In this column yesterday we confirmed what some Bahamians believed was impossible – Tribune Managing Editor John Marquis’ work permit has been “deferred” by the Immigration Department.
“Government would not be so foolish as to do such a thing” was the gist of the comments by the doubting Thomases. But after eight months of dithering government dared to do that very thing.
From the very early stages — even before all the forms needed to go with the application for Immigration were ready – Minister Shane Gibson was a shadowy figure in the background.
As most business people who deal with Immigration know, one of the forms required to be attached to an immigration application is a Notification of Vacancy form from the Labour Department. An application for this is made to the department to discover if it has on its employment register any Bahamian with the qualifications the business requires.
For us it is a useless procedure because we know our business well enough to know that if such a person did exist, he or she would already be on our staff. Also whenever we advertise for editors and state the qualifications required, no one has ever applied for the position.
In the past a reply from the Labour Department has come within a week. Staff knew that no Bahamians were “registered for this position at this time” and wasted no time in, letting the applicant know so that the work permit application could be forwarded without delay to the Immigration Board for its decision.
When we submitted an earlier application to the Labour Department in November last year we were told that in future the processing of all applications would take six weeks.
Mr Marquis’ application – and that of a second editor – were submitted to Labour on January 24. We dutifully waited six weeks, on called the department to find out when we could send for the two forms. We were told that they just had to be typed up. This consists of typing the date and name of the applicant onto a pre-printed form and stamping it. We were told to send for the two forms in an hour. A couple of hours passed before The Tribune’s messenger was free to go to the Clarence A Bain building.
However, when he got there he was told that the forms were not ready. He should return the next day. This was so unlike the usually efficient Labour Department that we instinctively knew that no good was afoot. But we waited patiently until the next day for two pieces of paper that would have taken a typist no more than two minutes to type and stamp.
The next day we got a call from the Labour Department. It was our messenger. By this time he also knew there was a problem.
He put a member of the department on the phone. She confirmed there was a problem, but she could not say what that problem was. She transferred our call to a more senior member of staff. This person said that the director was out, but she would telephone him, discover the problem and call us back.
When she eventually called back she said that the Minister had a problem with the applications. He wanted an officer from the Labour Department to interview our two editors and the Bahamians who were in training for their positions. She said that an inspector would come to our offices to do this.
Our application had been submitted to the Labour Department on January 24. It was now March 8 and it was still languishing in its first stages at that department, which meant both applications were now long overdue at Immigration.
We had no objection to an inspector coming to our offices, but we had a very serious objection to the principle. Here we were the owners of a business, who knew better than anyone else outside of our own staff, the needs of that business, and a government civil servant who had probably never been in a newspaper office in his life was to be sent in to tell us who was or wasn’t qualified to hold a senior position on our staff.
“I have no problem with them coming to our offices,” we wrote, “they might learn something about the newspaper profession. However, I want to make it very clear that if they come, they do so just as a courtesy extended by me, but not as a right authorised by the Minister.”
To that we received a reply quoting chapter and verse as to the right of inspection. However, we still maintain that it is outside the departments jurisdiction. We have invited the inspector to come. So far no one has called for an appointment.
However, on March 13, we eventually received the two forms from the Labour Department. They were immediately delivered to the Immigration Department. On May 1 we received the permit for one of the editors. As for Mr Marquis’ permit there was total silence. And then on Monday the Immigration Board notified us that Mr Marquis’ permit had been “deferred to ensure what efforts have been made to Bahamianise the position.”
It would appear that it is only Mr Marquis’ position they are interested in – a hard-hitting editor that they would like to silence.
This issue is far bigger than Mr Marquis. Minister Obie Wilchcombe reminded Senator Philip Galanis, who criticised an appointment made by the Grand Bahama Port Authority, that the Port is a private company with a right to appoint whomever it deems fit to represent its interests.
The Tribune is also a private company. Is it being discriminated against because it is Bahamian?
By the Editor of The Tribune
