7 News Belize

Menzies Marches, Stirm Stays Put
posted (August 20, 2013)
It's been almost a month since we've heard from the marches organized by members of the Belize Evangelical Association of Churches. They've been leading what they've dubbed "Pro-Constitution Marches" all across the country to raise awareness on the Gender Policy, and the sections they want removed.

The marches have been a joint effort between Belize Can's Patrick Menzies, Belize Action's Pastor Scott Stirm, and Plus TV's Louis Wade to mobilize church leaders across the country to show just how much of the population share their sentiments.

But today, Belize Can moved alone, with no support from Wade and Stirm, when he organized a march in Belmopan. 7News was there, and Daniel Ortiz found out why:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
At around 9:30 this morning, 100 members of the Spanish-speaking churches gathered to demonstrate in front of the House of Representatives.

It wasn't the usual hundreds, and in some cases the thousands which usually mobilized for the 'Pro Constitutional Marches', but they showed their conviction all the same.

Standing up for about an hour, in the rain, umbrellas at the ready, the evangelists and their children prayed for the country, and for the withdrawal of the National Gender Policy.

And, as the downpour hammered them, instead of disheartening the members, it seemed only to bolster their spirits.

In fact, they ended up singing, 'Manda la Lluvia', meaning send the rain.

The man who organized the demonstration was Patrick Menzies, the President of Belize Can. He explained the small gathering, since it was expected that the March on Belmopan would mobilize all the members of the church from around the country, which they boasted over 8,000 participants in July.

Patrick Menzies - Organizer
"Belize Can has called the marches since the month of July and so the month of July was Constitution Awareness Month and so we had over 8,500 that marched across the country and we'd like to thank them for that. The people that are out here today are some of the same people that supported us before and the question may be - well where are the other ones? I know that was on the media last night - I was told that Pastor Scott and Pastor Louis Wade (I was told, I didn't see it) - they decided to not join this one. There's a lot of misunderstanding, I was in the US and I just came back, and so a lot of misunderstanding was circulated so some people were told that we're going to go to UB so that I can get the students to get their money that were ripped off; it has nothing to do with that. They were told that I was going to UB to get my job back - it has nothing to do with that. This is 100%to do with two basic things - the gender policy and victimization."

According to Menzies, he led the Spanish-speaking bloc because they refuse to compromise on the Gender Policy issue.

Patrick Menzies
"The church has decided, in the beginning the decision was right here in Belmopan - we asked the government to retract the policy. The PM decided 'I won't' - so then some of the leaders decided then 'modify' then the PM said 'I will look at it' - so we said ' we will submit to you the changes we would like to see' and the PM said 'okay I will look at those'. The Prime Minister never said 'I will sign off on everything you want' he wouldn't do that because that would be political suicide and in any way nobody would do something in that nature. No one knows what the PM will agree with and what he will reject - the problem is that while we are waiting for the PM to decide what he will and won't accept, during that time the policy is being implemented and if in 6 months to 18 months it's already entrenched and then it's decided that we already hired all these people and they have a five year contract - so we really can't change these things. So then the policy is in!"

And so, with that being the pillar of his argument, he decided to move forward with today's march, despite the tough weather conditions.

Patrick Menzies
"We want a retraction of the policy - PM if you want to save face, don't retract, freeze it and fix it but don't implement any part of it and that's why we're here. We know, I have dealt with the Prime Minister (my respect to him) and everybody that has dealt with him knows that he's a very astute politician and so I respect that, that is his area of expertise and I respect that. But because I respect that and the Prime Minister did not say anything crazy - he said 'I will look at it' - we respect that he will look at it, we respect that he will make his decision but we also respect that we also can't tell the Prime Minister 'you have to accept these 99 changes."

He also discussed where he sees that the policy being put into place, by alleging that the University of Belize has started to put together a Gender Department. Here's how he explained that:

Patrick Menzies
"Right now we're headed to UB - why? Because UB is the place that we're told from inside sources that they're creating a gender department. A few weeks ago they passed out copies of the policy to the staff members - we are marching to UB to say no to the gender department at UB, our young people do not deserve to have one class added to them to keep on ripping them off and then add another class - a gender class, that's not necessary."

Pastor Scott Stirm, one of the vocal members of the Evangelical Association of Churches, told us today that they didn't support Menzies on this demonstration because they felt that it would be counterproductive to the ongoing negotiations with the Prime Minister to amend the gender policy. Menzies told that he doesn't accept that interpretation.

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you accept that because you have taken this position, it seems that if though the efforts you've made so far have been weakened and splintered?"

Patrick Menzies
"No, I will not accept that, let me tell you why. The problem is that you guys were not in our meetings, this thing started out by telling the PM to retract, he said 'I won't retract', well then modify - that's not the way you negotiate. I have no doubt that the marches done have affected the UNIBAM case and are affecting this exact thing right now. What we are saying is if we are going to sit back and say 'let's wait' and if it takes 18 months for the attorneys to look at it because they are busy - how will we tell them they're taking too long? We can't tell them what to do - so what we're saying is this, freeze and fix."

And after he spoke to the media,

Menzies led the demonstrators through Belmopan to the UB Campus.

A late evening statement from Pastor Scott Stirm says, quote,

"The Constitution Marches were brilliant & we appreciate Patrick Menzies' zeal."

Zeal but no support – and to answer that the Stirm statement adds:

"In consulting with leaders all over the nation, there was not a resounding AMEN on Menzies' UB demonstration. Nothing personal, just different theme & no AMEN." End Quote.

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