This session highlights the vital role of poetry in preserving a nation's emotional history against the threat of cultural erasure. It serves as a powerful reminder that a people's identity is defined as much by its creative voices as by its laws.
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Sitting of the Senate || July 17, 2026
Added:prayers.
Almighty God, by whom alone kings reign and princes decree justice, and from whom alone cometh all counsel, wisdom, and understanding, we thine unworthy servants here gathered today together in thy name, do most humbly beseech thee to send down thy heavenly wisdom from above, to direct and guide us in all our consultations.
And grant that we having thine thy fear always before our eyes and laying aside all private interests, prejudices and partial affections. The result of all our councils may be to the glory of thy blessed name. the maintenance of true religion and justice, the safety, honor and happiness of the king, the public will, peace and tranquility of the island, and the uniting and knitting together of the hearts of all persons and estates within the same in true Christian love and charity one towards another through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Be seated, please.
This meeting of the Honorable Senate of Jamaica for Friday, the 17th day of July, 2026 is called to order. And I recognize all those who are joining us by way of the social media and other various media in Jamaica and abroad.
This meeting of the honorable senate is suspended to take a special matter.
members, as you have no doubt been informed, uh it is my great pleasure and I'm sure equally the pleasure of all the members of the Senate to welcome with us today, Professor Kwami Doors, CD D who is the poet laurate of Jamaica and we welcome you today um poet laurate he is joined he's joined you can you can sit no sit for a while yes he's he I will he's joined by his sister uh Miss Adja Jaws dos who I understand is a a Spanish teacher who had a significant impact on the life of our senator Golden Campbell and his nieces Janelle and Abigail and also from the Jamaica Library Service uh Francine Francis who is the director of special programs and Mr. Mario Rickettts who is in charge of national libraries public relations. But before I give you the brief introduction, I must say that I was a bit I I put into a reflective mood because the poet Laurat is a schoolmate of Senator Lambert Brown and I.
And for Senator Lambert and I to recognize a schoolmate with the impeccable qualifications of professor does the poet laurate of Jamaica means that Lambert Brown and I both fell through the cracks and in fact in speaking to the poet laurate he was saying that his father had actually studied English at Oxford.
So we can blame Oxford not Jamaica College.
So Senator Brown we are in good company today. So it is the distinct pleasure of all of us poet laurate to welcome you to the senate of Jamaica and persons ask what exactly is the role of the poet laurate? That role is to promote and encourage greater appreciation of Jamaican poetry while fostering a deep public appreciation for the spoken arts and Jamaicans Jamaica's rich literary history and I had the occasion to witness an interaction between the minister of education and professor Daws and I think that to a large extent both are on the same page. age um with the need to introduce a greater appreciation for literature in the schools. Professor Daws is the fourth public laurate of Jamaica since independence and he follows the distinguished line of Jamaican literary luminaries who have served in this role. Professor Mvin Morris from 2014 to 16. Lorna Goodison 17- 20 and Olive Senior 21- 24.
Now, uh you will also recall members of the Senate that um both um Olive and Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior and Lord Lorna Goodison have paid the visits here. So we had previously had the privilege of welcoming poet laurates Goodison and senior and we are delighted to continue this tradition today by receiving you professors.
Professor Dolls was invested as poet laurate of Jamaica in January 2025 and will serve a tenure of three years.
In 2004, he was awarded the Musgrave Silver Medal and in 2022 received the order of distinction the rank of commander from the government of Jamaica for his contribution to the literary arts. Professor Dos is the author of numerous books of poetry and other books of of fiction, criticism, and essays. his most recent collection entitled Mortality and Sturge Town, the latter of which was long listed for the National Book Critics Award Circle Prize in 2025. He is presently a professor of the literary arts at Brown University.
He also lectures in the master of fine arts program at the Pacific University and the series edition of African poetry book series, director of African poetry book fund and artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. And I pause of course to recognize the role that the Calabash U book festival has had in Jamaica across many many um divides and we and and we it's certainly something that we as a nation appreciate.
Professor Daws is a chancellor emiritus of the academic of American poets and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the winner of the prestigious Windam Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist in the 2022 International Poetry Prize for Literature that is the new stud.
Senators, please join me in welcoming JC Old Boy, Professorwami Doors. Professor Dos, I now invite you to favor us with an introduction and a selection of your work.
Thank you very much, the president of the Senate, and thank you, senators, for um for welcoming me so warmly. Um it is good to be here and I'm especially grateful because I think and hope this is um a tradition that will continue that we can recognize um the appointed port laurate of the country um in these as they say hallowed halls occasionally but it's really really really a tremendous honor to be here um and I I wanted to to just talk briefly um about my role as port laurette and some of the things that I've become very important to me in the work that I'm doing. Um and then I'll read some poems because you know when in doubt read a poem is the way that I see it. And um if you fall asleep then the poems are doing their job. Um they're helping you to sleep because sleep is good for you. Um, and if you stay awake, then they're also doing their job, which is to irritate you and agonize you, which is good for you as well, as you as you know. So, either way, you're going to come out the better for having heard some poetry. Um, one of the reasons I'm here at this point, especially, I mean, apart from being here, is to mount the second of uh a series that we're working on celebrating the voices of Jamaican poets. um who have passed major poets and it's a series that features a poem a poet each each time and we're doing it over the Philips Sherlock um venue and we have right artists who are reading the poetry of these major poets. We did Claude McKay um uh a few a month or so ago and then on Saturday we'll be celebrating Yuna Marson, one of the great Jamaican poets. Um and then later on in the year we'll be celebrating Luis Bennett and then finally we'll celebrate my father Neville Doors. Um I believe the poet I've said it again and again and this has given me purpose and direction as a poet. I believe poets are the chroniclers of the sentiment of our times and their times. And why are they important? Historians will chronicle the facts and the details of life. um sociologists will talk about the thinking and the ways in which people human beings relied on society and structures to live their lives. There are many ways in which the history of human beings are chronicled. But what poets do is that they enter into the sentiment, the history of the sentiment.
If we want in a moment to think that as human beings we carry through the ages 2,000 3,000 years ago. This is a fundamental function of the poet to capture the moment of our lives. And as a people who were once enslaved, who were once deprived of the opportunity to use language and to chronicle in language, the fact that we are doing so now is massively important and it should be of tremendous value to us that the voices of those who have gone before us, who have spoken before us, who have written and published before us be maintained and retained as a resistance to the eraser that other oppressive systems had put upon us. So this is why I do what I do. And the beauty of it is that I'm only interested in the sentiment and the feeling as a as a fundamental part of human existence and human value. So that's the framework that guides my work and guides what I do in encouraging the reading of poetry, the reading of literature and the engagement with literature. As poet laurate, this has been the driving force of it. Whether it's to archive the material, whether it's to make it available through the internet, through social media, and whether it's to write remind ourselves as a people that we are a people who understand poetry. This is what this is what we're about. This is what Calabash is about, and this is what I'll continue to do even after I've left this office. So, I'm going to read some poems. Um, and hopefully um we will get some value out of it. I want to start though by naming my father Neville Doors. Um I doubt if he would have seen himself talking to the Jamaican Parliament. Um but but I think you would appreciate the irony of this situation.
Um my father was the director of the Institute of Jamaica. So he had much encounter with leading things in this country and being part of the culture of the country and his value for the country is tremendous. So I thought I'd read a poem by him called acceptance. to me one of his most beautiful poems.
I praise the glorious summers of pimento sun purple riper than the wet red clay smell of my youth. By corn light and riverrun as dog and I we screamed the small green hill and the salt smooth wind from the leaping sea sang in the yellow sunflower.
I praise the dumb scared child I was in coffee groves and the barbecues of graves smelling of ghosts, old country flesh laid by my father for his tribe fictitious as angels. A small aloned boy riding to harvest hymns in the green of the day as the shackle bell tonged on the churchy hilltop. I praise the legends we made when the drunk hawks and worse were merry wall stopped the day hallowed the mountains of birds and the nestling curve of the reclining reeling river swam those eyes reading the first gardens blush and Adams when weathers twisted the old thunder voice I was king Arthur's irrelevant steed on the lightning page castling all races all men the drunk hawks and worse climbing together to the top of the colorless rain in the dappling sun. I praise all this returning to a shower of mango blossoms, the creaking hill, the creaking village, the old eyes, the graves, the sun's kiss. And lonely as ever as the bear cedars, I walk by the stream where boys still flash dusking and falling in the star apple sunset and find her there, ancient as the lost lands, bandaned and gray and calling.
Then I read the monumental legend of her love and grasp her wrinkled hands.
It's a poem called Telma's Precious Cargo. Wrote this poem many years ago.
Um, but it's a poem about immigration.
Um, but it's also a poem that at the heart of it is talking about what we carry with us and what our people have carried with us. So, this is Telma's precious cargo.
Uh she was bringing fried fish, festival, banana, dumpling, rose corn, sweet sugar cane, nicely peel and cool.
When the plastic glove customs officer sque up him nose like him smelling him upper lip decide to break heavy fruit, gut open the fish, spilling all that white flesh and sweet fried tomato all over the com the table.
Same was searching for drugs, searching for disease from this great grandmother with centuries springing in our eyes who come just to catch a sight of the children she never met and who might grow up without the grounding of stories she'd been carrying all these years. But Telma never panicked before. No child.
She simply gathered the ruins and then spread her bandana flaming red with yellow light on the blue steel carpet in the corner. And she placed every injured offering on the shimmering surface.
Telma light a red candle and draw a circle around the feast like a prayer.
And then she invite the people them who line up to face the plastic glove man to come sit with our grandson who smiling like he can't stop all this time and eat a good sunrise meal. No fuss, just this laughing in our eyes. And them drink off all the sweet sap juice laced with a little appleton fire. and them eat that food like communion. And when they must finish, tell M say a prayer and whisper a little forgiveness to the boy with the gloves. And them calmly wobble through the customs clean as a priest before service with all the jugs and disease.
Swimming and singing in them belly, walking like that into the sweet Canadian air, warm as ever and ready.
Well, Elma tell the story again and again and it end with the last sweet line. She said, "Mama, them should have follow it to the toilet the day you know for some of them seed fine style child and see the tree them there still Africa people been carrying them possessions in them doodoo forever. Precious cargo, child. Precious cargo. And man, we couldn't stop laugh.
Yes.
Oh, boy. So, here is a poem.
Some years ago, I had the honor to to visit Adisaba, to visit Ethiopia. I was on assignment with the BBC to write about um to write about Hilasi. The truth is that the BBC approached me to write about Hilasi in Bath England.
And so I said, well, who wants to go to Bath? So I said, well, I can't do Bath England. I have to do Ethiopia. I mean, we have to arrange that. So say, you can go to Ethiopia. And so that took me to Ethiopia, which was a trip that I've always wanted to make. And I went there at the beginning of the new year in Ethiopia. So this is a poem that I wrote. It's called New Year's Eve in Addis. I'll do two poems from that period.
