Civil rights activist Dr. Eva Hodgson said she supported the exclusion of the Portuguese from workplace race reporting regulations -- even though she knows they are being discriminated against.

Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister has said the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) rules would only cover blacks and whites and that the Portuguese would only be included if they could make a strong case.

His stance drew an angry response from United Bermuda Party (UBP) Member of Parliament Trevor Moniz who said the Portuguese had long been discriminated against.

Dr. Hodgson, spokesperson for the National Association for Reconciliation (NAR), said CURE was set up by the previous Government only to deal with racial issues and downtrodden Portuguese should take up their case with the Human Rights Commission.

But Dr. Hodgson said: "We don't know what their problems are. They never made it an issue.

"They are only making it an issue now simply because they are more interested in attacking Terry Lister than getting justice for their own cause.

"CURE was set up by the UBP in 1993 under the Human Affairs Ministry and it was done because the former Premier John Swan was worried about the leaking of black support to the PLP (Progressive Labour Party).

"He was worried about losing black votes. They weren't concerned about the Portuguese.

"If the Portuguese were really worried, they should have threatened to leave and join the PLP, then he would have listened to them.

"They should have protested back in 1993. They should have said we are an ethnic group.

`Trevor Moniz is the one person who has brought up the issue.

"I know they are being discriminated against.'' But she said the Portuguese were given jobs when blacks were still barred from them.

She said: "There were young white Portuguese girls who could not read or write but they were given jobs at Gibbons Company when black girls were not given that opportunity. My concern is they never protested.

"This society leaves everybody out. The only people included are those who make a noise.

"They can't be included under CURE because they are not another race, they are white.

"You can have them no more than you can have autistic children. CURE is not there to deal with that.'' She said the Portuguese had not joined the theatre boycott which brought an end to segregation.

And she said standing up to racism had not been easy.

"Black people have had to pay the price for it. Not only from whites but also from other black people.'' Mr. Moniz said CURE was an information-gathering exercise to find out if people had been discriminated against.

He said: "Now Mr. Lister is saying to the Portuguese -- first you have to prove you are discriminated against before we let you in CURE. Surely finding that out is the point of the exercise. It's ridiculous.'' And he hit back at Dr. Hodgson. He said: "Thank God she's not part of decision making.

"For someone who's involved with the National Association for Reconciliation it strikes me her approach is not very conciliatory at all.

"She's saying we will withhold help because your group did not do what we thought it should have done 40-odd years ago.

"It's entirely related to vengeance and revenge and Bermuda won't move forward with that.'' Mr. Moniz said Dr. Hodgson was forgetting that CURE stood for unity as well as racial equality and he pointed to the US where Hispanics were a separate category, even though they were not a different race.

He challenged the PLP: "Let's see if you are looking for justice for the whole community or if you have a political agenda.

"They say it's a new Bermuda so let's see what changes you are going to make or whether you are just looking for yourself and getting bigger cars. "I spend time fighting for the underdog, whether they are German, French or West Indian.'' The UBP spokesman on CURE issues, Allan Marshall, said he was saddened by the debate.

He said: "It's typical we are going down the path of race when the UBP's philosophy has always been one of inclusion and unity of the races.'' He said the Island would only move forward if people saw themselves as Bermudians rather than black, white or Portuguese.

Dr. Eva Hodgson