Allen Chastanet, the leader of the opposition (LOO), has been caught in a dispute with Ernest Hilaire, Leader of Government business in the House, over his speaking time at the 2022/23 budget debate scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday this week. Chastanet is insisting that he speaks last prior to the Minister of Finance’s summing up at the 2022/23 budget debate. According to the LOO, he must be able to respond to every member on the...
News reaching Saint Lucia News Online is that workers of the First National Bank(FNB), across its branches, have gone on strike because of the firing of one of their colleagues, who is also the Union shop steward. Earlier this year, FNB lost its managing director with the sudden departure of Jonathan Johannes, under rumors of disagreement between himself and the President of the bank. The FNB already under huge organizational pressure following the recent acquisition...
The political crisis facing Saint Kitts and Nevis has taken another interesting turn, this time with uncertainty regarding the validity of the letter sent to the twin-island Federation’s Governor-General to have Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris removed from office. The Team Unity alliance which formed the government of St Kitts and Nevis is now fractured, with two leaders of political groups within the Alliance having withdrawn their support for Prime Minister Timothy Harris. The two...
St George’s, April 21, 2022: It’s been more than a week since the Grenada National Reparations Committee (GNRC) wrote a letter to Governor-General Dame Cecile La Grenade, “seeking an audience with the Earl and Countess of Wessex’’, who were scheduled to visit Grenada next Tuesday, April 26. The visit, however, is reported to have been cancelled. GNRC officials said they are yet to receive a response to their letter in which the committee stated that...
News reaching Saint Lucia News Online is that Timothy Harris no longer has the majority support among elected members of the House of Parliament in St Kitts. A majority of members of the elected parliament have withdrawn their support, which they have indicated to the Governor-General, Sir Tapley Seaton. Timothy Harris is now left with two options: resign as Prime Minister or call a general election. Harris appears to have fallen out of favour with...
Caribbean women continue making big waves at the United Nations, with the appointment earlier this month (April 11) of Jamaica’s Professor Verene Shepherd as the new Chair of the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Professor Shepherd served as Chair and Co-Chair of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations and was recently re-elected as Vice-Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) at its March 29-29, 2022 meeting in Barbados. A prominent Jamaican academic,...
With Saint Lucians more aware of how the world turns and the effects of global developments on nations and populations, in a heavily interconnected world, it is non-sensical for political opponents to blame the Philip J. Pierre administration for the global increases in food and fuel prices. Contrary to claims that the government is earning more and helping less, the Pierre administration has indicated that the Treasury is giving up just over one million dollars monthly...
Mini-bus drivers have been under immense financial pressure since Covid-19, having to carry fewer passengers than their seating capacity would allow because of social distancing rules during the pandemic. For many Mini-Bus owners, it had become unprofitable to conduct business, resulting in prolonged periods of inactivity and no income. As if their problems were not enough, the conflict in Ukraine brought with it an increase in the price of crude oil and all associated petroleum...
On Monday (April 11), High Court judge Justice Clarence Thompson sentenced former UWP Opposition Leader Marcus Nicholas to six months imprisonment for tax fraud for “Uttering or Using False Documents for Tax Purposes.” The case dates five years back to 2017, when Nicholas was charged with making a false representation for a tax return payment in his girlfriend’s name — and fraudulently signing the letter in her name. Nicholas admitted to the court that he’d...
