Tag: James Austin -Smith
Doctors Express tab will cost public purse
(CNS): The end result of the unlawful drug raid at Doctors Express by customs and police officers will likely end with a significant tab that will be picked up by the public purse. Even before a court rules on reputational damages and business losses, the private clinic will be claiming “significant costs” as a result […]
Caymankind: Don’t believe the hype
Expatgirl writes: Cayman has long been a hotbed of anti-expat feeling and the rhetoric in the wake of coronavirus has only served to amp this up to new levels. Comments and posts on social media see increasingly vocal comments which for the most part call for anyone who has an alternative opinion to those promoting […]
Premier defends legality of curfew in Cayman
(CNS): Like governments the world over, the Cayman Islands government has been balancing public health concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19 in the community with the damage that lockdown inflicts on the economy. However, another contentious debate has emerged about the legality of the lockdown measures taken by the CIG, which the premier has indicated […]
Minister Dwayne Seymour’s behaviour
James Austin-Smith writes: If you’d ever seen someone in intensive care in respiratory distress with pneumonia you would never forget it. A strong, brave man desperately fighting for each unsuccessful breath. Watching as his exhausted muscles can no longer move his ribs and diaphragm, as his lungs fill with pus and fluid. Suffocating as surely as […]
HRC chair stands ground despite Mac’s rebuke
(CNS): James Austin-Smith has stood by a press release issued by the Human Rights Commission criticising government’s decision to appeal Chief Justice Anthony Smellie’s ruling legalising same-sex marriage. The HRC chairman did not apologise to the Legislative Assembly, despite demands from Speaker McKeeva Bush. In a letter to the speaker, he said that he did […]
Mac calls for HRC chair to be sacked
(CNS): The fallout from the chief justice’s ruling legalising same-sex marriage continued in the Legislative Assembly Friday, when Speaker McKeeva Bush accused the chair of the Human Rights Commission of contempt regarding a press release from the HRC released Thursday. Bush said James Austin-Smith should be fired because he is an atheist. Following on from […]
Cubans released as HRC challenges detention
(CNS): The government has confirmed that it is overturning the policy of detaining all Cuban migrants who chose to land in local waters, regardless of their status, and the Department of Immigration (DOI) has determined that some detainees will be released from the detention facility pending the results of their legal matters. Given the length […]
HRC backs climate education in local schools
(CNS): The Human Rights Commission has stressed the importance of environmental awareness and climate change education in schools in order to foster a community that protects the environment and promotes sustainability. Marking Earth Day, which takes place on Saturday, HRC Chair James Austin-Smith said, “Every one of us has a duty to protect the Earth and […]
HRC calls for end to banned books
(CNS): The chair of the Human Rights Commission has said that the local Prohibited Publications Order continues to set a dangerous precedent for censorship and government should focus on encouraging reading not banning literature. In a statement to mark World Banned Books Week, which celebrates freedom of expression, James Austin-Smith pointed out that the censorship […]
Prison conditions could be challenged through JR
(CNS): Claims by the chair of the Human Rights Commission that, due to its appalling state, HMP Northward cannot house inmates in accordance with either the Cayman Islands constitution or the European Convention on Human Rights should be pursued through a judicial review, a judge has suggested. The conditions at the country’s male prison were […]
Northward inmates could have HR claims, says lawyer
(CNS): The chair of the Human Rights Committee believes the state of the Cayman Islands’ prison is such that inmates could have a good case for a human rights claim. James Austin-Smith told a visiting judge Friday that the decrepit jail was not fit for human habitation. Speaking in mitigation for his client, Robert Aspinall, […]
