By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell responded yesterday to the “hateful” criticism attorney Fred Smith, QC, allegedly made about The Bahamas recently.

This marks the most recent verbal sparring in a long running war of words between the two men.

Speaking in the House of Assembly, Mr Mitchell said: “Mr Smith, who is himself a naturalised citizen of The Bahamas, and was given shelter in this country, has indicated the following and I quote: ‘The fact is The Bahamas is a very racist, a very xenophobic, a nationally insecure and a very hateful place to foreigners.’

“This is absolutely untrue,” Mr Mitchell added. “This is a statement that comes from someone who presents himself as a human rights activist. He makes his living and a livelihood in The Bahamas. This is the equivalent of a fisherman calling his own fish stink. Given the wide circulation of the documents, no immigration minister can allow this comment to stand unchallenged, particularly as it was delivered in the face of 65 foreign people who live in The Bahamas and are valued investors here. It is hateful; it is deceitful.

“This is ungrateful. It is dishonest. It is unpatriotic. All fun and jokes aside, as a public policy maker, as a member of Parliament, as a minister of the government, I am sworn to defend the Bahamas and its Constitution and its people without fear or favour. I do not appreciate in the least this attempt to smear me and to smear the government and the wider Bahamian people, no matter how it is dressed up.”

Mr Mitchell was referring to comments Mr Smith allegedly made during a meeting of the Coral Beach Condominium Association on January 15.

Sixty-five people, “most of them non-nationals,” attended the meeting, Mr Mitchell said. It was at the meeting Mr Smith criticised the government for getting involved in “the private financial or private disputes in a condominium association.”

An audio recording of the meeting was circulated yesterday.

In the recording, a man, purportedly Mr Smith, can be heard warning those attending that they may be deported.

“ . . . It is inappropriate for the government to get involved in the private, financial disputes in a private condominium association like this. Why is Fred Mitchell, the minister of immigration, getting involved in a dispute that exists between condominium owners. Why is he picking on Bruno Rufa. . .or others?

“ . . . Make no mistake, when the new board decides to enforce the lien against some Bahamian who refuses to pay the maintenance, you will be the next one that immigration will try and deport.”

Mr Smith also purportedly said: “It’s a very difficult environment to live in. You’re all white for the most part and it’s a big problem for a lot of the black Bahamians that you’re down here. Believe it or not, they want your money, they want you to spend it, but they don’t like you.

“The fact is that The Bahamas is a very racist, very xenophobic, nationally insecure and a very hateful place to foreigners.”

Mr Smith represents Grand Bahama resident Bruno Rufa, a Canadian citizen, who has been accused of working in The Bahamas without the legal authority to do so.