JCF FREED IN FATAL RUN - Court tosses father’s negligence case after son collapsed, died during recruitment test A father has lost his negligence claim against the State over the death of his son, who collapsed during a physical assessment for recruitment to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) five years ago. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Wint-Blair dismissed the claim, finding that the evidence did not prove that the JCF was negligent or that its recruitment procedures caused the aspiring recruit’s death.
Doctors’ pay fight ends in major win Following the Industrial Disputes Tribunal’s landmark ruling in favour of doctors in their long-running allowances dispute with the State, senior trade unionist Lambert Brown says the medical practitioners are ready to meet with the Government to implement the award. In a quick response on Monday, Brown said the doctors were pleased with the outcome. “We receive the award [ruling] just after 4 p.m. and we can confirm that award is in favour of the doctors and the two issues before the tribunal,” he said.
Calls for more training, better support for teachers A call is being made for greater investment in teacher training institutions, with Dr Ashburn Pinnock, president of The Mico University College, arguing that while teacher preparation is evolving, it is not always keeping pace with the complexities of the modern classroom.
Reid trial rolls on despite lawyers’ absence A judge on Monday did not allow the absence of defence attorney Hugh Wildman to delay the resumption of the oft-delayed fraud trial involving former Education Minister Ruel Reid. Wildman is the attorney for one of Reid’s co-accused, former Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) President Professor Fritz Pinnock. Senior Parish Court Judge Sanchia Burrell revealed that the attorney sent an email at 4:57 p.m. last Friday, indicating that he could not be present because of two other cases he had in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Confession under scrutiny in Pathways trial The evidentiary phase of the Pathways murder trial is currently on pause as Justice Leighton Pusey considers whether to admit a caution statement containing a reported confession by accused Andre Ruddock. A voir dire, or trial within a trial, began on Monday in the Home Circuit Court after Ruddock’s lead attorney, Anthony Williams, objected to the caution statement being tendered as evidence. The hearing, which is being conducted in the absence of the seven-member jury, is expected to continue until tomorrow.
Bartlett wants ALEX to become a regional platform WESTERN BUREAU: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett want Jamaica’s Agricultural Linkages Exchange (ALEX) to be expanded into a Caribbean-wide platform as part of a broader push to build a regional agricultural logistics network capable of supplying the tourism industry. Bartlett said ALEX, which connects farmers with hotels and tourism buyers in Jamaica, could be used to link producers and buyers across the Caribbean.
Former JC footballer pens novels to give Denham Town a voice Former Jamaica College (JC) Manning Cup footballer Alton Allen has travelled a long way from the streets of Denham Town where he grew up, but nearly three decades after leaving Jamaica for the United States, the community and the people he knew there continue to shape the stories he tells.
Purkiss confronts SPARK work crew WESTERN BUREAU: Just days after lamenting in Parliament about the unsatisfactory state of the roadwork being done in her constituency under the SPARK programme, Hanover Eastern Member of Parliament Andrea Purkiss halted work by a crew in Hopewell last Friday. Reports are that shortly after a work crew arrived in the Pondpiece section of Hopewell and started doing excavations without notifying the residents about the impending inconvenience, Purkiss turned up and stopped the activity.
‘UNINFORMED’ - Global Afrikan Congress rebukes Warmington over slave trade remarks, urges him to do research and apologise The Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) is demanding an apology from parliamentarian Everald Warmington for his “uninformed assertions” that Black Africans who sold people into the transatlantic slave trade should be held more accountable than Europeans buyers. In an open letter to Warmington, the GAC – an international Pan-African organisation of people of African descent across 35 countries – also urged the St Catherine South Western member of parliament (MP) to undertake necessary research to correct his “colonial miseducation”.
Representation row hits tourism transport sector WESTERN BUREAU: A representation dispute has erupted in Jamaica’s tourism ground transportation sector, with the more than 2,000-member JUTA Montego Bay declaring that a government-recognised umbrella organisation has no authority to speak on its behalf. The dispute follows a strongly worded response from the Jamaica Tourism Ground Transportation Association Limited (JTGTA) to JUTA’s recent call for Government intervention to protect Jamaican-owned transportation operators.