MINISTER HUMPHREY DELIVERS TONGUE-LASHING TO CRITICS OF CHILD PROTECTION BILL
By Sheria Brathwaite
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and other critics of the Child Protection Bill 2023 have come under fire from Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey.
During the annual general meeting of the party’s St Michael South branch on Sunday, he gave the critics a tongue-lashing for “cursing” him for trying to implement legislation to protect children.
The minister charged that to equate the bill with “all things wrong” was “dangerous”.
“I understand that they are coming for me. Let them come cause I ready for them. The reality is this: Pieces and pieces of legislation that we have brought to Parliament to improve the lives of ordinary people, they are opposing it every single time on nonsense . . . .
“Our narrative is being guided by people who are misinformed and deliberately spreading misinformation and disinformation to make you feel that this [Barbados] Labour Party (BLP) is not acting in your interest. Am I a madman? Am I going to send something to Parliament to hurt children? Don’t I have two and a third that I help raise that I love equally . . . ,” Humphrey declared.
He said the current legislation dated back to the early 1900s and it was time to upgrade the laws to govern a modern society.
The minister charged that debate on the bill was being used by the DLP to gain traction, adding that he was disheartened to see that efforts to improve child protection legislation had become political.
“They have made a whole statement about how we have now signed our souls away to the devil because we signed onto the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; that this BLP Government has sold out. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed by the DLP in 1990; not the BLP. They don’t know their history . . . but if you cursing me for what you do, then you either have no sense at all or you just dangerous, or both . . . ,” declared Humphrey.
The minister maintained that what he was doing was nothing new as there had been previous attempts to improve child protection legislation. He referenced two documents – one in 2013 and in 2015 – drafted by the DLP, which sought to reform the legislation.
“They cursing me, they cursing the Government, unaware . . . that they did all the necessary background work, but the DLP talk and talk and didn’t finish anything. But they started it. So when they cursing, they have to curse themselves cause this bill did not start with us . . . ,” he insisted.
“I have no issue with it because it is a good thing, but it is just about the idiocy of this movement and I see all kinds of people leading the movement. Now Winston Clarke is having a march in town. Sit down Winston, sit down. This bill now has gotten itself marred in all kinds of political controversy and it is regrettable . . . .”
The minister said several entities were consulted before the bill was drafted, including the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners, the Barbados Nurses’ Association, the Barbados Police Service, the Bar Association, and the Barbados Evangelical Association.
The bill is now before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament for further input.
Humphrey said this was why “to equate the bill with all things wrong is dangerous”.
“To win a political argument, they are sacrificing children . . . . They want to gain political traction in circumstances when they have not gotten political traction in the last many years . . . ,” he argued.
Humphrey said he had no objection to anyone who had constructive insight but was “upset” by the “nasty”, “pernicious” and “salacious” behaviour of DLP “to make you think that we are doing something to hurt your child”.
“Everything we have done as a Government was done to protect the children,” he stressed.
As it relates to claims that the new legislation was trying to take away the rights of parents, including their right to punish their children, Humphrey reiterated: “There is nothing in this legislation that says that you can’t hit a child . . . . They want you to believe that if you do that to a child, somehow the Child Care Board or the Child Protection Authority gonna barge into your house, take your child, deny you of your parental rights, and do all kinds of things to your children. It is a lie . . . .”
Humphrey said authorities would only be able to remove a child from his/her family as a last resort if other interventions failed.
Referencing a video circulating on social media with people condemning Barbados and other regional governments for trying to implement certain gender policies, he added that he was appalled that the critics would “curse Barbados” on a regional stage.
“. . . . They then tell you in relation to this legislation that you have to watch now because the legislation says that we will take your children and perform all kinds of surgeries and operations . . . .
“You create a regional platform to curse Barbados and to curse [Prime Minister] Mia Mottley, and the foundation of all that they are saying is a lie. It is a blatant lie and I cannot believe that is what we have come to in 2023 . . . . That is not what we do,” Humphrey said.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
