The journalist who broke the story which alleges that former Australian Olympic athlete now senator Nova Peris had an affair with T&T Olympic sprinter Ato Boldon is standing by his story and promising more exposes on the matter. Northern Territory (NT) News political reporter Christopher Walsh made the promise yesterday in the wake of denials of wrongdoing by Boldon and Peris and threats by them to sue his media house over the article which was published on Tuesday.
Speaking about the story, which was covered widely in the Australian and British press yesterday, Walsh said the e-mails were obtained from a credible source and readers would be able to “decide for themselves” on their legitimacy.
“You can expect more to come, a long investigation that took a couple of months here and there is still a lot more to come out,” he said in reference to questions by Boldon and Peris about the legitimacy of the leaked e-mails on which he based his story.
His claims came even as NT News reported that Peris stayed out of the public eye yesterday by not going to parliament, amid allegations she tried to use taxpayers' money to fund a trip and athletic camp in 2010 which featured Boldon in Australia in order to facilitate their affair.
NT News also published a statement attributed to Boldon, in which he said the article seemed to be a deliberate attempt to attack his friend of almost two decades. “Nova is a senator and this is an attempt to smear her, no such relationship ever existed,” Boldon said in a statement.
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WHO rep likes initiative
T&T’s PAHO/WHO representative, Dr Bernadette Theodore-Gandi, said the country’s low risk was because “we are far away from the affected nations... we are not a direct flight path of those countries.” She said people coming from the Ebola-stricken countries of West Africa have to go through an intermediary country. However, she said, Ebola screening procedures have been put into operation in T&T and commended the Government for establishing the Phillips-Spencer-led team.
Theodore-Gandi said public infrastructure in T&T “is better than what exists in affected countries” but the risk assessment would be reviewed if there was an Ebola case and a spread of the virus. Theodore-Gandi admitted there was no cure for Ebola but said it was not necessarily a death sentence. “Once cases are identified early and you have intensive supportive therapy given to that patient the chances of survival are significantly increased,” she said.
She said Ebola vaccines were being developed and they were scheduled to be distributed to affected countries by next January. She said the WHO did not advise that travel restrictions be imposed but countries were free to do so if they wished. Bandleader Mike Antoine had earlier addressed the meeting, saying he could not understand why there was even a suggestion of cancelling Carnival due to Ebola.
“Why Ebola must be used to target the biggest money-making event in this country?” he asked, adding he would still be leaving the meeting without knowing if there will be Carnival next year. Soca singer Neil “Iwer” George, meanwhile, told the meeting there was no representative from the Catholic Church and that should not be “because Carnival was really a Catholic festival.”
