An ill-tempered debate at the close of business in the House of Assembly saw more than the usual amount of highly-charged rhetoric bounce off the walls of the chamber.

Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson started off by re-igniting her long-running series of clashes with Premier Ewart Brown over the closing of the Medical Clinic.

Dr. Brown announced the impending closure of the facility in last November’s Throne Speech, saying its patients, primarily indigents, were suffering from a lack of dignity. In future, the former patients will have access to private doctors.

Those opposed to the plan have rallied to keep the clinic open, gathering thousands of signatures and organising two protest marches.

During the Motion to Adjourn, Mrs. Jackson, who opposes the closure, claimed “the majority” of former patients were not getting places with private physicians and are being told “they do not have space (and) they do not have a place for them.”

Dr. Brown jumped to his feet on several occasions on points of order, claiming Mrs. Jackson was misleading the public and telling her in an angry tone: “Prove it. Prove it. I’m not going to let it continue unchecked, the constant flow of you-know-what.”

When Mrs. Jackson repeated her claims, Dr. Brown said the clinic would close at the end of June, and acknowledged that some doctors not participating within the scheme had turned away patients who approached them. However, he pledged that all patients would be placed with new physicians.

Later in the debate, the Premier took to his feet and accused Mrs. Jackson of behaving “irresponsibly” by organising a protest over the issue outside the House of Assembly earlier this year — a charge the Shadow Health Minister denies.

“There’s been a lot of alarm bells that have been ringing without necessity,” said Dr. Brown.

“The only thing that’s disorderly would be the irresponsible actions of that honourable member Mrs. Jackson.”

Mrs. Jackson argued that she was not irresponsible and said the clinic’s patients had been treated disrespectfully.

Dr. Brown continued by saying of Mrs. Jackson’s actions: “It’s not just scoring political points, but it’s beginning to sound strange.”

He said that during the Medical Clinic protest a placard-wielding woman had screamed abuse at him. However, he said he had since learned from “an unimpeachable source” that the woman was already insured by a commercial insurance company, and that her husband will now be getting coverage under her insurance.

On her own part in the demonstration, Mrs. Jackson said: “I have said it before, I will say it again. I did not organise that demonstration. I was certainly a part of it. I did not organise it. I don’t believe that anybody here believes otherwise.”

Dr. Brown responded: “If she says she did not organise it, I will accept that. But that she was part and parcel of it is undeniable.”

The Premier also hit out at allegations that the closure of the clinic was an “abrupt” process, which he said had been made by Mrs. Jackson and former Opposition leader Grant Gibbons — although both called out that they had never made such claims.

“It’s been seven months since this issue was introduced through the Throne Speech in November, with a closure planned on or before June 30,” he said. “In no sense of the word can that be considered abrupt.”

He said Acting Health Minister Philip Perinchief and civil servants were currently working on an orderly plan to shut the facility.

“There may be people who are more knowledgeable about how it’s going to be closed than others, but that’s the nature of the environment we live in,” he said.

Arguments over race formed another key part of the debate. Deputy United Bermuda Party Leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin rose to her feet to criticise “absolutely disgusting” words that she claimed were called across from the PLP front bench earlier in the day’s proceedings.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin claimed that a Minister sitting next to Dale Butler had said to her: “Go ahead, take your master’s licks,” in a racial reference that she found offensive. She suggested that if the Premier was genuinely concerned about the current ‘Big Conversation’ race relations initiative, “he might want to start by looking at every member of his front bench and every member of his back bench”.

Minister for Cultural Affairs Wayne Perinchief, who sits next to Mr. Butler, said he did not believe Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin’s comments were true, protesting: “I never spoke to her. I never directed anything to her,” and adding that if he was speaking directly to Mr. Butler then Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin should not have heard him.

Speaker Stanley Lowe told Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin that the exchange was lowering the standards of the House. She took to her seat after vowing to defend all the members of her party, and after Education Minister Randy Horton loudly shouted at her several times to sit down.

UBP MP Maxwell Burgess spoke of the need for blacks to be better educated to keep them from being “in the back of a Hustle Truck”. He said adults had an important role to play by offering support.

Government backbencher Terry Lister praised Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler’s efforts to help prepare prisoners as productive members for society on their release from prison.

Education Minister Randy Horton said he conceded Bermuda’s male graduation rates needed to improve, but insisted progress had been made recently.

Mr. Horton spoke of the need for adults to lead by example and highlighted a mentoring system at Somerset Primary School in which children are assigned individual role models such as parents, teachers or other members of school staff.

Opposition education spokesman Dr. Gibbons agreed there was a need to address the number of failing male students.

Dr. Gibbons said education standards in the Caymans had enjoyed a turnaround in fortunes since a new system was implemented bringing together a number of elements from the community.

He said: “(The Caymans) Government said: ‘We have got issues — let’s all sit down together and sort it out.’ That’s the difference between us and where the Caymans is.”

Next to speak was Opposition leader Michael Dunkley, who raised a number of issues, including the need to tackle the prevalence of drugs in society. MPs should lead the way by introducing random drugs testing in the House of Assembly, he said.

Mr. Dunkley criticised Government for the delayed opening of the Sylvia Richardson care home. He stated that the St. George’s facility had cost $30 million to build, but only took residents in an emergency measure when the Pembroke Rest Home closed due to the nearby fire at Pembroke Dump. He called for Government to announce when it is going to operate on a fuller basis.

He also called for action to clean up mould at Hamilton Police Station, and to crackdown on road rage and reckless motorists.

Wrapping up the debate, Dr. Brown turned the topic back to Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin’s earlier allegations.

“The honourable member must know that as the leader of my party I do not condone racial name-calling. I don’t think it’s positive,” said the Premier.

“I have never called anyone in this House a name. I have come extremely close, but I have observed the rules of the House.”

He said any remark Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin may have heard could have been made because she was a black woman speaking up unprompted on behalf of a white colleague, Dr. Gibbons, who was facing criticism over a declared interest in an earlier debate.

“This is the phenomenon,” said Dr. Brown. “When I used to sit on the opposite side of the House, many times we would attack a member of the House who happened to be white.

“What we started to notice was before those white members could respond on their own, we saw black members many times jumping up and speaking as though other people couldn’t talk.”

Dr. Gibbons responded: “There were a number of members all around me who jumped to my defence — Mr. Dodwell back here, Louise Jackson. I think it’s not fair for that man to make a racial comment about who answered. We are a diverse party and a diverse party answered.”

Dr. Brown drew reference to the Big Conversation — a series of dialogues involving blacks and whites at the Hamilton Princess which he said was going well under the organisation of Government consultant Rolfe Commissiong.

The Premier said: “I really believe that this country has denied itself that conversation for too long. It doesn’t mean that having that conversation is going to be a picture of comfort.”

Premier, Mrs. Jackson clash over Medical Clinic closure