It’s the AG who’s requested private hearings for COI — Sir Gary
Head of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), Sir Gary Hickinbottom has suggested that the thing preventing live, public hearings from happening to date is the government.
Sir Gary gave that indication on Friday while responding to Premier Andrew Fahie’s latest call for hearings of the COI to be live-streamed.
Yesterday, Premier Fahie said, “the proceedings of hearings should be broadcast on the internet and the radio, in the least. While some transcripts are being made available, not everyone is able to sit down and read these massive number of pages. Persons who have challenges reading would be left worse off. However, broadcast of the proceedings makes it easier for the public to access and digest the proceedings.”
In response, Sir Gary said that while the default position is for all hearings to be live-streamed, to date, Attorney General (AG) Dawn Smith, “on behalf of the Premier and other Ministers, etc — whom she represents — has asked for the hearings to be held in private”.
He said this was to ensure that the “rights to confidentiality and the ministers’ privileges, with respect to any documents or information that might be referred to, are maintained”.
Sir Gary explained that he requires transcripts of these hearings to be made public on the COI website as soon as the AG indicates which parts need to be redacted (blacked out) from the transcript.
He expressed regret that the procedure meant that the hearings cannot be live-streamed; hence causing an inevitable delay in making transcripts public.
Incomplete, poorly organised disclosure
Sir Gary further said the initial hearings were rendered necessary because the documents which have been disclosed by public officials appeared to be substantially incomplete and in very poor order, such that, in some cases, it was difficult or impossible to ascertain anything useful from them.
Premier Fahie suggested yesterday that “anomalies or shortcomings” in the documents to the COI might be “due to human or machine error in the reproduction of photocopies or labelling”.
And wherever there is any need for clarification on any submission, Fahie said his “government is ready to promptly address these”.
But According to the Commissioner, Queen’s Counsel Sir Geoffrey Cox — who appeared on behalf of the AG during a hearing yesterday — explained that checks on the documents provided had been made, and “regrettably the documents disclosed represented the entirety of the available documents and the order in which they are, in fact, kept”.
Recheck and sign affidavits
The Commissioner has since directed government ministers and other public officials to recheck the documents sent and swear affidavits confirming that disclosure is complete. They are required to do so by the end of May.
The Commissioner reiterated that it is his intention that all future hearings will be live-streamed.
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“”Premier Fahie said, “While some transcripts are being made available, not everyone is able to sit down and read these massive number of pages. Persons who have challenges reading would be left worse off.”” Persons who have challenges reading? If they cannot read I am pretty sure they are not interested anyway. And why can’t they read…? We have a state of the art education system manned by the best professionals…don’t we?
Lmfao. Well said, well said
Bought a vacation house next to a non-white owned restaurant and then complained about the smell of the non-English food – suggests that he does. It understand that life is not all like it is in Chelsea – https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-51495054
Thanks for sharing. It gives some insight into how Sir Gary thinks and uses his priviledges and position. All the best to my beloved BVI going thr0ugh this CoI.
… and he complained about the ‘noise’ coming from a working men’s club on open mic night – the participants are all in their 60’s. Clearly likes to get his own way!
Oh for a proper full English.
GOV VI COULD LIEEEEEEE!!!!
WHY WOULD THE AG AND PREMIER DO THAT? HATE THESE PEOPLE
PLEASE HAVE IT PUBLIC Sir Gary!
Andrew will sell ice to the eskimo. Tell too many l**s for a big man…strruuupes. release the transcripts. We are reading them just well.
“Persons who have challenges reading would be left worse off.” – For a past Minister of Education on two occasions Fahie should be a shame! Good to Great eh? Watering down our education system by lowering the passing grade!
Chickens are coming home to roost!
Andrew up to his old tricks again of hiding the truth. Don’t tell me that he didn’t know what the AG said. I am sure someone had to instruct her on this.
People through your hatred of the “clears” you are blind to the fact that you have been enslaved by your own brothers. The same occurred when our black brothers sold us into slavery 200 years ago, once again we are being sold into slavery. Our new Masters, the politicians and the wealthy dictate all to us. What we eat, where we live, who we work for and how much pay. It’s time to wake up and put an end to this enslavement. We sit like sheep and do nothing. Stand up to these thieves and their cronies.
We not …it buy the white man …we got controls of ourselves…u is the serpent in the mix
This Uncle Tom bs you spewing, you need to go somewhere with this crap. Yes the first set of slaves may have sold their own out of ignorance but that wasn’t even the main way how slavery thrived. You are no different than those that sold their own because here you are comparing politicians with slave masters. This is exactly how slave masters controlled other slaves find a sellout in the midst to help spew their propaganda. Fahie doesn’t control what we eat, where we live or any of that BS you farted out your mouth. Politicians are elected by the people, this is a choice of the people nothing close to slavery. It’s been a while since any government has served 3 terms in a row so the people have been fixing their problem when they see fit.
@anonymous
You are Uncle Tom and you dont even realize it
Or you are part of Fahie elite and you are just defending your privileged position
I haven’t defended Fahie once you idiot. How can you compare a politician to a slave master. Slave masters forcefully enslaved, beat, raped people to do their work for free. Nobody can force you to vote for anybody that you dont want to. Even if somehow you were blackmailed or bribed into voting for somebody they can even guarantee that you voted for them because the votes are anonymous. That what we eat, where we live crap doesn’t apply to the BVI. Hate Fahie all you want I have no problem with that but when you start comparing politics, something that is strictly based on freewill to the worst act of hatred and injustice against black people that’s a problem.
Have you actually read that book regarding Uncle Tom? Uncle Tom was actually the character helping his fellow slaves. SAMBO was the sellout who kissed up to his master/captor and sold out his fellow slaves.
