Dr Duane Sands
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
FORMER Health Minister Dr Duane Sands assailed the Minnis administration’s handling of people who went missing after Hurricane Dorian yesterday, saying the credibility of the government has been hurt by how the matter has been handled.
He said the government has not explained how hundreds of names were culled from lists of people missing following the Category Five storm that ravaged Abaco and Grand Bahama last September.
He also said responsibility for missing and dead persons was spread across multiple government agencies to ensure clarity but that this instead “proved a recipe for disaster.”
He also advocated for coroner’s inquests into the matter to bring closure to families.
His comments came during his highly anticipated budget communication in the House of Assembly yesterday, several weeks after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis controversially accepted his resignation for his role in letting six permanent residents enter the country during the COVID-19 lockdown without being tested first.
The Elizabeth MP made it clear he will not shy from criticising the administration and his speech featured a number of sharp hits at the government.
His criticism on how the government handled missing persons post-Dorian comes after some Abaco residents reacted with fury over a burial service held there last month.
He said the budget, for instance, does not strengthen community psychological services to deal with Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19 trauma involving “gender-based violence, child abuse and substance abuse.”
“The official death toll of Dorian stands at 74 but the actual death toll and reconciliation of missing persons remains unknown,” Dr Sands said. “Many families continue to grieve not only for the loss of loved ones but for the uncertainty of what has become of their remains. And while the majority of Bahamians have returned to their ordinary lives following the storm, many from Grand Bahama and from Abaco continue in states of suspended animation. We must empathise with them because they have certainly had their lives shattered.
“As of today, we do not know, collectively, who is lost, who is missing or missing and presumed dead. I fear that we have not sufficiently elevated this matter as a national priority. There was too little focused attention and management of the issue of missing and deceased persons. For us to close this chapter before another is open, bear in mind we are two weeks into another hurricane season, we must look collectively and honestly to our approach to missing persons and deceased persons.”
Dr Sands said: “We started with a list of several thousand persons missing. That list was managed by the Ministry of Social Services. We ended with a missing persons list controlled by the RBPF that included less names than the number of unidentified persons buried. To this date, we do not know what happened to thousands or hundreds of names to be excluded from that initial list. There may be reasonable, justifiable reasons for pruning the list. But those reasons and processes have not been shared and explained to the public. Because of that process, we have raised many questions and squandered credibility.”
Last October, Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell said 1,208 people were still unaccounted for following Hurricane Dorian. However the next day, National Security Minister Marvin Dames clarified that police have reports of just 282 people still missing.
Last month, Assistant Commissioner of Police Solomon Cash said missing persons reports were only officially filed for 33 people, as he called on people who may still have missing loved ones to come forward to police, no matter their immigration status.
Yesterday Dr Sands listed a litany of questions residents want answered.
“People want to know why we have no DNA matches for those persons recently buried,” he said. “The public deserves to know how many samples were taken, how many times have those samples been tested, and by whom? Why is there no publicly accessible listing or database of missing persons? What are the names of the people lost, the mothers, fathers and children? If we are to get closure as a country we must accept the loss, outline the process used, admit our missteps and operationalise systems to do better.”
Dr Sands suggested the lack of answers could be “because we continue to exist in an environment where information is not shared with the public, freely, openly and frequently.”
“Never waste a crisis,” he said. “Now we must demonstrate why we are transparent and open to scrutiny and criticism. Dorian has taught us that while we all suffer, the most vulnerable, the least powerful, the least connected suffer the most. That suffering is deep, scarring and goes beyond the bone to the soul.”
Dr Sands said undocumented migrants have suffered especially and that the government has not consistently provided safe spaces for them to interact with agencies.
“Let us agree to convene the coroner’s inquests to bring closure to grieving families,” he said. “Identify and empower a single empathetic team, separate the process from the spectre of immigration intervention, start a public conversation and then let us apologise for getting it wrong the first time. Let us publish the names of the lost souls and then formally memorialise them.”
Comments
mandela 4 years, 4 months ago
So, Dr. Sands, you had 9 months to deal and question these things but you didn't you were silent, now you playing like you concern? To me, this concern is fake and so are you.
Hoda 4 years, 4 months ago
Bless his heart, he is setting up his run for leadership of the FNM. He sat in cabinet, was Minister of Health. He conveniently left out the role he played. Let's be real the morgue and the trailers fell under his portfolio. Nonetheless, this are valid questions. However, I notice a trend with these Ministers when the public are criticising they are mum and, point fingers at everyone else. The Minister of Social Services and National Defence have had nothing to say about this matter. They, along with the Minister of Health are responsible for DNA, missing persons and identifying bodies - those matters concern public health, police and pathologists. The bodies only could be buried because cabinet - the relevant Ministers directed that it be done. I guess Sands has decided to take on a new role as the voice of the people, i'm sure the next FNM convention will be exciting.
