For the first time in its 12-year history, the highly acclaimed 3canal Show will run in south Trinidad at the Southern Academy for the Peforming Arts (SAPA). 

“We’ve always wanted to bring the show to the southland but due to the challenges and demands of the Carnival season with the production of the music, the show, as well as the J’Ouvert band, it’s been too much of a challenge for our production resources. This year we were approached by fellow thespian and producer Abeo Jackson to join forces and we seized the moment,” says producer Roger Roberts. 

The South Edition, Outta D Box in South—The Carnival is Over!, is an update to Carnival Production “OUT+BAD” and will feature the 2016 songs performed in a whole new way together with some special selections. Backed by musical wizardry of the cut+clear crew and featuring the visceral energy of the BLK BOX Performance Crew, 3canal promises to serve up a unique sensory treat. 

The show runs for two nights only—February 20 at 8.30 pm and February 21 at 6.30 pm. 

Tickets are available at: The Big Black Box, Murray Street, Port-of-Spain; Michael and Jody’s, Gulf City Mall, San Fernando; Atherley’s, Sutton Street, San Fernando. Tickets also available at the Sapa Box office from tomorrow.

• For more info, patrons can call 687-9071; 333-1297 or 622-1001.

Sounds of victory filled the cool night air in Malick, Barataria, on Friday when joint Single Pan Band winners Trinidad East Side Symphony rolled out the welcome wagon for a much deserved victory party.

Proud members of the community joined invited guests for the occasion which featured sumptuous cuisine, celebratory drinks and, above all, fun vibes.

Playing a Carlon Harewood arrangement of Total Disorder from the songbook of the late Kelvin “Mighty Duke” Pope, the band was adjudged joint winners in the finals of the Single Pan Band held at Skinner Park, San Fernando, on Carnival Thursday. They tied with Marsicans.

It was the first victory for the band which was formed 16 years ago. Harewood has been at the helm of the band for the past 11 years.

The rental rates for units at the Housing Development Corporation Village Plaza in Couva will be adjusted as the country is in a recession. 

Minister of Housing and Urban Development Marlene McDonald made this announcement yesterday while delivering the feature address at the recommissioning of the plaza.

She said she had received numerous complaints with respect to the rental of shops, specifically at the Couva plaza in the last quarter of 2015.

“I want to say to you that I have received a number of complaints with respect to rental of shops. I tell you that this minister gave no instructions since coming into office to increase the rental rate of any shop.

“I will be looking at the rates and adjusting them accordingly in this recessionary time.”

She said in her revision of the rates, she would look at the other plazas as well. 

There are seven village plazas throughout the country. 

She urged the small business owners and interested parties to take advantage of the reduced rates and competitive prices. 

The Couva plaza has 31 units; 11 are currently vacant. 

Rental costs around $3,200 and is staggered over a three-year period. Units are priced at $9 a square foot. The minister did not reveal the new cost.

McDonald said, “We want to promote small businesses so we want to make it very affordable. I want to see where I can make adjustments so people would be able to enjoy renting at a reduced cost and be able to promote themselves more independently.”

The minister said the aim of the Village Plaza was to ensure economic empowerment of small and medium enterprises. 

“Maybe their humble start here will lead to large-scale corporate organisation status,” she said.

The police have intervened in the alleged case of domestic violence that has been circulating on Facebook.

Yesterday the Facebook page of an automobile dealer began to show pictures of an abused woman.

“Been a victim of domestic violence for the last 12 years, and I tried to walk away a million times before, but he always threatened to kill me and my family and loved ones, so I always returned to a life of torture, but now I’ve reached to the point of no return. Lit him kill whoever displeases him. It is not the first and it won’t be the last,” one of the posts on the page stated.

The woman has removed herself and two minor children from the Chaguanas home of the alleged attacker.

The woman is to be interviewed today by the head of the Central Division to determine whether she wishes to press charges against her alleged attacker.

She is also to receive counselling from the Victim and Witness Support Unit and the children are to be referred to the Child Protection Unit and the Children’s Authority.