Addis is dark at night. As if the lowgrade electricity cannot burn through the heavy gloom. On New Year's Eve, the shops are emptying. The pavements are covered with the aromatic green of cut grass, and women sell bundles of the welcome carpets and dry firewood.
The smoke begins to thicken in the air from bonfires with a red glow at each house and small dwelling. It is hard to breathe. So far up in the highlands, the air is being purified. All sins, all errors, all weward acts burnt away by flame. The smoke clogs the nostrils with the acurid reminder of failure. The penitants will bathe in the soft rainwater, cover their skin with palms full of med medicated powder, and the bodies will be robed in gleaming white, the cloth of hope.
In the dim light of pre-dawn, the women followed the antifonal groans of the priest in St. Stevens. The scent of incense can carry for miles in the cool morning air. They arrive at the courtyard and begin to press clean lips to the floor of the sanctuary to open clean palms and cup the blessings falling from crosses maze of lines. Like women bathing in a river, they scoop the healing on their heads, their voices muttering, the gaze of penitence until they too can enter the holy place and bow. The past must enter the blood as ritual. That which remains is the gold and the precious silver of tradition.
In this season, we learn the theology of forgiveness, the promise of forgetting all things, the amnesia of the gospel.
It is how people could forget the monument of the emperor, how come mascal the sins of a brutish summer can turn into smoke. A burning in the eyes, some tears for a while while the balm of weeping, then cleansing of prayer and the ordinary rituals of facing new days.
The penitent does not make God. It is God who made the penitent.
It is not for us to know the answers.
questions are for those who have not yet learned the insignificance of the short time we have here in this earth.
So, one of the interesting experiences, thank you. Blessings.
If you ever get to Ethiopia during the New Year celebration, it's beautiful.
They've cut the green, the colors and so on, a powerful. And the Ethiopian Orthodox Church reminds you of how old this Christianity is. It's not it's not a western religion as we presume it to be, but a religion that has grown out of a people in a tremendous way. So, one of the interesting things about this trip was that I went to visit a man called Salomon Ephrame Wolf. He had been to Jamaica. He was a Jamaican who had moved during Hilis's um gift to to to diasporal Africans to come to a place called Shashimani and and build a life there. Um and Wolf had come there in the 60s from Jamaica. And um one of the interesting moments for me was I was interviewing him and asking him about Hilis Salassie and so on. So I made the mistake of asking him um how did it feel when the emperor died? Well, it never take that so well. Um and so I'll read the poem that tells the story of the happening. It's called African Postman for Solomon Ephraim Wolf.
Son, who is that? Is the African postman daddy burning spear east from Adisaba and then south deep into the rift valley. I can hear the horns trumpeting over the flat roofed acacia trees. See the African women bend low with wood heavy on their backs. and the cows, goats, donkeys, mules, sheep, and horses snapped into obedient herds by sprinting children moving along the roadside. Life happens here. I am traveling to the land I have heard about, Shashesimani, the green place, 500 acres of just benevolence. And I know now that I long to hear the roots man tell me how despite the rumors of his passing the nati keeps on riding keeps on standing in the fields of praise to hold on to the faith of roots people. Brother Solomon you put his name this name Ephrame on your head and carry the face of the true raster the face of an Ashanti warrior eyes deep heavy lids and your skin tight as leather blacker than black. I have met you before on the streets of Kingston. There where you trod to the hiss and slander of the heathen. You naughty dread gathering the people's broken minds into your calabash. You carry it all. Tell them return to the roots. The healing shall take place. You are burning spear's voice in the fields of te. You tell me of the prophecy of Marcus and I listen to you through the flem through the gruff of your voice. And suddenly when I ask about the passing of the emperor, you rise up like a staff of correction.
Your voice reaching back to the mountains, your warrior self, your yard man greatness. And you speak a mystery to those who have ears but won't hear, and those who have eyes and won't see.
And I know that this dread will one day stand in this soil and find his feet growing roots. That soon the earth will be darker for the arrival of Solomon.
Let the heathens rage. Let the doubters scuff. Let this Ghanaian youth whose eyes have seen the face of Jesus Christ, let him too sit and marvel at the faith of the nati. For the African postman has forgot forsaken father and mother and has come to stand before his imperial majesty to call him only father so that the father might call him son. And the world will carry on its weary march. And the ibises will swoop in the Ethiopian dusk. And the smoke will rise from woodf fires. And the night will come with news that the roots man after 400 years of being told he is homeless has come home.
Yes. J has come home. Sons and daughters of his imperial majesty. Highly silasi earth rightful ruler without any apology say this is the time when I and I and I and I should come home. Yes.
Nal go.
So my Christian brethren are panicking at this poem. But don't worry my faith has grown by my knowledge of raster. My faith in Christ has grown by my knowledge of roster to root it in my identity and who I am. And this is a learning that I cherish and value because when I came to Jamaica, you know, I got laughed at by Jamaicans for being an African. I got teased at shortwood practicing school. My brother's name was as ina kill. That was his nickname.
But the raster man them welcomed me and said tell me about Africa. Tell us about that place. And that was a healing for me.
Speaking of healing, I want to read a poem. I'll read two more poems and then I'll be done. And this is a poem after the hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica. And it's a poem called Replenishment.
And it is a prayer for Jamaica.
Home is where one starts from.
And here is a small Coptic prayer from Ethiop from Egypt.
Raise the Nile to its measures according to your grace, O Lord.
Give joy to the face of the earth. May its forest be abundantly watered and its fruits be plentiful.
Prepare the lands for sewing and harvesting.
Manage our lives as deem fit.
And then a note from Bob Marley.
Up a can river to wash my dreads.
Upon a rock I rest my head trench down.
May great river continue to seep into the dark soil.
May rainfall replenish the mountain streams. May the green of restoration widely spread across the broken land.
May the seeds we plant burst with vitality and substance.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
All my life the planting of seeds begins with an amen or some good luck ritual to conjure the soil to have mercy on the seeds to yield the substance of things hoped for. I had no flowing streams of a farmer's assurance. Gardens meant seeds like dice and prayers that some mercy should spread. I would scatter the seeds and tenderly pat and spread the dark soil. Stand, clap my hands and say, "Amen." For I knew my history of failure when I blamed the seeds for being deceptions or announced the soil to be cursed. And to compensate, I would pour streams of water on the bald ground. No yield, no sprouting substance, just rot and silence.
I long then for the substance of Coptic prayers. Each morning's liturgy spread over the living and the dead in earnest streams, praying, "Nile, oh Nile, be green, sprouting. Amen." I envy those sta saints who pray each day for the fckon soil to yield as covens of women pray for wombs to seed. But I am a city dweller with a fist full of brittle seeds making my way into the hills to deliver their substance to the survivors. The cracked roads, the upturned soil, the shattered tree trunks naked of leaves and the spread of destruction.
At the parts bend, I whisper a heavy amen, a deep sigh. When I see the great rivers, streams of water tumbling down.
I know that these streams of water are the substance of chaos and the hope for thirsty seals. They are the grace and the mercy. They are the amen of the people's prayers. They are the substance of what is hoped for. At the slippery banking, I spread my arms wide and say, "Dear God, replenish this soil.
Replenish this broken ground. birth seeds with streams of good water to spread the substance of faith, the soils. Amen. Over this broken island.
And we say, "Amen." Amen. And amen.
So, I'm going to end with a poem which is very intimate to me. It's a poem from my wife Lorna. She was Davis. she's now does has been for at as it turns out 36 years. She made a very prudent decision.
But it's a poem that I want to remember as an evocation of family, an evocation of what what makes us do what we do, what you do, what you do, why you do it. You do it for the people you love. You do it for the country you love. And and that's important to keep at the forefront of what we do. It keeps us honest, doesn't it? If we put that forward. So, here's a poem called In this saying, there's a way to end books.
The gathered papers, their weighty gift, the clean parade of words.
A in columns of paragraphs and in columns of images, the tidiness of things and numbered they form the thing you have labored for over the years. To end a book, you tie a blue ribbon around the heft, make a bow, kiss it.
The way to end the year of cataclysms is to find a piece of land by water where old boats rot at the edges and the place smells of ancient things, sulfur, salt, rotting fish, and the drop deep musk of mud and grass. To then sit on a moving jetty rocking against the universe's pulse and their weight for the moon.
To end this way alone is to end with the hollow melancholy of loss and regret.
Better to end with the voice of your woman. For you will need that voice ordinary as rain talk take talking your name. Perhaps it's the intrusion of her scent filling the air, the cool of her touch slick with tomato pulps and herbs.
I know the hymn and her of this poem.
Don't worry, it's because I know the names of the bodies standing in the dusk by the water.
and Lorna they will hold hands and in this saying the poem ends.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much poet Laura.
>> Thank you very Um it it's an inspiring morning to have met you um before we came in and of course listening to your beautiful words minister. You have something to say.
>> Thank you so much Mr. President and permission to speak from a seat that's not mine. Um I have to thank this morning our poet laurette um for coming and inspiring us with those wonderful poems that you did today and it's a reminder of how important poetry is in this country and I know for me in terms of my own journey um the written word has been very important >> doing I can't write any poetry I'm not I'm very good at appreciating poetry.
But um it is very important that our children have access to this. Um our children are bombarded by lots of other um content visions of themselves that may not be wholesome and and really um supportive of the kind of citizens we want to create in this country. And it is very important that they hear poems, they hear literature that speaks about them and their experience. And you said that poets were chronicers of our lives. And that is very important. And that work that you do is central to this project to Jamaica that we are on. And so I know as Minister of Education, I stand ready to work with you. Um I thank you for what you've done in Calabash. One of the highlights of my time as Minister of Education was to be able to read at Calabash. Um, and and so I I thank you for that. And there's a lot more that we have to do together because we have to help our children to feel that good sense of self and to know that being a black Jamaican child is something that's powerful. And through poetry and through literature, we can help them to tap into that greatness that is there and to also understand themselves and who they are.
And so I really want to thank you and I thank you for just so openly agreeing to help me in the Ministry of Education. I will be following up with you. We have big things to do together and I know that we can achieve the goals we want to. Thank you, Mr. President.
Senator Scott Mley.
>> Mr. President, may I firstly thank you for the gift of this morning.
The parliament needs to have a soft side where they can get in touch with their souls.
Thank you so much poet lauret >> for taking the time to be with us this morning. I confess that when I saw that you were born in Ghana and not in Jamaica as I had contemplated, it did make me pause. But having spoken to you earlier and hearing you, I realize it has provided a bridge to connect you and to connect us with our roots.
You poetry is in a way the window to your soul and the window to your experiences.
a glimpse of where you're coming from, of where you need to go.
