Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert has warned “the same thing” could happen again if the airport redevelopment debate goes ahead on Friday.

Mr Furbert told The Royal Gazette the chances of a repeat of last week’s protest outside the House of Assembly rests on whether protesters are “still totally against the airport Bill”.

He added that there would likely be no change in opinion by those who set out to protest — and if anything matters had been made worse by the Bermuda Police Service’s use of pepper spray against the crowd.

The Bermuda Government has not confirmed whether the airport debate will take place on Friday.

Mr Furbert also confirmed he was due to hold a meeting today at noon for the union’s general council and shop stewards over how their members were treated.

He said: “All I can say is that if it [the sitting of Parliament] goes ahead, whether the same thing happens is entirely up to whether the people are still totally against the airport Bill that the Government is trying to pass which gives away revenue for the next 30 years.

“I don’t think anything has changed since last Friday — nothing has changed — if anything, matters have been made worse by the way the police have behaved.”

Mr Furbert described the police assertion that the protesters assaulted police first as “utter garbage”.

He continued: “For them to carry on that way and assault innocent people who are peacefully protesting ... [Commissioner of Police] Michael DeSilva said that his officers warned protesters that they were committing an offence before the crowd surged and some protesters assaulted the officers.

“That is utter garbage. The people pushed back. We didn’t assault anybody. The police came marching down Parliament Street and marched straight into the crowd; they didn’t pause, they marched straight into us.

“I was right there at the front — I am not telling you what somebody told me. They surged into us and of course we surged back and we weren’t letting them come into the gate. They made no advancement to getting close to the gate.

“Every moment that they were there, they got pushed back farther and farther. That is why they got frustrated and went around to Reid Street. And that is when all the pepper-spraying and that took place.

“The Opposition made it crystal clear that if you are concerned, then you have a right under the Constitution to protest freely.”

Mr Furbert said that the BIU meeting today will focus on the events of Friday, when officers and protesters were injured in the clash.

“We are going to inform our members about what happened to our members last week Friday,” he said. “What happened to some of the seniors — we are going to give an overall update and hopefully we will know whether the House is due to reconvene this Friday.

“That is still up in the air and I am not sure when the final call is going to be — they can’t wait until the last minute to make the call — they should make the call by today.”

Mr DeSilva has said 26 complaints have been recorded so far regarding the events of last Friday; he also said six officers received injuries and that more than 20 officers are expected to complain they were assaulted.

He argued in the aftermath of the protest that some officers used incapacitant spray in a “proportionate response to disperse the crowd”.

Also this morning, Mr Furbert denied rumours communicated with this newspaper that there were plans ahead for a general strike.

“This is not a labour issue,” he said. “The BIU’s general council and shop stewards are meeting at 12 o’clock today, so I don’t know if someone has taken that out of context. There are no plans for a general strike.

“No. If people are calling for people to protest because of the Bill, that is a completely different thing than a general strike because it is not a labour issue.”

According to Mr Furbert, the Trade Union Congress is planning to issue a statement today to the Minister of National Security.

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