The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE protracted and bitter dispute between environmental action group Save The Bays and the government has one high-profile American environmentalist questioning whether civil rights and the rule of law are under attack.

In a missive posted to popular environmental website EcoWatch, activist lawyer Robert F Kennedy Jr spotlights longstanding allegations made by STB members - most of which have been rigorously denied by the government, and some of which are still being arbitrated.

He claims that “developer-friendly Cabinet ministers are attacking the rule of law, stomping on privacy rights, and savaging judges, lawyers and environmental and human rights organisations”.

Mr Kennedy Jr, is chairman of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a global umbrella organisation for environmental groups advocating for the defense of clean water, energy, and farms. STB Chairman Joseph Darville, also vice-president of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA), is the president of the organisation’s Bahamas chapter.

Lyford Cay billionaire Louis Bacon is a major donor of the organisation.

Mr Kennedy Jr’s article focuses on allegations made by STB members that they have been targeted as a result of their legal action against Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, another Lyford Cay billionaire.

He calls for “level-headed” leaders in the country to “step in and fix this fiasco before permanent damage is done to the country’s natural environment and international reputation as a scenic destination and secure financial haven.”

“Shortly after a feisty environmental group, Save the Bays, sued Nygard, undercover police raided the home of Nygard’s neighbour, Louis Bacon, a philanthropist who co-founded the Save the Bays,” the press release alleged.

“In March, Bahamian Cabinet ministers disclosed Save the Bays’ private emails and financial (information) during an open session of Parliament.

“Responding to a legal action by Save the Bays, the Bahamian Supreme Court ruled that (a minister) had violated the environmentalists’ constitutional rights to privacy. But instead of backing down, the (minister) doubled down.

“They appealed the ruling, arguing that parliamentary privilege trumped personal rights to privacy, and that the Supreme Court lacked power to enforce the constitution against Parliament.”

He also said a process had been launched to hold the lawyer who argued the case and the judge who decided against them in contempt of Parliament.

That process was the House of Assembly’s Committee of Privilege’s probe into Supreme Court Justice Indra Charles’ ruling earlier this year that ignited a debate about parliamentary privilege and the role Save The Bays, an activist organisation, played in possibly infringing upon it. However, that investigation has been postponed until the appeal lodged by Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald is complete.

The STB allegations were compiled in a petition by the GBHRA to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the human rights arm of the Organization of American States, on behalf of five members in October. The IACHR granted precautionary measures to those STB members and their immediate families, and requested that the government work with petitioners to ensure their protection and ability to work without threats or intimidation.

Sticking to its position that the STB member’s claims of victimisation and harassment were “baseless and without merit”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has submitted a request for the precautionary measures to be lifted.