Following her first post, the wife of the business owner declared that the page was not hacked, and she has decided to make her abuse become public.

“This page was not hacked,” the post stated. “Left him yesterday for good and not turning back this time. He beat me like a dog in front of his business place Wednesday evening. He took my phone, money and vehicle away and told the police officers my two children are not his. Dropped them off in Chaguanas police station without a change of clothes or 25 cents for food.”

San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein is calling for an inspection of all fire hydrants and an increased water pressure in commercial and residental areas in San Fernando. Hosein made the call after expressing his “disappointment over the water situation which affected fire hydrants in the High Street area” during Saturday’s fire which destroyed the Imperial Plaza, at Lower High Street.

Fire officers have since denied that there was no water in the hydrants. The water pressure was low, they said, but they were able to get that sorted out. They said they also had in place a plan, which they successfully executed, to utilise water from the nearby sea.

The press release from the Mayor’s Office stated: “The Mayor is now calling for the inspection of all fire hydrants and an improvement of the water pressure in San Fernando's commercial and residential areas to ensure the security of the city’s residential and commercial properties. 

“Mayor Hosein has also made a commitment to ensure a proper evacuation plan is created for the city’s commercial areas following yesterday’s fire at Lower High Street, San Fernando.”

Hosein praised the coordinated efforts of the fire services, City Police, Southern Division Police, WASA, T&TEC and San Fernando West and San Fernando East MPs, which resulted in the successful containment of the fire.

The fire resulted in major losses for 35 business owners and more than 100 people were left without jobs. The cause of the fire is still to be ascertained.

A 28-year-old mother of two who said she endured severe domestic abuse for more than a decade said she reached the point of frustration when she made a public appeal for help via social media over the weekend.

Early on Saturday morning, the woman posted photographs on Facebook showing showing bruises, cuts and the blood shot eye she allegedly sustained last week at the hands of a close male relative. The young woman, mother of a seven-year-old girl and five-year-old son, said she had suffered domestic violence for the last 12 years following her marriage when she was just 16 years old.

She claimed the most recent incident occurred on Ash Wednesday when she was stabbed in the face and hands and had to be treated at the Chaguanas Health Facility. She said the following day she was beaten in front of a car dealership in Charlieville in full view of employees.

A neighbour of the young woman, who spoke anonymously, said he knew the woman endured frequent physical abuse.

“We often heard them fighting and she screaming but there is nothing we could do or could have done because we, for ourselves are afraid for our own lives,” the neighbour said.

In her Facebook post on Saturday, the woman said she tried to leave on several occasions but was always forced to remain because of threats.

Yesterday, in response to the post, there were numerous expressions of support for the woman and her children.

A relative of the woman told the T&T Guardian several reports were made to the police but nothing was done. However, in a statement yesterday, the T&T Police Service (TTPS) said the woman would receive counselling from its Victim and Witness Support Unit and the children would be referred to the Child Protection Unit and the Childrens' Authority.

The woman was expected to be interviewed yesterday by the Head of the Central Division to determine whether she planned to press charges against her alleged attacker.

Lenin Thomas, 30, is a member of a unique Amerindian tribe living in a part of Guyana’s rainforests so remote it is accessible only by airplane. He is also a final year theology student at the University of Southern Caribbean (USC) in Maracas Valley, a fairly normal achievement for many but a significant accomplishment for him.

Thomas has survived major environmental, social, financial, personal battles which threatened his very existence to make it to university. He comes from the Akawaio tribe of the Mazaruni region on the border between Guyana and Venezuela. There, eagles fly overhead, jaguars roam the forests and anacondas swim in the rivers and anger and violence is censored among the tribe. However, the love for gold and diamonds, which is abundant in Mazaruni, is threatening the complete obliteration of Thomas’ village.

Thomas, son of an Akawaio schoolteacher and education officer, was one of the more fortunate children in his tribe, although like them he grew up without basic amenities like pipe borne water and electricity.