And today I must tell you the one that I really enjoyed was the the one about the cargo because somehow, you know, I could see exactly what we were speaking of when we were in with the president and I could use my imagination just to understand what every single word meant and to see the personality who was there in that airport. both the man who was checking everything and this strong, formidable, confident woman who was not going to be beaten at all by any circumstances.
I hope that there are others who listen to you this morning and who will take that journey into their soul who will find the beauty of your pros and your poetry. I remember the first calabash that was in Jamaica.
I was not pleased when it was my anniversary and my husband tells me we are going to a literary festival. I thought romantic dinner, you know, everything else and it was at Jake's the first not many people and a little space and it was the most wonderful wonderful way that we could have spent an anniversary.
You have brought not just pleasure but learning.
You speak to us in a way that somehow triggers something in our DNA. I know I'm going on and on. They know I have a tendency to do so, so they will forgive me. But I really want to say to you, thank you. and to your family and to your wife of 30 37 years 36 years.
>> Holding hands together is just the way to do it. Thank you, sir.
>> Thank you very much, members. And once again, Senator Daws, thank you very much to yourself and your family. Before I resume, I'm just going to see Senator um poet Lar.
>> Oh, I'm sorry. You know, I I should have of course mentioned Justine Hensley from Calabash and all the work that she has done because she has been you you mentioned her specifically and so did um Senator Golden Campbell and both leaders. So we we mention them and put your appreciation our appreciation for Calabash on the record.
of the honorable Senate now resumes its sittings.
um members in in public business today and we have a number of tributes to be paid which I'm going to take now and not of course first without recognizing the passing of the great Gary so who passed this morning. So we place on the record his passing and recognize his contribution to um West Indian cricket and more than West Indian cricket his contribution to the West Indian character.
Members today we one minute Members, we begin our business having been inspired by our poet laurate by recognizing the passing of professor the honorable Oswald Harding OJ CD KC JP.
former president of the Senate and a former minister of government.
And of course, it is with profound sadness that we recognize the passing of one of our own.
Professor Harden as Aussie as he was fondly known was a gentleman and a scholar in the true sense of the word.
He brought distinction to every field in which he served and left an indelible mark on the institutions which he helped to shape. His contribution to this parliament was in itself extraordinary.
He served as the president of the senate across three terms from 80 to 83, 83 to 84 and 2007 to 2011.
During his parliamentary year, he also served as minister without portfolio in the ministry of foreign affairs and trade and as a minister of justice and attorney general. He served as leader of government business in the Senate, leader of opposition business in the Senate. Harding held the distinction of having the longest continuous tenure as a senator in Jamaican's history, a testament to the confidence placed in his judgment, leadership, and commitment to democratic governance.
He was a committed member of the Jamaica Labor Party where he was a source of wise counsel. He held several leadership positions within the party including deputy chairman and treasurer before being appointed a trustee of the party in 2006.
Beyond the political sphere, Professor Hardin rendered distinguished services in the field of law, diplomacy and education. As a senior partner in the law firm of OG Harding and Company, he earned the respect of the legal profession through scholarship and integrity. As an academic, he served as dean of the law faculty of the University of Technology, was professor of law and philosophy at the University of Technology, and prior to this served as senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of the West Indies.
Professor Harding had the distinction of being the first P PhD graduate in philosophy produced by the University of the West Indies. He was instrumental in the establishment of the faculty of law at the University of Technology, thus helping to create the opportunity for generations of young aspiring Jamaicans who wish to enter the field of law. His influence as an educator will continue to be felt for many years to come through the impact he had on his innumerable students. He was a man with a wide range of interest which reflected intellectual curiosity.
An accomplished author, he published books, papers and articles on a diverse range of topics. His autobio autobio autobiography grandson of Essie the Aussie Hardin story followed by Near-Death Experience a holographic explanation which examined the subject of outer body experiences.
Professor Hardin was well known as a lover of the arts and an avid collector.
His Hardingham collection has been described as the largest single and perhaps most significant contemporary collection of ceramic in the Caribbean.
I certainly know that he was a patron of the ceram ceramicist um bar and has a lot of his works which no doubt will find themsself contributed to the National Gallery of Jamaica at sometime in the future.
He was a member of Jamaica's potters association and the international academy of ceramics which is um headquartered in Geneva and he also served for many years as the director of the National Gallery of Jamaica. His interest extended to sports. He was a member of the Kingston cricket club, Kingston Polar Club. His appre appreciation for artistic gastronomy which I take it to mean him used to love to eat also led him to become a member of Lash the R o t i s e u rs can you help me with that golden campbell no professor Hardin's life reflected his belief that true success was measured only by personal achievement but also by one's contribution to society. He was not content to be a legislator or legal advocate or educator. He was also deeply committed to civic service playing an active role in several organizations including the Jamaican JC's of which he was a former president. In recognition of his distinguished service, he was confirmed with the honor of JCI senator, a life membership, the junior chamber international. A life committed to service brought him to many brought him many accolades. In 2003, he was awarded the Order of Jamaica for his service to the legislature, having been previously been made a commander in the order of distinction in 2000 in sorry in 1995.
I had the privilege and pleasure of serving with him in the Senate for a number of years including for a period a term when I was his deputy and I always remember and appreciate the guiding hand which he was never slow to offer me during those years. So while we remember his many achievements, we also remember the man himself, a son of the soil with deep commitment to Jamaica. He served this nation with distinction and honor and his legacy will endure in this parliament, the legal arena, the cultural sphere, the field of civic engagement and academia. On behalf of this honorable Senate, I extend sincere condolences to his wife Margold, his sons Jeremy and Zachary, and other members of of his family. Um just a brief note that I recall that there was a discussion internal discussion in the Jamaica Labor Party at one of its decision making entities and there was a discussion about the use of PWA and whether PWA should be recognized more widely in the country and he was an advocate for Azie Harden who spoke immaculate English was a member advocate for PWA and he was speaking about the need to have PWA introduced to schools and so on and somebody stood up around the back and said in PWA you can't go on because if you did chat PWA you couldn't step up and Maranda.
So I think I think that that put a stop to the PWA argument that Sunday morning.
May soul rest in internal peace and may light perpetual shine upon him. I will take just before I take the tributes from members, I should point out that the National Gallery of Jamaica did um put out a tribute to Professor Hardin. Um and I would ask that that tribute, Mr. plaque the tribute which I have here from the national gallery you can you can just um attach it with the tribute that I have given when you prepare the documents to send to the family senator Gail I'm going to take Senator Gail and then Senator Scott Mley You may. Thank you, sir. You know, today we pay tribute to what I consider a remarkable Jamaican patriot, Professor the Honorable Oswald G.
Hardin, OJ CD Casey, a distinguished attorney at law, parliamentarian, former president of the this honorable Senate, former government minister, deputy chairman of the Jamaica Labor Party, and a man whose life was defined by unwavering service to his party, his country, and its people. Professor Alen belonged to a generation of leadersh who understood that public office was not about personal advancement but about public duty. And whether he stood in this chamber, appeared before the courts, served in the cabinet, or represented this party on a political platform, he did so with dignity, wisdom, and exceptional eloquence.
He possessed the rare quality of being both firm in conviction and respectful in disagreement.
He was truly an elder statesman whose council was always measured, thoughtful, and deeply rooted in principle.
Sir, his commitment to the Jamaica Labor Party was unquestionable.
He lived by a famous declaration. He said he he will follow Bustamanti till we die.
And for us, he adding those were not merely words. They were a lifelong creed.
His relationship with the right excellenc Alexander Bustamanti was both personal and profound. He served bustanti while the national hero visited England when professor Harding was in England and he continued to tirelessly along worked alongside him when he returned to Jamaica and this became almost a kind of sacred duty for him and his family to visit Irish town every Saturday and he was you know accompanied by Lady Marold and his two young sons. I I had the distinct pleasure, president, of knowing professor Harding more closely after I became president and he came to me at an event and he smiled and said to me, I am a buster laborite and I've always wanted to become a member of the Buster Manti Industrial Trade Union.
He told me that once he made that request to Buster Manty himself and Buster didn't take him serious.
Neither did I.
But then I learned that you know Buster had other plans for him.
But yet, president, every single time we met thereafter, there were after the customary greetings, he would repeat the same request almost with sincerity that I want to be a member of the bustanti industrial trade union.
>> And so it it became a remark with a heartfelt desire.
And after that repeat so many times in 2012, I granted him that wish in accordance with the union's constitution. Sir, I had the honor of conferring upon him honorary membership of the bustanti industrial trade union.
>> President President President general, I don't mean to interrupt you.
You you want to make an application?
>> No. No. I've made a request before and you have been ignoring me >> and I noticed that you take on the younger one, but you leave me out of the world.
>> But but it also gave him the exceptional privilege of of becoming and serving as a member of our managing managing executive committee.
And you know we truly appreciate it. But president it was not ceremonial because one of the strange things we wondered if professor Hardin operated in a different time zone.
So if the meetings were set at 10:00, Professor Hardin was there by 9:00 and so he was operating one hour ahead in a different time zone. Always punctual, always in attendance and that was the measure of the man and the commitment he gave.
He he he told me that he was the author of Jamaica's first book on diplomacy. But then when you look at the individual, you couldn't question that.
When when Buster Banty passed in 1977, Professor Hardin immediately went to his Irishtown residence to comfort Lady Bustanti. This is what a story he told me. He brought his family with him and before leaving he asked the two young sons whether they wish to see Buster for a final time. They agreed and he gently took them into the room where Jamaica's first national hero lay.
President Years later his youngest son Zachary was assigned a school exercise to write a poem. Imagine a poem about his favorite national hero and Zachary chose of course Sir Alexander Bustamanti and he ended the poem with the un unforgettable line I saw Buster lay dead in his bed.
The teacher un understandably concerned by what seemed as an extraordinary vivid imagination summoned Zachary's mother to school.
Lady Marold had calmly explained that her son was simply telling the truth. As a young boy, he had indeed seen Sir Alexander Bustamant Lane in reposed after his passing. Of course, he he saw Buster laying dead in his bed. That couldn't be questioned. You know, President, that simple childhood memory says much more than words ever could. It speaks to the extraordinary relationship shared by Professor Harding and his family with Sir Alexander Bustamanti and Lady Bustamanti. And it reminds us that history is not made only in public meetings or recorded in official documents. Sometimes history is lived quietly in homes, in friendships, in loyalty, and in moments of shared between great men and their families.
And so true professor Harding, many of us in the in the BITU heard stories of bustanti that were never written in books, never recorded in Hansard and never preserved in official archives. And there were stories passed from one generation to another. Stories that reveal Bustamant's humanity, his humor, his compassion.
his passing remarks.
