Headline News

Bush goes back on tour

Cayman News | 18/09/2010 | 113 Comments

(CNS): The country’s premier is leaving the Cayman Islands this weekend on another international tour where he will be promoting the islands at a series of meetings and conferences over the next two weeks. The world trip includes talks with the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) in Miami, a United Nations conference in New York, the OECD Global Forum in Singapore, the opening of a Cayman office in Hong Kong and a Commonwealth Financial Ministers Conference in Washington. With the deputy premier still at the CPA conference in Kenya until 25 September, Education Minister Rolston Anglin will act as the country’s premier next week.

Bush starts his tour in Miami with talks regarding the local cruise industry with representatives of the FCCA. The next stop is New York, where he will spend the rest of the week at the United Nations to assess progress made in addressing the vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States.

The press office did not say who will be accompanying the premier on the first US leg of the trip but after the UN round table discussions he will be accompanied by a delegation from the Financial Services Secretariat to Singapore to attend the OECD Global Forum. The press office said the representation is required as the Cayman Islands sits on the OECD Steering Committee.

From Singapore Bush will then go to Hong Kong for the launching of the first phase of the government’s Asian programme. The government is opening an office there as a way of building relationships with key members of the Hong Kong business community in preparation for a presence in China. There was no indication from the press office who is travelling with the premier on that leg of the Asian trip.

The next stop is Washington, where Bush will attend the annual Commonwealth Financial Ministers Conference before he is expected to return to the Cayman Islands at the end of the month.

The deputy premier is currently in Kenya for the 56th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, she left the Cayman Islands accompanied by her police driver/bodyguard on 7 September. The conference which focuses on parliament and development in the 21st Century was officially opened by the Kenyan Prime Minister on 14 September and closes this weekend. However, the deputy premier is not expected back in Cayman until the end of next week.

Mac has eye on Asian pie

Cayman News | 17/09/2010 | 67 Comments

(CNS): The Cayman Islands should be able to benefit from the growth of economies in the Far East but the country has been slow to recognise the shift of business from the west to the east, the premier has said. McKeeva Bush has announced that he will be travelling to Singapore and other countries next week in order to promote Cayman as a potential business jurisdiction as well as a tourist destination and tap into the growing economies there. Pointing to China in particular, Bush said it was second largest economic power in the world and Cayman had to form a relationship with that nation because before long its economy would overtake that of America.

“Its rate of growth and industrialisation has never before been experienced in the history of the world,” the premier said of the Asian giant. “The achievements of China are unprecedented and failure to recognise and form relationships with a country growing at this rate with the largest base of possible wealthy tourists in the world will be to our detriment. “

During his trip to Asia the premier said he would be promoting the Cayman Islands as a business friendly, sensibly regulated jurisdiction as part of government efforts to encourage new business to Cayman. “The window of opportunity is short as there are numerous businesses considering moving some of their activities to other jurisdictions, of which we wish to be one, and at the same time there are numerous businesses in Cayman considering other locations,” he warned.

Bush said that over the past number of years, Cayman had failed to recognise the impact of globalisation and failed to implement immigration policies in a manner which allows the continuation of growth in the country’s major industry.

“Our unfriendly over-nationalistic policies allows countries such as Canada, Ireland, Europe to encourage the movement of good jobs and economic activity created by our financial industry, which enjoys the registration of the majority of hedge funds in the world, the leading banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions in the world, to their countries,” he said in a television address on Thursday evening.

His government policy, Bush told the television viewers, was to enhance and encourage economic growth, and in order to do so the country had to bear in mind the changing global conditions. He said that the mistakes of the past couple of years had to be reversed.

“Over the last 16 months we have worked diligently to improve and correct our international image,” he added. “We have strengthened incentives which will encourage persons relocating from other major countries to consider the Cayman Islands as an acceptable place to establish and maintain their businesses.”

Cayman he said had to be competitive and to encourage businesses to come to here instead of Switzerland, Ireland, other parts of Europe, Canada, Singapore, and China, which he warned was also now in the process of creating an international outsourcing financial centre.

