Jearlean: He should repay $150,000 hush money

DEPUTY political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) Jearlean John said disgraced former Sports Minister and Minister in the Ministry of Housing Darryl Smith should be made to repay the $150,000 hush money, used to settle a case by his former dismissed personal secretary Carrie-Ann Moreau in a wrongful dismissal matter. The dismissal came after Moreau complained of being uncomfortable with things said to her by Smith.

After he was fired from his new portfolio yesterday, John called for full disclosure saying the country must be told what the money was used to cover up. “What did we pay $150,000 taxpayers’ dollars for?” John asked, yesterday, continuing the line of questions she posed the night before on a UNC Monday Night Forum platform at Rochard Douglas Presbyterian School in the Moruga/Tableland constituency.

She said no woman, especially a single mom who is looking to earn a decent living to care for her children, should be subjected to that kind of harassment in the workplace. She said it was the duty of the State and the government and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who is a father of daughters, to protect women in the workplace.

“When Carrie-Ann Moreau, a single mother, turned up in a government office to carry out, to the best of her ability, a job for which she was hired, she was entitled to a safe and secure workplace. Single mothers trying to feed their families don’t have time for any man licking their lips and saying, ‘What ever you want , what ever you need I will be right here baby.’”

She said in this era of the Me Too Movement, Rowley has found himself on the wrong side of history and firing Smith is nothing that warrants congratulations. She said his dismissal, coming one day after he was “promoted” for his outlandish behaviour, is nothing to celebrate and that it was only reactionary because of the outcry and the backlash he was getting from across the board, including supporters and women.