As a young man, he battled alcohol and suicide after his mother died and his common-law wife left him with their two children, all in one month. When he survived that personal war and decided to enrol at USC in Trinidad, Thomas did not have a single cent.

Now, he is on his way to successfully completing his degree and already confidently planning to do his Masters. “I don’t know how,” he said. Thomas’ mission is to take the knowledge he gained to his village and share it with Akawaio’s youth in particular, many of whom are bright but don’t know how to move forward.

Recounting his journey, he said the Akawaio has had “some modernisation” with a government station, schools and regular air contact between the mining village and Georgetown, Digicel cell phones and Internet. Traditional thatched-roofed Akawaio houses are being replaced by concrete ones and villagers own motorbikes and all terrain vehicles.

But Akawaio women still wash clothes by the river and the men fish with bows and arrows, as the tribe has been doing for generations. Thomas said some villagers are now pumping water from wells using solar energy and almost everyone has a generator for electricity. He said a special time in the village for him is when all generators are off at night and he sits on the bare earth gazing at millions of stars in the dark sky. 

“It’s cold and silent and really beautiful. When you wake up in the morning, it’s all misty.” Thomas’ tribe and others nearby protested the building of a hydraulic dam to provide energy for miners that would have completely inundated their village. That matter is in court. Mining has brought daily flights between Georgetown and Mazaruni but the Akawaio still remain largely isolated. 

“The flight costs about $700 one way. Because of this, the majority of villagers don’t get to come out,” he said.

The Akawaio are nearly self sufficient, Thomas revealed: “We plant red beans, black-eyed peas, onions, peanuts, cassava, plantains and hunt and fish. The only thing we bring in from the city (Georgetown) is flour, rice, oil, salt.” 

Women make cotton. Up until seven or eight years ago they wore traditional beaded skirts and the men wore aprons. Akawaio young men, like Alvern Austin who got 11 passes in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), rarely leave the village to further their education.

“It’s really difficult to get out. Many have no relatives outside and nowhere to stay if they want to further their education,” Thomas said.

Thomas nearly didn’t get out. 

“When my mother died and my common-law wife left me with our children, I became depressed and suicidal. I was drinking a lot,” he said.

He was teaching biology at the Akawaio’s secondary school on a teacher’s training certificate, at the time. But Thomas met missionaries and he got baptised and went to Georgetown and taught for five years. He set his heart on doing theology but it was not being offered at Georgetown’s university.

“A friend told me about USC and I came to Trinidad and enrolled. I did not have money to pay for tuition but USC allowed me study for a whole semester without paying, stay in the dorm and have two meals a day. God has been good to me.” 

Thomas eventually got a loan and, with part time work, was able to pay for his education. When he’s done with education, Thomas plans to go back to his Akawaio village. 

“The air is cleaner up there,” he said.

Noel Garcia’s appearance at the sixth session of the Las Alturas Commission of Enquiry is being eagerly awaited as the enquiry resumes today. 

Garcia, chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T, has been ordered to testify at the start of the new session which takes place from today to February 26, according to an advertisement published last Thursday. Last month, Garcia turned up at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, during the last session with his attorney Colin Kangaloo.

Two summonses had been issued in June and July last year for Garcia to attend and give evidence but were not served as he was then living and working in Ghana. Lead attorney for the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson had informed the commission that Garcia had declined to submit a witness statement when contacted. Garcia was a former managing director at the HDC.

Also expected to be addressed during this session is an application by attorneys representing Geotech Associates Limited objecting to the filing of a supplemental witness statement by a former expert witness for the HDC, Frank Arland. HDC’s attorney Larry Lalla told the commission last month that the geotechnical engineer from the US would be recalled to respond to parts of the testimony by Martin Andrews of GA. Arland’s response is expected to be done via video link.

Objecting to Arland’s supplemental witness statement being submitted, Andrews’ attorney Justin Phelps argued that Arland had already been cross-examined. Although Ibrahim agreed to grant Phelps leave to cross-examine Arland on the supplemental witness statement during the fifth session, which ended on January 29, that was not dealt with.

