‘Childish’

Former President of the Senate Floyd Morris says the Government is likely to face “major embarrassment” in the future if Senator Kamina Johnson continues her protest against Opposition Senator Lambert Brown, with whom she has had bad-tempered showdowns.

Johnson Smith, who is the leader of government business in the Senate, has on at least six occasions, from as far back as July, walked out of the Senate once Brown got up to speak.

In those instances, Brown had risen to debate the extension of the states of public emergency, emergency amendments to the Road Traffic Act, the Disabilities Act, and the Casino Gaming Act.

Johnson Smith did not respond to The Gleaner’s question on why she has repeatedly left the House on those occasions. Several other government senators denied comment on the impasse.

“It is disturbing and childish,” Morris, an opposition senator, told The Gleaner on Monday.

He said one of the established principles of the Senate is to afford colleagues respect, even in disagreement.

Morris said Johnson Smith has been entrusted with not only leading government business but also setting the tone in terms of relationships across the political aisle.

“That is why the government [members] couldn’t approach the members of the Opposition in the Senate for any cooperation when debate on the state of emergency legislation was taking place ... . And even on the day when they needed the Opposition support in the state of emergency debate, she walked out on Lambert Brown,” Morris recalled.

He was referencing last month’s failure by the Government to get the single vote needed for the two-thirds majority to extend states of emergency declared in seven police divisions two weeks prior.

Morris told The Gleaner that he remains baffled by Johnson Smith’s “infantility”, arguing that the Senate is for “mature minds”.

Morris recalled that in the recent past, Johnson Smith had begun the piloting of a bill through the Upper House but walked out when Brown rose to speak.

He said others on the Government side followed.

“During the debate, there wasn’t a quorum. I stood up and pointed out to the president of the Senate that there wasn’t a quorum. Now that was an embarrassment for the Government because it has 13 members and there is a reason why it has the majority. At no time they are supposed to go below the quorum, which is eight,” he said, adding that the Government’s business stalled at that moment.

On Monday, Brown told The Gleaner that Johnson Smith’s walkout began after he furnished information which, he said, showed that her predecessor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, A.J. Nicholson, did not harass her.

Earlier this year, Johnson Smith told the Senate that a former senator on the opposing side had sent her emails which she found to be threatening and harassing.

Nicholson was later identified as the author of the emails sent the Johnson Smith. However, he denied harassing her.

“She may be upset by my calling her out, but whether she’s in or she’s out of the chamber, I will speak. So I will fulfil my duty. It matters not,” said Brown.

Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, at the resumption of the Upper House in September following the summer recess, urged his colleagues to hold themselves to a better standard of debate.

He declined to comment on the issue when contacted.

Leader of opposition business in the Senate, Peter Bunting, did not respond to The Gleaner’s request for comment.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com