At the end of an extraordinary chapter in our nation history, Jamaica has lost a distinguished jurist and an accomplished parliamentarian, an outstanding president of the Senate, a loyal labor right and an exemplary citizen. The Jamaica Labor Party has lost a cherished honorary member, mentor and friend. I've lost someone whose wisdom and encouragement and steadfast example I deeply valued. And you know, every conversation with him would end with I have one next thing to tell you. And there there continues the conversation.
Mr. President, he has set standards that others would need to emulate and he set great standards in this parliament. In fact, one of them, >> well, we we heard that story of him not always being present in the seat and never allowed the deputy president at the time to be able to sign apply his signature.
But then the emilation would have gone further. Professor Harden wore the wig.
president, where have you what have you done with the week?
And so one of the things about him is that despite his support, entrenched support for his party, he had friends across party lines.
PJ Patterson was one of his great friends. I also understood that Mayor Mley's father was another of his great friends.
>> Well, on behalf of this honorable Senate, I extend our deepest condolences to his beloved wife Marie, his children, grandchildren, and the entire Harding family. We also extend our sincere sympathies to the Jamaica Labor Party, to his many colleagues and friends, and to the members of the Bustamanti Industrial Trade Union who are privileged to speak to him, to engage with him.
May his soul rest in peace and may his distinguished leg legacy continue to inspire generations of Jamaicans yet to come. May it please your President.
Thank you very much, President General Senator Scott Montley.
>> Mr. President, that was indeed a very interesting tribute.
I want to >> I want to say to Cavvern Senator Gail that it really brought out so many different sides to Professor Harding.
There there are there are many people whose influence on our lives begin long before we know it.
Uh, Professor Oswald Harding taught me at law school and there generations of young lawyers came to appreciate his intellect, his exacting standards and his deep commitment to the law.
years later when I entered this honorable Senate in a date I will not mention on this occasion he was the leader of opposition business and I was the deputy president of the Senate.
It was therefore my privilege to know him first as my teacher then as my parliamentary colleague and over the years as a respected friend and fellow servant of Jamaica.
It is from that perspective as one who was fortunate enough to witness different chapters of his remarkable life that I rise today to pay tribute to a truly distinguished Jamaican.
Because Professor Harding belonged to that increasingly rare generation of public servants whose commitment to country transcended office, title, and political circumstances.
His passing marks the end of a remarkable chapter in Jamaica's parliamentary and legal history.
As the longest serving senator in Jamaica's history, his contribution to this chamber is unparalleled.
He remains the only person to have served as president of the Senate on two separate occasions, but presiding over our deliberations with dignity, fairness, and an unwavering respect for the traditions of parliamentary democracy. He served Jamaica with distinction as attorney general, minister of justice, leader of opposition business in the Senate, parliamentarian, Queens council, legal scholar, and in the later years, the founding dean of the faculty of law at the University of Technology, helping to shape a new generation of lawyers. And you would think that that is impressive.
It is, but there are many aspects of him that I never captured and some that I'm just learning about today.
But distinguished offices alone cannot define a life.
Those who knew Professor Harding will remember not only his formidable intellect, but his courtesy, his humility, his meticulous preparation and unfailing civility.
He demonstrated to me that one could hold firm convictions while treating others with respect and that vigorous debate need never diminish mutual regard.
Although he served the Jamaica Labor Party with unwavering commitment, he earned admiration across political lines for the fairness, impartiality and dignity with which he presided over this chamber. That is perhaps I think for me the highest tribute than c that can be paid to anyone entrusted with the stewardship of parliament. His commitment to public service was matched by his devotion to learning. Even after a very distinguished career in public life, he pursued doctoral studies and returned to academia with characteristic enthusiasm. He was enthusiastic about everything he did. He remained throughout his life a scholar in the truest sense, curious, disciplined, and convinced that education is a lifelong pursuit. His legacy extends well be beyond the law and the president will know how much I admired him as a distinguished collector and patron of the arts. His renowned Hardingham collection has become a significant part of Jamaica's cultural heritage and the envy of those of us who share that that joy. Built over many years with scholarship, discernment, and a profound appreciation for artistic excellence, the collection has earned national recognition and I dare say international recognition with pieces from the collection being exhibited by the National Gallery of Jamaica. It reflected professor professor Harding's belief that preserving a nation's artistic heritage is in itself an act of public service.
And how appropriate that on the day that we paid tribute to him we had our very own poet laurate in this house.
You know, Norman Marley reminds us there is no nobler task than to build a nation.
Professor Harding devoted himself to this noble task. He helped to build Jamaica through the law, through parliament, through education, through public service, and through his stewardship of our cultural heritage.
His was a life marked not by the pursuit of recognition but by the quiet steadfast pursuit of excellence. And then he wrote his autobiography.
How did he call it?
Not referring to any of those achievements. Not referring to anything like that. He called it the grandson of Essie.
And therefore, it did not surprise me, Mr. president when you said that he was an advocate for the speaking of PWA because he had so many nuances and so many dimensions to his personality that every time you looked at him it was like you were turning at another chapter in a book. So today I will say the true measure of a parliamentarian is not simply the offices he held but the institutions he leaves stronger because of his service. Professor Harding strengthened the Senate. He strengthened the legal profession. He strengthened legal education.
He strengthened the Jamaica Labor Party.
He enriched Jamaica's cultural life.
Above all, he strengthened our democratic institutions and he left an enduring example of integrity, scholarship and service. To his beloved family, his friends, his former colleagues, the students who he taught and who all who mourn his passing, I extend my deepest condolences. His work is done. his example endures. May Professor Dr. Oswald Gascal Harding rest in peace and may Jamaica long remain grateful for his distinguished and faithful service.
>> Thank you very much, Senator Scott Marty. Senator Golden Campbell.
Mr. President, I I I really appreciate how Senator Scott Mley called his name a while ago, Oswald Gascal Harding.
I grew up, Mr. President, calling him Uncle Aussie.
He was a rarity in what is a hurly burly world of politics, a vocation in which integrity of purpose, civility, and respect for one's adversaries struggle to find a place.
Throughout his long career in politics and public service spanning more than 50 years, Uncle Lazi demonstrated all of those qualities.
I'm told, Mr. President, that even before his entry into politics, he had displayed his leadership skills and commitment to service as president of the Jamaica JC's.
He joined the Labour Party in the late 1960s and in 1974 was elected deputy general secretary. He contested the general elections for East Rural St. Andrew in 1976 and 97 and Central Manchester in 1993.
And what is notable about his character and the man he was that although he was unsuccessful in those elections, it never dulled his spirit or his dedication to serving his country and his party. He later served as deputy chairman and later still as trustee, a position he held up to the time of his passing.
Mr. president. Much has been said about his temperament and I and I want to echo some of those sentiments.
Aussie Harding's temperament and consumate skills led him into the foreign service where he was appointed as our charge the affairs in Mexico. An experience that prepared him for being appointed in 1980 as minister of state in the ministry of foreign affairs. His legal acumen was reci recognized later when he was appointed minister of justice and attorney general in 1986.
But he will perhaps be best remembered as some have noted for his distinguished service in this chamber.
First appointed in 1977 and Senate Senator Scott Mley recognized the only one to be appointed twice.
He served this chamber for almost 30 years as president for eight of those and in that role he saw himself very much as custodian of the dignity of the chamber.
I don't think that there are any who would dispute the excellent way in which he presided over the proceedings and the decorum that he so painstakingly maintained.
I wish Mr. president that there were PBCJ recordings of the parliament at that time so that young people could see the manner in which the Senate conducted its work and the manner in which he presided over its sittings. Fairness, Mr. president. He showed to both sides of the aisle in his conduct and rulings, especially when deliberations became contentious and the respect he earned from all the members over whom he presided was evident.
Mr. President, his work continued even after he retired from active politics.
Many know of his critical support to the University of Technology in the establishment of the faculty of law where he served as dean and professor imparting his considerable knowledge and experience in the law to his students.
But Mr. president. Above everything else, Uncle Azie was a good, decent human being clothed in an irreachable character, unquestionable integrity, urbanity, dignity, and an unflapable temperament.
It has been a season for me, Mr. President, this 2026.
He stands as the fifth of those I've lost who very much grounded my childhood and my fond memories.
Today, as we honor his memory, let this not be the last that we make of him. His legacy provides so much from which we can learn and must emulate in giving service to our beautiful country in the way that he did for almost all of his adult life. And we in this chamber, Mr. President, would do well to emulate his conduct in this chamber.
Uncle Lzie, I thank you and Aunt Marie for the beautiful memories of my childhood, the pleasant afternoons in your garden. I thank Jeremy for continuing to send those pictures and Jerry, please continue to do to do that.
Aunt Marold, Jeremy, Nina, Zachary, Tamara, and the grandkids.
Rest assured, I am confident that he will rest in peace and that God's light will deservedly shine upon Uncle Azie.
Thank you, Mr. President.
>> Thank you. I think we have one more one more present um tribute. Senator Morgan Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, I am particularly delighted to be able to just share briefly in paying tribute to the life and work of the late professor, the honorable Oswald Harding.
I am among, Mr. president or should I say was among a group of graduate students in that parliamentary term 2007 to 2011 who served as parliamentary research interns and it was at that point in time when I would have first come into contact and active engagement with Aussie Harding as he served in that term.
uh as president of the Senate, as parliamentary research interns, we would among other things attend the sittings, attend the sittings of committees and of course undertake work aimed at adding value to the work of our parliamentarians, particularly those who needed support in respect of private members, motions and so on. And I just vividly recall whenever you would have interacted with Aussie Harding.
A particular word comes to mind, Mr. President, as I reflect. The word assuredness he had this manner about him, unbothered, easygoing, but an assure, a distinct assuredness. And what that did for many of us who not just looked on vicariously but worked closely with him was that it imbued us equally with our own you know sense of understanding our own commitment to understanding the issues and applying oneself and being equally confident and assured.
Mr. President Ozie Harding for many of us who came up through the ranks in the Jamaica Labor Party as you can appreciate many youngsters would have either been a member of Young Jamaica or the organ the party's young professional arm G2K and those youth arms those youth outfits Mr. president serve quite importantly as useful training ground, an incubator if you may for you know political talent and Aussie Harding was among those to whom we could look and would have looked for guidance fine example you would have heard the leader of government of of opposition business make mention on the conclusion of the poet laurates intervent conventions this morning about a kind of ministering to the soul. And when I reflect on my own interactions with Azi Hardy and indeed what he would have meant to others as well is that own sense of him speaking to our soul and speaking to our sense of self and giving us a sense of purpose.
So I am eternally indebted to the Harding family and to the late Professor Ozie Harding in that regard and uh given my own shop and that of our acting leader of government business today as a ministry family the ministry of education youth skills and information lords and uh expresses gratitude to the late professor Harding for his contribution to educ education. His scholarship speaks for itself. He was as indicated earlier one of those pioneers in terms of uh philosophy as in philosophy education as a student of philosophy and a distinguished PhD in that particular discipline and as a ministry we are delighted for the fine example he would have set for the number of students he would have impacted over the years and particularly Mr. president in relation to legal education because the onset of the faculty of law at the University of Technology brought with it a meaningful vehicle for the expansion of access to legal education which has long been a contentious issue. It had long been an aspiration of many and Aussie Harding and the folk at UTEK, you know, made it a reality and he would have served with distinction as the UTEK law faculty's first dean and I'm sure that the UTEK family is delighted for his uh effort and of course legacy in that regard and as a system as a whole.
