Black Immigrant Daily News

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Chairman of Digicel Denis O’Brien offered his support to the regional reparations movement during an engagement last week with the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC).

Mr. O’Brien presented a proposal entitled “Repair” that he said could assist in advancing CARICOM’s call for Reparations for Native Genocide and Slavery.

The Plan seeks to persuade the British and European governments and institutions to establish a new long-term fund for reparations. He said the fund will have clear five-year targets with financing flowing to the region annually.

The Digicel Chairman had already publicly declared his solidarity with the work of the CRC and had spoken on the matter to several CARICOM Heads of Government, the Commission’s Chairman, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, and national reparations committees.

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O’Brien said the proposal supports the CRC Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice in which reparation is defined as an economic and social development strategy for the region. He agreed with the CRC’s position that Europe owes the region a ‘Marshall style Plan’ after 400 years of wealth extraction by which it was enriched.

The Chairman of Digicel said his repair plan will facilitate multisectoral investments in agriculture, health and education, among other areas. He suggested that such a multi-sectoral investment and trading plan was critical to the successful recovery of the region from current international economic crises.

In applauding O’Brien and his team for their affirmation and support of the work of CRC, Professor Beckles said the Repair plan has the potential to engage in high-level government relations with the UK, Europe, and the European Union.

“This level of engagement will help build momentum in support of CARICOM’s call for reparations,” he added.

The Repair plan seeks to energise the movement for reparations through public relations campaigns in the United Kingdom, and European and Caribbean communities. To achieve this objective, a robust communications strategy utilising both traditional and social media platforms will be implemented.

Mr. O’Brien commended the Commission for its outstanding work in bringing reparations to the top of the global agenda. Everywhere in Britain, he noted, exposure and apologies for enrichment from slavery are the order of the day.

The next critical step is to influence public opinion so that European leaders will offer reparations instead of cautious statements of regret.

He also called for the establishment of a team of regional economists from UWI and other partners to prepare a report on what the ‘Marshall Plan style Reparations’ development program would entail. The time he said has come to put a firm but reasonable reparations for development proposal before Europe.

The Commission and Mr. O’Brien team agreed to collaborate and to work together to further develop the proposal in the coming months.

The CARICOM Reparations Commission invites other private sector corporations in the Caribbean and in Europe to similarly partner with the CRC to seek reparatory justice for the peoples of the Caribbean.

SOURCE: Caribbean Community Secretariat

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À 9 jours du départ, le temps s’accélère à Saint-Malo mais La Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe. Résumons les chiffres clés de cette course hors normes.

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Vidéo Grand JT des Territoires

Retrouvez, chaque semaine, le « Grand JT des Territoires » de Cyril Viguier, diffusé sur TV5 Monde, en partenariat avec France-Antilles.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The House of Assembly passed the Virgin Islands Jury Act, 2022 with amendments after coming out of committee on Oct. 25, according to HOA Public Relations Officer Linton Leonard.

However, the video of the vote — which normally would have been broadcast on YouTube — was unavailable as of Beacon press time on Oct. 27.

The Virgin Islands Jury Act, 2022 — which Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley introduced in the House of Assembly on Aug. 9 — would replace a 1914 law that leaders have described as outdated in many respects.

During an HOA debate following the bill’s second reading on Oct. 18, legislators expressed support for many of its measures, but they argued over provisions designed to facilitate the addition of some non-belongers to the juror list.

The bill was amended during the closed-door committee stage, Mr. Leonard said, but because it still awaits the governor’s assent the final version passed by the HOA has not yet been made public.

Existing system

Under the Jury Act 1914, the High Court Registry is required to select eligible jurors from a list that includes non-belongers who have lived in the VI for at least ten years. In practice, though, jurors historically have been selected from the list of eligible voters, which excludes long-term non-belongers.

Partly because of this issue, jury trials were temporarily halted in July 2019 after then-Director of Public Prosecutions Kim Hollis successfully challenged the jury list in High Court. In her challenge, she took issue with the use of the voter registry to select jurors.

A judge ruled in her favour, finding that the list formerly used for jury selection was unconstitutional. A new list of jurors was subsequently created, the Deputy Governor’s Office said in early 2020. But the office declined to make the list public or say whether it includes non-belongers.

