Brent Symonette Attacks Magistrate Voght

These days the FNM’s favourite tactic when they find themselves as they often do in a jam in the House of Assembly is to refer to the sub judice rule.  This is a rule of the House and Senate which says that if a matter is before the courts then it should not be the subject of comment in the Parliament.  It is the last refuge of the scoundrels that run the FNM and used as a means to cover up fair comment on matters of public importance.  They love to wax eloquent in Parliament about the independence of the judiciary.  This is done only when it is convenient for them, it seems. Last week the Minister for Immigration did not like a comment made by a Magistrate Carolyn Voght Evans that while women were prosecuted for allegedly strip dancing without a work permit, the employers were not prosecuted.  Brent Symonette, who is the Minister for Immigration, spoke to the Nassau Guardian and on 1 February they published his response to the Magistrate which was that he found her comments offensive.  The problem is she is right and he is wrong. So much for the independence of the judiciary.