As controversy continues to swirl around the airport redevelopment project, Government House is not yet ready to say that Bermuda has met met entrustment conditions imposed on it by the UK Government. Deputy Governor Ginny Ferson struck a positive note but would only say that the UK was “comfortable” with progress on meeting the conditions...
Archives for December 2016
Richards: Mayor and Burchall analysis “flawed”
Finance Minister Bob Richards has issued a point by point rebuttal to criticism of the airport project, saying that a critique by Larry Burchall and Craig Mayor was flawed by inappropriately mingling two forms of analysis. At a press conference yesterday he dismissed the pair’s insistence that government had understated the true cost of the...
Top UK QCs in Mahesh Reddy v Police Commissioner
Former UK Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, QC, is to represent physician Mahesh Reddy in his case against the police commissioner. He will be squaring off against Anesta Weekes QC who has been engaged by the Bermuda police service and will be asking the court to strike out Dr Reddy’s judicial review application, according to...
Finance Minister: “They’re just wrong, what can I tell you?”
says airport deal critics simply don't understand finance
Two reports by retired chartered accountant Craig Mayor and commentator Larry Burchall reiterating criticism of the airport redevelopment project as proposed by the Government have been released. All MPs received the reports on December 7. Burchall and Mayor’s analyses purport to show that the real cost of the airport project is $1.4 billion. This is...
Pepper spray guidelines caution against use in crowds
Captor "not designed" for crowd control
Captor spray – the form of pepper spray used against unarmed, non-violent protesters on December 2 – was not designed as a crowd control measure. And guidance notes provided by the UK’s chief police officers caution against its use in crowds, and state that it should not be used closer than one metre from the subject...
Richards turns down airport debate proposal
remains silent on request for an interview
Finance minister Bob Richards has turned down a proposal for an on camera debate on the controversial airport redevelopment deal with his Opposition counterpart. And he has remained silent in response to a request for a full length interview. Think Media proposed the debate last week in the wake of protests and civil disobedience which...
Police planned to transport MPs into parliament in paddy wagon
Paddy wagon outside OBA HQ on Friday. Police strategy to gain MPs entry into the House of Assembly on Friday involved bussing them. Not all MPs were convinced when Premier Michael Dunkley informed them of the paddy wagon plan. Some openly rejected the idea of being bussed in by the police van. As members of the...
Police action against airport protesters to be investigated
BIU members file complaints; premier and seniors advocacy group join calls for investigation
About 24 members of the Bermuda Industrial Union descended on police headquarters this morning to file complaints against officers who discharged pepper spray indiscriminately on unarmed non-violent protesters. They were directed to the Police conduct unit – formerly the police complaints authority – on lower Court Street, to make individual complaints. Accompanying the complainants were...
Pepper spray used in police assault of airport protesters
Police use of Captor spray may have been in violation of established protocol
Police officers physically assaulted people outside the House of Assembly and discharged a form or pepper spray in what could be a breach of protocol on Friday. The incapacitant spray known as “Captor” was issued to officers of the Bermuda Police Service in 2005 for use “only on those occasions when there is an immediate and...