The commission was appointed by President Anthony Carmona in December 2014 to investigate if there was any criminal or civil liability associated with the housing development at Lady Young Gardens, Morvant. Months earlier, then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar called for the enquiry after several structural issues with the project surfaced leading to two multi-storey apartment buildings being earmarked for demolition. The commission is chaired by retired Appeal Court Judge Mustapha Ibrahim.

MORE INFO

The commission was appointed by President Anthony Carmona in December 2014 to investigate if there was any criminal or civil liability associated with the housing development at Lady Young Gardens, Morvant. Months earlier, then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar called for the enquiry after several structural issues with the project surfaced leading to two multi-storey apartment buildings being earmarked for demolition. IS is chaired by retired Appeal Court Judge Mustapha Ibrahim.

Wheeeeeeeeeee...Snap! Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Popopopopopopopopop-BANG! Neighbourhood dogs incessantly bark and howl. From night into early morning colourful bursts, like Carnival costumes, explode in the sky. My dog trembles incessantly in my arms, even after the banging is dampened by sudden rainfall.

A flyer circulated by AWN (Animal Welfare Network) states that it is illegal to “set off” fireworks and advises pet owners to secure their pets, locate the origin of the fireworks, call the police and insist on law enforcement. Apart from being potentially dangerous in the wrong hands or in unfortunate circumstances, fireworks are highly traumatising for many animals and humans.

TTSPCA Tobago receives many calls and complaints about pet dogs who have run away and are missing after fireworks. There is a resulting increase in the purchase of pet tranquilisers at “celebratory” times of the year.

According to one Tobago pet owner: “My neighbour’s two huge  dogs jumped the fence, and disappeared for four days. They returned tired, hungry and thin. Other dogs have been known to chew their chains in an attempt to get free, damaging teeth and gums—some even bleeding to death.

Tobago is famous for chained dogs, “out in de yard” all alone, who have no recourse when the fireworks go off, and no caring person to comfort them.”

Marion Phillip, owner of Marie’s Home for the Aged in Spring Garden Extension says that the elderly cannot sleep during firework displays. One terrified 94-year old man asked her if the banging was gunshots. Even when assured that they were fireworks, he still spent the night staring uneasily through the window and, uncharacteristically, did not leave bed the next day.

One 64-year old woman, who has been living with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) since a bad fall several years ago, has a collapsed tolerance to regular environmental sounds. For her, the “indiscriminate setting off of these noise makers” is a living hell.    

“I experience fear of the next burst. As they occur, I jump out of my body...the intensity of the headache increases. I become very agitated and flail my arms about, wring my hands, become more wobbly, while my skin becomes hot and painful and, in frustration, I may weep out loud as I realise the futility of trying to tear the skin off my body. After a while, anger takes over...I have to exercise a lot of self control to stop myself from running (which at this stage I will be incapable of doing) screaming at the top of my lungs to find the source of the noise and ‘deal’ with them.”

The aftermath of a barrage of fireworks, firecrackers, bussed bamboo, can last for days, severely impairing her ability to function. She is not the only person in T&T living with TBI.

“Fireworks are explosives and as such are not toys. The dangers are equal to guns,” one retired tourism official stated. 

“Guns are regulated and explosives must be regulated as well. I support firework displays only by state agencies at official national celebrations, dates and times clearly known to all, and the setting off of the explosions are in the hands of trained personnel, ie fire service officers.”

A recently-created online petition invites citizens to join in “asking our Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago The Honorable Dr Keith Christopher Rowley, for prescribed dates, times, places and conditions under which fireworks in Trinidad & Tobago may be set off, that our laws may be followed & enforced.”

The petition is available on the Facebook page: Regulating the use of Fireworks in Trinidad & Tobago.

My name is Robin Foster and I’ve learned that, to go about the business of living, you have to accept your own death.

