiry and the police said the meeting was well received by all in attendance. A dedicated Family Liaison Officer will continue to support the family as the investigation into Anna’s disappearance continues.
Last weekend hundreds of people reportedly turnedout to join an organised search for the missing mother of five but there is still no trace of her.
Anyone with information can call the enquiry hotline on 526-0911 or the confidential Crime Stoppers number 800-8477 (TIPS).
PPM: Life worse under UDP
(CNS): Despite the criticisms directed at the previous administration and the blame that the PPM has taken for the country’s continuing economic woes, the new leader of the party says that most people in the Cayman Islands are worse off now under the United Democratic Party than they were when the PPM left office. As a result of the current government’s fee hikes, duty increases and its failure to kick start the local economy, Alden McLaughlin believes almost everyone is facing a reduction in their quality of life. In many cases people have lost their livelihoods because of the increased cost of doing business and everyone is paying more for goods and services than they were two years ago, the PPM leader said at the recent party conference.
“I believe that there would be few in this country outside the circle of direct patronage of the ruling party who would say that their lives and fortunes have improved since the PPM left office,” McLaughlin said. “For most people and businesses the assumption of power by the UDP has meant a reduction in the quality of life. In many cases it has meant a closure of their businesses as a result of the increase in operating costs.”
People are paying more for everything today than they were two years ago the new party leader pointed out in his conference speech last Saturday. He also spoke about the cuts in the salaries of civil servants and threats of more pay cuts, as well as record levels of unemployment in the wider community.
“For the first time in memory Caymanians are demonstrating because they can’t get jobs,” McLaughlin said, adding that, despite the fact the unemployed were taking to the streets, the current labour minister has said Cayman does not have an unemployment problem but an unemployability problem.
Almost two years into their term in office and in the face of regular announcement about various construction and development projects, the PPM leader said the government could not point to one single project that had actually started. Listing the numerous proposals that have been announced from the cruise berthing terminal to Dr Shetty’s hospital, he said nothing at all had commenced.
“The only project of consequence that the government can point to is the construction of the new government administration building, which was conceptualized, designed and commenced under the PPM administration,” he stated, adding that although government was now excited to move into it, only a few months ago they were ready to sell it and pay rent to the buyer.
He also lamented the delay in the schools and hurricane shelter project which he had started when he was education minister. The sites have remainedidle for 18 months since the contractor left but McLaughlin says the minister has insisted that it is not lack of money which is the reason for the one year and two year delays. He said the minister has repeatedly stated that the government has the resources to complete them so the reason for the continued delay must be that the government does not see the schools as a priority, even as the country’s children remain in the cramped, aged and inadequate conditions at John Gray.
McLaughlin also accused the UDP administration of returning to its old practices of ignoring the rules and acting unlawfully when it will save the country money. He spoke about the premier’s decision to overrule the Central Tenders Committee over the financing arrangements for the country’s loan and select the New York firm Cohen and Company. Having chosen substance over process, McLaughlin questioned how government “would pay back the money advanced by Cohen” and how much it was going to cost now that the deal had been cancelled.
The bashing of the media and the “frightful record of non-compliance” with FOI requests hadn McLaughlin saidn assumed “legendary proportions” as he awarded the government a failing grade.
Masked robbers hit local store
(CNS): In the ninth armed robbery of the year robbers wearing Halloween masks held-up a local grocery store in Prospect on Thursday evening. Police say that the two men were armed with what appeared to be a handgun when they entered the McRuss grocery store on Marina Drive at around 8.50pm. The men threatened the cashier, who was in the store with her 8-year-old son, as well as customers and demanded cash. The suspects grabbed a sum of money, ran out of the store and are believed to have then entered a black Toyota Prado before driving off from the scene. No shots were fired and no one was injured in the incident, a police spokesperson said. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
George Town detectives said the suspects are described as wearing dark clothing and Halloween type masks. One of the robbers was around 5’3" in height and the other was around 5’11". They both were of medium build and spoke with Caymanian accents.
Anyone who was in the area at the relevant time and witnessed the crime, or the suspects fleeing the scene in the black Prado, is asked to contact George Town police station on 949-4222 or the confidential Crime Stoppers number 800-8477 (TIPS).
Dump future still in question
(CNS): The chair of the team which will negotiate with the winners of the landfill bid shortly has revealed that Wheelabrator will be the ones to decide if they want to work with Dart, even though it is clear government now wants to move the landfill. Canover Watson said there was reason to believe that the waste-to-energy experts may welcome the opportunity to partner with the developer, given the potential investment the Dart Group is willing to make. Confusion over the future of waste management arose last month following the premier’s announcement that Dart would be capping the dump — contrary to the details of the original RFP. Watson admitted there were now a lot of new questions that would need to be considered in the negotiations but Dart was not driving that process.