Mr. President, education in Jamaica is better for having had the sterling and distinguished service of the late professor Aussie Harding. And on his passing, I must thank him and his family who are contributors to nation building. his wife equally Mar Gold Harding served as a board member for a couple terms of the Edna Manley College for the visual and performing arts. She chaired the board of the Edam Manley College for the visual and performing arts. So it's a family of service, a family that contributes to nation building and uh from the education standpoint in particular, we here and as a ministry family, we're delighted for the family's distinct service and we trust that Professor Harding's soul will rest in peace and light perpetual shine on him as we bid him farewell and say what Profi.
>> Thank you very much, Senator Morgan. I'm going to ask I'm going to ask in our usual way in which we honor past members of the Senate that the members of the Senate today rise and recognize one moments of silence in the memory of the late uh Professor Oswell Harding, former president of this honorable Senate.
May his soul rest in peace and may his family Marold, Jeremy, and Zachary recognize that the soul of the righteous are in the hands of God and no torment will ever touch them. Thank you very much.
Uh, Mr. Clark, would you ensure that the relevant record of the tributes given to Professor Harding are compiled and forwarded to Mrs. Harding, indicating that we had paid tribute and offered our thanks for the service of our late husband.
Uh today we also recognize the passing of the honorable Vincent Steven Francis OJ OD.
Um Steven Frano Francis OJ one of Jamaica's most influential athletic coaches.
Through his vision, discipline, and unwavering pursuit of excellence, he transformed the landscape of Jamaican athletes and helped to cement our country's reputation as a global sprinting powerhouse.
As the co-founder and technical director of the MVP track and field club, Coach Francis dedicated his life to identifying, nurturing, and developing worth worldclass athletics.
He firmly believed that Jamaica possessed the talent, expertise, and capacity to produce the world's finest athletes.
And through coaching and training, he acted on that belief. Upon his guidance, distinguished athletes including Assafa Powell, Shelanne Fraser, and innumerable others, but these two in particular brought international acclaim to Jamaica through their achievements at the highest level of sporting competition.
In recognition of his outstanding contribution to track and field through coaching, he was conferred with the Order of Jamaica, the highest national honor, third highest national honor um in 2017.
So on behalf of the honorable Senate, I offer the sincere condolences to his family, former athletes, friends, and the wider spurt sporting um fraternity. And I open the floor for brief tributes to the honorable Vincent Steven Francis OJ.
Here we go.
Thank you, sir. Permission to speak.
Senator Fitz Senley, permission to speak from his seat other than your own. No problem.
>> I appreciate it. Before I commence tribute to our own Jamaican icon, I seek your indulgence, sir, to note the passing of Sir Garfield Soas, an icon of the region and of world cricket, a man who was very important to the West Indies in shaping Caribbean identity at a time when the vestigages of our colonial past characterized by the bane of a superiority complex dominated many Caribbean societies.
Sir Garfield Soas's contribution, his performances and the way he carried himself with dignity was a powerful symbol of Caribbean excellence across the globe. He made many across the region understand that it was possible to dominate with excellence and dignity on the world stage. I lived in Barbados for approximately two years and I know how important a figure sir Gary is to the people of Barbados and I pass on my condolences to them. Indeed, in Barbados, he is properly recognized as the right excellent Sir Garfield Soas, a national hero.
As I segue into the tribute to a legendary Jamaican, I begin with a quote. The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are often the ones who do.
I I believe that was a quote first adorabated by American pioneer Steve Jobs uttered in the year 1997.
As fate would have it, two years later in September of 1999, one Vincent Steven Francis left a career in finance where his expertise were highly sought after and dared to change the face of track and field in Jamaica and across the globe. He co-ounded the maximizing velocity and power track and field club, more popularly known as the MVP club. and what an impact the club has had on track and field in Jamaica and across the globe. MVP members have achieved a remarkable tally across Olympic games, World Championships, and World Indoor Championships.
Under the guidance of Steven Francis, the club has contributed more than 110 medals to Jamaica at major global championships, including over 37 Olympic medals and 75 world championship medals.
We heal Steven Francis's work which has transformed how Jamaica is viewed whenever a major track and field event comes a calling. But for me for me Steven Francis's greatest contributions may be contemplated in a dual manner.
Firstly, the countless lives he transformed.
His ability to take people who were not regarded as so-called champ stars or folks who were seen to have average talent or were unknown. His ability to nurture them and turn them into world beaters and superstars on the global stage. And in so doing, his guidance made better and transformed many lives, enabling count countless Jamaicans to be able to take better care of themselves, their families, and give back to their communities.
I recall observing the most honorable Edward Siaga in the Parliament of Jamaica and Dr. Omar Davies. And though they were political adversaries, one thing they agreed on is that sports is a powerful unifier for a nation. It may transform dull passages into entertaining moments in time. It may make the sad happy, the bored excited and glued to a TV screen. It has the ability to make those who are pained feel less discomfort because for example MVP Safa Powell was able to defeat Tyson Gay at the 2010 Golden Gala.
The ownorous nature of daily life is often made easier to navigate by sporting moments because again for example Shereica Jackson of MVP with 2144 was able to claim world championship gold in Budapest and defeat the Americans including Shakiri Richardson. There are people sir whose burden was made lighter by the fact that Dr. The honorable Shelon Fraser Price OJ who was then unheralded at the time was able to burst on the scene on August 17, 2008 and clock 10.78 and win Olympic gold defeating the Americans in the process. The sheer jubilation accentuated by clanging pot covers on Ashoka Lane in Waterhouse or half a tree in St. Andrew spoke loudly about the pride we felt as a country. Now colleagues, none of what I alluded to would have been possible without the guidance of Steven Francis. Indeed, he was one of a kind.
And for me, his greatest contribution to Jamaica is how his work, his unique expertise, and his dedication to seeing his mentees being the best they can be was able to consistently lift the Jamaican psyche and bring an outpouring of happiness to the nation, which from time to time encounters somber moments.
Mr. Francis was a complex man.
During my time in another vocation, I interacted with him a few times. He was bullish about the potential of Jamaica.
He also understood the business of sports and the administrative side of the vocation.
And what I appreciated about him is that in a world where many beat around the bush. Steven Francis was a straight talker. He cared deeply about the well-being of Jamaica, including those he trained. From time to time, he'd have positive interactions with the government via sports minister, the honorable Olivia Graange, about initiatives which the minister put in place to care for not only our track stars, but those who aspire to stardom and were putting in the work at the grassroots level. He was prepared to be critical when he saw fit. But I largely found that he was a fair man. For example, he did not hesitate in offering support when the minister set aside $45 million in an appreciation grant program for the Jamaican team which participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
the monetary assistance program ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and the welfare fund introduced via the sports development foundation also had his strong support.
Indeed, the initiative of the Jamaica Olympic Association to put in place an Olympic solidarity scholarship program is a kind of action that got his support even as he tirelessly lobbied for more to be done.
I think it's widely known that government's interference in sports administration is not encouraged across the globe.
>> But even as we pay tribute to Mr. Francis, even as we pay tribute to Mr. Francis.
I think a great honor to his legacy would be if our administrators of the sport that is the members of the various associations that govern sports in Jamaica would place emphasis on moving away from a perception that some of the associations is an old boys club which pander to administrators and their egos and make it clear via demonstrable actions that more systems will be put in place to ensure that every participant in track and field from the high school level to the senior cohort feels that there's equal opportunity and support for them to develop their talent and to put them in a position where they are certain that they have been given the best opportunity to excel and do our country proud. I am in no doubt, sir, that if such a pivot is made at the level of administration of sports in Jamaica, it would be an awesome and great tribute to the legacy of Steven Francis.
Mr. Francis was a man who spoke truth to power and he was not caugh about sharing what was on his mind and how to make better systems.
Today we pay tribute to a man who hated and he was not bashful about speaking out against maladministration which from time to time has denied our sons and daughters the best opportunity to shine. In closing, sir, often the words icon and pioneer I find are misused or overused, not oppositely designated.
But there can be no doubt that Steven Francis was a master of his craft and a legend of the sport.
The government of Jamaica via sports minister, the honorable Olivia Graange, has announced that the life and work of Mr. Francis will be celebrated on August 15 at the National Indoor Center in Kingston.
We are thankful for the life and contribution of Steven Francis and offer our most sincere condolences to his family including his brother Paul, his colleagues and associates including Bruce James of MVP and the many Jamaicans who whose life his expertise transformed and the many who set on a path to international stardom and incredible innings has come to an end. 64 years of dedication to his country. May the soul of Vincent Steven Francis find peace and light perpetually shine upon him. Thank you, sir.
>> Thank you, Senator Aba.
This was just so Senator Brown, engage your other mic now, please. Yeah, it's all about don't leave.
>> President, it is well known that I believe that where we can find unity across the aisles, we must promote unity.
It may come as a surprise to many today to hear that Senator Abkco Fitzeni and Senator Lambert Brown is on the same set of pages.
And that is because of the greatness of Steven Francis, the Honorable Steven Francis OG.
He has brought the country together.
He has given us so much to cheer about, so much joy in times of difficulty.
We can count on Steven Francis and others like him. And let me say upfront, Senator Fitzeni, to have coached at one time the world fastest man 9.77 in a soft power. That by itself is greatness.
to follow that up with having the fastest over 200 female.
And the third fastest female alive today is double triple greatness and that is the work of Steven Francis OJ.
Coach Francis to many was an enigma.
He was kind of mysterious and a puzzling individual, difficult to penetrate the veneer.
But above all, it is recognized that Frano, as he's popularly known as, was a genius.
He was undoubtedly a success and let us proclaim it from this Senate.
He was one of the world's not Jamaica the world's greatest track and field coach of all times.
The record will show that Steven Francis was a brilliant was brilliant at academia.
>> Absolutely. His achievement as part of the Ulma's High School National School Challenge quiz is well known. His two university degrees including his masters will confirm that a part in traditional business in fact a successful part in traditional business was open to him.
Yet the enigma chose track and field.
He turned what would be a hobby for many into a successful business venture. I want to repeat that.
It turned it into a business venture.
>> Yeah.
MVP was his vehicle and you're correctly not many persons are aware what MVP mean maximizing velocity and power that was truly a mission not just the name of the club because his entire life was constant improvement maximizing the potential potential of our people. He showed that it could be done and that's a lesson that we need to take from it.
