Shawn Richards plagiarizes remarks made by Trinidad Attorney General

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 14TH 2009 (CUOPM) – Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher 5, Hon. Shawn Richards has been accused of plagiasing remarks made by the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, the Hon. John Jeremie.
 
Mr. Richards, the lone PAM representative in the 15-member National Assembly is also being asked to explain how the same words of the Trinidad & Tobago Attorney General, reported in the Trinidad Express on Thursday is used as Mr. Richards’ own quotation in a news release issued on Friday from the Secretariat of the opposition People’s Action Movement.
 
The Trinidad Express in its edition of Thursday, November 12th 2009, carried the headline: “Jeremie: Nation losing young males to crime” in which Mr. Jeremie was commenting on the results of a project carried out by the Secretariat for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) in January this year.
 
In the story reported by Aabida Allaham, the Trinidadian Attorney General John Jeremie states that influx of women into the teaching service may be the main reason why there are so many young men in jail today.
 
“Whatever the precise causes of the problem, the harsh consequences are that as a nation, we are losing our young males principally to a life of crime, because almost all of the violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago today is being carried out by young males,” Jeremie said yesterday (Wednesday).
 
The People’s Action Movement Secretariat on Friday issued a news release concerning remarks made by Mr. Richards in the National Assembly headlined: “Richards: We cannot continue to lose our young men to crime.”
 
 
In paragraph 3, the PAM news release reports Richards as saying in an interview that the influx of women into the teaching service may be the main reason why there are so many young men in jail today.
 
“Whatever the precise causes of the problem, the harsh consequences are that as a Federation, St. Kitts and Nevis we are losing our young males principally to a life of crime and sadly, because almost all of the violent crime in St. Kitts and Nevis today are being carried out by young males through the use of guns,” Richards said in the news release which is also posted on SKNVIBES.com.
 
“Mr. Richards in his statement is not only guilty of plagiarism, but seems to be blaming our hard working teachers for the problems of our young men,” said a veteran teacher on Friday.
 
“Is he also suggesting that we stop hiring women teachers? That we dismiss the women teachers we have already? What plausible evidence does Mr. Richards have to suggest that women teachers in St. Kitts are a problem for young men?” she asked.
 
“Mr. Richards seems to take great delight in seizing upon every opportunity to say, or now it seems, to quote any irrelevant source to run this country down,” said a youth parliamentarian, who added: "Mr. Richards is no longer a role model for our youth."