Questions over the collection and delivery of waste, the need for new roads between George Town and Bodden Town where the new landfill site is likely to be situated, the possibility of a halfway collection point between the new landfill and the capital, as well as how Wheelabrator will make up the economic shortfall from not being able to burn existing waste for profit at the get go, are just some of the questions that will now form part of the negotiations. Watson said it was important to consider that almost 80% of the waste generated on Grand Cayman was in the West Bay-George Town area and how that would be handled was an important factor.
Despite the fact that the existing dump was part of the original RFP, which Wheelabrator had planned to mine and burn to convert to energy, the contents of the old dump are now no longer part of the contract.
As waste-to-energy experts, Wheelabrator had bid for the contract based on the potential profit it could generate from burning the flammable materials in it. As the firm will no longer have access to that material it will now be expected to generate profit from newly generated waste going forward, which means it could take considerably longer for the firm to cover its costs.
Speaking at the Cayman Business Outlook last month after the tendering process was closed and the preferred bidder selected, Premier McKeeva Bush announced that government had decided to move the existing dump.
"Government has decided to cap and and remediate the existing landfill and establish a new solid waste management facility, or eco-park, at a site to be determined," the premeir said.
"With our encouragement, Dart has agreed to take over and responsibly cap and remediate the existing site." The developer had agreed, Bush added, to provide a site of similar acreage to government and establish the platform for a new solid waste management facility. "We envision the new facility will include many components, including recycling, composting, and waste to energy and landfill."
He said government would ensure that any new landfill would be properly engineered with linings, collection systems and the technology that would ensure that it is environmentally responsible.
Watson, who chaired the original technical team and who will now lead the negotiations, says that having won the bid, Wheelabrator should still be given the option to negotiate under these new circumstances and that starting a new tendering process at this point would not be any fairer.
“Wheelabrator now has the option to make an assessment about the situation,” he said, adding that as the Dart Group was not the successful bidder it would not drive the process.
The goal, Watson said, was for the negotiating team to arrive at a sustainable solution that would benefit the people of the Cayman Islands and address the long standing problem of the George Town dump and future waste management.
The new aims of government to cap the old dump and create a new landfill were not necessarily in conflict with the aims of the winners of the bid, Watson said, and he hoped Wheelabrator would see the potential benefits. He said that he would be standing firm about Dart not automatically getting the full contract if a satisfactory solution could not be found between government and Wheelabrator.
“The Dart Group did not win the bid and was not one of the three preferred choices which the technical committee selected and the CTC confirmed,” Watson added. He said the local firm would not simply be handed the contract if a solution can’t be found with the winning bidder. “We can’t just circumvent the process,” Watson said. “Dart was an unsuccessful bidder and to just say we will now go with Dart if negotiations break down is not right. The CTC process has to have integrity. We can’t undermine it.”
Although there have been no formal talks as yet with the US based firm, the team’s chair said he hoped negotiations would begin in the first week of March and that they would be able to move ahead quickly. Many of the questions and issues that now have to be addressed are of a particularly technical nature and the Department of Environmental Health has recently employed a new waste management expert that will be working with Watson and his team through the negotiations.
Cop chopper to go to US
(CNS): As a result of opting to use an overseas maintenance contractor, the RCIPS will be without the police helicopter for more than a month soon, when the machine goes to the United States to be serviced, sources tell CNS. The RCIPScurrently has a maintenance contract with Arrow Aviation LLC, based in Louisiana, the company which did the original work after the helicopter was purchased from the UK in 2007. A police spokesperson recently confirmed that the RCIPS had been unable to secure a maintenance contract through the central tendering process and was seeking to directly employ its own engineer instead, but so far one has not been recruited.
Although one expression of interest had been submitted to the RCIPS in response to the request for proposals for the maintenance contract, police said the cost was excessive and not value for money, leading to the decision to keep the contract with Arrow until the service could directly employ its own staff.
It is understood that the only bidder on the contract was locally based firm Cayman Helicopters, which has worked with the police since establishing its helicopter tour business back in 2003. An RCIPS spokesperson stated that subsequent negotiations after the tendering process did not realize a cost effective agreement, hence the decision by the RCIPS to employ their own engineers.
However, as the police have not yet recruited a maintenance team, CNS has learned the helicopter will now have to go overseas for several weeks. When asked what contingency plans were in place while the air support unit was in the US and how long the unit would be out of action, the police said they were not prepared to comment.
“The deployment of RCIPS resources and equipment is an operational matter and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment," a police spokesperson stated.
Although the helicopter has created considerably controversy over the four years since it was purchased, Police Commissioner David Baines has hailed the machine as an important resource in the fight against crime.
With the recent revelations by Baines that Cayman is becoming a transshipment point for cocaine, coupled with the number of firearms coming on to the island, law enforcement agencies are under greater pressure than ever to protect the integrity of Cayman’s borders, which means patrolling the waters around the islands. Police have also pointed out that, despite not having a winch, the helicopter is extremely effective at coordinating search and rescue in partnership with the Marine Unit.