PLP Statement: PLP Welcomes Courts’ Decision on Tweed
Statement by Walton Brown, PLP Spokesperson for Home Affairs
The PLP welcomes yesterday’s decision by the courts to strike down Minister Pat Gordon-Pamplin’s attempts to banish an OBA critic.
The judgment asserts that Minister Gordon-Pamplin did not consider the work permit application on its merits. Instead, she made her decision without allowing Reverend Tweed to make any representations whatsoever about his very real personal residential connections with Bermuda, which the courts deemed should have been allowed.
The PLP maintains that after the Minister publicly expressed personal disdain for Reverend Tweed in the House of Assembly, she was obliged to remove herself from the decision-making process and instead refer the matter to the Board. However, she did not and the inference of impropriety can justifiably be made.
We are pleased to see that some justice has prevailed and that Ministerial interference has been rightly struck down. However, with the courts redirecting the matter for reconsideration by the Minister, we urge her to remove herself from the process and defer to the Board of Immigration to decide on this matter.