Premier says rollover gap can be cut

Cayman News | 17/09/2010 | 94 Comments

(CNS): The premier told the country on Thursday night that he has legal advice from the UK which says the Cayman Islands government can make the rollover as short as it chooses and he will be examining changes to the immigration policy. Speaking to the country during a television address, McKeeva Bush raised the issue of immigration and the need to attract people to the Cayman Islands as well as the need to encourage people to keep their earnings here. He said that Cayman was exporting part of its GDP as a result of the way the country’s immigration policy encouraged foreign workers to send money out of Cayman. He said any country which exported its GDP was doomed to failure.

Bush stated that new initiatives and incentives were needed to encourage people to relocate to Cayman and conduct business on the ground here, a key factor that government had to focus on. He said Cayman was not offering security for staff of potential investors or good service, which had to be addressed.

“These initiatives can be achieved without the necessity of granting Caymanian Status,” he said. “We have legal advice from the UK that says we can make the rollover time as limited as we want to in our legislation.”

Currently the law requires expatriate workers on work permits to leave for a minimum period of twelve months after working for seven years before they can return. The period was originally set at two years but was then reduce to twelve by the previous administration as they said it was the minimum period which could be accepted in law as a genuine break in stay. This would then prevent all permit holders from meeting the threshold to be entitled to begin the process of becoming Caymanian and in turn what was perceived as an imbalance between indigenous Caymanians and foreign status holders.

Bush did not say if he intended to scrap the concept of the seven year rollover policy or, if it remained in place, how short he was willing to make the mandated break in stay but he implied there would be immigration changes. He added that everybody needed to examine how best people could be attracted here while still creating jobs and upward mobility for Caymanians. Bush further revealed the intention to remove work permits for visiting foreign business people who were here for short business trips.

He said he would make a further announcement on the issue of immigration in a few weeks.

Bush also sent a warning to the members of government appointed boards would be changed if they were either incapable or unwilling to carry out government wishes or were not complying with government policy for enhancing economic development.

Following Wednesday night’s public meeting, when the premier berated the bureaucracy of the public service, on Thursday he used the TV platform to criticise the wider members of society who were not supporting his efforts to attract development. He warned that he would be “asking the governor to do something” about people who worked for government who were not supporting him.

“As premier I cannot and will not allow our country to suffer at the hands of a few,” he said. adding that it was time to embrace foreigners and guest workers to Cayman as they were an intrinsic part of the economy. He warned that with as may as 10,000 people gone from the country, if this wasn’t addressed the country would not be able to pay bills, there would be more unemployed, children would not be able to receive an education and government would not be able to pay the civil service wage bill.

Jury says 3 men are guilty

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 71 Comments

(CNS): Full story — Patrick McField, Osbourne Douglas and Brandon Leslie-Ebanks have all been found guilty of the murder of Omar Samuels in McField Lane, George Town on 5 July. The verdict was returned just before 4:00pm this afternoon (Thursday 16 September) to a courtroom filled with friends and family of the defendants. When the unexpected verdict was delivered by the foreman, the families of the three men broke down in shock and grief at the result. The judge took a short adjournment after the jury’s verdict was delivered before pronouncing the mandatory life sentence on all three defendants as the men’s families wept in the public gallery. (Photo courtesy of News27)

The defence teams said they were unable to comment on the verdict but each one confirmed that they would be filing appeals as soon as possible on behalf of their respective clients.

Brandon Leslie-Ebanks’ mother and brother told CNS that they were shocked by the verdict. Brandon’s mother said that, given the gun crime in Cayman at present and the murder which took place during the trial, this may have influenced the result, but she said it was a travesty of justice to convict innocent men as was the situation in this case with her son and his co-defendants.

“Convicting innocent men of a crime won’t solve the problem that we are facing in our community,” she said. “My son is not a murderer, he does not carry a gun, but because of the bad things that are happening in Cayman it is influencing people to think all young men are bad. He is not guilty of this crime and the man who fired that bullet and killed Omar is still free. Justice has not been served,” she added through her tears

Matthew Leslie, Brandon’s brother said, “This is very distressing for us at present, especially for my mom for whom this has been a stressful ordeal, as the evidence simply did not support the result. However I am confident that this will be overturned in the Court of Appeal where the evidence will be properly assessed.”

Leslie said that all of the friends and relatives of the defendants were shocked and surprised because they believed that the widely contradictory evidence of the crown’s eyewitnesses and the inconsistencies with the forensic evidence simply did not point in any way to the guilt of the young men.

