By Hastings Daniel

The diatribe, bile and bitterness perpetuated by the raving mad bull on the internet and for two long laborious and brutal bashing hours on his Voice of Scorn programme last Wednesday (Feb. 11) have caught everyone by consternation. For some of us it has been a hatred and scorn gone mad. Indeed, were I a person who was not born on Nevis I would have been questioning myself about staying here any longer. Certainly, if I had any business doing with Mark and anybody associated with him I would have found another haven. The programme, the Voice of Scorn reminded me of Rwanda and Kosovo where ethnic cleansing was the order of the day watched by the sideliners until the matter gets out of hand. Keep in mind that with all the rancour, clamour and confrontation of this megalomaniac called Mark, he and James Gaskell are neighbours at Montpelier. Keep in mind that for all Montpelier Housing there are only three persons living full time at Montpelier. These two have no other neighbours. Keep in mind also that James Gaskell is in the afternoon of his life. This maniac and hater, Mark, is in the morning of his.  Tomorrow if something foul were to happen to James Gaskell I shall have to hold Mark responsible for it either directly or indirectly.

I mean for two long hours on a talk show all this madness of man can find to talk about is the fact that government is paying a man, a citizen, a benefactor a psaltery sum of money for using the plenitude of state power to run roughshod over a person’s land in the dead of night on a Sunday. What is Mark saying that in his Nevis government can move bulldozer, front-end loader and backhoe on land owned by citizens, especially if they are white and not born here, with impunity and without compensation. In their own interest I would encourage all persons who are foreigners, especially if they are white, to keep out of Brantley’s office and keep far from him. He is a dangerous hater of white people. On Wednesday there were calls for demonstration against the government and against James Gaskell to get him out of Nevis. Not one time did Mark stand up and rebuke the caller who wished to march on Gaskell and force him to leave Nevis.

Now what are the facts of this case regarding the land at Montpelier? James Gaskell bought his land at Montpelier in 1965. Mark Brantley was born in 1969. An owner of land is entitled to exercise control over his land and debar whom he wishes from entering his land. In time, tow persons from Brown Hill bought lands at Montpelier or close by and wished to be facilitated by going back and forth from where they proposed to live and where they now live. One was a Brantley. They used state power to trespass on people’s land for their personal benefit. The people who moved from Cox to Brown Hill are so few as to be insignificant. State power was deployed to please tow party hacks.

I can never forget that by some kindness of fate I learned of the CCM-led government’s intention of pushing out the boulders that a landowner had put on his own land. I was preparing for the Monday morning push out when lo and behold the bulldozer came in the dead of night on Sunday rampaging and roaring through a quiet neighbourhood. The home owners were in shock. More was to come because on Monday morning there came the NNC, Ministers Guishard and Perkins along with a CCM crew led by Eve. They were cheering and carrying-on as the machines coughed up dirt and smoke in a frenzy known only to Rwanda and Kosovo. I have to confess because I was there, that I have never seen nor did I expect to see those scenes in the Caribbean much less on Nevis.  Mark you the ministers never passed any law to declare the road a public road. They never went to court for a declaration that the land is public land.  They never had a legal standing to do what they did. They wished to show themselves on a white man in the afternoon of his years, sought to hurry him to his grave. James Gaskell was present. It was he who went and parked his land rover jeep on his own land whereupon Malcolm Guishard instructed young Roger to drive the Corporation backhoe towards the jeep and forcibly removed Gaskell from his land. Gaskell, on seeing the intended danger to his person and life, reversed his jeep. These matters are on court records. Indeed, Hastings R. Daniel who was present drove his Land Rover Discovery, fully loaded to the site and observed all this state mayhem. My professional and personal friendship with James Gaskell is by now legendary. I have been far better for it. Indeed, the relationship has been biased towards my benefit. It is my hope that I can balance the boat so that James Gaskell can reap the fruits of his labour.

