Dear Sir,

I cannot understand what immigration has to do with human rights. You cannot go to America, Canada or anywhere in Europe and demand citizenship on human rights grounds. Don’t think for one moment that they won’t think twice about shipping you right back from where you came, you had better have your green card or else.

I understand quite clearly that Trevor Moniz would have a hard time swallowing the necessary changes that the Progressive Labour Party has to make to deal with the important and troubling issue of immigration facing Bermuda. After all, Mr Moniz cannot help but represent those old, tired ideals of the past that suppressed and held back born Bermudians and were designed to benefit the few.

Sorry, Mr Moniz, the time has long ago passed that those old, tired ideals should have been tossed into the trash bin of history. If you ask me, Sir, the rules and philosophy of the present Human Rights Commission and the Act that it follows are based on old, tired United Bermuda Party ideals that were designed to benefit the few.

The time has now arrived, Sir, that both the Acts that govern the Human Rights Commission and immigration need to be amended and brought into line with the expectations of today’s modern Bermuda. We no longer should allow ourselves to be governed by laws that are unjust and antiquated.

Just think, Sir: if we just started handing out status like candy to every Tom, Dick and Harry, what would be left for all those hundreds of children sitting in those many classrooms all around Bermuda today? At the same time, I often wondered whatever happened to all those children over the past five years who had left school. What are they doing or where have they gone?

Sometimes I wonder if those who want to see our immigration doors thrown wide open to the whole world realise how small Bermuda is. Are they trying to say that born Bermudians must get up and move to England, get on the dole and make way for someone who does not look like me?

Mr Moniz’s argument is just too weak for any sane person to accept and I support the PLP in its quest to bring forth legislation I hope would do the right thing. Mr Moniz must suffer from amnesia. Does he not forget that the One Bermuda Alliance tried to push through Parliament the Pathways to Status Bill the day after it lost the by-election in Constituency 13 by 110 votes?

Which in the end brought out more than 2,000 people on the hill to stop that nonsense from going through the doors of Parliament.

He must be reminded that he and his OBA colleagues at that time did not care anything about any kind of dialogue with anyone, period. The OBA had its agenda set and it was going to shove it right down our throats, whether we the people liked it or not.

So, Mr Moniz, the next time that you stand up in Parliament to say anything, do present something that all of us who are civil-minded people can digest.

E. McNEIL STOVELL

Pembroke