Keith Mondesir

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Keith Raymond Rufus Mondesir (born January 23, 1948) is a Saint Lucian politician. He has been a United Workers Party member of the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia and a member of the Saint Lucian cabinet since 2006, serving in the administrations of John Compton and Stephenson King.

Saint Lucia Country in the Caribbean

Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. The island was previously called Iyonola, the name given to the island by the native Amerindians and later, Hewanorra, the name given by the native Caribs. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km2 and reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 census. Its capital is Castries.

The United Workers Party is a conservative political party in Saint Lucia, currently led by former Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet who defeated former Prime Minister Stephenson King in a July 28, 2013 leadership contest. The party was led previously by John Compton.

House of Assembly of Saint Lucia

The Parliament of Saint Lucia has two chambers. The House of Assembly is the popular elected chamber of the Legislature. It has 17 or 18 members: 17 members elected for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies, and a speaker elected by the 17 members, who may be one of their number or a person chosen from outside the House.

Contents

Early life and career in Canada

Mondesir was born in Castries, grew up in Saint Lucia, and later moved to Canada. His ministerial biography indicates that he graduated from George Brown College and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo, a further Bachelor of Science degree in Optometry from the University of Aston in Birmingham, and a Doctor of Optometry degree from the University of Houston in Texas. He worked as an optometrist in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for twenty-six years. [1]

Castries City in Castries Quarter, Saint Lucia

Castries, population 20,000, aggl. 53,639, is the capital and largest city of Saint Lucia, an island country in the Caribbean. The quarter with the same name had a population of 70,000 on 22 May 2013 and stretches over an area of 80 km2 (31 sq mi).

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States, stretching some 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, with 70% of citizens residing within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

George Brown College

George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three full campuses in downtown Toronto. Like many other colleges in Ontario, GBC was chartered in 1966 by the government of Ontario and opened the next year.

In 2000, the office of the Manitoba ombudsman received a complaint alleging that Mondesir had sold and disclosed patient information to Lenscrafters International Inc. [2] As a result of the complaint, Mondesir became the first medical professional in Manitoba to be charged under the provisions of the province's Personal Health Information Act. His attorney, former cabinet minister Sidney Green, said that Mondesir had done nothing wrong and had not disclosed any health information or anything that could not be found in a telephone book. [3]

Sidney Green is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He twice ran for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba, served in the cabinet of Premier Edward Schreyer, and later formed the Progressive Party of Manitoba.

On May 17, 2002, Mondesir pleaded guilty in the Provincial Court of Manitoba to disclosing personal health information to DPD Software Ltd. As the result of a plea bargain, he received an absolute discharge. [4]

The Provincial Court of Manitoba hears cases relating to criminal law and family law and other statutes.

The plea bargain is any agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty or nolo contendere to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor. This may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to a less serious charge, or to one of the several charges, in return for the dismissal of other charges; or it may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to the original criminal charge in return for a more lenient sentence.

Political career

In 2001, while still residing in Canada, Mondesir ran for a seat in the Saint Lucian assembly as a National Alliance candidate in Anse-la-Raye/Canaries. He finished second against incumbent candidate Cyprian Lansiquot of the governing Saint Lucia Labour Party. [5]

2001 Saint Lucian general election

General elections were held in Saint Lucia on 3 December 2001. The result was a victory for the Saint Lucia Labour Party, which won fourteen of the seventeen seats. Voter turnout was 52.3%.

The National Alliance was a political party in the island of Saint Lucia led by George Odlum. It contested the 2001 general elections, but received only 3.7% of the vote and failed to win a seat.

Cyprian Lansiquot is a Saint Lucian lawyer and politician. He was a Labour Party member of the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia from 1997 to 2006 and served as a parliamentary secretary.

