DEBATE on a Bill seeking to make extraditions much easier descended into an angry exchange between Opposition Senator Lambert Brown and several Government senators in Gordon House yesterday.

Senator Brown seemed to signal to Government members that he was ready for a clash when he warned them against “drawing me tongue” — a quote made famous by former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Despite support coming from the Opposition benches, Brown leaned into the Government members with recollections from the extradition of jailed western Kingston area strongman Christopher “Dudus” Coke about the role of former prime minister and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Bruce Golding, as well as about Leader of Government Business Senator Kamina Johnson Smith — whom he described as an hypocrite and liar in terms of an e-mail scandal — and even the Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, whom he said he “left in the gutter”.

“It was not my intention to talk today, but, as you would have heard from an earlier prime minister, ‘Don’t draw me tongue!’ ”

Defending his recent quoting in the Senate of a 53-year-old Jamaican who had been detained by US immigration authorities after trying to enter that country illegally by boat, Brown insisted that he was not endorsing the individual and was not aware of his antecedents. The man, who has since been identified as Dean Cooke, also known as Boobie Skeng, is allegedly an area leader from the eastern Kingston community of McIntyre Villa (Dunkirk).

Cooke, dressed in a red polo shirt and wearing glasses, was seen on television and social media telling interviewers that he was trying to leave Jamaica because “pure killing going on down there. I really want to leave. No life is in Jamaica.”

Brown said: “Let us not try and condemn the messenger. I only bring it to your attention what CNN telling the world, what Fox News telling the world, what MSNBC telling the world, and which you know and I know.. Let it be clear, it matters not who he is, it matters what he said. The question is: Was it true?

“[T]he country will never forget the argument that constitutional rights did not begin at Liguanea,” he continued.

“Even if you think [Cooke] is the worst of the worst, he is Jamaican, and he has said something about our country. Let’s face the facts; was it true or false? And I make no apology for bringing to our attention in this Senate what people are saying internationally about our country,” Brown charged.

At another stage, Brown clashed with Tavares-Finson, accusing him of using indecent language in the chamber.

“I am sure you are proud of using indecent language from the chair, but I am comfortable with that. I have no interest going down that road. I have left you in the gutter. I wish to take the higher road,” he told the Senate president.

“You don’t know what a higher road is when it comes to certain things you know, Senator Brown,” Tavares-Finson responded.

“That is correct, but when it do come to some things, I do know what the upper road is,” Brown retorted.

Brown next took aim at Senator Johnson Smith, suggesting that she had made an attempt to defame former leader of government business and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade A J Nicholson in regard to the issue of the reportedly threatening e-mail she said had been sent to her while he was in the Senate.

At this point, Senator Johnson Smith, the present minster of foreign affairs and foreign trade, walked out of the chamber.

“When she got up and said I was a defender of dons, they applauded her. Now they are running from the fact that she has been exposed for the hypocrite [she is], and the hypocritical position she has adopted, and for the lies she told against Senator A J Nicholson,” he insisted.

“The truth is that an attempt was made to do it to Senator Nicholson, but it backfired. It backfired. Same so today, when you said that I am a defender of dons,” he said.

At this point, Senator Sherene Golding Campbell, a Government senator and daughter of Bruce Golding, rose on a point of order, stating: “I cannot sit here and have Senator Brown call the leader of government business a hypocrite and a liar, with no evidence to back it up.”

Senate President Tavares Finson asked Brown to withdraw the statement, but he was reluctant to do so, claiming that he rested his case on Nicholson’s e-mail which had been made public.

“If that means a visit to the Privileges Committee, I am prepared to go there,” Brown said.

“That doesn’t mean I am going to refer you to any committee. I am simply not going to recognise you. You have referred to the leader of government business as a hypocrite and a liar,” Tavares-Finson reminded.

“Let me withdraw that. I am now saying that her statements were hypocritical, and I stand by that. I was provoked, but those who live in glass houses must not throw stones,” Brown warned.

Despite the lengthy and noisy situation, the Senate was able to complete the debate on the Bill that was piloted by minister without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security Senator Matthew Samuda.

In closing, Samuda insisted that Brown was “woefully misguided” in his interpretation of the Bill.

The Bill, the Extradition (Amendment) Act 2021, is aimed at amending the principal Act to allow for the use of evidence in extradition cases through affidavits sworn by prosecutors or law enforcement personnel, rather than relying exclusively on first-person witness statement, which are often difficult to secure.

It was passed in the House of Representatives on June 22, with the full support of both sides of the House, and was piloted by Justice Minister Delroy Chuck.