Brandon’s brother also noted that the passing of the police bill as well as another murder involving a firearm during the trial may well have served to have a negative effect on the community.

Kim Evans, who was since retired from the RCIPS but was the senior investigating officer on the case at the time, was also in court to hear the verdict. He said that the officers involved had worked very hard on the enquiry and justice had been served.

Mac berates bureaucrats

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 67 Comments

(CNS): The country’s premier has taken another swipe at the bureaucracy that he says is hampering his efforts to get the country’s economy back on track. He described the bureaucracy as “silent, passive non-compliance” and a “dragging of feet” when people were opposed to government projects. Although he did not call out the civil service directly, he implied that it was within the government mechanism that he was encountering the problems that prevented him from getting what he wanted done. McKeeva Bush raised the issue at a George Town public meeting on Wednesday night as he talked about the current state of the economy and efforts to turn things around. He warned the audience, in which there were a number of public servants, that he was going to stop it. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

“In government there is a lot of bureaucracy. Believe you me, I have never seen as much bureaucracy as I am seeing now,” he said, adding that while sometimes it was good to have bureaucracy as it ensured transparency and best interests of government and the people, too often it was used as a barricade. Bush said there was a series of hoops that politicians have to repeatedly jump through to get a single project done.

“Sometimes bureaucracy is used as an excuse for the dragging of feet because someone doesn’t agree with the project or doesn’t want to see the project accomplished,” the premier told the audience gathered at the newly renovated George Town Peace Hall. “It is what I have heard referred to as a silent, passive, non-compliance from the people paid to advance the policy of objectives. It’s a dragging of the feet that prevents us from making positive progress.”

He said that he should not be standing there talking about getting a waste-to-energy project going in the near future; he should have been giving a progress report on a job which had already started months ago. However, bureaucracy had held the project up, he claimed. It was just one example he gave, adding that a number of things were being “deliberately bogged down”.

“I wish I had gotten more done in the past twelve months … but I am not going to stand for it any longer, not when people are out of work and losing their homes,” he warned. “We were given a mandate and that mandate must be carried out.”

He said he was not afraid of losing elections as he had lost them in the past and it had made him stronger. Bush added that he was now going to apply pressure in order to get things done though he gave no indication of where that pressure would be applied.

“We don’t have time to play games simply because someone doesn’t agree with a policy decision, or because someone doesn’t trust someone else, or because someone doesn’t want to see someone else get the work,” the premier complained, adding they were using their positions to stand in the way of projects and slow them down. “The economic situation is deadly serious. The world is not going to wait for us to get our act together or feel sorry for us. What has to be done must get done.”

He said doing everything at a snail’s pace would be to the country’sdetriment if not to its total destruction as money wouldn’t come in and bills and salaries wouldn’t get paid. Too many are going to get hurt, he said.

Asked by a member of the audience what he meant by "the bureaucrats" and for more details and specifics on who was holding things up, Bush said that was perhaps a question he really did not want to answer but he said, “Let’s say we are going to something about it.”

Cops clear up 8 robberies

Cayman News | 15/09/2010 | 16 Comments

(CNS): Of the more than forty armed robberies that have taken place in Grand Cayman this year so far, the police have revealed that they have charged people in only eight of the incidents. Since January, gas stations, liquor stores, fast food joints, grocery stores and homes have all fallen victim to armed villains. Cash, wallets, phones, even pizzas and sodas have been stolen at knife and gun point by a mixture of robbers. Men and women, girls and boys, Caymanians and foreign nationals have used, or threatened to use, violence in the execution of the crimes which have shocked the community. So far, seven men, two teenage boys and three teenage girls have been charged with robbery and are are now going though the court system (Photo Dennie Warren jr)

One of the most serious robberies occurred in June when police were fired upon following the robbery at Mostyn’s gas station in Bodden Town by three men armed with guns, but only one teenage boy has been charged so far.

Four teenagers have been charged and have pleaded guilty in the Domino’s Pizza robbery in Savannah, which also took place in June. They remain in custody and are awaiting sentencing.

Police have recently charged 27-year-old Norvell Barret with two robberies which occurred in George Town in August: first, the Tortuga liquor store at the junction of Boilers Road & South Church Street, which was robbed in broad daylight on 17 August, and the following night at the Esso station at the junction of Shedden Road & Thomas Russell Way.

