A Member of Parliament on the Opposition Benches has been awarded a certificate of successful completion in legislatorial procedures. Senator Hon. Israel R. Bruce was certified by the Mc Gill University School of Continuing Studies for having successfully completed all the requirements for the Professional Development Certificate in Parliamentary Governance.
The training, which ran from July 2019 and was completed in March 2020, included: modules (1) Introduction to Commonwealth Parliamentary Governance, (2) Contemporary Issues In Parliamentary Governance, (3) Advanced Commonwealth Parliamentary Governance and (4) Parliamentary Communications.
This course was undertaken by Members of Parliament from across the Commonwealth with particular focus on the diminutive parliaments commonly referred to as the “small Branches.”
As part of this programme Senator Bruce also travelled to Montreal Canada in 2019 for the residential component of the programme where he came face to face with his tutors and other Commonwealth parliamentarians.
Parliamentarians from the Commonwealth Caribbean were taken from, Antigua & Barbuda (Hon Senator Bakesha Francis) St Kitts and Nevis , (Hon Eric Evelyn) , St Lucia (Hon Senator Gibbon Ferdinand), St Vincent & the Grenadines (Hon. Senator Israel R. Bruce), Grenada (Hon. Kate Lewis) Bahamas (Hon Donald L. Saunders), Turks & Cacaos (Hon. Temard R. Butterfield) and Anguilla (Hon Jose Vanterpool)
Senator Israel R. Bruce joins former Senator Marcia Barnwell to become the second Opposition MP to have commenced and successfully completed this course of study both of whom secured “A” grades for each course.
The New Democratic Party salutes Senator Bruce on his achievement and looks forward to his implementation of much of the novel ideas encountered during the programme. Senator Bruce penned his main paper on the topic “THE FUNCTIONALITY OF THE SAINT VINCENT & THE GRENADINES PARLIAMENT.”