It is both unfortunate and unproductive that time is now being spent detailing what transpired in a meeting I had with Premier Dunkley and Minister Fahy over the contentious issue of immigration reform when our energies should be directed to getting the policy right.

In light of the deliberately misleading comments by the Premier about that meeting and sustained calls for clarity from myself, I am compelled to respond.

First, the actual meeting needs to be put in context. Along with a number of other concerned Bermudians over the lack of consensus on immigration reform and the refusal of the OBA Government to engage in a collaborative undertaking, a protest activity at the Cabinet Office grounds was organised within 24 hours.

Members of this loose collective began to spread the word and I set up a Facebook page as part of this promotional effort.

The morning of the protest (March 25), I wrote to the Premier seeking a meeting to discuss ways to resolve the impasse over immigration reform. Between noon and 1pm, I appeared on the Sherri Simmons Show to discuss and promote the 5.30pm protest.

One point I emphasised during the interview was that I, like many others, had talked enough and marched enough — and to no avail.

The only logical next step was to engage in civil disobedience to demonstrate the gravity of the situation and the unfortunate abyss we had fallen into.

My meeting with the Premier was an attempt to get him to commit to a collaborative approach to immigration reform. His first response was that his party had won the election and were elected to lead; that the PLP lost and had no authority to tell the Government what to do.

Premier Dunkley then quoted favourably a PLP member who once said while the PLP were in power that “the Opposition will have their say and the Government will have its way”.

My response to the Premier was that while the Government has the power to pass any law and to implement any policy they wish, it will only lead to an increasingly divided Bermuda.

I indicated to him that if there was a commitment by Government to a bipartisan approach on immigration reform, there would be no need to have any protest. I further indicated the protest set for later that day was but the first step in a progressively escalating set of measures.

At some point, Minister Fahy, whom I did not expect at the meeting, interjected that he was offended that civil disobedience was even uttered and that he would not be intimidated into making any decision.

My response to Minister Fahy is that civil disobedience has long been a part of protest movements; it is an important part of a democracy and has already been a part of Bermuda’s history.

The meeting was primarily about the need for collaboration. As I indicated to the Premier, the proposed immigration legislation provided the lightning rod for the protest.

It was clear to me that the Premier and Minister Fahy understood this. When speaking specifically about the legislation, I said that while I think there is great merit in allowing PRC holders to purchase a greater range of properties and avoid a class bias benefitting the wealthy so typical of OBA policies, there were other aspects of the legislation I had grave concerns about. When it was clear no commitment to a bipartisan effort would be announced before the planned start of the protest, I indicated the protest would go on as planned.

The Premier and Minister Fahy did commit to engage in a process with the PLP over the ensuing weeks to see if we could come to an agreement over key principles that would shape a collaborative undertaking.

The Premier asked that I begin to set out my views on some key guiding principles. I left the meeting with that clear understanding.

It is regrettable that the Premier has sought to misrepresent the details of that meeting.

I sought the meeting in a genuine effort to resolve an impasse and propose strategy that would calm, not stir, the political waters. For the Premier to engage in feigned, surprised indignation over an act of civil disobedience, for the Premier to falsely claim I supported the legislation, and for the Premier to try to present the meeting as a focus on the proposed legislation is all very unfortunate. They speak to his character and it is for the public to assess.

My position with respect to the OBA Government has thus far been to respect their role as the Government and work where we can on the critical issues, our differences notwithstanding.

If the OBA simply wants to assert they were elected the Government and can do as they please, then we crawl down a rocky and dangerous road to the next election.

• Walton Brown is the Shadow Immigration Minister