Residents came out to support today’s protest outside the compound of the House of Assembly which is temporarily located in Duff’s Bottom Tortola, to express their frustration and demand change on a number of topical issues.
Topping these issues are the recent saga between teachers and the Ministry of Education where teachers have felt neglected following the failure of the ministry to address some of the prominent problems being experienced in schools.
In addition, the recent decision by the BVI Government to bring a motion to the House of Assembly which aims to exempt Speaker of the House of Assembly Julian Willock from having to pay the court ordered $120,000 legal fees, compounded the issues which were protested today.
Community activist Cindy Rosan who is one of the faces behind organising the protest said today’s demonstration is evident that the people of the territory are fed up with many of the decisions being made by this present government.
She said, “I really feel good about the turn out… I have people in the background that are not here that are working on continuing the work on the petition and calling on other people to call for Speaker of the House, to call for his resignation. So there are people here and there are people in the background working as well and I’m happy that people are finally able to see that it’s time that we stand up for these Virgin Islands.”
“We have to decide where it’s going to go and if the people we elected and entrusted to do that can’t do it, then we’re going to have to pull them out of the House of Assembly, and when I say pull out I don’t mean physically, we’re going to have to look for a way to dissolve the House and go back into elections,” Rosan added.
It is their Constitutional right
Our news team caught up with leader of the Opposition Marlon Penn prior to his arrival inside the House of Assembly where he expressed his approval of the protest, stating it is the Constitutional right of the people.
“I think the people are standing up and it’s about time people stand up. I think it’s their right to stand up, it is secured under the Constitution for them to stand up for their rights. They have their concerns and they’re expressing their concerns,” Penn stated.
Meanwhile, social activist and philanthropist Jovan Cline was also present during the peaceful demonstration.
He said the protest was about holding the leaders of the territory accountable for their actions and lack of, and was not aimed at displaying hatred nor was it to slander anyone.
Up until the publishing of this article there was no indication that the motion to exempt Speaker of the House of Assembly, Julian Willock from having to pay the $120,000 legal bill, would be removed from the order paper.
However, it was reorganized to be presented at a later time and will likely come to the forefront during the resumption of today’s proceedings.