Dominica MP slams ‘heartless’ comments about Ivor Stephenson

Online posts by a United Workers’ Party (UWP) supporter referencing the ill health of Ivor Stephenson have been described as heartless and insensitive by a Dominica MP.

Petter Saint-Jean, MP for La Plaine and minister for education and human resource development

The writer of post, Trevor Johnson, “lacks decency”, he added, using an illness for political gain.

Stephenson, MP for Grand Fond, Morne Jaune, Riviere Cyrique, was taken ill at the end of May.

He was first treated in Princess Margaret Hospital but later transferred to Martinique.

Kenneth Darroux, minister for health, said last week that his condition remains stable.

In the Facebook update that is still online, Johnson blamed the prime minister for Stephenson's illness, the details of which are yet to be officially confirmed.

But speaking to WIC News, Johnson admitted supporting Lennox Linton but denied being an activist for the party, instead described himself as "anti-corruption activist".

The post was something shared to him on WhatsApp and should have been uploaded in quotation marks, Johnson added.

UWP under fire

Saint-Jean, speaking at the end of a business training workshop in Grand Fond, addressed Johnson’s upsetting online posts – and the audience shouted in support.

“What he has done is to use the illness of your beloved parliamentary representative for political opportunism”, he said.

Saint-Jean took aim at the UWP in his speech, unsurprised that someone related to the party was “once again” stepping over the mark.

“The it the United Workers’ Party, led by Lennox Linton, who have sought to use the illness of Honourable Stephenson to make political mileage.

“It is not the first time this has happened. In fact, it is a demonstration of heartlessness and insensitively. But this has been demonstrated in the past when hard times visit our country, and more so the members of the Dominica Labour Party.

“How can we forget when they rejoined over the death of two of our prime ministers?”

The content of the post was “fabricated” by Linton and the UWP, he added.