PM Gonsalves abandoned teachers and lied against them

By Shefflorn Ballantyne

“A false witness shall not be unpunished, And he that speaketh lies shall perish.”

The Prime Minister of this country will do well to take heed and address himself to stop his lies against teachers.

In 2021, a tyrannical law prescribing draconian measures against teachers and public servants was foisted on us with no access outside the court of law. Ralph Gonsalves wielded his power to force public servants and teachers to take an experimental and unsafe jab in a misguided attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in public offices. Neither his reasoning nor that of his chief propagandists at the time resembled anything scientific. In 2023, the learned Justice Esco Henry ripped his rules to shreds and cast them in the judicial trash heap, only to have the obstinate ruler try to piece them back together in a desperate dash to save ego. We will meet and defeat him again at the Court of Appeal.

Today, the Prime Minister continues his campaign of lies against teachers by claiming they abandoned their duties when they decided not to comply with his unscientific mandate. In any ordinary meaning of the word “abandonment”, one never arrives at saying that a worker who is actively working on his job has at the same time abandoned it.

Let’s recall a few important facts. We were told that if we refuse to take the clot shot, we will (1) be prevented from continuing our work by being blocked from entering the workplace, (2) our consequent absence will be considered “absence without leave” and (3) after 10 working days we will be deemed to have abandoned our jobs.

In other words, they put you off the job and then say you are absent and have therefore abandoned your duties. Fact is, these tyrants fired us. We never walked off the job or refused to perform our duties. They discarded and abandoned us. Our names were removed from their payroll. No acknowledgement was made for our service at the subsequent graduation ceremonies. No thanks came our way. ULP diehards cursed us and called us stupid, while they believed the prime minister’s words that we abandoned our duties.

There was one person who rejected his foolishness though. Justice Henry, relying on the case Huggins Neal Nichols v Attorney General and The Teaching Service Commission, wrote at page 63 of her judgment on March 13, 2023: “I adopt the reasoning and learning in Nichols and find that the claimants did not abandon their jobs.”

In the Nichols case, abandonment is properly defined. Nothing like the lying concept Gonsalves wants you to believe.

“Abandonment of a public office is a species of resignation, but differs from resignation in that resignation is a formal relinquishment, while abandonment is a voluntary relinquishment through non-user… The failure to perform the duties pertaining to the office must be with actual or imputed intention on the part of the officer to abandon and relinquish the office.” (Judgment of Hon Esco Henry, March 13, 2023, p 47)

So, when the Prime Minister was reported to have repeated the lie within the last week that teachers abandoned their duties in 2021, the scripture applies. “A false witness shall not be unpunished, And he that speaketh lies shall perish.” Proverbs 19:9

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