Last year, the Commission of Inquiry reviewed the issue, and Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom ultimately recommended considering a revised Jury Act. In support of that recommendation, Sir Gary cited input from Director of Public Prosecutions Tiffany Scatliffe-Esprit.

“The jurisdiction of the BVI is small, and finding jurors who do not know and are unrelated to witnesses and the accused is challenging,” the COI report states. “These eligibility requirements have the effect of significantly restricting the size of the jury pool. The DPP considers that the eligibility criteria should be revised, e.g. to allow those aged 18 and above and those who have been resident for five years (as opposed to 10 years) to be jurors.”

In keeping with Sir Gary’s recommendations, the COI implementation framework agreed by the United Kingdom and VI governments gave the HOA a July 31 deadline to consider “revisions to the Jury Act, in consultation with the governor, to increase the size of the jury pool of jurors to ensure the jury system is effective.”

Proposed law

The initially Gazetted version of the new Jury Act, like the existing law, would allow non-belongers who have lived in the territory for at least 10 years to serve on juries. But it also includes new provisions designed to facilitate this rule in practice, court officials explained during public meetings on the bill earlier this month.

The proposed law, for instance, would allow the jury selection panel to use additional methods to obtain information about potential jurors, including seeking input from the chief immigration officer, the registrar general, and the director of Social Security Board, officials said.

The bill would also create a “Jury Management Database” that would be published annually.

Limited list

During the Oct. 18 debate on the bill, Dr. Wheatley said he understands the need to address judicial officials’ complaints about the limited list of jurors and the challenge of finding candidates who don’t have connections to any of the interested parties in court cases.

“Of course, persons raised concerns about the bill, and these are issues that we’ll have to deal with in debate and in the committee stage,” he said at the time. “It is important to know that the current act is very old and in need of modernisation.”

Governor John Rankin said in a press conference on Oct. 19 that he agreed it would be a smart move to expand the jury pool based on the recommendation of the COI.

“I think it’d be a good move for two reasons: One is, at the moment, the number of people on the jury list is a limited number, and there can be challenges in compiling a jury which might not know the persons involved or know details of the facts involved. … So having a wider juror list helps ensure you have a jury which will be objective.

“The second point I would make is that as matter of fundamental justice, people have a right to be tried by their peers, and if you restrict the jury to only one set of persons living here in the BVI, then you reduce your opportunity to have a jury of peers. I believe it would be a positive move.”

However, during the Oct. 18 debate some legislators shared concerns about expanding the pool in this way, instead calling for a more exhaustive approach to seeking belongers who are already eligible to serve but don’t get called.

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After three surgeries and seven years of fighting breast cancer, Donavan Chevannes is crediting God for bringing him this far in his fight against the disease that is a rarity in men.

The 58-year-old former chauffeur is still on the road to recovery, but he’s eagerly anticipating the day he will be declared cancer-free and considered a “breast cancer survivor”.

Until that day comes, Chevannes is thanking God for his mercies so far.

“I wouldn’t want not even my enemy to have this (breast cancer)… I have been fighting from 2015 to 2022, and see, I am still here… To God be the glory, for great things he has done,” he told Loop News in an interview.

The Guava Ridge, east rural St Andrew resident did not know it was breast cancer until 2017, though he was diagnosed with cancer two years earlier.

He shared that he has always used deodorant and would get the occasional “bump” in his armpit that would often disappear. However, on one occasion, he noticed that the bump came up and would not go away over time.

In 2015, Chevannes’ wife, Lorna, nudged him to check out the bump at their family doctor. The medical practitioner prescribed a cream for it, as it was initially thought to be an abscess.

However, the cream did not help, and the bump remained.

Chevannes said he was immediately referred by his doctor to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) where a biopsy was done. The result: cancer was detected.

“The doctor said, ‘You have cancer’, and I asked, ‘Really?’, and he said, ‘Yes’,” Chevannes recounted, adding that, initially, he was not told what type of cancer.

He was in a state of bewilderment.

“It hit me in a way where I was just thinking it was a bump,” he said, adding that he told his doctor his hunch that it may have been caused by his deodorant.

The medical doctor, however, dismissed that theory.

Guava Ridge, St Andrew resident Donavan Chevannes has been battling cancer for the last seven years.

As the news sank in, said Chevannes, the fear grew, but he laid anchor on his Christian faith.

