Kingston 25 November 2020 (JIS) - The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the honourable Olivia Grange, says that officers from the Bureau of Gender Affairs have been dispatched to the community of Tryall Heights, St. Catherine, to provide support, following the recent killing of a grandmother and her two granddaughters.

“As a St. Catherine Member of Parliament, as a Minister, as a mother, as a grandmother, as a woman, as a citizen, I feel the pain of this vile act to my core. There can be no excuse for this wickedness.
“We condemn it in the strongest sense. We commiserate with and send our condolences to the family and we urge the community – anyone with information – please say something and let us have justice for Iciline McFarlane, Christina McFarlane and Mishane McFarlane,” she appealed.

Minister Grange was speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, November 24.

Her condemnation of the killing of the elderly women and the two little girls, comes as the country observes International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls on Wednesday (November 25) under the theme ‘The Empowered Woman: From Victim to Survivor’.

The day also serves as the start of 16 days of activism to end violence against women and children.

Minister Grange called on all parliamentarians to publicly condemn the incident as well as similar acts of violence against women and girls and stressed the need to speed up the implementation of laws that give greater protection for vulnerable groups.

“As a country, we feel distress and we sometimes despair when we hear of these brutal acts of violence, but we must not retreat and we must not surrender, and we cannot give in to the gunmen,” she said.

“This is when we must fight back; fight back stronger than ever. Fight back to the point where they have to retreat and not us. We cannot surrender Jamaica and we must develop a steel-like determination that we will end the violence,” Minister Grange noted.

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