Four men have also been charged with robbing a pizza delivery man in West Bay in July and another man has been charged over a daylight robbery of a store in West Bay in the same month.

The police also said they have charged a man regarding an incident which occurred in Maple Road, George Town on 19 April.

Despite only clearing up eight of the robberies, the police said that other arrests have been made in a number of the outstanding cases and police enquiries are ongoing in all of the unsolved robberies.

Although the community has voiced enormous concern about the increase in violent crime and the spike in robberies since May, the police commissioner has accused the media on many occasions of sensationalising the problem.

Workers returning soon to school site

Cayman News | 15/09/2010 | 31 Comments

(CNS): Following the announcement by the education minister that the construction management contract on the two public high schools has been awarded to a local consortium of companies, workers are expected to return to the site in significant numbers in a matter of weeks. One local subcontractor said the most important next step in the process was for the new construction manager (CM) to figure out a schedule which will dictate the manning levels at thesite and get people back to work. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly this morning, Rolston Anglin said he expected work at the site to be fully mobilized within 30 days.

Allen Roffey of Caribbean Mechanical congratulated government on finalizing the tender and said he was looking forward to seeing the project back on rack. He said his firm had continued to do a considerable amount of work on the sites during the period since work officially stopped almost one year ago.

The announcement that the Central Tenders Committee had accepted the recommendation of the ministry on the bid from the local company made up of McAlpine, DECCO Ltd and Arch & Godfrey was made in the Legislative Assembly this morning.

The contract was a re-tender and it is worth just under $2.3 million, which the minister said represented the best value for money for government. This contract is awarded following revised plans for the schools project, which will see them finished over a phased period.

The consortium had put in a bid for the original tender but had been one of the most expensive bids. However, at that time the consortium included Hadsphaltic which has since gone into receivership.

With the contract now sorted Anglin said this not only had positive implications for the construction of the two government high schools, it was also good news for the local construction industry. “This award will stimulate the local construction industry, as contracts will be let for various works. It is the intention to sub-contract as many small construction packages as possible, with the aim of maximizing opportunity for the local contractors,” he stated.

He said his ministry, unlike his predecessor, had obligated the contractor to use local subcontractors who employed Caymanians and that the government would be monitoring staff lists of those working on the project to make sure that unemployed Cayman construction workers would be employed.

The Clifton Hunter site in Frank Sound will be the first of the two schools to be completed and the construction manager will assume responsibility for supervising the trade contractors and the day-to-day construction activities at both sites, which will, at that point, be increased to levels necessary to complete the projects. He explained that work at John Gray will focus on particular buildings which educators have prioritized.

Aside from the work undertaken by Caribbean Mechanical and other smaller jobs that have been undertaken to maintain the sites the school projects have been stopped for ten months.

The original general contractor Tom Jones International walked off the job in November 2009. The government is now engaged in what is likely to be an expensive and lengthy legal fight with the contractor. In the first round of the court room battle last month government wholly failed in its attempts to have TJI’s legal claim against it thrown out and was forced to pay costs.

Civil liberties under attack

Cayman News | 15/09/2010 | 21 Comments

(CNS): The combination of the forthcoming enactment of the police bill, further changes to the Court of Appeal bill and other recent legislative changes have been criticised in the wider community as undermining civil liberties. George Town MLA MLA Alden McLaughlin told the Legislative Assembly that there was an “emerging trend” in changes to legislation that appeared to be designed to strengthen the hand of the prosecution and give the crown a better chance at conviction. McLaughlin pointed out that this ran counter to the principle that the state is already more powerful than the accused, and was now making it even more difficult for people to defend themselves.

The opposition MLA and lawyer pointed out that, given the attitude of the current administration towards legal aid, the continued tweaking of legislation in favour of the crown was very worrying.

“There has been a trend by the attorney general over the course of the past few years to continuously and consistently adjust and amend the various pieces of legislation or to create new provisions to constantly strengthen the hand of the prosecution in relation to its conduct,” McLaughlin said following the presentation of the Court of Appeal Amendment 2010.

This particular change will allow the state to appeal cases withdrawn or closed by a judge on wider issues than just on a point of law. Attorney General Sam Bulgin said when presenting the bill that there had already been cases where the Court of Appeal had indicated it would have overturned a judge’s decision to throw out a case if the law had provided for it but the language had prevented them from doing so. Consequently, the AG said the wording needed to be changed.

