good afternoon and Vashon brown with the midday news a special welcome if you're
watching on one spot Mediacom with tourism being one of the most affected
sectors due to the covert 19 pandemic there is no concern about whether things
will ever return to its former glory especially with the tourist town of
Negril in Westmoreland Ocean masters explains known for its miles of sand
beaches and shallow bays with calm turquoise waters the town of Negril
survives on tourists dollars but with kovat 19 life along the westernmost part
of an island has been at a standstill the tourism sector lost millions due to
the closure of the islands ports in a bid to contain hoovered cases but with
plans to allow tourists to return in the next two weeks the question is how will
these areas fare for president of a nickel Chamber of Commerce
Richard Wallace the town will be able to stand post covered
he says based on surveys tourists will be seeking beaches and smaller room
properties both those categories Negril is at the top of the list in those
things so we're very excited about it as a matter of fact you know we are we are
very cautiously optimistic that you know Negroes will rebound and reborn in a
good way maybe better than we were before as to
competition for markets Jamaica is a strong destination and you know we know
people know about Jamaica and with what's happening in other countries
around the world I think the focus will be no on the Caribbean because
relatively speaking the Caribbean has done pretty well in this colvett
epidemic president of the Rotary Club of Negril Elena Allen Bradley says the
covert 19 pandemic should be a lesson to Jamaica to return to the grassroot level
she says not what attention has been given to the smaller hotels we need some
sort of structural things because Negril has just mushroomed out of nowhere and
we are having like large hotels nothing against larger
tails and development and we have left the local people and the small hotels
behind another issue for mrs. Allen Bradley is that the guidelines that have
been provided for the reopening of hotels have not triggered down to small
hotels I mean if you don't help them to put these guidelines in place how are
they going to cope with the rules that they are setting some some small hotels
can't afford that some of them just survive from day to day even when
tourist was booming so now they're going to find it even harder the government
should be cautious and help the smaller hotels first to get back on their feet
and they will help the economy machine masters tv2 news meanwhile the police
say they will be stepping up efforts to rid the 7 mile beach stretch of
criminals Deputy Superintendent of Police in charge of zone 4 in
Westmoreland Adrienne Hamilton says since the start of the number of arrests
have been made in the SP Hamilton says a number of measures will have to be
improved in a bid to assist to the police in carrying out of their duties
along the corridor surveillance on these that
this construct you know many stakeholder meetings the complicity of some
employees that are you know working business entities along the beach what I
can reassure all stakeholders is that we will continue the effort to come Monday
June 8 violence courts will resume operation however reopening comes with
restrictions and members of the media covering court matters acting director
of communication at the court administration division Khadijah
Fletcher says members of the media will be required to notify the office of the
chief justice 48 hours prior to attending court matters she was speaking
this morning on T V J smell Jamaica program she explains that the move is to
ensure that the court is complying with physical distancing protocols we must
put in case we want to be in a position to move how many persons will be and
this is why we have within the requirement for members of the press to
indicate to the office of the chief justice 48 or ones before they they are
they plan to come to court to cover matter their interest and the court with
and the court but they intend the two to visit this the email addresses were
published for them this villa laws to ensure that we're not in breach of the
physical distancing guidelines and where the potential is that we will be we are
in a position to make alternate arrangements on March 23 the court
started offering reduced services to the public due to the covert 19 pandemic
only mergency matters and guilty pleas were accepted by the courts even though
the courts are set to resume operation on June 8 jury trials will be suspended
between June 1 and July 31 our jewelry boxes for example do not know for social
distancing we need to have those types of
we will reassess that position at the end of the period and and as the
government announces new measures to contain the spirit and we now take a
break on the midday news we'll be right back please stay with us
welcome back continuing the news now there is outrage over the situation
which led to the death of a man who was in prison for 40 years without being
tried Noel chambers this case was highlighted
by the Independent Commission of investigations in become in a report
published yesterday here is more in this report
Ed's must roll that's according to former public
defender matanda McCullough he says the head of the Department of Corrections
must be held accountable for the situation which led to Noel Chambers
being held in the penal system for 40 years without conviction and then dying
there in squalid conditions he argued that as a head of the department systems
should be in place to track cases such as these and have them reported to the
relevant agencies according to a report done by the
Independent Commission of Investigations in the comm there was confusion over
whether mr. chambers was convicted for murder the Department of Correctional
Services reports that he was convicted of murder and deemed unfit to plea which
of course cannot be the two things cannot be true you cannot be unfit to
plea and we tried unconvicted mr. McCullough explained why the head of the
corrections department must be relieved of his job there is a review procedure
in place one that clearly has not been a dare to on the statute or under the the
correctional institutional rules of 1990-1991 or thirdly the state in the
form of the Department of Correctional Services has a positive duty to uphold
every single human right that that inmates enjoy
when they are in in the institution and if he or she if the the correction the
officer Commissioner of Corrections has not carried out that positive Duty then
that's a failure on the part of the head of the Institute of the service he said
it also has to do with the physical condition in which mr. chambers was in
clearly they must have been a lack of attention to the fact that he has
whenever an individual is in the state's care institutions such as that that
person's entitled not to be subjected to any inhuman or degrading treatment human
rights activist Susan Goff says details are needed urgently to appease outrage
at the series of events in the comms report stated that mr. chambers who was
mentally ill died on January 27 from severe kidney infection par to his death
he reportedly shown signs of malnourishment and his body was covered
with sores she says for too long situations like these have happened with
little recourse and across administrations have presided in 2001 we
had the case of 13 it inferred otherwise known as Ivan Farrell's
was released after 28 years even more recently we have had cases there was
less mr. Spalding last year was released after 23 years there was Delroy
Macintosh who was released after 25 years and the Indicom report lists
people who are still in there haven't been before the court but they have been
hailed without and the mr. McCool is suggesting that the family of mr.