If you look at my face good, you will see Pelham St and the Circular Road running right through it. I’m from the Belmont that David Rudder sang about. Myself, and Trevor and Steve, David’s younger brothers, were friends. David and I only became close when he got thrown into this other world, the kind of popularity he got, I was probably the only recognisable face on that side.

Belmont had characters. An old Indian man used to ride donkey-cart called “Riverbud.” Mr Rush used to ride a bicycle with about a million bags. Everybody used to call him: “Bags!” And he would reply: “You black and stink!” Everybody was black and stink, except for Bruce Aanansen, who was “White dog!”

 I (trained as a sound engineer at) a place called ATS—Announcer Training Studios or something—in New York City, in 42nd St, Times Square. They actually had a peep show downstairs. Run by an old Jewish guy. That was (Martin Scorsese movie) Taxi Driver New York. Somehow, New York was more fun in them days.

 A few years ago, I started hiking and lost weight. I bounced up BC Pires. He said: “You exercising? Or you sick?” He told me he had once complimented a man who had lost weight and the man replied: “I have cancer, BC.” In March 2014, I did a whole-day sound thing and nothing was provided: no breakfast, lunch, nothing. At home, I didn’t eat but started to vomit. Once St Clair Medical found out I had health insurance, they did every test in the book. (At Sloan Kettering Hospital) all the doctors’ jargon, I didn’t really understand, but, when the woman said: “These types of cancer,” I shake my head and say, “Boy, when BC find out this!”

I have a pancreatic neoendocryne tumour. Very non-aggressive, slow-growing, on the edge of my pancreas. They’re very rare. They put me on a drug specific to the type of tumour (and it) did shrink by a third. Joe Brown, the record producer, told me: “It’s only when you accept your own death, you can now go about the business of living.”  It’s only now that I can understand what it means. It didn’t mean nothing 20 years ago.

If this thing shrinks to operable size...If this could be resolved, one way or the other, in the first half of 2016, that would be good. I don’t consider myself a courageous person.  In fact, I’s one of the biggest coward I know! The worst thing that could happen is I could die in my sleep—and plenty people wish for that!  

I’s be singing the song my friend Albert Laveau (recorded for) the (Derek Walcott and Galt Macdermot) musical, Steel: “I’m confronting Mr Basil.” “Before Growler die/ I tell you, I Sydney Phillips/ Being of sound mind/ but declining body/ confronting Mr Basil/ also known as Death/ coming to him with drunkard’s breath.” Any time I record a song, I know how to sing it, because I hear it so many times.

I believe God is too complex for man’s mind to calculate. So I might have a humanist or agnostic outlook.  But, then, it don’t bother me if the family want to go to church. I would say the prayers. I not hardcore in any of them things. All my life, I was paranoid about needles.  But the amount of needles I get jook with in the last year, I seeing how the heroin thing does work: they struggling to find vein!

 They falling like flies all around me: Raf; Junior; Garth. While awaiting my diagnosis, Charmaine Chan Sing, Henson Bovell, Suzanne Salandy, Jerome Francique pass from cancer!  I was at my cousin Cheryl’s funeral, who died from cancer, when the text come up on my phone, doctor saying come for the results.

The best part of getting the diagnosis was that it really made me embrace life.  But that don’t mean I ent scared s***less waiting for the doctors to call with results! Being a Trini is grounding with the society, our own society. You ever see the pride a white Trinidadian takes in eating doubles? “Boy, last night I eat 30 doubles, yes!” 

I glad for white Trinis: you is somebody; eat your doubles! But I grew up in (what they now call) a “Trini” environment. To me, Trinidad & Tobago means a good lime, a good s***-talk, pot cooking, something to drink. Somebody pull out a cuatro. A bottle-and-spoon rhythm and is kaiso: good melody, witty lyrics. There is nothing I enjoy more than that. Nothing.