Not many believed in this enigma but people like Bridget Foster later Bridget Foster Hilton and Michael Freigha >> they did they believed in him and it paid off for both of them even to this day.
Bridget became the first global 100 meter champion in the early for Jamaica.
Frea winning silver in 2005 in Helsinki.
Frano did that.
There was a time president when if a Jamaican ended in a final at the Olympics or world champion that was a great achievement for a little country.
Raymond Stewart 100 meter come eight something to cheer about.
Then came Frano latest friend Glenn Mills and they spoiled us.
We were no longer cheering reaching the final asafa run fifth in a race and we condemn a safer because Frano and Glenn Mills and others led us to believe that this small country if we enter a race and we didn't get the gold medal would have failed.
There are many people, many nation would just be happy to be at the Olympics and the world championship. But for us, Frana spoiled us in a good way because we wanted always to excel.
Thing about Frano is that he searched for the unknowns, not the big stars, the unknowns. And then he made them well known.
He not only made them medal winners but he made them into professionals who were well rewarded financially.
Did I say MVP was a business venture and those who participate in MVP were rewarded financially as well.
The names Asafa Pow Elen Thompson era Shelan Fraser well later on Taj Gil Rowan Watson Kishen Thompson Michan Ibangs Shereica Williams Khalisa Khalis Spencer Carter and Christine Dale were not names that many people knew.
They didn't excel at jumps.
Yet Frano found them, saw in them greatness, and made them champions. And to Frano and those we say thank you.
Among people under his charge were Cheron Simpson, Shelan and I remember the night when Shelan came to the trials and won a new era because VC Campbell Brown was on her way out and that's after Morene before named like German and Mason.
Tantina Clayton, they all were prees of prana and he made them achieve their potential.
While most veteran coaches ended up focusing on specific events, 100 m, 200 m or like bird around 400 m.
Frano was truly one of a kind.
He had global medals or he had he trained global medalist in sprint 100 meter 200 sprint hurdles 400 m hurdles melan walker the quarter mile but he didn't rest just on the track he was involved in long jump to Jay Gil I jump mention Jeremy Mason and shot put Maran. He was a allrounder.
This man who when you look at him plump like you and I appear disheveled sometime but his greatness wasn't in his clothes or his physical appearance it was in his mind.
Athletes coached by Frano now have national records 100 m women 200 meter women I high jump men 400 m hurdles women men's 100 under 20 that's greatness whichever way you look at His charges were not only local but he had international athletes coming to Jamaica.
Antonet Strong from Bahamas, Sarda Williams from Barbados, some from India at one point and others from abroad.
So the tributes have come in about Frano from his athletes and you have heard them. But president, even president for a day or for a couple minutes sent a gill. I happened to have been at the stadium a couple evenings trying to walk the track, walk the stairs, then trying to get fit and saw coaching Bridget faster as she then was.
I saw essentially a sergeant major in charge of a delinquent soldier who was being punished.
The rigor that Frano took Bridget through had her throwing up and it was clear to me there could be no gain without pain.
It was tough luck love and minister I just thought it was torture that the athlete was going through but that tough love show Bridget being a coach with Frano today she appreciated what he was doing in pushing her in maximizing her potential and I if I was related to Bridget I'd have gone and attacked Frano because of what I saw him doing to that athlete.
But that's the way we get success.
What may have been very significant president is that Frano has begun and started a legacy.
He left a number of coaches behind. His brother Paul was there. people like Bruce James, but there are number of people who came from the MVP stable who are now coaches and winning medals for Jamaica.
In business, we call that succession planning. In politics, I call I think we call it dynasty making.
>> But Frano hasn't just departed. He has left with us template from which we can work.
So I have mentioned Sherekica much in this but she's among the top sprinters in the world. I like Senator Fitzen believe there are some tributes we could best pay to Frano to learn from him.
Can I start by saying if we adopt the principle of continuous improvement, Frano wasn't want to rest on his luring.
If we want to teach productivity and the value of productivity in the country, let's take the work of Steven Francis OJ.
977 world record was followed by 972 because he didn't think as we all know that 977 would be the world record forever. He saw how we could maximize velocity and power step by step, motion by motion, process by process. So if we want to pay a tribute to Frano, learn that productivity must be a key part of what we do. Second lesson that we should learn is his reliance.
Senator Duncan and data what gets measured is likely to get done and FRA was a big data driven decision maker and that's something if you want to pay tribute to FRA it's learn to respect and be driven by data another lesson and this is for business and all of us in Jamaica, Frano understood that we were not operating just in a local environment, that the globe was it and we should become world beaters.
And Fran showed us that as Jamaicans, wherever in this island we came from, we could beat the best in the world. and Santa Morgan. We could even beat those who cheat in international affairs whether by tariffs or by drugs.
So Frano taught us that our country could compete with the best and beat them. Let's learn that. And like you sit, I appreciate the fact that Frana was fearless.
He was not afraid to speak truth to power and he didn't care what anybody think about him say about him as long as he was able to speak his truth whether to politician or sports administrators.
As Frank Sinatra would say, and I paraphrase, for Frano, he planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway, and more, much more than this. He did it his way.
And Frank Sinatra continued to say, "Yes, there were times, I sure knew, when he bit of more than he could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt, he ate it up, spit it out, face it all."
And we can say with certainty that Frana stood tall and did it his way. Mr. President as a grateful nation. Indeed, the world bits farewell to a giant, a visionary, a motivator, the epitome of success, and above all, a humble man, a man of great humility, a man who embodied the spirit of Jamaica that will with talawa. May his soul rest in peace as we thank his family for learning amongst us. Even as short as his tenure was on this earth, he left us a man respected, a giant, a coach who have left a legacy and who will allow Jamaica to smile and keep smiling. Smile Jamaica Frano, we thank you. May this life be lived by others and may we all be in some ways like Frano. May it please you Mr. President.
>> Thank thank you Senator Brown and we will always reflect on your sprinting and your exercise part.
Senator Tavaris Finson.
Mr. President, I rise today with a profound sense of sadness, but also with immense gratitude to pay tribute to one of the greatest architects of Jamaican sporting excellence, the late coach Steven Frano Francis.
Today, Jamaica mourns not only the loss of an exceptional coach, but the passing of a visionary, a mentor, a nation builder, and a man's whose life's work elevated our country to unprecedented heights on the world stage.
There are individuals who participate in history and there are those who indeed, Mr. President, shape it.
Steven Francis undoubtedly belonged to the latter.
His contribution to Jamaica cannot be measured solely by medals, records, championships, or accolades. His true legacy lies in the generations of young Jamaicans whose lives he transformed through discipline, belief, opportunity, and excellence.
Mr. President, when the history of global athletics is written, Jamaica will forever occupy a place of distinction.
While our athletes become household names across every continent, behind many of those remarkable performances stood a quiet, brilliant strategist whose influence was felt in every stride they took.
Steven Francis revolutionized sprint coaching.
His methods challenged conventional wisdom. His standards demanded excellence.
His vision produced champions.
As the founder and head coach of the MP MVP track club, he created an environment where talent was nurtured with scientific precision, uncompromising discipline, and unwavering belief in the potential of Jamaican athletes. He truly believed that many considered him unconventional. Mr. President, history has proven he was simply ahead of his time.
And many others who proudly wore the black, green, and gold. Each athlete possessed individual talent. But Steven Francis helped transform talent into greatness.
He understood that speed alone was never enough.
Greatness demanded sacrifice, character and precision.
Those principles became the foundation upon which he Mr. President built champions. Those champions Jamaican Mr. President beyond the medals was the man. Those who knew Coach Francis often described him as deeply analytical, intensely committed, and fiercely protective of his athletes.
He was never one to seek the spotlight.
Indeed, many of the greatest accomplishments occurred quietly away from the television cameras and newspaper headlines.
While others celebrated victory, he was already preparing for tomorrow's challenge.
That relentless pursuit of excellence became his signature.
It is perhaping, Mr. President, that a man who described who sorry rather dedicated his life to developing others rarely sought personal acclaim.
Instead, he found fulfillment in seeing young Jamaicans realize dreams they once believed were impossible.
Mr. President, his work carried significance far beyond athletics.
Every international medal won by a Jamaican athlete inspires and had inspired pride across our nation.
There's another aspect of his legacy that deserves recognition. Mr. president. He believed in education and preparation.
He believed that coaching was both an art and a science.
His meticulous attention to biomechanics, physiology, psychology, and training methodology transformed coaching standards not only in Jamaica but internationally.
Mr. President, on a personal note, I wish to acknowledge the kindness and generosity that coach Steven Francis extended to me during my tenure as president of the Jamaican Cycling Federation.
Steven was never one to limit his support to track and field alone. He understood that the success of Jamaican sport depended on all of us working together.
I will always remember his willingness to offer advice, encouragement, and practical assistance, particularly when I traveled with the Jamaican delegation to the 2002 Commonwealth Games. His counsel, his professionalism, and his genuine commitment to team Jamaica reflected the kind of person he was.
Someone who celebrated the success of every Jamaican athlete at those games, regardless of the discipline. That spirit of collaboration and national service spoke volumes about his character and remains one of the many reasons he earned the admiration and respect of so many across our sporting fraternity.
Mr. President, I also I also wish to share another deeply personal reflection.
During the period when I lived and trained in Cuba, coach Steven Francis was an invaluable source of encouragement and motivation.
Despite the demands of his own work, he always found the time to offer guidance, share his knowledge, and provide provide words of support that strengthened my resolve.
He also assisted me by facilitating contacts within Cuba's sporting community, opening doors and helping me build relationships that proved beneficial to my development as a cyclist representing Jamaica.
Those acts of generosity were never done for recognition or praise.
They reflected his genuine desire to see fellow Jamaicans succeed wherever they were pursuing excellence. It is these quiet acts, Mr. President, of menure mentorship and selflessness often unseen by the public that reveal the true measure of the man and the enduring impact he has had on so many lives, including my own. Mr. President, may his soul rest in peace, a light perpetual shine upon him.
>> Thank you very much, Senator Tvaris.
Senator Morgan, you're on your feet for your brief remarks.
>> Absolutely. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. President.
>> Mr. president as a patriotic Jamaican who would have been entertained and delighted on so many occasions by the exploits of our athletes and having a clear sense as to the body of work and uh support that went into making what we saw.
on the track possible. It is an absolute delight for me to register my own thanks and pay tribute to the late Steven Frano Francis on his passing. He, as my colleagues have all mentioned, made a tremendous contribution to the development of track and field here in Jamaica. and Jamaica in terms of our athletics program is certainly better off for his life work.
Mr. Mr. President, a couple years ago when Kishain Thompson won the national championship, he to the shaggering of many a person in media and indeed to the surprise and perhaps dismay of many of us in the stadium as supporters.
He made a beline Mr. president for Stadium East.
