LABOUR DAY SLOGAN: "STAY HOME.  STAY SAFE.  CLEAN UP YU SPACE"   Fellow Jamaicans, Workers' Week and Labour Day 2021 find us still in the grip of the pandemic.  Consequently, the overall theme – Safeguarding our Labour Force amid COVID-19 – is particularly relevant.   In July 2020, almost 5 months after our first coronavirus case, employment fell by an...

Good day my fellow Jamaicans. I greet you well. Labour Day is normally a time when we come together in voluntary work for the betterment of our communities. However, for the second year in a row, the global COVID-19 pandemic has touched almost all aspects our lives. So this Labour Day we are being asked to "Tan a Wi Yard"...

Opening Parliament, Madam Speaker should take note of a recently delivered judgement of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in the case of Hinds and Others (Appellants) v the Director of Public Prosecutions (Respondent) delivered on Monday, April 19, 2021. The case is significant as it brings to an end the legal challenges brought by the appellants to...

THEME: BUILDING FORWARD STRONGER: TOURISM 2021 AND BEYOND Introduction and Acknowledgements Madam Speaker, I am humbled to have been granted the privilege of serving the citizens of our beloved country for another year. I am heartened by the positive outpouring of support from members on both sides of this Honourable House, as together we work to move our people from...

Madam Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House to provide an update on Jamaica’s Vaccination Response. Worldwide, we see where over 128 million cases of COVID19 infection recorded worldwide, and 2.9 million deaths, vaccination as a response to containing the disease is critical to get our lives back to normal. Currently in Jamaica, Madam Speaker, we have recorded in excess...

Ananda Dean, 11 years old, student, abducted and killed in 2008. Khanice Jackson, 20 years old, accounting clerk of Portmore, St. Catherine, only daughter of her mother, body found in bushes in 2021. Jasmine Dean, visually impaired UWI student, missing since February 2020. Sharon Cole, 61 years old of McDonald District, Crooked River, murdered on February 15. Imani Green, 8...

Expression of Gratitude Madam Speaker, I rise this afternoon to close the budget debate on the Appropriation Bill for the 2021/22 fiscal year. This is the 59th budget debate in Jamaica’s independent history. Though it takes place in the almost impossible context of the worst economic crisis in our history and the worst health crisis in our country, it has...

1)   Jamaica’s mutual evaluation report against the International Standards on Combatting Money   Laundering   and   the   Financing   of   Terrorism   and   Proliferation   (“FATF   40” Recommendations)  was  done  in  2015  by  the  Caribbean  Financial  Action  Task  Force (“CFATF”)  and  published  by  the  CFATF  in  2017.  The  report  reflected  a  substantial number of deficiencies in Jamaica’s legislative framework (also referred to as “technical compliance” ...