Labour activist LaVerne Furbert predicted yesterday that protesters would try to shut down Parliament for a second time over the airport redevelopment plan but she said they would be doing so only as a “last straw”.

Ms Furbert told The Royal Gazette she wasn’t aware of any formal plans yet for a demonstration outside of the House of Assembly on February 3, when MPs are set to debate two pieces of legislation key to the multimillion dollar airport deal.

But she said she expected a similar protest to take place to the one on December 2, when police and demonstrators clashed violently outside Sessions House after parliamentarians were prevented from entering the building by the crowd.

“I definitely could [see that] because I know people are not happy about it,” said Ms Furbert. “You can see people are not happy about it. They do not want CCC (Canadian Commercial Corporation) or Aecon to build the airport in Bermuda. If the ‘people’ have had enough opposition to the building of the airport, then I think the OBA need to step back and look at this before making a decision.”

The December 2 protest resulted in police officers in riot helmets pepper-spraying the crowd; 14 police officers were allegedly injured and 26 complaints by members of the public have gone to the Police Complaints Authority about the behaviour of officers.

The Centre for Justice, a civil-rights group, noted the day after the protest that though the Bermuda Constitution guaranteed the right of freedom of assembly, the law did not permit those gathered to block public access ways or rights of way.

Ms Furbert said she was aware of the Centre’s statement but she insisted the police response on December 2 was a “totally unacceptable” way to deal with non-violent demonstrators.

She said she would attempt to stop MPs debating the airport deal again on February 3 “if there was an organised protest or unorganised”.

“What else do you do?” she asked. “Do you beg the Minister and the Government [to hold off on the airport scheme]? It’s the last straw. I don’t see where anybody in the OBA is going to say ‘okay, I’m not going to vote for it’. If it is debated, it will become law.”

If the police came to arrest people, she added, those involved would “have to suffer the consequences”.

“I don’t think the police can arrest thousands of people,” Ms Furbert added.

The former Progressive Labour Party senator described how on December 2 she was standing in almost the same spot outside Sessions House where she was on December 2, 1977 during the protests over the hanging of Buck Burrows and Larry Tacklyn.

“It did become violent,” Ms Furbert said of that demonstration. “We actually did have a riot. People were angry and they displayed their anger, unlike what happened three weeks ago. They were angry but there was no display of anger. People weren’t burning down buildings.

“I remember on December 2, 1977, I was actually in the crowd trying to tell people to calm down. I didn’t have to do that three weeks ago.”

The demonstration earlier this month, she said, was largely organised the evening before at a hastily-called public meeting, which it was her idea to hold.

Opposition leader David Burt spoke to the audience, along with Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert and political commentator Larry Burchall.

“It was the people in the audience that got up to say ‘we need to do what we can tomorrow to block Parliament’,” said Ms Furbert. “It was spontaneous. It goes to show you there was a momentum out there, that people are against this airport.”

She cited a May 2015 poll conducted by Profiles of Bermuda, which found that almost 75 per cent of voters were opposed to “having the airport developed and run by a foreign company”.

A poll conducted for The Royal Gazette in April this year found that 53 per cent of respondents wanted the Government to cease its dealings with the Canadian Commercial Corporation. This newspaper asked the Commissioner of Police if there was a plan in place to allow MPs to get into Parliament on February 3 but no response was received by press time. We also asked for comment from Michael Dunkley, the Premier, and Mr Burt, but none was received.

Mr Dunkley said on December 8: “There are a lot of things that have to take place for February 3 to be a good session of the House.”