Indeed, he departed the stadium and as we subsequently learned, >> he went to engage with his coach Steven Fern Francis.
That was a a profound and memorable moment, Mr. President, because it was, you know, unorthodox.
athletes upon winning would you know revel in the moment engage with the press corps and uh you know take the interviews and have all the photo ops and so on but Kisha Thompson made a beline for Frano it speaks Mr. president for the relationship that they had, the relationship that Fano himself fosters in his athletes and indeed what he meant to them and I'm sure Kisha Thompson numbers among them.
You know it was Senator Brown Mr. president who said something quite important.
>> What?
>> That on this matter on this matter, Mr. President Senator Brown made the observation that perhaps the most appropriate and fitting tribute to pay to the late coach Steven Fran Francis is to draw lessons from the life he led to focus attention really on some key takeaways and that's the context and backdrop against which I rise this morning. When the news came through two Sunday mornings ago of Frano's passing, I like many Jamaicans took my device in hand and I went to Facebook and my other socials to pen a tribute noting with regret Coach Francis's passing.
And as I did so, Mr. President, I couldn't help but applying some lessons to a shop that I serve, education, some key takeaways and nuggets that can be relevant to the development of our students and the teaching and learning enterprise.
What do I mean by that?
First of all, Frano and the MVP outfit made Utek, which has now come to be dubbed the home of worldclass athletes. Yes. Made UTEK their home.
I like Portfolio Minister Senator Dr. The honorable Dana Morris Lixon is delighted that our ministry played a role through UTK in this instance in facilitating the emergence of MVP track club. It provided a home for the training of athletes and for their conditioning to become world beaters.
And I must register the nation's thanks to UTEK and its administration then its incumbent administration for the continued partnership and support that they have given to the MVP track program which has been serving Enterprise Jamaica well over the years. Mr. president.
Indeed, so great has the collaboration between MVP and UTEK been that other um proponents of the conditioning of athletes, other track clubs have sought to make education facilities their base.
There's a program at the UI Bowl. I know there's work and training that goes on at GC Foster College and indeed at other parts of the island and that's that's well and I gather Jamaica College as well because some athletes are conditioned there. I know Mrs. Fraser Price and um what current coach or former coach Ronaldo Walcott make Jamaica College and the uh Ashnim track their base for training. So as a ministry, we're delighted to be able to pour into our athletes and pour into their coaches in this way and Frano did some sterling and pioneering work in that regard and will register our gratitude for that. Mr. President, the observation whenever you think of Frano, Coach Francis, the observation comes and indeed it has been made in the Senate here this morning that unlike others who will typically gravitate toward the dangling and nice and shiny objects, Coach Francis didn't necessarily go after the premier athletes, the superstars at Champ. camps and you know those athletes that were deemed to be destined for greatness. In my own way, I would like to consider Frana Francis as having had an eye for talent.
He knew how to spot a diamond as it were in the rough because many of those persons we now celebrate nationally for blazing a trail and achieving much on the world stage are persons who would have come to coach Steven Frana Francis and the MVP outfit of which is was associated as diamonds in the rough and I consider that An important takeaway for our education system in a particular sense.
For many in the teaching and learning enterprise, we will naturally gravitate to this, you know, stellar student, this prodigy of sorts. The students who are self-directed and independent learners and they are settled in the teaching and learning environment and they do well.
But we have to implore our teachers generally persons who come into contact with our children to inculcate and develop develop that capacity to engage those learners who present before you for instruction who are not necessarily you know independent um learners and re as a result will require additional support.
They are proverbial, Mr. President, diamonds in the rough because like the students who are the prodigies in the class, those students have potential and they too with the appropriate levels of support, nurture and engagement can go on to become a better version of themsel certainly from a student performance and education outcome standpoint. So that's a clear takeaway for me. The whole fact that when we teach and develop students, adding value is an important consideration and that's what we must place a premium on. This ability to take a student from point A to point B, add value to them and make them better in terms of student performance because that is what Frana did with his athletes. Not many persons would have known of Asafa Powell from Charlie Mount at at the boys champs level. We would have known of some of the his contemporaries who went on to blaze a trail at champs and then lo and behold we didn't hear much from some of them after that. Now another lesson another lesson is the trust that Fran fostered with his athletes.
He believed in them and they believed in him and that's an important lesson and assurance as well for our stakeholders in education to have and appreciate in that if you deise a system as FRA did that was athlete centered and attention was focused in a holistic and empowering way on athlete development. It's important a good takeaway Mr. president to be learner centered, student centered in how we impart instruction and how we approach pedogy because being student centered, believing in your student in the way FRA believed in his athletes would be an appropriate way to foster trust and have them feeling that person support them and believe in them and of course they can go on to be optimal versions of themsel by way of applying themsel in the same way an athlete would do.
>> Another another >> another key point here Mr. president.
As I mentioned just now, coach Frano Francis didn't necessarily go for the star athletes coming out of champs.
What he premised his program on was the whole business of application and discipline.
Just applying oneself with steely determination.
It make it it it underscores the turn of phrase Mr. President that it is one's attitude and not one's aptitude that determines one's altitude. I want to repeat it based on how Frano did his work and the kinds of athletes on which he would place a premium.
It is clearly one's attitude and not so much one's aptitude that determines one's altitude.
And it is something I'd want to commend to our stakeholders in education because applying oneself and doing the diligent and painstaking work. Some of the work Senator Brown recounted just now in terms of literally seeing an athlete having to throw up as a result of the rigorous regime uh that they were subjected to as part of the optimizing of speed and talent.
Mr. President Frano also distinguished himself as someone who provided sound advice to his athletes and that for me is another takeaway and lesson in the development of our children generally not least in the teaching and learning environment.
What do I mean by this?
Meline Walker, Mr. president. It is said when she went to Frano, an MVP, she had an outlook for herself and her own ambition and aspiration and it was for the sprints.
But it was Frano who, you know, in keeping with his own knack and eye for talent and capacity, who really made Me Walker not a sprinter, but more so a hurdler, a sprint hurdler. So she did the quartermile event, albeit over the obstacles, so the 400 meter hurdles. and Melanian Walker went on in ' 08 the Beijing Olympic Games to mine gold in the um sprint hurdles. So the key takeaway here is that if you are being student centered and client centered in providing your service, you can tailor your engagement and use your own professional judgment, experience and expertise. Not least again as I I say in the teaching and learning environment to bring out the best in your student because a student for example may want to pursue the sciences and you as a classroom teacher may realize that listen perhaps this person can go on to make a fine lawyer you know so you orient the child toward the the the the grammar school area as it relates to literature history that those disciplines and indeed law which is offered at the Cape level. Now, so as others have said, Mr. President, there are so many useful takeaways from the life and work of the late coach Steven Fran Francis, and I'm delighted that there are exemplary nuggets and lessons that we as an education sector can draw from FRO, some of which I would have enumerated just now. And in light of his passing, I wish to extend words of support to those athletes whose lives he would have transformed over the years, taking many from obscurity in some instances to prominence on the world stage. I'm sure they are eternally indebted to him and the course that their life took was as a result of their interface and um you know study at the hands of coach Steven Frana Francis to his family friends and colleagues and indeed those athletes who you would have conditioned over the years Mr. President, I say be comforted by your good times with Coach Francis and I trust that they all be comforted in this their bereiement.
And to coach Francis, we bid him ado and as we do so, we wish for his soul peaceful rest and trust that perpetual light will shine on him. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Minister.
Thank you, Senator Morgan. Minister and and leader. You know, today has been a reflective day and it would be remiss of me as we close the tributes to um former President Harden and Coach Francis. It would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that the lower house lost two um stallars recently and just very briefly to say that um Dean Alexander P who we call Dini was a five member term member of parliament who represented Manchester Northwest.
uh he served the law house from 89 to 2011.
During that time he was responsible for many ministerial portfolios including local government, land and environment.
served as parliamentary secretary in the ministry of labor, welfare and sports, minister of state, the ministries of construction and local government, transportation and worked and had the honor of serving in the House of Representatives with his brother, the former speaker Michael P. So those of us who have uh more than a passing acquaintance with that generation would refer to Dini and Michael the brothers paired from Manchester.
In 2009 he was confirmed with the order of distinction in the rank of commander in recognition for his distinguished service his distinguished service to the parliament of Jamaica. and the lower house also lost um perhaps a lesser known name but no um less in terms of his service to the parliament the country uh Arthur Eastern Nelson OD was a two-term member of parliament who represented the constituency of St. James West Central from 93 to 202 and during his time in the parliament he served the people of his constituency with quiet dignity, grace and commitment.
He was we are informed by those who were close to him warm and generous who readily shared his knowledge and experience with others. Uh, Madame Leader, if any of your members wish to speak brief briefly on either Dei or uh, Mr. Nelson, they are welcome to do so at this time.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Floyd Morris will speak to Dean Pier and Senator Alan Bernard.
>> Thank you, Senator Senator Professor Morris.
Thank you very much.
>> You want You need the lectern.
>> No, no, no. Thanks. Thank you.
I rise to make a contribution to pay condolences to the passing of a colleague and a friend and one who has given selfless service to our country.
And Mr. President, I do so with great passion and as a friend of Dini because I have the distinction of being the only individual to serve with him as a minister of state in a ministry.
And out of that came a bond that lasted upon till his death.
And I went to see him the Thursday before he died.
And we had a very interesting discussion.
Mr. president.
And so you can understand how touching it is for me based on our friendship.
Mr. President Dean Alexander P emanates from a political family that has given tremendous service to Jamaica dating back to his father Ernest Pert who was himself a minister of government and also his mother who served in the British Army as a recruit from Jamaica.
And so they family knows nothing but public service.
And one of the things that I am very pleased about is that in the entire history of public service, one can never point to an instant or an occasion where whether Deie, Mikey or Ernest have been involved in any questionable activity in public service.
And so when I became a minister of government in 2001, it happened at a time when my political mentor Horus Clark was exiting the political stage.
And I tell you, if you want to do extremely well in politics, make sure that you surround yourself with good people.
And Dean P was placed in the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in 2002.
and I had the opportunity of working with him and I make no bones to say Mr. president that he was the best minister that I have worked with in my entire seven years in the government of Jamaica because and I know that um Abka will not say so um loudly but I've heard a lot of ministers of state complain right across the aisle about how ministers relate to ministers of state because in some instance they feel a bit threatened and you know um they sort of uh suppress the talent of their ministers of state.
That was not the case with Aden P. Dean P made it known that the prime minister assigned a minister of state with responsibilities in the ministry and he's going to allow the minister of state to do his work and I learned a lot from him and that led to the God and the friendship that we have had over the years. And even though he was replaced in the ministry in 2003, we still maintained that relationship.
I I will tell you um Mr. President um to show the closeness that we enjoyed I I after we lost the 2007 election, I had to leave the government house that I was living in in Mona.
