Marie Davis Pierre: Former House Speaker in Dominica Dies

RODEAU – Marie Davis Pierre, the first Dominican female appointed Speaker of the Dominica House of Assembly, has died. Pierre served as Speaker from August 1980 to December 1988. Dame Mary Eugenia Charles appointed her to that position in 1980 when she became Dominica’s first female prime minister at the helm of a Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) administration.

Marie Davis Perre is the first female Speaker in Dominica, a position she held for over seven years. When asked what motivated her to enter politics, she replied that she was never really motivated. She recalls that when the Dominica Freedom Party came into power, Miss Charles (Dame Eugenia Charles was then) first asked her to be Speaker, but she refused. But, she says, “Miss Charles was persistent. She said I knew the Rules of the House, having written a book on Parliamentary Procedure, and that her members were new and knew nothing about Parliamentary Procedure”. She adds that her family and friends told her she should accept, so she did.

The road that led Marie Davis Pierre to the Speaker’s Chair was long and varied. It took her through her education at Convent High School, which she entered at 12, having won the single Annual Roseau Town Council Scholarship, which was offered for girls.

Mrs. Davis Pierre recalls that when she left school in 1937, she could not find a job, so she started a Kindergarten School called “St. David School.” Later, in 1944, she joined the Civil Service, as it was then called. Around that time, she, too, became a catechist, serving the Catholic Church in that capacity for 56 years and, at the same time, joining the Cathedral Choir.

Marie Davis Pierre’s love for music and singing is well known, and many can recall her musicals, concerts, and solo performances in church. However, her path through the Civil Service eventually led her to become Speaker.

When Mrs. Davis Pierre was appointed Deputy Registrar in 1965, she immediately set about reorganizing the Law Library and Trade Mark Section, carefully indexing and filling out all books and documents so they could be more easily retrieved.

In 1967, when Dominica attained Status Associated State” with Great Britain, she was appointed clerk of the House. By 1970, she was sent on a three-month attachment to the House of Commons to study Parliamentary Procedure under the Westminister System of Government. The following year, 1971, she was sent to Canada on another attachment to study Record keeping and Management. She wrote reports on her return to the State on the two attachments and presented them to the Government of the day.

That short stint on Record Keeping enabled her to reorganize the Office of the Clerk of the House of Assembly filing system, incorporating the advanced method she had learned. Documents could now be filed to make them easy to retrieve. She also put her learning into pruning the files containing these records to reduce storage space for good use.

Mrs. Davis Pierre also gave lectures on those subjects to Junior Public Servants, Village Clerks, and other public officials.

As Clerk of the House, she became the first Caribbean Clerk of Parliament to write a book on Parliamentary Practice and Working Methods of the Dominica House of Assembly, published in 1975. To quote what historian Dr. Lennox Honychurch had to say in the PrePressout the Book –

“It is a concise and well-researched work that is much needed by the Dominican Parliamentarians and those of our sister islands. As a member of the House who has been diligently plodding through the 1145 pages of “Mays Parliamentary Practice, I can personally say that Mrs. Davis Pierre’s book is most welcome. The Clerk of the British House of Parliament has observed that no small State has produced such a work”.

Mr. Royston Ellis, a Journalist, had this to say in the ‘Educator’ Newspaper:

“Mrs. Davis Pierre wins admiration for her scholarship. It was the first attempt by a West Indian Clerk of Parliament to write a Manual on Parliamentary Procedure. Its pages give more insight into life in Dominica than any guidebook. Mrs. Davis Pierre, who has been Clerk of the House for eight years and spent six months writing this invaluable handbook, is already known in the pages of Dominica’s newspaper for her forthright views”.

On November 3, 1978, Dominica became a Sovereign Democratic Republic; as Clerk of the House, Mrs. Davis Pierre assisted in preparing the procedure for the important event when the Constitutional Instruments were handed over to the Honourable Premier, Mr. Patrick John, by her Royal Highness Princess Margaret in an Address incorporating the Queens’s Message to the people of Dominica. On November 15, 1978, November 15 letter of thanks and appreciation from Mr. Patrick John (then Prime Minister), Stating-

“On my behalf and my Cabinet Colleagues, I wish to convey sincere thanks and appreciation for your contribution to making Independence Celebrations the tremendous success it was. Through reports of overseas guests and personal observations, there is no doubt that you have done a great job. You have come forward as true sons and daughters of this land in a show of real national spirit. May God bless you.”

In December 1978, Mrs. Davis Pierre retired from the Civil Service, reaching retirement age and giving thirty-three years of service. On her retirement as Clerk of the House, she presented to the Prime Minister, Mr. Patrick John, and the then Leader of the Opposition, Dame Eugenia Charles, bound volumes of the Minutes and Hansards with indices of the Meetings of the House of Assembly, dating from March 1, 1967, she was appointed Clerk of the House of Assembly, to October 28, 1978, October 28diately preceding Independence, 12 years all told. It could not have been an easy job. She also presented to the House three bound volumes with indices of the laws of Dominica from 1627 to 1978 and another volume with all the speeches of Colonial Governors, the Resolutions of the various members of the Legislative Council striving for improvement of theiStatusnial status aStatuspatches from the Secretary of State. A copy of all these documents can be found in the Library of the House of Assembly.

When the Freedom Party came to power in 1980, she became the first female Speaker of the House of Assembly. She was re-elected in 1985.

In the House, she experienced difficult situations, such as ‘walk-outs,’ disorderly behaviour, etc. Mrs. Davis Pierre gives credit to the Convent High School for the character training that she received, which enabled her to study the behavioural patterns of each member and keep a balance. From the onset, Madame Speaker clarified to Members that they were expected to abide by the House Rules and respect the Chair’s authority. She made sure, through hand-outs, that all new members appointed to the House were initiated with the procedures of the House.

Madame Speaker believed that the people should not be alienated from the Business of the House, and so she tried to forge a closer link between Parliament and the people through various articles she wrote in the press.

When asked what advice she had to offer Women entering politics today, Mrs. Davis Pierre quickly replied that she was not in a position to do so as she did not like politics. She went on to say that she felt that people entering politics today see only the faults and not the positive side of things and that so much negativity was inhibiting the country’s progress.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Davis Pierre has left an indelible mark on the Parliament of Dominica, not only as the first Female Speaker of Dominica and the Region but also because of the many projects she undertook when she was Clerk of the House to improve access to papers and documents, create the library, and enhance the values of the Parliament itself in many other ways.

(Ms. Marie Davis-Pierre, the Speaker of Dominica’s Parliament from 1980 to 1988, passed away on Saturday, May 24, 2014).