Unfortunately, you too are blinded like the poster you passed judgment on!
I dont need to read the book. I am referring to the general meaning of the term as understood everywhere. A quick Google search confirms the meaning as I implied.
a black man considered to be excessively obedient or servile to white people.
a person regarded as betraying their cultural or social allegiance.
Foy is a master of deception and think we don’t see through his tricks……he will get the message loud and clear in 2 years time !
All of you paid UK bloggers will not make the majority of BVI lose confidence in our Premier abd our government.
The government ask her to keep out, stay away from this case because she is not good enough….She need to listen and focus on minor matters…Time to Jump off ship miss, it is sinking fast be smart..
The AG is competent and is assisted by Sir Geoffrey. It is the lawyers from Silk (who are not silks) that are the worry.
BECAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR.
This guy of ours is either a pathological liar or has amnesia. He need to resign from public office immediately. Of course they didn’t want the hearings public. Now that him and his cronies have testified he wants the interviews done live. This guy is something else. Why didn’t he insist that his interview was held in public?? Strupesssssss when is election?.
Sir Gary Highinbottom is not playing. The usual BS is not going to work with him. Fahie is playing in a different league now. If he’s not careful he’s going to make things a lot worse for himself and his colleagues (but better for the BVi), so keep going Premier!
What short memory some of our people have. From the very first press conference the commissioner said hearings would not be public. Now he is changing his tune to blame the premier and the government. Old colonial dirty tricks.
That’s not what he said at all. The Commissioner said from the get go that he intended the proceedings to be as transparent as possible, BUT he was not going to expose those who feared victimization; and that he needed to work with local government to manage any issues of legal privilege or legitimate confidentiality. This is exactly how court hearings work in England; there is a presumption of them being public but the judge can decide to make them private for good reason.
Somebody had to send you to make that comment. When is elections ?
Too many white in this chat blogging. From the beginning the Premier asked for the COI to be public. Where all the nonsense is coming from.
Too many people put their brain in Sleep mode, with Auto-opinion mode running 24/7 in the background.
All based on who is black and who is white.
The white person said this – auto bad. The black person said that – auto good. Black person’s opinion different = they an “Uncle Tom”. White person’s opinion = “racist”
In this way, you make us all more stupid.
You make numerous important discussions about factors that affect our lives impossible to explore.
In fact, exploring, examining, investigating, testing, etc. to find the optimum solution to our issues is impossible. All answers can only fall into two categories.
Note: Everyone should ALWAYS attack racism where ever it rears its ugly face online, in life, anywhere.
But don’t crash the system by forcing it into your simple binary formula.
Can you tell me where I can collect payment
Why is it that I have a strong feeling that they’ll find this person ( LIE UNDER OTH ) Just a matter of time.
We dont know when our chief is telling the truth because he tell so many untruths
LOL. Is the premier saying that his political ministers and board members illiterate?
All of transcripts are over 100 pages. A lot of details. Sometimes it includes a lot of legal jargon especially when the lawyers are trying to dispute a point for example the one with Patsy Lake was over 50 pages of back and forth legal argument about the summons and the need to provide the documents. I had to skip and skim through just to get to the actual interview with Patsy.
It’s a fact that many people do not like to read especially for things that they may not find important or interesting. For example a lot of people are on social media. How many people have actually read all of the terms and conditions before quickly scrolling to accept? I doubt if we can find one person that actually read the whole thing.
The transcripts are good but you miss a lot of personal details that an actual video or audio will show. Imagine seeing the look on their faces as they try to make up an answer or that long silence after a question is asked you can then draw your own conclusion based on this. A lot of times the transcript says they are talking over each other with no context. With the audio we would actually be able to make out what was actually said. It’s a big difference like somebody explaining something that they saw on tv and actually watching it for yourself on tv.
Thats MZLake trying to get out of having to answer questions.
Surprising really because there can be nothing wrong with appointing a 76 year old with zero experience to run the airport and the social security fund. After all her cousin the Premier knows how successful she is at letting property to him.
This commissioner thinks that the BVI cannot see that they are trying to turn our minds against our government with this predetermined CoI. It will fail.
BVI people know the truth and the transcripts of some have revealed that they are lieing. If the COI don’t catch you all don’t worry because election right around the corner. It still too long though encourage them to step down before you al kill the treasury. An inquiry so why all these lawyers at $5M ridiculous
@Wickedness, You sound very stupid with your comment and only people will like it. The VI was never a place where we talked about hatred and all the other bull shit you people talk.
So these people got contracts from the government that they were unable to read or to explain. Now, the taxpayers have to bankroll attorneys for them because the AG has conflict of interest with her brothers and their positions in government. What does this have to do with racism? There is no proof that the UK wants to take over the BVI. Instead, the UK wants to ensure that the BVI is financially sound. Does anyone know how much money the government has in reserved?
NDP IS THE REAL MESS!!! THEY PLANT BAD SEED !!!AND NOW HN. FAHIE PAYNG THE PRICE FOR THEM !!! SOMEBODY TO BLAME NOW!! OHHH REALLY DONT WORRY THE TRUTH WILL COME TO THE LIGHT!! SOONNN!. YOUH ALL NEED TO COMEBACK TO SLAVERY!
started before NDP, then NDP secretly continued until we were enlightened and here comes VIP blatantly continuing it right in front our faces. Remember everybody knows everyone who is considered elite in this place and yes VIP blatant with the corruption. Time to vote for individuals and demand performance – pick and chose from within parties and independents and they work for us. If They don’t perform oust them too without a free 2-year salary. People who don’t perform are not rewarded