chambers as well as the other persons in custody for lengthy periods without
trial Kotick legal action against the state
according to mr. mccoullough legal remedies are available to the
families of many of these persons in custody but there may
challenges problem there is a lot of these persons cannot afford to take
legal action and this brings into the question the role of the state now in
providing some amount of firm financial resources or practical legal assistance
for persons in the in this particular position because they can bring action
under the Constitution because their constitutional rights have been breached
but who will pay the lawyers who have to take up these cases machine masters TV
genius the Ministry of Labor and Social Security has confirmed that three
Jamaicans are among more than 80 migrant workers on farms in Canada who tested
positive for the coronavirus permanent secretary in the ministry college
Roberts Risdon says the Jamaican workers are part of the agricultural stream that
allows them to remain in Canada for up to two years
she says checks were made or were being made to determine when the Jamaicans
went to Canada Premier of Ontario Doug Ford has pledged to ramp up testing for
thousands of migrant workers across the Canadian province after new coronavirus
cases were reported at farms the Cumberland High School in st. Catherine
is getting ready for teaching with kovat 19 restrictions like many other
institutions the school has made arrangements to facilitate the return of
C 2nd Cape students on June 8th next week the physical operation of high
schools across the country is expected to benefit from what students are
familiar with this as schools seek to put in place protocols which aligned
with the government's living with kovin 19 guidelines students hitting cape and
CSEC exams are expected to return to school on June 8th for revision classes
at least one school has kick-started safety preparations for its reopening
the Cumberland high school in st. Catherine is expecting more than 100
students to return principal at the school Darien Henry says there is a
system in place to screen and monitor both students and staff each student
staff will be subjected to screening and monitoring protocols we want to ensure
that all our staff members all our students are ready and are healthy for
school and we have taken note of this of the ministry's school resumption manual
which provides additional guidance as well and we have moved us seriously to
ensure that all the necessary systems are in place to ensure that our children
are now staff members are gonna be safe mr. Henry adds that kovat 19 may
negatively affect the students performances in the CXC exams
therefore the school will be providing psychological support to aid with the
teaching and learning process the three week window which opens as of June 8th
will allow us to interface with our students who we are preparing for the
CSEC examinations certainly we have developed our own timetable and that
timetable includes psychosocial support for staff and for students we know that
the the time they've been away from the actual physical environment that will
likely impact their performance once the school reopens vendors who usually sell
outside the institution will also return and students may still want to interact
with them so there are plans to regulate vending outside the school we are
engaging them in some discussions now because certainly they are an important
part of the school community we have not taken a decision not to accommodate them
but certainly we are engaging them in those discussions and at least by the
end of the week we will know where to go but we're not going to be blocking out
our vendors because they are they have been crucial to us and they will
continue to be crucial in school advancement burns more TVJ news the
stories of students still having difficulties accessing online learning
material persist even three months after online teaching began because of the
kovat 19 pandemic but as the challenges continue one principal is determined to
ensure his students get all the resources they need to be successful
students in the small community of Richmond cabins and Thomas are facing a
major issue no Wi-Fi or technological devices parents say these
times have been hard on them and the lack of technology is hindering their
children from learning well discover 19 stress on a problem to us right now
because the schoolwork and internet it's not really going for us because we don't
access the Internet up here after being putting on the credit and it's very
stressing because even I have to put on a 5d and each time it finish I have to
continue putting on some time after all I'm work in response acting principal of
a Richmond gap primary and infant school Chevron Stewart decided to take matters
into his own hands in delivering learning material to his students but
his gesture doesn't end there he also delivered a five smartphones to students
know during this current pandemic they are faced in even greater challenges
where devices and internet access is concerned we have been able to procure
phones from stakeholders five devices that we were able to give to the
students to help them to better further their education in this challenging time
these phones were donated by past students of the institution to assist
with teaching and learning during the kovaydin nineteen pandemic parents and
students expressed gratitude for mr. Stewart for continuing to try his best
short if he's not little short don't know how my kids with managed really
grateful and thankful for mr. Stewart this phone will mean a lot before I got
this food I have to use my mother phone and sometimes she wants a phone to use
so this book this phone is used to me thank you
I appreciate it however they say more help is needed this is a far cry from
perfect so we are pleading to the ministry to assist the Richmond get
permanent phone school students in getting devices and internet access so
they are able to continue their education equitable and efficient we
need help to us over Internet during his coffee 19 time cuz
I'd been at home with the kids them enough to do the work enough to do stuff
it's very stressful and he's the one that trying to get these things to what
yellow and cannot do it so we need F and we needed to help him to elbows or Shane