December 9, 2020

I would like to invite
the Senate to extend our thanks and congratulations to the staff at the Bermuda Hospitals Board. This has
been a difficult year for our country and a difficult year
for the entire world regarding the pandemic. Our
healthcare workers are on the front lines every single day. They are dedicated to our well -being. A nd I believe they are deserving of our support and our encouragement. So I invite the Senate to congratulate
the many healthcare workers who are out there every single day, coming to help us stay safe.

The President: Thank you, Senator Peets, Gover nment Leader in the Senate. I am sure each one of us Senators will join you in those comments.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
Congratulatory and/or Obituary Speeches?
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: I would, Madam President.
The President: Senator Robin Tucker.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Hodgson. (Unless Senator
Tucker had a comment. )

The President: Sorry. You have the floor.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I would like to spend special congratulations
to our latest Rhodes Scholar, Kenza Wi lks, along with
his parents, Carmel Baxter -Wilks and Glen Wilks. I
personally had the pleasure of watching Kenza debate
while he attended the Somersfield Academy. I am
sure that he will continue to make our country proud. I
think that it is very important to celebrate our young
people. We must continue to work towards creating an
environment where everyone can realise their full po-tential. So again I would like to give a special congratulations to Mr. Kenza Wilks.

The President: Thank you, Senator Hodgson.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
Congratulatory and/or Obituary Speeches?

Yes, Madam Pres ident. I was wondering if the Senate would join me in
extending our condolences to the family of Aberdeen
Lydia Matthew, also lovingly known as “Aunt Diddles .”
She was the last surviving child of Harry and Etoy of Texas Road in St. David’s. She was laid to rest on December the 5
th this weekend. She is lovingly
missed by her children, grandchildren and great -
grandchildren, the en tire SDA [Seventh- day Adventist] fellowship and all those who love St. David’s. We certainly extend our sympathies and best wishes to the
Matthew family and Fox family of Aunt Diddles.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets, Gover nment Leader in the Sen ate.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
No. Then we will move on.

ADJOURNMENT

The President: Minister Peets.

Yes, good afternoon. I certainly make a motion that we adjourn our
Senate session to December 16th.
The President: Thank you.
Would any Senator care to speak on the m otion to adjourn?

Sen. Ben Smith: I would, Madam President.
The President: Senator Ben Smith, you have the
floor.

COVID -19—A REMINDER TO REMAIN VIGILANT

Sen. Ben Smith: Madam President, as w e in Berm uda are going through a spike in our COVID -19 cases, I
think it is important that we reiterate to the community
what we need to do together to make sure that we are
going to not only make it through these next couple of
weeks, but be able to keep our economy moving and
keep our people safe. It is important that everybody
adheres to the mask -wearing, social distancing.
But more importantly, we are about to see a
lot of our young people return home from university.
And I think it is important that w e send a message out
to not just our young people, but the parents of our young people that this is normally a festive time for
Bermuda. But we have seen that we have not been
able to have Easter. We have not been able to have
May 24
th. We have not been ab le to have Cup Match.
The children were unable to have Halloween. But all of these things that were a loss of the way we do
things normally can prevent us from losing lives.
And because of that, we need to make sure
that over this Christmas holiday, and s pecifically over
these next couple of weeks, we have to do everything we can to prevent this continuing [increase] of cases
in Bermuda. So please take this opportunity to make
sure that we are not having huge house parties, that
we are not putting ourselve s in harm’s way. And follow
the rules in every way that you possibly can so that
our country can be safe and that we can continue to
hold our economy together until we can get on the other side of this.


Bermuda Senate There is a glimmer of light with a vaccine on
the horizon. But it is really important that we do ever ything that we can. As a country, we have done an
amazing job together to make sure that we keep our
country safe by following the rules and doing what is expected of us. But we need to understand that, yes,
we are all going through COVID fatigue, right? Ever ybody is tired of the things that we have been doing over and over again. It is not the time for us to let up.
We are going to continue to do everything we can so
that we can keep the country safe.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith, O pposition Leader in the Senate.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Hearing none, then, Senators, the Senate
stands adjourned until Wednesday, the 16
th of D ecember. Thank you for your participation this morning.

Some Hon. Senators: Thank you, Madam President.
Stay safe.

[At 11:57 am, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Wednesday, 16 December 2020]



66 9 December 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate



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