However, concerns about this bill have already been aired in the wider legal community as at least one man is facing a second trial for the same crime after a judge had already acquitted him of murder. The fear is that by giving the Court of Appeal even wider powers to overturn a trial judge’s decision, there will be more defendants facing double jeopardy – having to face trial more than once for the same crime with no new evidence in the case of judge alone trials or where proceedings have been halted by a judge part way through.

McLaughlin noted that, while the AG might claim this latest change is merely a tidying up exercise, it did in fact go much further. He said the trend to keep amending legislation to make it easier for the state to get a conviction was very worrying to all lawyers and those who cared about civil liberties.

He pointed out that the state already had all the resources and the majority of people that come before the courts accused of serious crimes have very little and that was being constantly eroded, resulting in an inequality of arms in the court room.

Implying that he was well aware that as an opposition member he could do little to prevent the passage of the bill and the forthcoming police bill among others, he said he wanted his concerns to be recorded as this trend of loading the legal system in favour of the state could undermine the country’s system of justice and democracy.

Jury must acquit, says lawyer

Cayman News | 15/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): The crown’s evidence is insufficient to warrant a conviction in the case against Brandon Leslie-Ebanks and his co-defendants, Osbourne Douglas and Patrick McField, for the murder of Omar Samuels, the jury was told on Tuesday by Nicholas Rhodes QC, who said, as he made his closing statement, that they must acquit. The trial of the three men for that crime is now complete and the judge in the case, Justice Charles Quin, began his summing up on Wednesday morning. In the final closing statement on Tuesday, Rhodes said the crown’s key witnesses had lied and forreasons that may never be known had chosen to frame his client and his co-defendants.

He said the crown was asking the jury to accept evidence from two eyewitnesses who described the crime in such a fashion at such a time and place that was not supported by the forensic and other evidence. He said the case presented by the crown could never be accepted as sufficient in a democratic society to convict a man for murder.

As he made his closing remarks, Rhodes, in alignment with his fellow defence attorneys, Alastair Malcolm QC and Trevor Burke QC, also pointed to the significant inconsistencies in the eye witness accounts given by the two teenagers, whom he accused of being “gangster’s girls who were willing to do their bidding”. The defence attorney not only noted the differences between the girls’ testimony and the rest of the crown’s evidence but also pointed out to the jury that the girls had given very different accounts to the police compared to the stories they told in court.

He noted, in contrast, to the consistent account his client had given since his arrest, which had not wavered since last July. The lawyer criticised the police for not immediately following up Leslie-Ebanks’ alibis and phone evidence. He pointed out, however, the dilemma the police and the prosecution had faced once the alleged eyewitnesses turned up.

Despite their inconsistencies with other evidence, the police could not afford to ignore them. While forensic and other witness statements may have pointed in the direction of a number of other potential suspects, once the girls identified the three men on trial the police would struggle to bring a case against anyone else, the attorney noted, as these eyewitnesses’ testimonies would threaten those cases.

Rhodes said, as unattractive as it was, it was clear the girls had lied; they had evidently lied in the court room under oath and to the police. He said that while one could never be certain why it was they had chosen to lie and frame the defendants, it was still apparent that they had.

The attorney pointed to what he said was the honesty of his own client. If he had been the murderer, Rhodes suggested, he would have been able to come up with better false alibis than the crown suggested he had. Rhodes said that, in reality, his client would “have to be a moron” if he had really committed the murder and chose a former criminal and his girlfriend as his alibis. Not only that, Rhodes said, Leslie-Ebanks had put himself at the scene some time before the murder and admitted to seeing the three defendants, all of which, the lawyer said, added up to what had to be an honest account.

“The real murderer would distance himself for more than that,” the lawyer noted adding that in both interviews and on the stand, in the court Leslie- Ebanks had never once wavered in his account of his own movements that night.

He said his client had given the police his cell phone information and alibis from the very first interview after his arrest but the officers “had washed their hands of it” and never investigated his account or tried to even break his alibi. One year later, he said, the crown had only been able to suggest the alibi witnesses were lying because they were his friends but had not brought any evidence that the alibis were untruthful.

