The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

LAST week’s controversial protest against Grand Bahama Human Rights Association president Fred Smith and conservationist Louis Bacon is “under investigation” by government officials, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Danny Johnson said yesterday.

An anonymous group donned hats similar to those worn by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members and paraded in protest against Mr Smith and Mr Bacon near the end of the New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade.

A subsequent video of the protest went viral on social media, leading some Bahamian residents to say how “ashamed” they were to be Bahamian.

Two days later, Mr Smith responded to the protest, calling on the government to pass a Human Rights Act and also make it an offence to “abuse people hatefully in public”.

Dr Johnson said government officials were reviewing the matter “with the appropriate agencies” to see if “people wearing Ku Klux Klan type uniforms should have been allowed on that parade.”

He also said the protest was in “extremely poor taste” and “is something that (the country) will not see again”.

“We will have no tolerance for that kind of hate speech, acts of hatred in this country, and that is why it is under investigation as we speak,” he told The Tribune.

“It is not endorsed by anyone in this government or any agency of the government, or any cultural entity that we’re involved in.

“It’s very important for people to look at how far we’ve come and maybe this (upcoming) week of Majority Rule is a good time to reflect on that and look for the balance that young Bahamians, all like minded Bahamians, all people who love the Bahamas want to see.”

During the parade, an unknown group, armed with placards and donning KKK-like hoods, marched in protest against Mr Smith and Mr Bacon. One placard called Mr Smith a “Haitian infidel,” while another read: “Is Fred Smith a Bahamian or an illegal Haitian?”

Another person was seen carrying a placard saying “Fred Smith, another foreigner in the conspiracy to overthrow the PLP.”

Another read “Skin Coalition to Banish Bacon.” On the other side of that placard, a picture of a burning cross could be seen, with text beneath it reading ”Bacon is KKK”.

One Facebook user, in response to the video, said: “As a white Bahamian, I am disgusted that this is okay in the eyes of the black population and it is another nail in the coffin for me and my family to leave because it shows no balance and no equality for the white population.

“If the white population ever had to display such a nasty protest, what an uproar we would have. It shows the divide between black and white (people) which shows no respect for the white Bahamians unless black Bahamians stand up to stop foolish and disgusting behaviour which this Junkanoo group displayed. I am ashamed to be Bahamian.”

Responding to the protest, Mr Smith called it a “national disgrace” that sends a “clear message of hate, racism, xenophobia and anti-foreign mentality to the world”.

He also said he would be making a complaint to Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade because he is in “fear for (his) personal safety.”

When questioned yesterday on the matter and Mr Smith’s subsequent appeals to the government, Mr Johnson said he was “saddened to see someone’s protest that could have gone too far”.

“I did notice a form of protest that may have crossed the line, would be the best way to say it,” he said. “We have that under review now. We are reviewing it with the appropriate agencies, the police also, to see if people wearing KKK type uniforms should have been allowed on that parade. I think it’s not the type of thing we want to see in the Bahamas, it is in extremely poor taste and it is something that we will not see again. It will not be tolerated.”

During the first week of December 2014, Mr Smith and GBHA vice-president Joseph Darville pleaded for police protection after an FOI rally was disrupted by what they claimed was a “bought and paid-for mob”.

The men said they feared for their lives after allegedly being targeted by an aggressive group of young men holding menacing and defamatory banners bearing their names and faces during the rally.