The controversial Pathways to Status immigration legislation was formally withdrawn from the House of Assembly yesterday after five days of protests.

Sylvan Richards, the Junior Minister for Home Affairs, made the move shortly after the session began.

Opening today’s session Randy Horton, the Speaker of the House, said he spent last Monday effectively locked in the House with parliamentary staff and St George’s MP Kenneth Bascome as a result of the protests. “All day my attention was drawn to my credenza and the photo of my daughter, son-in-law and their children, my grandchildren. I spent the day reflecting on our history and considering the future of my grandchildren and all of Bermuda’s young people.

“It was troubling. On Tuesday I reached out to all sides to urge that they move forward quickly to break the impasse. The deadline to pass the budget was getting tighter and tighter. I was not prepared to resume this House until the impasse was resolved. I am grateful, I am gratified that we are here today to proceed with the people’s business. The agreement is a real achievement of courage and compromise, and I congratulate all that contributed in any capacity to bring us together to sit and proceed with the people’s business.”

While the House then continued with its scheduled budget debate, opposition backbencher Rolfe Commissiong questioned the lack of any statement in the House on the subject by Michael

Dunkley, the Premier. “I thought it was contemptible for the Premier not to give a statement to not only the Members of Parliament, but the public at large, especially in light of the dramatic events that have occurred over the last three-and-a-half weeks,” Mr Commissiong said.

“All of this could have been avoided if they had accepted Walton Brown’s motion weeks ago calling for comprehensive immigration reform to be fleshed out by a joint select committee.”

Noting the group of demonstrators that had been outside the House earlier in the day, he said they personified the trust deficit which exists when it comes to the OBA.

“They didn’t trust the government to actually pull the Bill,” he said. “They had to witness it, see it themselves.”

While Mr Commissiong acknowledged that Mr Dunkley had made statements in the media about the protests, he said it was important that he made a statement in the House.

“This is where he was elected to serve as part of our system of representative democracy,” he said. “I think that he showed some degree of cowardice because if he had made a statement, it would have allowed members on both sides, if they so choose, to question him during the question period about the statement he made.”

Mr Commissiong also accused the OBA of “borrowing liberally” from a motion he tabled in the proposals to demonstrators last week without acknowledging it.

Mr Dunkley offered to “address a living wage and training requirements for Bermudians”, while Mr Commissiong’s motion called on the House to form a Joint Select Committee to “examine the efficacy of establishing a livable wage for Bermuda.”

“The fact that my motion also called on us to look at the impact over the last couple of decades of low-cost, foreign sourced labour on the Bermuda workforce and economy was also important, and they borrowed liberally from that, as well in their overall suite of proposals,” he said.

While he said he was pleased to see Government moving in this direction, he added: “At least give some attribution. I think ethically it was their responsibility to acknowledge that, and I think it would have helped with the bipartisan buy-in.

“Everyone in Bermuda knows the former UBP and now the OBA is not a party philosophically or ideologically in favour historically of putting things like a living wage in place Bermuda. The business sector has been a large part of their support base, and this would be anathema to that sort of idea.”