And I had a dog who was very very close to me, very very close. He was very jealous and very protective of me because he was trained >> Samson.
And so so when when I had to leave and go to my house that I had built in on the other side of Mona, they said to me that boy, we don't allow dogs to come in the community because of restrictions and so forth. Had a long quarrel with them because of the uh nature of the dog. So I had to give the dog away and the person who I end up giving the dog to was Dei because he used to come to the house and he was accustomed to the dog and about 6 months after I went up to Dean's house.
No, Deie. Deie Deie had the dog and once the dog saw me coming through the gate, the dog ran away from him and jumped on me as if here comes my boss. Here comes my master. you know and >> but that was the nature of the friendship that Deie and I had.
>> I wonder what happened leaving.
So you know I mean Deini was a genuine human being and that is why he never lost an election in his entire political career. He started out as counselor in 1986 and eventually became the mayor of Mandville.
And because of the nature of the representation that he offered in his Paris council division, he ran as the member of parliament candidate for the PNP in 1989 and he won in 1989.
He won in 1993. He won in 1997. He won in 2002 and he won in 2007.
He has never faced defeat in his political career. and likewise his brother Mikey Pier um because of their commitment to building people and I have met several students at the University of the West Indies and they say we are here from Northwest Manchester because our parents benefited from the efforts of Dean P when he was member of parliament because he was very passionate and committed to the education of his people. And so, Mr. President, I am saddened and we on this side are saddened by the passing of this colossus, an individual who has given selfless service to Jamaica.
And I am very happy that I had a long chat with him before his passing.
And it the conversation Senator Lambert >> the conversation Senator Lambert was rotated around his personal love and appreciation for me. and he said, "One of the things that I am happy for is that I live to see you become a professor at the university."
And and I said to him, I turned to him and said that I am happy that I am here to see your son Kar taking such good care of you.
Because I remember when Dean insisted that Krie was going to be a a medical doctor and he did everything that he could for Kar to be a doctor and it was a joy minister to see his last son taking such excellent care of him.
That's why I say to us, invest in our children and our children will take care of us. May his soul rest in peace.
>> Tell him miss.
>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. He was very much happy as well for a Shelly because I mean we we have him on video when we were getting married and we were dancing going in uh to this song um uh she's royal and he with his loud mouth was there saying go night fly you know because he was always enthusiastic about the things that I could do as a blind person. So, you know, I am very happy to make this tribute and may his soul rest in peace and I'm looking forward to seeing him on that great getting up morning when the eastern skies shall be open and the trumpet of the Lord shall be sounded and the dead in Christ shall rise first. May soul rest in peace.
>> Thank you very much, Senator Alen. I'm I'm allowing you brief >> brief. You can I say something? You know, you're pointing at Senator Morgan.
Let me tell you something. No, don't do that. Because if you were to put um Coach Francis's life in terms of verbal presentation, you wouldn't have any interest in Senator Morgan as a long distance presenter. You know, I wanted to be a sprinter, a cricketer.
Thank you very much again, Mr. President.
I rise to pay tribute to Arthur Nelson, member of Parliament, former member of Parliament for West Central St. James.
I no art before politics. I'm looking across from my colleagues Senator Sinclair and Senator Thompson.
We are all Conwalians. Nata Nelson was a gentleman, a man of might as we say at Cornwall College. And so I extend condolences to the Cornwall College family as well. Archer Nelson was an outstanding student and football at Conwell College in the 50s culminating in his role as vice captain for the great 1953 D Costa Cup and Olivia Shield.
Art also g would have gave great service to the school on the school board and as as an executive of the Connell College Old Boy Association. I recall my last engagement with Autumn Nelson was in 2016. At that time I was the vice president for the Cornwall College Old Boy Association Kingston chapter and I would have organized a year group gathering and uh again even though the chapter in Kingston we usually gather we always gather in in Montego Bay and we were looking for a venue >> Pelican. You use Pelican >> we didn't use Pelican. Pelican is for the other people.
Close enough. Close enough. It was actually a river this time.
>> And he graciously offered a venue that he was the proprietor for to host that event. And he came along even though he was close to half a century ahead of us. He came along with his wife, sat with us and we had an extremely enlightening engagement on on Conwell College and and Old Boys politics.
But Arthur Nelson's life in politics reminds us of his quiet strength and how power and ambition was demonstrated without being loud. As a member of parliament, Arton Nelson was never the loudest voice in the room. He was not driven by spectacle or self-promotion. Instead, he earned the respect of those around him through humility, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to serve the people of his constituency and by extension St. James.
When he first contested the St. James West Central constituency in the 1993 general elections, he was a political newcomer.
Yet he secured one of the most decisive victories ever recorded in St. James for a firsttime candidate. That remarkable mandate spoke eloquently to the esteem in which he was held by the people. The people were not simply voting for a political party. They were placing their trust in Arton Nelson.
In Art Nelson, they saw family. They saw a man deeply rooted in this community.
They saw a legacy of service that long predated his entry into electoral politics. They saw commitment, decency, and integrity. Above all, they saw someone they believed would faithfully represent their interests.
That confidence was reflected not only in the overall over overwhelming mandate they gave him in 1993, but also in the transformation that took place across Western Jamaica during the years he served under the leadership of Prime Minister PJ Patterson. There were deliberate expansion of national capital investment beyond the Kingston metropolitan area. The Greater Montego Bay and the West Central St. regimes benefit from major public investments including the Montego Bay sewage improvement project, the construction of the Katrina Sports Complex, the development of Cornwall Courts improvements, and improvements in the island's road network, and significant investment in water and other public infrastructure to support the region and its constituency.
Art Nelson understood that representation was measured not by rhetoric but by results.
He worked diligently to ensure that West Central St. James had a voice at the table and that his constituents shared in the opportunities created by the national development agenda. His greatest legacy was not the size of his electoral victory but the trust he earned, the lives he touched, and the example he set. He demonstrated that leadership is rooted in character.
The public office is about service and humility is one of the highest forms of strength.
Mr. President, we want to honor the memory of Arthur Nelson by embracing some of these same values. May his soul rest in peace and light perpetually shines upon him.
>> Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Alen. Uh, may those who we have honored today, and it has been a day of honoring our fallen colleagues, may those who we have honored today rest in peace and light perpetual shine upon them. And may their legacy of service, dedication, and excellence continue to inspire generations to come.
Statements by ministers.
Announcements >> laid on the table of the Senate are the following auditor general's department certified appropriation accounts head 2011 recurrent for the accountant general's department for the year 2022 2022 to 2023. And by way of information, annual report of the public administration and appropriations committee for the period April 2025 to March 31, 2026 and special report of the constituency development fund committee of the House of Representatives regarding the sum provided for project execution and administrative arrangements for managing the fund.
>> Thank you. Announcements.
Bills brought from the honorable house of representatives.
The >> following is a message from the speaker of the house of representatives to the honorable senate. I have the honor to advise the honorable Senate that on the 14th day of July 2026, a bill entitled an act to established the regulatory framework for the conduct of mediation in Jamaica, including community mediation, to provide for the registration of mediators and licensing and regulation of mediation service providers, to make provisions for facilitated contract negotiation, to give effect to the provisions of the United Nations Convention on international settlement agreements resulting from mediation done in New York on the 20th day of December 2018 and to provide for connected matters was passed in the House of Representatives with two amendments. This message is from the most honorable Juliet Holes, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
>> Petition. I'm sorry, >> Mr. President. I signify my willingness to take charge of this bill.
>> A bill shortly entitled the mediation act 2026 read a first time.
>> Mr. President, I beg to give notice of second read >> reports from committees.
Notices of motions given orally, questions and answers to questions.
Motions that may be made at the p at the commencement of public business requiring notice.
Motions relating to the sitting of the Senate. Motions for leave to introduce bills. The presentation of bills without the leave of the Senate first obtained.
Public business minister.
>> Mr. President, indeed today has been a very soft day. Um, we have been able to do several tributes for persons who have contributed significantly to life in Jamaica and it's also an honor to have heard from our poet laurate this morning and as we had mainly tributes and I'm in a poetry mood Mr. Chair Mr. President, if I just give you a few words from one of um our poet lauret's poems before winter, it reminds me of what we've been talking about today where we're honoring persons and it starts with I imagine there is a place of deep rest not in the resting but after when the body has forgotten the weight of fatigue.
And he closes that poem by saying something that sounds so beautiful. I am helpless to this soft disappearing that some call sleep. I will stretch out and breathe. Steven Francis, Deanie Pert, Arthur Nelson, we do pray that they are stretching out and breathing and we thank them for their service. And I know as a younger member of the parliament, I especially um liked listening to the stories of other parliamentarians and the examples they gave and they were strong personalities, but they were also good people and they showed us how to act and to act across the aisle too for the betterment of Jamaicans. So, Mr. President, with that there's no more business to be done today and I ask that we adjourn for a day to be >> one minute. Senator Scott Mley.
>> May I be so presumptuous, Minister? It struck me that we have been speaking a lot about death and I'm sure that you all would want to join me in wishing the president president a happy belated birthday because because if I don't I notice there's a lot of clapping going on over here. No, because we need to celebrate life >> and to say thanks while people are with us. And we thank you for your service, Mr. President, your service to Jamaica, your service to this nation. We wish you long life and prosperity, of course.
But >> I wanted to take this moment just to acknowledge you and I hope you had an amazing day.
>> I hope I hope you know you know I I received I usually say to people on their birthday um keep healthy and safe. So I would always give the person a regard and say oh happy birthday keep healthy and safe. and I got a a message from someone and I've changed my greeting going forward because it said keep healthy, safe and lucky.
So I think increasingly we keep we try to keep healthy and safe but we kind of rely upon the luck a bit minister >> Mr. President you know we also want to say happy birthday to you. It's a belated birthday. But what's interesting is to hear the leader of of opposition business in the Senate speak to you in such kind terms. It says a lot, Mr. President, about who you are and how you take charge of the business in the Senate. Today we were honoring a former president of the Senate and we said some very kind things about how he presided over these citizen these sittings and you are of that same ilk. And so we want to thank you for what you do. And we >> sound like some sort of goodbye. You know, >> you know, you want to hear these nice things. You want to hear these nice things while you're alive.
>> Let me tell you something. In the nature of these things, you never know. You know, you might be saying next week, my god, can you imagine that?
>> That is not that's not our intention, Mr. President. And you should >> My god, can you imagine that he has moved on to something more?
>> No, Mr. President, I see you um some mornings. In the past, I used to see you more, but because I'm not there, I used to see you running. And he can run at a pace that I cannot run at. And so, I know that you are in good health and that you're doing what you need to do to remain in good health. But, Mr. President, um having said that, there we don't really have any more business to do today and so I asked that we adjourn for a date to be fixed. Mr. President, >> thank you very much. the members would have heard the question. Those in favor against this honorable Senate now rises for a date to be fixed.
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