Israel challenges Sabby: ‘Tell them pull me file’

Opposition candidate for South Central Windward, Israel Bruce, is challenging the incumbent, Saboto Caesar, to say why he was removed as a teacher from North Union Secondary School, as Caesar has alleged.

Bruce, a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), said on Hot 97 FM on Thursday, that the Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) Caesar should get vex and release the information, as he has threatened to do.

Bruce is making his second bid to unseat Caesar, who is seeking re-election to a fourth consecutive five-year term.

“I was a teacher. I taught for many years and at very many schools. And the Ministry of Education, as a policy position, is entitled to remove teachers as it so pleases — doesn’t have to justify,” Bruce said.

He said that teachers sometimes seek and obtain transfers from one school to another and sometimes those are denied.

“Tell them pull me file,” Bruce told radio listeners.

“… the Ministry of Education is supposed to keep a file on their staff. I don’t know when do they destroy it — after how many years,” said Bruce, who, like Caesar, is a lawyer.

In 2020, Caesar saw his margin of victory fall to 219, down from 588 in the 2015 polls.

At the same time, Bruce, then a first-time candidate, gained 37 more votes than the previous NDP candidate, Addison “Bash” Thomas, who contested the seat twice.

South Central Windward has been in the Labour column since 2001 and in 2010, as a first-time candidate, Caesar retained the seat for the party by 568 votes.

Speaking at a campaign event in Higher Lowmans on Wednesday, Caesar criticised Bruce for representing men who were accused of robbing his wife at gunpoint in 2018.

Caesar, however, did not say that in 2020, he accompanied his wife to court, when she informed the magistrate that she had decided, of her own free will, not to offer any evidence against the men, resulting in the charge being dismissed.

On Thursday, Caesar said at the campaign event:

“And if Israel Bruce gets me vexed, I will ask him to tell the people of South Central Windward why he was removed as a teacher from the North Union Secondary School. Let Israel Bruce, if he name man, tell us why he was removed as a teacher from the North Union Secondary School.

“Israel Bruce, you wah play man? Come tomorrow morning, go pon Hot 97 and tell the people of this country why the Ministry of Education removed you from the North Union Secondary School.

“Any mother listening to speech here tonight, they know exactly what I’m talking about. You are a lawyer, I am a lawyer long before you. In fact, you are a nappy chinks lawyer,” Caesar said, using a colloquialism that has negative connotations, including below par.  

‘I want him to say why?‘

Meanwhile, Bruce’s comments initially appeared to reflect the whimsical tone of one of the hosts of Hot 97’s “A.M. Mayhem” when he telephoned the show on Thursday.

“Oh, there’s a suggestion that I was thrown out of North Union Secondary,” Bruce responded.

“Hear what? I want him to say why? Somebody seems to know why. So, I want him to come and tell the people why,” Bruce said.

He said he wanted to know why so many unemployed young men are on the block in South Central Windward.

“The answer: Because Saboto Caesar is too lazy, non-responsive…  Lazy is what epitomises Saboto Caesar as a parliamentary representative.”

Bruce said he could also answer a question about why farmers in South Central Windward and across this country cannot find appropriate markets for their produce.

“Because Saboto Caesar and the ULP are too lazy and too carefree about the farmers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

The opposition politician said he would also say why farmers are consistently screaming out about praedial larceny after the rural constables programme, which the ULP introduced, was scrapped under Caesar’s tenure as minister of agriculture.

“You know why? Because they care not about the farmers,” Bruce said.

“I putting in the question and I putting the answers one time.”

Asked if he was saying he was never removed from the school, Bruce said:

“I want the people who say that if you get vex, they’ll say more, I want them to say the more because I am itching, for the first time, for the first time, brethren, I itching. Because you know why? Dem love sue? I go love Susan.”