Mondesir later returned to Saint Lucia on a full-time basis and joined the opposition United Workers Party, becoming one of its leading spokespersons and running for the party leadership in 2003. [6] In 2005, he was the UWP's spokesperson on agriculture. [7] [8]

Minister

The UWP won a majority government under John Compton's leadership in the 2006 general election, and Mondesir was narrowly elected over Lansiquot in Anse-la-Raye/Canaries. When Compton formed a new administration on 19 December 2006, he appointed Mondesir as the country's minister of home affairs and national security. [9] Shortly thereafter, Mondesir said the UWP would honour the previous government's commitment to allow Caricom nationals who had lived illegally in Saint Lucia over the last three years to seek full citizenship. [10]

Mondesir was demoted to minister of national mobilization and physical development on 6 June 2007, following a public dispute with the country's police leadership. [11] There is a news dispatch from August 2007 suggesting he had been returned to home affairs and national security by this time. [12] In any event, when Stephenson King succeeded Compton as prime minister in September 2007, Mondesir's role was restructured as the minister of health, wellness, family affairs, national mobilisation, human services and gender relations. [13]

Workers at the St. Lucian ministry of health took labour action against Mondesir in November 2007 in a bid to remove him from office. [14] The action ended after Mondesir's permanent secretary was transferred to a different government department and Prime Minister King worked out an agreement with the ministerial workers' union. [15]

Mondesir has developed health service links between Saint Lucia and Taiwan. [16] He also accompanied Prime Minister King on a visit to Cuba in 2010 that was intended to build relations between the two countries. [17]

In February 2011, Mondesir announced that Saint Lucia was planning to complete a new general hospital by the following year. He indicated that the health ministry would expand its services for the institution rather than contracting out to the private sector. [18]

Mondesir delivered a statement to the United Nations General Assembly in June 2011 on Saint Lucia's policy for addressing HIV/AIDS. [19]

Tuxedo Villas controversy

In August 2008, the opposition Saint Lucia Labour Party accused the King administration of allowing Mondesir to classify part of his Tuxedo Villas private residence as a tourism facility in order to take advantage of duty-free government concessions. [20] Opposition leader Kenny Anthony subsequently brought the matter to court, [21] and a High Court judge overturned Mondesir's tourism contract in August 2009 on the grounds of a perceived conflict-of-interest. [22] Mondesir later repaid fifteen thousand dollars to the office of the Comptroller of Customs for duty-free concessions. [23]

In June 2010, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States's Court of Appeals ruled that the concessions offered by the King government to Mondesir were inappropriate. [24] King dismissed attorney-general Nicholas Frederick from office over his handling of the matter. [25] Mondesir retained his position.

Electoral record

2006 Saint Lucian general election
Anse-la-Raye/Canaries [26]
Keith Mondesir United Workers Party 2,13251.00
(x)Cyprian Lansiquot Saint Lucia Labour Party 2,04248.85
Kensley PeterIndependent60.14
Total valid votes4,180
Spoiled ballots81
Total votes casts4,26160.35
Total electorate7,060
2001 Saint Lucian general election
Anse-la-Raye/Canaries [27]
(x)Cyprian Lansiquot Saint Lucia Labour Party 2,06158.65
Keith Mondesir National Alliance 1,19834.09
Petra Desir United Workers Party 2557.26
Total valid votes3,514
Spoiled ballots116
Total votes casts3,630

