Speeches by Rolfe Commissiong

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

4 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

748 words

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I am not going as far as saying that th ere is much to be commended in the comments by the last speaker, but this has to be a bipartisan effort. We know that. We have to, I think, achieve a consensus here by putting the interests of the children first. And there are things that …

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

684 words

Oh, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the myth was that we continue to box above our weight. But that was only in the context of a geopolit ical environment where the heavyweights were allo wing us to appear to be boxing above our weight because, basically, the heavyweights were benefiting (at that time the perception was) by having Bermuda and other offshore …

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

288 words

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker . This is an opportunity to highlight something. So, this is s ort of a companion piece to the Economic Substance Bill that we discussed earlier. I think the Member from [constituency] 23 is correct in her assessment here that, in other words, in my words, you know, they will say jump and we will …

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

440 words

Mr. Speaker, I do not know where to begin after that. I really don’t. You know, talking about people who have some anxiety to You know, talking about people who have some anxiety , to say the least, what about that young man and his family facing a $300,000 medical bill? Now that is a lump of coal, to say …

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

637 words

That’s right! Ninety -five per cent, and more, of our prisoners in our prisons are black Bermudians. Again, let’s not normalise these numbers. The late Walton Brown talked about the 66 per cent rise in immigr ation during the 1960s alone, to a point where we had 14,496 persons who were foreign born living in the country, due to that …

13 Dec 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

565 words

Now, my colleague says cohort. Some families lost two sons. Some families lost three sons. Again, overwhelmingly, young (at that time), black Bermudian men. There were a few wo men, some of their wives and girlfriends . . . there was a small minority of whites , but very miniscule. A gain, consistent with what we find throughout Bermuda. And …

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

161 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to send condolences to the family of M r. Sergio Dillworth. Sergio Dillworth was a man who was in his mid- to late- 40s, probably about 46 –47. He was a contractor of the old school, despite his youth, a renowned mason, a man of all trades and master of …

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

38 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to commend the Minister. I am talking about clause 43 here to trans ition from a 24 month or less timeframe to one that is up to 12 months.

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

2 words

Clause 43.

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

2 words

My apologies.

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

33 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not going to belabour this. I just think this is a very good amendment here, consistent with the need for equity here for our Bermudian workers to—

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

22 words

Thank you, sir, I appreciate that. And no, I fully support the clause and I commend the Minister for making this amendment.

15 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

1,816 words

Mr. Speaker, thank you, so much. The BermudaFirst report, of course, is the subject of this debate. And this is sort of the second iteration of this concept. We know there was a prev ious report, some years ago. You had then Opposition Leader Kim Swan and others who were a part of that group. So the Government made a …

1 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

225 words

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like for the House to extend condolences to the families of, firstly, Tamra Broadley of St. George’s. She was a very good friend of mine, a very tragic circumstance that led to her passing. It was around the same time as our colleague. In fact, the other two names I …

1 Nov 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

38 words

—the Reading Clinic (I am sorry, Mr. Deputy Speaker) for some time. And I will associate the Premier and the whole House. She made major contributions to Bermuda in the field of education. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

27 Sep 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

472 words

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I just wish to associate, as I know that with the c omments expressed and the Bermuda House of Assembly condolences that were extended by the Member of [constituency] 32 to David Greene and the family on their loss. Mr. Deputy Speaker, also, I would follow on with that by noting earlier, …

27 Sep 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

30 words

So, anyway, I just want to say it was a fantastic event at that funeral. And again, my condolences go out to the whole family. Thank you so much, sir.

27 Sep 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

242 words

Thank you, Mr. [Deputy] Speaker . Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, I will start out by saying that the Deputy Leader of the OBA —of the Oppos ition, I should say —has made a very good point here about the reality of gender discrimination. But frankly it is still ground -breaking in a sense that now fathers have been recognised as …

27 Sep 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

226 words

Oh, it is? Okay, I thought it was . . . I thought the 13 was corresponding to that. But, again, this is a start —and a long overdue one and I, as well, throw my support behind it. If we do not manage to offer more support — and this is just one aspect of it —for our struggling …