Rhodes also noted the concern which the jury and the community should have about the failure of the police to investigate the truth of Leslie-Ebanks’ alibis as it was something that could affect anyone who was arrested. He told the jury that everyone, if they were arrested for a crime that they did not commit and offered an alibi, should at the very least expect that the police had a duty to follow it up and prove or disprove that evidence, not just ignore it, as was the case here. He reminded the court that Leslie-Ebanks was arrested on the 27 July but the alibi witnesses were not interviewed until some six weeks later.

Among the many failings in the crown’s case, Rhodes said, it had completely failed to make any connection at all between the three men in the dock. “The crown has failed to show any association with these three men at all,” he said. No phone records or witnesses had been produced to support the crown’s theory that these men were close associates or friends. The crown had suggested in its case, however, that these three men were so close that they could have been recruited by Patrick McField for a joint enterprise and ordered to commit murder together.

Rhodes said his client had made it clear he knew his co-defendants from the neighbourhood where he lived but they were not close associates. Given the evidence presented by the crown and the evidence pointing away from it, the attorney told the jury it no choice and must acquit his client.

Following the closing statement from the final QC, the judge told the jury that he would begin summing up the case and direct them on points of law on Wednesday morning. The jury, which has heard evidence from some 28 crown witnesses as well as witnesses for the defence will be sent to deliberate once the judge finishes his directions. The twelve members must return a unanimous verdict to convict in case of murder or a majority to acquit. Although the three men have been tried together, the jury will be expected to examine each defendant separately and delivery a verdict on each one.

Ethics body hits early hurdles

Cayman News | 15/09/2010 | 26 Comments

(CNS): Although only a few months old, the Commission for Standards in Public Life (CSPL) has already encountered a number of hurdles preventing it from doing what it is supposed to do when it comes to supervising public ethics. Its primary role is to monitor the potential for corruption and conflict of interest among politicians and public servants, but according to its first report it needs a law to ensure compliance. The commission revealed that in an attempt to examine the register which requires politicians to declare their business interests it found no reports had been made by the Legislative Assembly clerk and a select committee created to deal with issues relating to the Register of Interests has never met.

This select committee is chaired by government backbencher and George Town MLA Ellio Solomon and is supposed to ensure members are following the Register of Interests Law 1996 (ROIL) by openly and honestly revealing their business, financial and other interests that could give rise to a conflict with their role as political representatives, as well as those of close relatives. However, the select committee has not actually met since its creation following the 2009 election.

According to the law, the Register of Interest should be open to the public for viewing every weekday during business hours. Although the commission said it was able to review the most recent entries into the register, when members visited the LA, no other records were available to be viewed.

“The CSPL was therefore unable to ascertain whether there are perceived conflicts of interest and/or anomalies in relation to any of the declarations mandated by the ROIL past or present,” the members charged with monitoring political ethics revealed. “The CPSL was unable to ascertain whether or not such registers were compliant with the Register of Interests Law 1996.”

The CSPL said in its report that legislation is needed to guide and support the commission in accordance with the requirements of the constitution. It said issues such as exactly who aside from elected politicians needs to declare their interests and which of their family members’ interests must be revealed and the need for some meaningful sanction was required to ensure disclosure as mandated by the Constitution and the ROIL.

“The lack of required … legislation renders the additional responsibilities of the CSPL under section 117 of the constitution meaningless in so far as it relates to the Commission’s ability to validate powers of compliance monitoring for standards in public life and investigations of potential breaches.”

The members concluded that there was little they could do until the law was in place and said it could not effectively meet its mandate without it.

The report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Friday morning by Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks, who advised MLAs to read it. “I Invite members to read the report as it introduces some new considerations that members should make themselves aware of, especially the maintenance of the Register of Interests,” he said. “It is envisaged that this commission will in the near to medium term be putting forward proposals for legislation to give better effect to discharge of functions falling to them,” he told the House but did not indicate when that might be or indicate the urgency which the report had implied.

Ebanks explained the Commission for Standards in Public Life was one of six commissions established under the constitution. The Electoral Boundary Commission has already completed its work and been disbanded and the Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy, which will assist the governor with grants of clemency to prisoners, has yet to be formed. The others are the Judicial & Legal Services Commission the Human Rights Commission and the Constitutional Commission.

The CSPL is chaired by Karin Thompson and members include Nyda Mae Flatley, Roy McTaggart, Hedley Robinson and Winston Rose.

See the CSPL’s first report here