Peter Champagnie, K.C., J.P.

@wcchen A very Happy Birthday on this an amazing milestone. I am forever grateful to her for her assistance in my formative years / schooling. 🙏🏽

Mavis Gwendolyn Gilmour-Petersen, born 100 years ago today on 13 Apr 1926, in St Elizabeth, #Jamaica. #Jamaican surgeon, parliamentarian, and Cabinet minister. A trailblazer in both medicine and public life, she is distinguished as the first woman surgeon in the Caribbean and a senior figure in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) governments of the 1980s. Early Life and Education Born on 13 April 1926 in St Elizabeth, she is the daughter of Isaac and Adelaide Holness. She received her secondary education at Blake’s Tutorial College before pursuing higher studies abroad. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Medical Career Gilmour-Petersen graduated from Howard University College of Medicine in 1951, after which she served at a number of hospitals in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. In 1959, she undertook further specialist training in Scotland. She embarked on her Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, and upon completion was appointed Consultant Surgeon at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), thereby becoming the first woman surgeon in the Caribbean. She served at the KPH from 1960 to 1976. This appointment represented a landmark in Caribbean medical history, breaking barriers of both gender and professional seniority at the region’s most prominent public hospital at a time when women in surgery remained exceptional worldwide. Parliamentary Career Gilmour-Petersen entered elective politics in 1976, winning the St Andrew West Rural constituency, which she held until 1989. She was among a small cohort of women elected to the Jamaican Parliament in that era and would go on to hold senior executive responsibility under Prime Minister Edward Seaga. Ministerial Service She served as Minister of Education from 1980 to 1986, and subsequently as Minister of Social Security and Consumer Affairs from 1986 to 1989. As Minister of Education, her tenure coincided with a period of significant institutional restructuring in Jamaican schooling. In 1982 she announced the conversion of the Passley Gardens Agricultural School in Portland from a secondary institution to an agricultural college offering tertiary-level associate degree programmes in agriculture. Her six-year tenure at Education remains one of the longest continuous occupancies of that portfolio in post-independence Jamaica. She was succeeded at the Ministry of Social Security and Consumer Affairs by Portia Simpson-Miller , who would herself later become Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, a notable passing of the baton between two pioneering women in Jamaican public life. Honours and Recognition Gilmour-Petersen was awarded the Order of Distinction, Commander Class, in 2004, and Jamaica’s fourth-highest honour, the Order of Jamaica, in 2009. She was also selected to receive the Prime Minister’s Diamond Jubilee Award as part of Jamaica’s 60th independence anniversary celebrations in 2022 , in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished public service. At the age of 94, she was cited by Minister of Culture Olivia Grange as among the great Jamaican women deserving of national tribute. Legacy Gilmour-Petersen’s career spans two of the most demanding spheres of public life, medicine and politics, and in both she occupied positions that no Caribbean woman had held before her. Her trajectory from operating theatre to Cabinet embodies a tradition of professional service that has informed successive generations of Jamaican women in public roles.

This is the most consequential General Election since 1980. Those filled with voter apathy need to rethink their position. Jamaica is at a crossroad. Democracy is of the people and not of the few.

Irrespective of the crime alleged,due process of the law must be followed. The end of this process must now however of necessity,include an amendment to the law for child killers to be exposed to death penalty. There must be a JFJ - Jamaicans For Juveniles.

Perhaps no less than an official invitation to President Biden to enjoy our beautiful island should be extended by government of Jamaica & our people,on this his pardon of our National Hero, Marcus Garvey for mail fraud. For years this was a request. 🙏🏽🇯🇲 One Love.

“ Until the colour of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes, mi sey war.” Sadly, some of political leaders are yet to lean or do better. There should be an emphatic abhorrence against bigotry & racism.

@DaytonCampbell Alas,the salient point has eluded you. When Mr Seaga renounced his foreign citizenship,he was not legally obliged to so do. We didn’t have our Constitution then. For him, any allegiance to a foreign country was wrong, given his intended path politically. It’s an issue of Morality

@PCChampagnie The USA is not apart of commonwealth. How was that legally permissible?? You are a top lawyer dont mislead the people. Do betta

What is legally permissible does not always equate with what is morally correct. True leadership is about recognizing this and adjusting accordingly. Case in point: Edward Seaga on dual citizenship. What say the usual vociferous civil society groups?

@ChrisPinnock1 The Canons make it a breach for any attorney to knowingly making a false statement of law or fact to a court only.

@PCChampagnie can Attorneys be penalized by the GLC for posting/speaking deliberate falsehoods publicly in the name of politics?

@marcusantonio22 @jamcummings @JamaicaConstab Numbers are attached as well.

@PCChampagnie @jamcummings @JamaicaConstab Shouldn't the " numbers " be retained KC , a number of us Jamaica share the same surname eg Brown , Johnson etc

Whose idea was it to change the #1 uniforms for the @JamaicaConstab It previously distinguished them from everyone. They all look like mechanics and factory workers 😣now

The Opposition’s posture of approbating & reprobating in respect of its view of the House Speaker begs the question as to whether there can ever be any political sincerity in our politics.

@NationwideRadio The Canons of the Legal Profession which govern our conduct as lawyers oblige us all to educate & inform in the way of improving our legal system; not to misinform or to stir up strife.Lest we forget,we run the risk of exemplifying sheer idiocy. The bar needs to be raised.

PNP candidate for Central St Mary Omar Newell is facing backlash online for saying he now knows why the country’s chief prosecutor, Director of Public Prosecutions King’s Counsel Paula Llewellyn, has gone after one of Vybz Kartel’s lawyers, Isat Buchanan. nationwideradiojm.com/pnps-omar-newe…

“ if you want something said, ask a man ; if you want something done, ask a woman.” Happy International Women’s Day to all the hard working women- of which there are a plenty! 🙏

The failure of our political leaders to employ decisive sanctions when their party members support criminal conduct or political victimization only contributes more to the apathy of our electorate. The silence of civil society is deafening !

For those questioning a Judge’s authority to bar members of the public, perhaps it may be useful to take note of Sections 23 & 13 of the Criminal (Justice ) Administration Act & the Gun Court,respectively. Once again, principles of law are overridden with emotions.

@KeishaMcK123 You do have a point but the proposal is far better than what currently obtains.

@PCChampagnie Not everyone has to go to tax office, I pay my items online ... I haven't gone in years and for my Vehicle registration, I get a courier to do so for me. While I see the concerns.. this may not be the best solution

The current method of having police effect service of summonses on persons for jury duty by visiting their home addresses is ineffective & time consuming. What of simply having a police desk at tax offices where service is done when persons come to conduct their business? 🤔

Those without constructive criticisms of our justice system are often the same who find every fanciful reason not to do jury duty. Justice ultimately is what we determine it to be, not arm chair but real participation.

@gavindih It’s 2023, manners went out of fashion long ago! I completely empathize with you.

I think it's so rude to set an appointment with me and when I get to your house the next day, "another vet came already". You mean you couldn't message me and tell me that? Nah man