—rejects political labels, appeals to church leaders over MV Barima tragedy
Jasmin Cort, whose father and uncle remain missing following the MV Barima disaster, has rejected attempts to portray her campaign for answers as politically motivated, saying her protests are driven by grief and the need to bring her loved ones home.
In a video and accompanying statement posted on her Facebook page following Friday’s confrontation with police during protests coinciding with King Charles III’s visit, Cort said demanding accountability should not expose bereaved relatives to physical mistreatment.
“I am not just a protester. I am a daughter grieving a father who never came home,” she wrote.
“My grief is not a political performance. My pain is not an inconvenience. And my right to demand justice does not disappear because my voice makes others uncomfortable.”
Cort’s father, Neil Cort, and uncle, Kenrick Cort, were aboard the MV Barima when it sank on July 18 while travelling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma. The family has not recovered their remains.
She said the absence of answers and the inability to bury the two men had left her family in a continuing state of trauma.
“I never got the chance to say goodbye, or to lay them to rest in a place that I know that I can visit,” she said.
In her video, Cort recalled her father as an honest, hardworking man whose Christian faith shaped her upbringing. He prayed for her, encouraged her and was her best friend, she said.
She remembered his singing voice, his enjoyment of dominoes and the cook-up he prepared. Her uncle, whom she called “Uncle Kenny”, loved electronic dance music and made pork chow mein.
Their lives, she stressed, extended far beyond their place in the disaster. They were loved by families who missed their laughter, jokes and companionship.
Cort said grieving relatives and survivors had organised a peaceful protest at the Umana Yana on Friday to draw attention to their demands during the royal visit. She argued that the country’s difficulties and the suffering of affected families should be visible alongside the official celebrations.
Kiskadee Watch reported that a subsequent encounter behind the Pegasus Hotel, near the Kingston seawall, left Cort seated on the ground with police officers standing over her. Protesters had gathered some distance from the bandstand where the King was scheduled to greet members of the public.
“I never imagined that demanding answers about my father and uncle would lead to me being physically assaulted by the very people entrusted to protect us,” Cort wrote in her Facebook statement.
She rejected suggestions that she was being paid or acting on behalf of political parties, saying those claims avoided addressing the families’ concerns.
Cort renewed her demands for accountability and the removal of ministers Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar. She questioned why the ferry had remained in service despite reports of mechanical problems and challenged Edghill to engage directly with her family.
Minister Edghill had said there was no report indicating that the vessel was unseaworthy and that it had operated within its maintenance schedule. Records which subsequently surfaced were reported to contain urgent defects and requests for repairs in the months before the sinking. The circumstances of the disaster are the subject of a Commission of Inquiry.
Cort also appealed to religious leaders, particularly within the Assemblies of God churches, where she said her father had spent more than half his life serving.
She questioned the absence of public statements, visits and expressions of solidarity from pastors, urging them to speak about the treatment of grieving families and their demands for justice.
Her faith, she said, continued to sustain her. She described finding a note about Father’s Day in her father’s Bible when she attended church, an experience she interpreted as reassurance that speaking up was a way of honouring him.
The family’s campaign has included repeated calls for the wreck to be recovered. Cort recently told Kiskadee Watch that relatives had received no further information on timelines, milestones or expectations for the salvage operation.
BK International was awarded a $1.034 billion contract to recover the wreck under a “no cure, no pay” arrangement, according to the procurement record previously reported by this newspaper. The published award did not set out a recovery deadline or the detailed operational arrangements.
“Behind every placard, every protest, and every demand for justice is a human being carrying pain that the public may never fully understand,” Cort wrote.
“I am a daughter before I am a protester. And I just want my father home.”
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