The impression given in Nevis that you can only get away with lies if you are a lawyer. When one listens and reads the ranting and raving of Mark Brantley, it confirms the suspicion. Now the events that followed that March 6 and 7, 2005 debacle in the hills speak volumes. Gaskell, through his solicitors, sued Ministers Guishard, Perkins and the Corporation on June 14, 2005. Guishard and Perkins were sued in their persona and as Ministers. The defendants hired Dr. Henry Browne and the legal department papers held by Erskine Caines. Dr. Browne put in a defence on July 06, 2005. Thereafter Gaskell solicitors put in an amended statement of claim. The CCM government and the defendants chose not to put in a defence to that amended statement of claim. Mark Brantley knows. He says he has the papers in front of him. No defence having been filed to the statement of claim solicitors for James Gaskell gave notice and obtained from the Court a judgment in default of defence. Mark must have seen that document. That document was obtained and dated February 09, 2006. CCM was in power then. What did Mark, Mikey and the blue crew do to avoid that eventuality? They knew they had no defence. They put in something of the sort. When that was answered by an amended statement of claim they had no answer. 

Herein lies the dangerousness of this little boy blue who carries the label as a lawyer. He well knows that there was a judgment in default because it is on the file he says he has before him. He well knows that it is dated February 09, 2006 when CCM was in power.  He chooses not to say that and to pretend that it does not exist and comes before an unsuspecting public to parade and to rile them up against an outstanding citizen. He knows that the CCM dropped the ball. James Gaskell obtained Judgment in default of defence in February. Elections were held in July, 2006 when the progressive party marched to office. What were Parry and the NRP to do? Go down to the Court and march bulldozers on the Court and threaten the Court to reverse the decision and defend what the CCM and this little boy blue say and prove was indefensible. Mark you, this little boy blue is a legal luminary. He must know that if a man has a default judgment all you can do is negotiate the damages. You cannot open the case. If indeed he wished the case to go to Court there was plenty of time for that. By letter dated 14 April, 2003, Jeffery Nisbett responded to a threat to his client by the then legal adviser ‘Milk’ imploring the government to follow the route of getting a declaration from the court as preference for what Nisbett called “deploying the full plenitude of state power” against his client, and he warned of dire consequences in an economy so fragile and dependent on our image in a tourism world.  The foolish and unfounded charge that NRP could have asked the Court for a declaration is hollow and disingenuous from a little boy blue who is murdering truth. The charge of looking after the NRP supporters is misplaced and twisted. I wonder if this same wonder boy blue will go to Court for government free of cost in the matter with Tower Hill and the $11M.

Now to compensation. How come a meager $262,000.00 comes a lot of money to little boy blue who everybody says has money and to spare? How come Mikey can say that there was only a road 30 feet by 20 feet that was taken? Did not the cabinet of the CCM know the area of the road and land before they went up there to push it out? Certainly that elementary matter should have been on file. I was asked to do some valuation on the amount of land taken. I am sure my valuation was for more than that. I remember Mr. Gaskell giving instructions that he does not wish to include certain computations in the valuation. What government eventually agreed was far less than they should have in the circumstances. The amount of land that had to be taken was almost an acre from the bottom of the road to the top. The compensation was mild and reflected the government’s ability to negotiate and reduce same after the boys blue had botched it. “Oh what a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to deceive.” In the end the people of Nevis are paying this money for that same little boy blue to go to and from Brown Hill.  Nobody else! It was he who harassed the CCM, Guishard and Perkins to embarrass themselves on that fateful Sunday and Monday to get at his named nemesis Gaskell. In another matter Guishard and Perkins could have been moved against by Gaskell because they were sued in their persona. Gaskell decided not to “waste powder on parahawks” so they were reprieved. Ministers of government should be careful that maverick lawyers in their cowardice do not land them in trouble.

I expect that in a world where Obama is President of a white country that the rhetoric that got Eugene and Sim, both lawyers, to power riling against white people in Nevis will land this lawyer here in trouble. Were I a white man he would not have seen me up his steps. He should know that the world has changed. Nevis is heavily dependent on those same white people for investment. I suppose that a black man like little boy blue will re-open the Four Seasons and have three more resorts on Nevis. We cannot bite the hand that we beg to feed us. This is a world where all men are created equal and should be judged by the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin. Mark should know; he has made his wealth off the white. Give Nevisians that same chance! I condemn, confound and cast this type of hatred and bitterness based on lies, twisted truth and falsehood to the ashes heap of history. It should have no place among us. Their makers and perpetuators should never be allowed any leadership positions among us.