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References

  1. ↑ Honourable Keith Mondesir: Curriculum Vitae, Government of Saint Luica, accessed 26 June 2011.
  2. ↑ 2002 Annual Report (pdf file), Ombudsman Manitoba, accessed 26 June 2011.
  3. ↑ "Wpg optometrist first to face charges under Personal Health Information Act," Canadian Press, 23 August 2001, 21:53.
  4. ↑ 2002 Annual Report (pdf file), Ombudsman Manitoba, accessed 26 June 2011.
  5. ↑ 2006 general election results: Anse-la-Raye/Canaries (also includes 1997 and 2001 results), Saint Lucia Government Statistics Department, accessed 26 June 2011.
  6. ↑ "St Lucia - Opposition urges government to disclose cost of Clinton's visit," BBC Monitoring Americas, 15 January 2003, 08:41; "St Lucia: Opposition spokesman on poor Christmas season for business; debt," BBC Monitoring Americas, 7 January 2005, 07:06.
  7. ↑ "Wibdeco denies buying fruit from Dominican Republic," BBC Monitoring Americas, 23 November 2005, 18:31.
  8. ↑ Honourable Keith Mondesir: Curriculum Vitae, Government of Saint Luica, accessed 26 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "St Lucia premier names new cabinet," BBC Monitoring Americas, 20 December 2006, 13:09.
  10. ↑ Most of the Caricom nationals were from Guyana. See "St Lucia starts processing illegal Caricom residents," BBC Monitoring Americas, 25 January 2007, 10:57.
  11. ↑ Marion Barbel, "Foreign Affairs Minister Dismissed in St Lucia's Cabinet Reshuffle," Global Insight Daily Analysis; "St Lucia police commissioner returns following cabinet reshuffle," BBC Monitoring Analysis, 11 June 2007, 14:27.
  12. ↑ "Saint Lucia," Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments, 23 August 2007.
  13. ↑ "New St Lucia premier names cabinet," BBC Monitoring Americas, 12 September 2007, 14:59.
  14. ↑ "St Lucia government concerned over ministry staff industrial action," BBC Monitoring Americas, 22 November 2007, 09:15; "St Lucia minister accuses union of playing politics," BBC Monitoring Americas, 23 November 2007, 08:18.
  15. ↑ "St Lucia premier intervenes to end public service dispute," BBC Monitoring Americas, 28 November 2007, 10:34.
  16. ↑ Chiehyu Lin and Deborah Kuo, "St. Lucia seeks closer medical ties with Taiwan," Central News Agency English News, 22 August 2008. See also "TAIWAN-FUNDED TISSUE CULTURE LAB OPENS IN ST. LUCIA," Asia Pulse, 4 September 2009; and "Health Minister Earmarks St. Jude Reopening for September 2011" [press release], Targeted News Service, 15 June 2011, which references Taiwanese medical aid in Saint Lucia.
  17. ↑ "St Lucia premier wants stronger links with Cuba," BBC Monitoring Americas, 7 January 2010, 11:58.
  18. ↑ "New General Hospital Will Result in Expanded Service" [press release], Targeted News Service, 11 February 2011.
  19. ↑ "30 YEARS AGO AIDS WAS DEADLY, SPREADING FAST," States News Service, 8 June 2011; Donn Bobb, "St. Lucia says the prevalence of HIV/ AIDS is estimated to be less than 1% in the general population", United Nations multimedia, 10 June 2011, accessed 26 June 2011.
  20. ↑ "St Lucia opposition threatens legal action against government," BBC Monitoring Americas, 11 August 2008, 5:53; "St Lucia opposition leader calls on premier to resign," BBC Monitoring Americas, 25 November 2008, 04:25.
  21. ↑ "St Lucia opposition leader awarded legal costs against government," BBC Monitoring Americas, 2 February 2009, 06:29.
  22. ↑ Kate Joynes-Burgess, "Ministers under Pressure to Resign over St Lucia Tourism Contracts," IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis, 7 August 2009.
  23. ↑ "St Lucia opposition to protest to force cabinet resignations," BBC Monitoring Americas, 21 August 2009, 04:35.
  24. ↑ Irenea Renuncio Mateos, "St Lucia Government Loses Appeal at OECS's Highest Court," IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis, 16 June 2010.
  25. ↑ Irenea Renuncio Mateos, "St Lucia's Prime Minister Dismisses Attorney-General," IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis, 19 July 2010.
  26. ↑ Source: Anse-la-Raye/Canaries constituency election results - 11 Dec 2006, Saint Lucia Government Statistics Department, accessed 26 June 2011.
  27. ↑ Sources: Constituencies '87–2001 (results) and Saint Lucia General Election Results (names), Saint Lucia Government Statistics Department, accessed 26 June 2011.
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