BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The news that our offshore sector was recently severely criticized in the Canadian parliament is one more inconvenient truth that the Barbados economic policymakers will have to face.
In a report earlier this month, the Standing Committee on Finance of that country’s parliament made recommendations to its government on a number of proposals to come down hard on Canadian companies and individuals using this country and other low-tax jurisdictions.
Canada
A close ally of a charismatic but divisive politician killed by two assailants in Curacao said Monday he believes the lawmaker was slain in some sort of politically motivated attack on the Dutch Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - THE Canadian High Commission has apologised to the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) for a botched naval exercise in March, which saw live 50-calibre rounds being fired in Jamaican coastal waters by two of that country's naval vessels and the interference with a boat in which former Prime Minister Bruce Golding was travelling. The disclosure came on Tuesday as the JDF sought to clear the air on the incident, which the Canadian media said has caused that country much embarrassment.
It is to be hoped that the visit last week to Canada of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who in July will become the chair of Caricom, an association of 15 Caribbean nation-states, will help move forward Canada’s free-trade negotiations with Caricom. Canada’s merchandise trade with the Caricom countries is not huge, but the connections in banking, energy, immigration and culture are strong.
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Police were searching for the killers of Canadian priest who was shot outside a bank minutes after he withdrew US$1,000 on Thursday.
Police said 62-year-old Richard E. Joyal had just withdrawn the money from the bank when two men on a motorcycle approached and grabbed a bag he was carrying. The passenger shot him three times in the back.
Police inspector Aladin Jean-Louis said the authorities later found the money in Joyal’s wallet and the contents of his billfold included a driver’s license showing he was from Quebec.
WASHINGTON, CMC – Canada’s International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino will meet with Haiti’s Prime Minister Laurent Lamote on Friday more than four months after he questioned the level of aid to the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. The meeting here will also be attended by officials from several international donors. In January, Fantino said his office would not initiate new projects until it had reviewed its Haiti assistance programme, warning that Canadian aid would not be a “blank cheque.”
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Stabroek News - Last week the Canadian Foreign Minister, John Baird, made a diplomatic foray into Latin America, in a follow-up to, or probably reassessment of, Canada-Latin American relations since Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the area in 2007. As part of Latin America, or the Americas as they are sometimes referred to in North America, Baird took in two countries that are part of the Cariforum system, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, in both of which Canada has maintained a substantial interest.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - JAMAICAN manufacturers of some key items are likely to have their profit margins squeezed by higher duties in the Canadian export market, if Caricom fails to reach a new trade agreement with the North American country before year end.
Your Excellency Serge Marcoux, Ambassador of Canada to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Deputy Secretary-General
Representatives of the Canadian High Commission
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Members of the Media
It is with great pleasure that I welcome your Excellency Serge Marcoux to the Secretariat today for the special purpose of receiving your Credentials accrediting you as Canada's Ambassador to the Caribbean Community.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Former Jamaica Prime Minister Most Honourable Percival Patterson is leading a delegation from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to a meeting of a Coordination Committee created to organise an International Conference which will have as its objective, the devising of a Strategic Plan for the Reconstruction of Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake of 12 January 2010.