DWW 4 years, 4 months ago
He has a point about the government culture and the lack of transparency. so many of the public servants hide their inadequacies and improprieties behind closed doors and we all just accept it like that is the way is it is supposed to be. Would it not be great to have a country of honour? most public servants have about as much honour as a slug in this wonderful god blessed country. In this instance, it was not one person screwing up, it was many. Mr. Sands did the honourable thing and fell on his sword but I do not believe he was the one at fault.
Baha10 4 years, 4 months ago
This is well said ... but hard to imagine coming 9 months late from the person who actually bore responsibility, albeit he appears to be differentiating the medical role from that of the Police investigating the missing and dead, which could well be where the answers lie.
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 4 months ago
Sands is a complete JOKE, where was this energy when he was still the Minister of Health, when Cay Mills, the great Civil Rights Activist exposed the bodies in the trailer Sands denied it and said NO BODIES were in the trailer!!! He already knows the average Bahamian is as dumb as a moose, he's just trying to play the hero so he can secure their vote next election!!!
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 4 months ago
moose are dumb. you sure you meant moose?
joeblow 4 years, 4 months ago
He could have, but did not do more when he was minister of health! Why stir thing up now?
tribanon 4 years, 4 months ago
Sands himself has many shortcomings to answer for, but truth be told just about anyone would be a much better PM than the senseless and directionless Minnis.
DDK 4 years, 4 months ago
Ya gotta love our wonderful politicians 🤣
TalRussell 4 years, 4 months ago
The biggest revelation by the now red coats House MP backbencher is he made a personal decision to remain quietly seated in Mr. Minnis's Imperialiats' red coats cabinet as a willing contributor to Abaco's and Grand Bahamaland's coverup the missing and dead.
Remarkably, Mr. Minnis and the crown's substantive ministers of social services and security, sat all silent, never stoodin' to rebuke the serious mirror of deadly accusations being leveled directly at from across the floor opposite by a former equally substantive crown colleague.
Nod once for yeah even the outspoken Speaker, was lost words to attempt silence one his own Imperialists' red coats, Twice for any?
ohdrap4 4 years, 4 months ago
All because they cannot count. The media bears some responsibility too, as they never questioned the ever changing numbers given by different govt agencies.
But if you all want to count go count the domes. Did they just pay 6 million for 30 domes installed on top of plywood?
TigerB 4 years, 4 months ago
HE shed a lot of light. now I see what they carried on in the graveyard like that. But he took too long. It almost seemed like a personal vendetta against the gov't as he proclaims the charge in the house yesterday. All those ministries should not have been involved. It was a real sensitive matter...to little too late, the damage is done
TalRussell 4 years, 4 months ago
Ma comrade TigerB, who can tell from whom's all did these bones contained in the 55 buried white numbered caskets, actually come from - including the possibility of them very well be's those bones from a collection of many bones gathered together from other bones uncovered and placed in a white beautiful numbered caskets as but the remains more than one single individual per casket?
There's no tellin' what more the colony's former substantive health minister, may have turned a self-serving cabinet survivor's attempt blind eye to?
God help justice deliverance under the colony's new chief justice Brian, considering we officials thought they could pull something as gross as like this off at the same time as a Homeless man's was jailed for no more than goin' about in search of somethn' eat?
John 4 years, 4 months ago
So the good Drhad to get kicked squarely in the seat of his pants to bring forth these 'not surprising' but chilling revealations. What can he tell us about Corona and its deaths? Some say the virus came here wth hurricane Dorian buut was not yyet suppose to be on tthis side of the world... it was still supposed to be in Chiina known only as a mystery virus that China was hiding from the world,
DontAssume 4 years, 4 months ago
The revolving door of corruption, mismanagement, deceit, incompetence, lack of transparency, and outright disrespect and concern for Bahamians by our elected governments continue. Along with all that's going on with this present revelation, is glaring financial inconsistencies, as well as unbelievable decisions...where "poor judgment" is an understatement. Bahamians and The Bahamas never seem to be a priority, just self-interest, and pillaging. I do wholeheartedly agree with the opinion of many of you that Sands' sudden conviction is suspect, especially with the reality that he was a cabinet-member (heading a pertinent ministry) to this debacle. It has been my opinion that our political system needed an overhaul for over 2 decades now...being partisan and aligning oneself with party agenda is detrimental to the progress and socioeconomic status of our nation.
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