Attorney Hurls Expletives at Dianne Finnegan During UDP Clash

As we noted, our newsroom was live from the UDP Headquarters on Saturday which made it difficult to miss the disrespect rendered to UDP’s Dianne Finnegan by Attorney Orson Elrington.  Finnegan was in the middle of an interview with members of the media when Elrington questioned her right in being there, and subsequently called her a female dog, among other expletives.  Finnegan, in response, called out Elrington for his disrespect, and told him that his disrespect for women is what has him in court, seemingly referring to the allegations of rape against him.  Here is how that incident played out.

Minister of Gender Affairs, Thea Garcia-Ramirez has coined Elrington’s behaviour and vulgarity as unacceptable and inexcusable.  

Thea Garcia, Minister of Human Development: “I don’t like to comment on party matters, especially when they’re not  my party.  But I will say this.  I think that there’s no excuse for name calling. Might be a symptom of not having enough vocabulary if you have to come to using those words. So I’m a big believer in expanding your vocabulary to include different words that are not derogatory. That’s a cheap way out. And there’s no excuse for that kind of misbehavior. It was very disappointing to see from a gentleman who  has all my respect as, or had all my respect  as a learned lawyer, officer of the court.  And I think that in retrospect, he would admit that he could have done better. It was not a good look for anybody. And I think that that sort of behavior is really ingrained in our culture and tradition and culture,  traditions and cultures can be changed. They must be. I don’t think that it should be countenanced. It should not be normalized. While I would not want to comment on the party’s thing I think that as a Belizean man somebody that I am sure has children and that I am sure young men in our country look up to that he should be conscious that he’s in the public eye and he should do better because I am sure that he knows better.”

Finnegan is the wife of UDP veteran, Michael Finnegan.  She had run and lost in the elections for the UDP in the Lake Independence area.