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Parolees left unsupervised by Court Services

December 13, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

A convicted murderer considered high risk and likely to reoffend breached his parole and was left unsupervised for months due to mismanagement at the Department of Court Services in 2012 and 2013.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Court Services, Parole Board

Government refuses to name litigation guardians

December 8, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

Government is refusing to name the members of a new panel of litigation guardians meant to protect the rights of children in court proceedings. 

Legal Affairs Minister Kathy Lynn Simmons announced the establishment of the panel on December 3 but has ignored repeated queries seeking to know how the panel was selected and who its members are.

Children’s advocates have welcomed the advent of litigation guardians – correcting a 20 year breach of the Children’s Act 1998 – but are also in the dark about who they are.

Litigation guardians are meant to be independent and represent only the interests of the child in certain proceedings such as court orders to send them to overseas institutions. 

But it is impossible to determine their independence if the panel is kept secret.

Minister Simmons’ statement reads:
“Our responsibility is to make sure any polices aimed at protecting and providing representation to our most vulnerable citizens – our children, are in accordance with the law.  The litigation guardian is under a duty to represent the child and safeguard the child’s interests in certain proceedings. 
 
As the Minister responsible for child and family services, I am pleased to be the first Minister to establish a panel of persons to serve in this capacity.  The Chief Justice has been advised accordingly and the Court can now effectively select a litigation guardian from the panel unless it is satisfied that it is not necessary to do so in order to safeguard the child’s interests.  The panel is comprised currently of five persons who are qualified, certified and experienced social workers.  The number of persons on the panel may increase in due course based on resource and service requirements.
 
The Ministry will monitor and assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the present legislative scheme for the appointment of litigation guardians and counsel, whilst simultaneously advancing a fiscally sustainable and independent model in keeping with best practice in this area.”
A Government spokesperson did reveal that $240,000 had been budgeted for the panel, but would not say why the Minister has decided to keep secret the identity of its members or how it was selected.
 
Government’s child safeguarding arrangements have been under scrutiny following concerns over the failure to fund litigation guardians, the Department of Child and Family Services’ handling of claims of abuse of children under its care and its psycho-educational programme which is outsourced to facilities abroad.
 
In a statement to the Senate in June, Minister Simmons called on the media to cease its inquiries into the psycho-ed programme and abuse allegations.
 
A number of children have claimed that they were deceived into being sent away and that no one represented their interests when such decisions were made.
 
A group of five charities sued the Government over it failure to fund litigation guardians, saying it breached the constitutional rights of children. It lost the first round of litigation when a judge ruled that the law did not require the government to pay for the services of litigation guardians. But the Court of Appeal ruled in June that government had to have a scheme to fund litigation guardians to protect the human rights of the island’s children. 
 
By then, the government had already began establishing a framework to correct the situation, the ministry said. 
 
Last month it was reported that a 17-year old Bermudian DCFS client had died in West Ridge Academy, a treatment centre in Utah.
 
And this week, assistant director of DCFS, Kennette Robinson pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and mistreatment of a child, following reports of an incident at the L.F. Wade International airport. 
 
To date, there has been no independent, systemic investigation into Bermuda’s arrangements to safeguard vulnerable children. 
 
An Internal Audit investigation looked into financial matters and found that certain allegations against director Alfred Maybury were not substantiated. But government has declined to release the report of that investigation, or say whether it conducted another review.
 

Filed Under: Featured

Bermuda Tourism Authority under the microscope at next ThinkFest

September 17, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

Researcher Cordell Riley is to probe the performance of the Bermuda Tourism Authority at the next ThinkFest event on Thursday. In a talk entitled “Getting beyond the spin. Is tourism better under an Authority?” Mr Riley will present data and performance metrics on Bermuda’s tourism before and after the establishment of the BTA. Mr Riley’s […]

Filed Under: Featured

Police stymied pepper spray probe

July 9, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

Bermuda Police stymied the work of a parliamentary committee looking into the events of December 2, 2016 in which protesters were pepper sprayed by its officers. According to the report of the committee tabled in parliament on Friday, the Bermuda Police Service was uncooperative and actively withheld information – with at least one senior officer […]

Filed Under: Airport Project, Featured Tagged With: JSC, Kim Swan, pepper spray

Government, Information Commissioner at odds over budget debate participation

April 1, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

Government and the Information Commissioner are at odds over her refusal to provide a brief for the budget debate. At issue is the Commissioner’s insistence that to participate in the budget debate by providing a brief and being available for questions jeopardises the neutrality of her office. Gitanjali Guttierrez, Bermuda’s first and only Information Commissioner, has  for…...

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Filed Under: Featured

Bermudians wanted

ThinkMedia recruits presenters for ThinkFest 2019

March 12, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

ThinkMedia invites Bermudian academics and independent thinkers of all disciplines to participate in ThinkFest 2019. The annual conference takes place for the second time in August and September. Designed to inform, provoke thought and showcase Bermuda’s academics and thought leaders, THINKFEST 2019 is an opportunity for presenters to: • Build on their speaking and professional […]

Filed Under: Featured

DCFS questions remain as Director settles in

March 2, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

With a probe into the department of child and family services over, Government and children’s rights advocates are remaining silent and a number of questions remain unanswered. DCFS Director Alfred Maybury returned from a five month paid suspension last month with a declaration from the Ministry of Legal Affairs that he had committed no misconduct…...

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Filed Under: Featured

Former premier rejects Wedderburn firing insinuations

March 2, 2019
By Ayo Johnson

Former premier Ewart Brown has categorically rejected insinuations that he pushed for the firing of Tawanna Wedderburn the former CEO of the Bermuda Health Council. A Royal Gazette story headlined “Wedderburn back story: Brown’s fee cuts anger” implied that Dr Brown’s well publicised discontent with the Health Council and the former One Bermuda Alliance administration, […]

Filed Under: Featured

Child Protection agency hired man referred to them for suspected child abuse

December 17, 2018
By Ayo Johnson

A man referred to the Department of Child and Family Services – and fired – for allegedly abusing a child ended up working for the child protection agency months later where he was reported for similar behaviour.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alfred Maybury, Child abuse, DCFS, kennette robinson

PATI law breached by numerous government departments

December 11, 2018
By Ayo Johnson

Numerous taxpayer funded bodies have breached the law by failing to publish contracts over $50,000, the Information Commissioner has acknowledged. But the ICO’s lack of enforcement capacity means that non-compliant public authorities will face no consequences for failing to adhere to the Public Access to Information Act since it came into force in 2015. That’s…...

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Filed Under: Featured

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