Dear Editor,

Today, I am more than disappointed with Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith.

After hearing her contribution in the Senate on the motion to have teenage mothers returned to mainstream schooling, I was elated. I said to myself, ‘here is a person with an independent mind on whom we can rely to bring some form of balance to the Senate’ although she was appointed by the Opposition JLP.

It is only now that the surfacing of these undated letters is telling us that clearly Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith was not acting of her own volition, but with a noose around her neck. The signing of these undated letters, giving the leader of the Opposition, the power to date and deliver them to the goveror general, if and when he feels like, is very troubling.

Now that the matter of these letters are before the consitutional courts, I believe that in order to restore her credibility as a senator, she should disclose to us the rationale behind signing the letter, and whether what former Senator Arthur Williams said was the reason for signing them is true. If she will not speak up and clarify her position on this issue, I say shame on you, Madam. You have resigned from a position that you never truly held.

Senator Johnson, you owe it to those who had placed confidence in you to restore that confidence and your crediblity as your ability to argue with an independent mind surely has been compromised.

And, while you are at it, I would suggest that you encourage your collegue senators to do the same.

Ralston Chamberlain

ralston.chamberlain@alum.utoronto.ca