“You know, I’m walking, and I’m talking to everybody just the same. I was worried, but I put my trust in God and just leave it there because he’s the one; he is the miracle worker,” he declared.

An appointment was made, and surgery done to remove the lump in the armpit later in 2015.

Two years later, the medical practitioners advised Chevannes that they needed to do another operation. He was also formally advised that he had breast cancer.

He elaborated: “One of the time, they (doctors) were saying it was the cancer of the skin based on where it was at, but they settled at breast cancer, a very rare thing among men.”

Chevannes also explained that the doctors couldn’t tell him at what stage the cancer was because it wasn’t moving and was not aggressive.

While the disease is rare in males, representing about one per cent of all cancer cases in the US, medical practitioners have stressed the need for men to be aware and report any lumps on the breast or chest.

Breast cancer in men usually presents itself as a lump in the chest, dimpling of the skin, or changes in the nipple.

“They (the doctors) were saying to me that we need to go in wider because they don’t know if it (cancer) spread over on the other side, so they need to go in at a wider margin.

“So, in 2017, they cut me again, the same place under the arm, because I’m not feeling any pain in the breast or anything,” he recounted.

After that surgery, the father of one said he was put on medication.

But his worries weren’t over.

“In 2020, they said I have to do another surgery because that pill seemed it wasn’t strong enough, and it (cancer) came back. It was in the lymph nodes,” he said.

By June 2020, Chevannes underwent another surgical operation, and lymph nodes affected by the cancer were removed and sent overseas to be tested. He said his brother paid for that testing to be done.

When they got the results, the doctors placed Chevannes on chemotherapy. This involved him being injected in his leg and another in the area of his abdomen. Additionally, he started taking one tablet daily.

Chevannes, a member of the Assemblies of the First Born International Church in Guava Ridge, said his cancer diagnosis was also hard on his family.

“[On one occasion] when my wife came to the hospital, she told me she’s walking, but she’s not walking. It’s like she is not here, especially when I do the operations and am to leave the hospital and go home. My God! They take it so hard,” he explained.

Despite the challenges, his wife and daughter, Chantae, continue to play a critical role for him.

So, too, his siblings, who also offered significant support in his conquering breast cancer.

He said that the National Health Fund was also critical, as it assisted with cutting the cost of medications and other expenses.

Although he has passed the worse since his last surgery in 2020, he still receives monthly chemotherapy treatment and takes his oral medications.

The 58-year-old acknowledged that though it is challenging at times, he continues to follow his treatment routine.

Donavan Chevannes is eagerly anticipating the day when he is declared cancer-free.

“I’m still going through my recovery process. Some people go through theirs in a very short while, but mine is very long,” disclosed Chevannes.

“I don’t have it in my thoughts to give up, but you have the moments when you have some dull moments based on how you feel, because… some of the times you have to rise up in the bed and sit up based on how you feel.

“I’ve come so far now, and it’s not as bad as before,” he stated.

Chevannes disclosed that he did an ultrasound last week, and there were positive signs. However, he said he would await the doctor’s assessment of the results before arriving at any conclusions.

“It has been an uphill and a downhill battle for me. I’ve had some sleepless nights. But, you know, I have to just go through what I have to go through,” Chevannes said firmly.

He added: “The greatest thing is God is my evidence to everything. He is the one that brought me through.”

Chevannes, who was previously a chauffeur and now works as a driver for a company, again underscored the importance of friends and family in his battle with breast cancer.

“All of these operations come with a cost, and as I said before, God always put some people in your corner to make things a little easier.

“You have friends and family; those are the persons that come in and make things easier. That is why I keep saying, ‘To God be the glory’, because he always makes a way when there is none’,” he said.

Chevannes is encouraging men to get screened for all forms of cancer.

“Get tested! If it is something you can detect early, it is better for you, and you can get treatment,” he advised.

He said family members should also play a role in supporting their loved ones if cancer is detected.

“What many people don’t realise is that when you are going through a situation, they can’t determine what you’re feeling, what you’re going through, what is on your mind, but it is best for you to just encourage as much as you can,” he urged.

“It is the time when families are supposed to draw near when you’re going through such a situation and help because the words that you use can… encourage an individual to go on.

“They won’t be in that stage forever. In such a time like that, family is most important to you,” Chevannes insisted.

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