Francis brings ‘evidence’ that Facebook ‘airport debt free’ tape was edited

Senator Julian Francis has provided to Parliament, what he said is evidence that the members of the opposition intentionally doctored and edited a recording of a speech he had made in parliament in 2006.{{more}}

The senator had been challenged by members of the Opposition, including parliamentary representative for Central Kingstown St Clair Leacock, who alleged that he (Francis) had said that the construction of the international airport at Argyle was not going to incur any debt.

“In fact, we were given the assurance of a capital project of under $500 million,” Leacock said.

But Francis rebutted, saying that he was hoping that someone would have provided an opening for him to clear the air on the “myth” which he said was being uttered in the House.

He said that he sought the assistance of the Clerk of the House in obtaining a copy of the Hansard of May 25, 2006, when Francis was accused of making the “no debt” comment.

“What was posted on Facebook was edited — my statement was not played and the honourable member for Central Kingstown brought what was played on Facebook to the Honourable Speaker as evidence of what I said,” Francis explained.

He referred to pages 26 to 28 of the Hansard and according to the senator, his comments had been clipped conveniently.

Francis explained that the entire statement should have read “…including in this plan and given the commitment that we will not have any debt because we have very large land resources that have not been tapped.”

“That last sentence was clipped out and broadcast across the country,” the senator said.

“Julian Francis never ended at debt,” he continued.

“What is burning the Opposition is that the Prime Minister came up with a way to build the airport,” Francis said. (DD)