Speaker blocks Patois in Parliament as STETHS charges, Bull Bay gun bail, and Melissa fund audit dominate day

Opposition spokesperson on creative industries, culture and information Nikisha Burchell was stopped on Wednesday when she tried to open her maiden sectoral contribution in Parliament in Jamaican Patois. Speaker Juliet Holness cited Standing Orders and warned that further interruptions would cost speaking time. Burchell then continued in standard English, saying no setting was more fitting to discuss culture than the language most Jamaicans use daily, even where it still lacks full acceptance in formal national spaces.

Police have charged four St. Elizabeth Technical High School students with assault occasioning bodily harm against a 15-year-old schoolmate during fights last Wednesday between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on campus. Two accused girls are 14, one is 16 and one is 13. The clashes led the school to close for two days. Principal Keith Wellington told parents classes were suspended to protect the community and restore discipline, with reports due to oversight bodies before further action. Sources said the shutdown followed multiple fights, including one allegedly involving a student with a knife; a mid-morning injury that day drew police, and further brawls followed, some in view of administrators.

Forty-eight-year-old carpenter Omar Cole, of Bull Bay, St. Andrew, was granted $150,000 bail in Gun Court on Tuesday on charges of possession of a prohibited weapon and unauthorised possession of ammunition. Police allege that during an April 3 operation at two locations in the area he frequents, officers found an air pistol and 28 pellets in a barrel of assorted items including chicken feed. Attorney Lord J Grant said Cole was not at the premises and had never lived there, and cited his client’s favourable antecedents. Cole must surrender travel documents, obey reporting conditions and return on July 14.

ODPM Director General Commander Alvin Gale told legislators that careful spending explained why less than $30 million of more than $1 billion in Hurricane Melissa donations had been used in the first six months. Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis reported that by 2 April 2026 only about $26 million—under 2% of roughly $1.4 billion raised—had been spent since the storm hit western parishes. Gale said $26 million went to government-directed roof repairs under the shelter recovery programme before spending from that account paused pending finance ministry regularisation; spending since reached about $135 million, with some $400 million in donated building materials also factored in. He said $600 million was earmarked for modular housing bases and further shelter recovery work, with donated funds directed to housing outcomes or donor-specific requests.

The opposition leader, in a separate address on the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority bill, said the proposed agency could direct permit and licensing bodies, compel faster decisions and require parallel reviews, with the prime minister able to override non-compliance. He criticised the absence of a board despite large projected spending and called for the CEO to face Parliament every six months. He linked the debate to a constitutional court ruling this week that set aside the prime minister’s approval of a quarrying licence in the environmentally sensitive Dry Harbour Mountains after the natural resources watchdog had refused it, a decision residents challenged on constitutional environmental grounds.