As I've said before, I hate to bring facts into Bermudian political arguments, but after the garbage from Cal Smith in today's paper I thought it worth pointing out exactly what Dr. Gibbons said in Parliament, which contained barely a passing reference to Mrs. Brown - for what its worth.
Here's Cal Smith's characterisation of Dr. Gibbons comments, which I highly doubt he's even heard:
"It seems fairly clear that the Brown-Gibbons dispute in the House of Assembly during the motion to adjourn was triggered by aspersions made by Dr. Gibbons with respect to Wanda Brown – the very charming, very intelligent and highly skilled wife of Dr. Brown. If Dr. Gibbons understood anything about black Bermudian men, he should have known that negative comments about women important to us is a direct invitation to a physical encounter. Yet this is what he threatened by making unkind remarks about the wife of Dr. Brown."
And here's what was actually said, in a broader point piggybacking on John Barritt's comments on the use of the term corruption.
Dr. Gibbons was speaking about the 2003 Pay to Play scandal and moved on to the issue of Kurron Shares of America's donations to the T.H.E. Foundation and awarding of the subsequent hospital contract:
When we start to hear from a former Premier that we should be concerned about money being given on donations, I start to worry. And I also worry, Mr. Speaker, because in the headline in the paper today, we have a statement from Dr. Brown that we will go on accepting large donations from foreigners. We’re going to continue to do it. And I also noticed in the paper today—interestingly enough, it cropped up in the Throne Speech as well—listen for it, Mr. Speaker, that there is now announced—this came from the Health Minister, the Honourable Member—there is a partnership with Kurron Shares of America.Mr. Speaker, you’ll remember Kurron. These are the ones who were friendly with the current Premier and were brought in to do a $500,000 study a couple of years ago. Now, Mr. Speaker, what’s really interesting, and again, it’s this issue of being careful of accepting money, in the THE Foundation, this is the Tourism Helps Everyone, when you look at who’s giving money to the THE Foundation—this was an initiative from the current Premier, the Honourable Member, and his wife, Wanda Brown—under the “Emerald” category, and let me tell you Emerald is a $10,000 gift, who do we find? We find…
Then the speaker comes in and directs Dr. Gibbons to move on because the Premier wasn't present.
Then there is an interpolation from Walter Lister:
Point of Order Mr. Speaker. I don't think it is parliamentary for any member to try and implicate the Premier's wife in something that she has no position to defend herself. It's wrong and it's immoral. Thank you.
That's it. That's the sole reference to Mrs. Brown, and a factual one: "...and his wife Wanda Brown".
A passing reference that is now being frantically spun as aspertions and unkind remarks.
Now, what was Mr. Smith saying about "if a lie is told often enough without rebuttal, it will eventually be accepted as truth"?
I have the audio recording, but it's 19MBs, so too big to load up here and chew up all my bandwidth.
[UPDATE: The transcription of Dr. Gibbons's quote was updated with an expanded one going a paragraph earlier.]
