The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Obie Wilchcombe yesterday supported calls for a “hate speech ban” following the controversial Ku Klux Klan-themed protest during the New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade.

Mr Wilchcombe said the country had gone “off-course” over the years from traditional peaceful protests to the proliferation of hate speech in the media.

He urged media outlets not to give offenders a platform to broadcast negative or damaging content.

“Our democracy allows for protests and demonstrations,” he said, “and we have to appreciate that this started many decades ago and that’s the way we express dislike and disgruntlement.

“Every protest requires responsibility, and to be irresponsible to make a point is simply destructive. Those persons who are organisers must appreciate we have a vibrant democracy, but we must not in the execution of free speech send messages that will have the affect of destroying the reputation of the country.”

On January 1, an anonymous group donned hats similar to those worn by KKK members and paraded in protest against Grand Bahama Human Rights Association President Fred Smith and billionaire conservationist Louis Bacon.

A video of the “protest” had gone viral on social media.

In response, Mr Smith, the head of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, called on the government to pass a Human Rights Act to ban hate speech.

“The barbaric, hateful and intimidating demonstration which was allowed to poison our national cultural centrepiece, Junkanoo, on New Year’s Day signals the rise of a shameful and dangerous tendency within our national public dialogue,” Save the Bays said in a statement last week.

“The hostile and xenophobic messages on display at this traditional family event, well attended by visitors from abroad, targeted Save The Bays (STB) chairman Fred Smith, QC, and renowned international businessman and conservationist Louis Bacon. Banners read: ‘Bacon is KKK’ beneath an image of a burning cross, ‘Join the coalition to banish Bacon,’ ‘Fred Smith, Haitian infidel,’ and ‘Is Fred Smith a Bahamian or an illegal Haitian?

“That well-respected and prominent individuals should be allowed to become the victims of such malicious and reprehensible malignancies, paraded about in the public square, and that no one – from the police to the parade organizers to the politicians in attendance – saw fit to intervene, are to be regarded as enduring stains upon the conscience of this nation,” the group said.

The incident follows a similar altercation last year at a Freedom of Information (FOI) rally organised by Save the Bays.

Mr Smith and STB director Joseph Darville said they feared for their lives after the rally in support of FOI legislation was “hijacked” by an aggressive group of young men holding menacing and defamatory banners bearing their names and faces.

Yesterday, Mr Wilchcombe said: “I support that we must go one step further, we have too much hate in the country, too much hate speech. We see the utilisation of our talk shows and sometimes even our newspapers by people using hate speech to grasp headlines, to destroy our character.

“It has psychological impact on the country,” he said, “our country is a loving country that cares about people, that has been able to achieve our greatest accomplishment, our independence was through peace. This hate stuff has to stop.”

Following the incident, Junkanoo Corporation of the Bahamas Chairman Silbert Ferguson and Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Danny Johnson told The Tribune the matter would be investigated.

Mr Ferguson explained that he had no idea the group had appeared on Bay Street until he was told of the news hours later, adding that the JCNP did not sanction the group’s performance and has little authority to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

Dr Johnson recently said government officials were reviewing the matter “with the appropriate agencies” to determine whether the group was authorised to participate.

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

Last night, police could not confirm the status of investigations into the protest.

According to Save the Bays, several countries have passed some form of a ban on hate speech, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark and Jordan.