The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins yesterday challenged House Speaker Dr Kendal Major’s decision not to accept two affidavits he tabled on Wednesday night in reference to the controversy surrounding Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard.

Dr Rollins also sharply opposed Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell’s suggestion that a House Committee on Privilege or a select committee be used to investigate the two “untested” affidavits released by Mr Nygard’s public relations firm on Tuesday.

The March 2015 affidavits released by Mr Nygard’s representatives have not been filed in court but were prepared in contemplation of litigation, according to the documents.

Yesterday however, Dr Major revealed that while he ordered for the documents to be brought up, he thought it “prudent” to withhold the affidavits technically because of the “overwhelming uncertainty swirling around it”. Dr Major added that the documents will be tabled once he has conducted his own “due diligence” on the matter.

“Mr Speaker, I know of no parliamentary institution in the world where documents can be untabled,” said Dr Rollins. “Now I stand to be corrected, but unless we are being told by you that you wish to untable the documents that you tabled last night, I am having difficulty understanding how we can proceed in that fashion.”

He added: “Last night (Wednesday) you ordered that the documents ‘be brought up and do lie on the table.’ You tabled the documents, and now you are saying today that they are somehow to be untabled until, or that they lie up there until you determine what to do next. And I’m trying to determine what precedent there is for that type of action from the chair.”

In response, Dr Major said: “The chair did ask that it be brought up. It was the honest intention of the chair to lie on the table, yes it was. But because of the overwhelming uncertainty swirling around it, the document, and the challenges, and the fact that it is sub judice and there are other documents out there that are unverified, and the association that it brings for certain individuals in and out of this place, the chair thought it prudent to withhold the document at this time.

“These documents will be tabled. Both. There’s no question about that. These are not to be held by this chair. They will be tabled. The question is the chair needs to do its own due diligence to determine the status in the courts of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and otherwise.”

Regarding using the Committee on Privilege to investigate the validity of the two affidavits, Mr Mitchell had suggested that the documents submitted by Dr Rollins should not be “seen in isolation” but should be seen “in the context of a number of other documents which are in the public domain.”

Mr Mitchell suggested that the Committee on Privilege would be the best “mechanism” for determining who is behind producing the affidavits.

“The member for Fox Hill is a seasoned member of this honourable House,” Dr Rollins said. “He knows full well and with the leave of the chair you used this reference to allowing time. That is exactly my concern, that a request for the convening for the Committee on Privilege is merely an attempt to bury or to kill what is an attempt to elucidate this issue to deepen this democracy and allow this matter to be aired and ventilated.

“But if you ask for a Committee on Privilege the member full well knows that the next election will be called and that committee will not have issued any conclusion to the satisfaction of this House or the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. So I am totally opposed to that.”

On Tuesday, affidavits released by a spokesperson for Mr Nygard suggested that the men who first alleged, in an affidavit filed by Save the Bays last week that they were hired by Mr Nygard to commit dangerous acts had changed their story.

The affidavits, purported to be sworn by Wisler “Bobo” Davilma and Livingston “Toggie” Bullard in Manitoba, Canada on March 24, 2015, alleged the men were paid for “false testimony”.

In a press statement along with the affidavits, it was alleged the men also made a secret recording of a payment meeting at the Hilton hotel in downtown Nassau in the presence of Free National Movement Senator Michael Pintard in February 2015.

According to the documents, the men claimed they met with Mr Pintard several times in February to discuss Mr Nygard.

The claims are a complete turnaround from their testimony in court documents filed in the Supreme Court on March 9 and appear to exonerate Mr Nygard from their initial claims. According to the statement, Mr Nygard did not pay Mr Davilma or Mr Livingston for their sworn testimony.