SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--January seven was “a dark day for all of us,” said Democratic Party ((DP)) Leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams in a condolence message to the family of the victims of the tragic shooting at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the French Republic and all of Europe impacted by the events on Wednesday.

“In a very special way, we empathize with our French St. Martin brothers and sisters,” she said in a press statement issued on Friday morning. “It's a dark day for all of us. As the tragedy continues to unfold in France in view of the whole world, we on our island are sadly reminded of the volatile times we live in.”

She added, “As a small and open society, we must pay attention to worldly events and trends. We must establish allegiances and partnerships, we must have our own internal dialogue for, God forbid, and we were to face a threat to our democracy, to our economic livelihood, to our freedoms of unimaginable proportions.”

Former Prime Minister Wescot-Williams’ making her message of condolence public as did other world leaders and as she did with similar messages in her tenure as prime minister was a stark difference from that of Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs.

Government’s newly minted Press Secretariat issued only an e-mail informing the press on Thursday morning that Gumbs has “sent letters” to the French Prime Minister, President of the Collectivité of St. Martin, the Sous Préfet and other officials “via diplomatic channels expressing government's sympathy over the tragic events in Paris.”

A request for more information about the contents of the condolence letter or for a copy of the letter to the Press Secretariat was responded to via e-mail with only “With apologies, not possible.”

A follow-up e-mail from this newspaper asking if getting the content of the letter or a copy was “not possible, because it is a state secret or not possible because it is not available at this time” was left unanswered.

The shooting left four cartoonists and other editorial staff dead in an attack on the magazine by fundamental Islamists who took offence to the magazine publishing depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, an act outlawed in Islam.