Dear Sir,

This is with further reference to my letter that appeared in the February 15 edition (“Call to clarify statements on immigration manipulation”), calling into question home affairs minister Michael Fahy’s surprising statement on February 8 that he “fully accepts” that in the 1960s and 1970s the “Government manipulated immigration law to maximise votes”.

After it became clear from his prolonged silence that Senator Fahy was not willing to clarify and substantiate his historically very significant statement, I decided to make a Public Access to Information request to the Ministry of Home Affairs to elicit the information.

In my Pati request, I asked what documentary evidence or other factual evidence or information had formed the basis of the minister’s statement.

The ministry’s response, which is couched in Pati language, is that “the record requested cannot be found after all reasonable steps have been taken to find it.

Attempts by the Ministry staff to locate this record have been unsuccessful.”

We must, I think, conclude from this that Senator Fahy in fact had no evidential or other factual basis for his categorical statement. While he may well have assumed or imagined that what he said was true, for a government minister to casually and ignorantly falsify the historical record, in what I take to have been a pandering attempt to gain personal or party-political advantage in relation to the controversial “Pathways to Status” policy, and in the process also recklessly to besmirch the good reputation of the Bermuda Government and the good reputations of his political predecessors, is a highly regrettable thing, and frankly diminishes us all.

JONATHAN LAND EVANS

• For the Pati request response, click on the PDF link under “Related Media”