THE LIVE BROADCAST of the heated debate of an Opposition motion in Parliament was abruptly halted last Thursday May 5, when Speaker, Rochelle Forde ordered the Agency for Public Information (API) “to take the cameras down and put a halt to the live feed.”

This took place while Opposition Member of Parliament for West Kingstown, Daniel Cummings, was making his contribution to the motion in which the Parliamentary Opposition has called for the quarry project at Richmond to be halted immediately.

During the debate, the Speaker asked members to give her a minute.

She was then seen making gestures with her hands, but her voice was muted.

When the Speaker’s voice became audible again,

she was heard saying, “Honourable members, I need a minute please, for an unrelated matter, for me to confer with the Clerk.”

She also indicated to Cummings, that she had stopped his time, just before giving the directive to the API.

It was later reported that the abrupt end to the proceedings in Parliament resulted from a bat defecating on the Speaker’s Order Paper and also on her desk and robe.