Top lawyer says government cares more about passing stem cell laws for a key party backer than freedom of information for all Bahamians

Responding to this week’s announcement that a stem cell facility in The Bahamas has performed its first procedure, Smith said that while a handful of connected individuals – most of them foreigners – are set to benefit from this contentious industry, Bahamians still have no Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to protect their most basic interests.

“Despite the PLP’s election promises, more than two years after they came to office, how can the government claim the still need time to work on an FOIA? It should have been among their very first considerations,” he said.

“Contrast this to the government’s sprint towards stem cell legislation. Just over a year after the election, they had already passed laws permitting and regulating this this hugely complex and highly disputed area of research, which has proved a conundrum for governments around the world.

“It was a move that hardly anyone was calling for, save admitted PLP backer Peter Nygard, who stated publicly he donated $5 million for stem cell research. I guess making him happy was more important than moving to bolster the rights of every single Bahamian.”

Swiftly enacting an FOIA was a stated priority of the PLP in the run-up to the May 2012 election. But once successful, the party went quiet on the issue.

Then, last month, following sustained pressure by advocacy groups – particularly Save The Bays (STB), of which Smith is a director – Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald announced that a revised version of the FOIA passed by the FNM administration in 2012 will not be presented to parliament before spring 2016.

“It is simply unacceptable,” Smith said. “Five years after the election promise and on the eve of the new election is far too long for the public to wait for transparency and accountability in government.

“An FOIA is exists in some form or other across the entire civilized world. It is a disgrace that The Bahamas is lagging so far behind in granting its citizens the fundamental right to know what is being done in their name and with their money by public servants and elected officials.”

Meanwhile, as early as November 2012, the government announced it was creating a special task force designed to review the pros and cons of stem cell research.

In April 2013, Nygard announced that he was planning to invest between $50-$55 million in constructing a stem cell research-focused medical facility at his Lyford Cay home.

Confidential minutes of a meeting between Mr Nygard and Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) officials obtained by the press, detail the Canadian multi-millionaire’s plans to add commercial uses to the property.

The very same day this story broke, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that the government had met with researchers and investors interested in the country’s stem cell research plans.

Nygard has said he already donated $5 million to stem cell research. In early 2013, the opposition FNM claimed an inappropriate relationship leading to a Stem Cell Bill being introduced to parliament at the request of Nygard.

In response, Christie said he “can’t wait” for his chance to take the House floor and clear up the controversy, but then failed to set the record straight for months.

When on August 8, 2013 he finally broke his silence, it was only to say that Nygard’s stem cell research applications would be subjected to the same regulations and scrutiny as others.

“That is entirely beside the point,” Smith said. “No one asked the prime minister how he plans to treat Nygard going forward; we want Christie to explain why in the first place, he fulfilled the stated wishes of a financial backer before living up to his promises to The Bahamian people.

“Clearly, the Bahamian people are last on the PLP’s list of priorities – this after being elected to office with a slogan campaign of ‘believing in Bahamians’. An objective look at the way in which FOIA has been treated compared to stem cell research proves that in Bahamian politics, you can say almost anything. But at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words.”

STB has repeatedly criticized Nygard’s perceived influence over the PLP, most frequently with regard to the government’s failure to stop the fashion tycoon from expanding his imposing Mayan-themed development in Lyford Cay.

The group claims that over the last 30 years, Nygard Cay has nearly doubled in size as a result of construction works undertaken without the appropriate permits, and in a manner that caused significant damage to the surrounding environment of Clifton Bay.

Founded just over a year ago, Save The Bays has taken The Bahamas by storm. The grassroots effort to protect ecologically significant areas of the archipelago from unregulated development has transformed into a broad-based coalition that is at the forefront of both social and environmental issues. Calling for an environmental protection act, oil spill legislation, an FOIA and much needed conchservation laws, STB now has more than 500 registered members, almost 17,000 followers on Facebook and has just reached 6,000 signatures on its petition on change.org.