Santa Rosa residents protest against Toshao
Several residents of Santa Rosa Village, on Friday staged a protest against their Toshao, Whanita Phillips, who they have accused of being unprofessional and biased in her capacity as village leader.
Phillips was one of three women elected to serve as village leaders during last year’s National Toshao Elections, held in the country’s indigenous communities.
However, nine months into her three-year-term, Phillips, a businesswoman by profession, has seemingly fallen out of favour with residents within her community, as at least a dozen residents staged a protest in front of the village office at Kumaka on Friday.
When contacted, Phillips declined to comment on the protest.
Teekla Peters, a resident of Santa Rosa who spoke to this newspaper, contended that the community is in dire need of a new leader, particularly one who listens to the people.
“She is unprofessional towards the village council and does not listen to the people here; she isn’t transparent and is biased when dealing with conflicts,” Peters said.
Further, the resident noted that though Phillips has been spoken to on several occasions, her attitude remains the same. As such, residents have reached their limit and are now calling for her removal as Toshao.
Silvia Henry, one of the protesters who spoke with this newspaper, claims that she has had encounters which have led her to believe that Phillips is biased when dealing with the resolution of conflicts brought to her by residents. “When they campaigning, they say they going to help you this and that, but now they in the office they not helping anybody,” Henry said.
She also accused the Toshao of driving fear into residents with threats of being locked up by the police.
This allegation was supported by Esther Francis and Orpha Thomas, the latter of whom accused the Toshao of threatening to have the police incarcerate both herself and her husband when they went to enquire about a land dispute that is currently before the village council.
“She does not listen to anybody, all she does do is threaten people with police and people going to court for these things,” Francis said.
The woman, who hails from Kamwatta, a satellite village, also accused the Toshao of participating in the victimization of a resident from her village who spoke out against the misuse of funds for the school’s feeding programme.
“We have not seen any progress since she took office and she has been there nine months now. She is unable to give any solutions to our problems. I went to her about a land issue and she started hollering on me, she is just causing more distress for us,” Thomas said of the Toshao. Canadian police say that
Roopesh Rajkumar of
Guyana sustained a selfinflicted gunshot wound before being arrested in connection with his daughter’s murder.
The body of 11-yearold Riya Rajkumar was found at a home on
Hansen Road North, near
Queen Street and
Kennedy Road, in
Brampton shortly after an
Amber Alert was issued following her disappearance.
The girl’s mother had gone to police after
Rajkumar failed to return the girl on time after taking her out for her birthday.
Canadian press reports say that Rajkumar, 41, was taken to hospital after his arrest by Provincial Police in Oro-Medonte shortly after Riya’s body was found and was taken to hospital for injuries. Constable Danny Marttini says Rajkumar’s injury wasn’t discovered until provincial police transferred him into the custody of Peel police.
Marttini says Rajkumar was then brought to a hospital, where the gunshot wound was discovered.
The SIU was contacted, but have determined they will not be invoking their mandate, the reports say.
Rajkumar has since been charged with first-degree murder and will appear in court when he is medically cleared to attend.
A funeral for the 11-year-old is scheduled to be held on Wednesday according to a memorial page set up on the Lotus Funeral and Cremation Centre website, the reports say.