• Read a longer version of this feature at www.BCPires.com

Ariel Haynes 
Student, Hugh Wooding Law School

What is harassment?
The offence of harassment has been included as an offence against the person as it affects you directly. Section 30A(1) of the Offences against the Person Act Chap. 11:08 defines “harassment” of the person to include alarming them or causing them distress by engaging in a course of conduct such as: 
• following, making visual recordings of, stopping or accosting them; 
• watching, loitering near or preventing access to or from a person’s residence, workplace; 
• entering their property or interfering with property in their possession; 
• making contact with the person by gesture, verbally, by post, telephone;
• giving them offensive material or leaving it where they can find it;
• acting in any manner described previously towards someone with a familial or close relationship with the person; 
• acting in any other way that could reasonably be expected to alarm or cause distress. 
The conduct referred to must have been done on at least two occasions. 

Penalties
Section 30A(2) stipulates that anyone who pursues such conduct amounting to harassment of another and which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment, is guilty of an offence and is liable to pay a fine of $2,000 and to imprisonment for six months. 

It does not matter whether the offender does not believe the actions amount to harassment. By section 30A(3), where another person has knowledge of the information and reasonably believes that it would amount to harassment, the offender is believed to know that their conduct amounts to same. 

Under section 30B(1) the offender is not only liable on summary conviction for harassment, but may also be prosecuted where the conduct causes the other person to fear that violence will be used against him and the offender knows that his conduct will cause this fear. 

Such person is liable to pay a fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for ten years or on summary conviction to a fine of $5,000 and imprisonment for six months. The second part relates to where another person can look at the conduct and see it as causing another to become fearful. 

The offender is then presumed to have this knowledge. Section 30B(3)) allows for a person found not guilty under this section, to be charged with harassment. 

Defences 
Section 30C of the Act sets out the following ways where engaging in conduct amounting to harassment the conduct would be excusable: 
• where pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime; or
• under any written or unwritten law or any requirement under the law; or 
• where in the circumstances it was reasonable. 

Remedies
In addition to prosecution, the Court may also make an order for the protection and compensation of the victim, according to section 30D of the Act. The protection order directs the offender to stop engaging in the conduct. It lasts for a specified time and may be changed or cleared. Failure to follow the order results in an offence, conviction and imprisonment. 

The compensation order (section 30E) may include provision for loss of earnings, medical expenses, moving and accommodation and reasonable legal costs.  

This column is not legal advice. If you have a legal problem, you should consult a legal adviser. 

Port-of-Spain Mayor Raymond Tim Kee did not tender in his resignation at the emergency City Corporation council meeting today.

On Saturday Tim Kee announced his intention to resign a day after scores of concerned citizens and human rights activists staged a protest at Woodford Square in Port-of-Spain, calling for him to step down over comments he made on the discovery of Japanese pannist Asami Nagakiya’s body at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Wednesday.

However, at the Council meeting which began at 10.30 am today, Tim Kee did not resign. 

He was expected to read his resignation into the record, but the media were told that this did not happen.

Now the council is at a deliberation stage where members of the council are deliberating the future of Tim Kee’s tenure. This also gives the Mayor time to deliberate whether or not he is going to resign. 

Yesterday an online petition was started on Go Petition to encourage Tim Kee not to resign. However that petition only gained 281 signatures. A petition on Change.org started by Roger Rajan called: “Support for Mayor Raymond Tim Kee...His words were merely advice of caution and concern” got more than 700 signatures. 

The petition for Tim Kee to resign which was started by social activist group Womantra got more than 10,000 signatures to date. 

A call was made out on Facebook yesterday to hold a vigil in support of Tim Kee, and scores of people also showed up outside Woodford Square today. 

Keep posted to T&T Guardian for more details. 

Caught in the crossfire of a police shoot-out with gunmen, a man was shot dead yesterday evening while he was on his way to spend time with his Valentine. 

According to reports, Kenton Williams, 22, from Ramdhanie Trace, Indian Walk, Moruga was shot dead around 8.10 pm last night according to eye witnesses.

Williams was walking east along the street, heading home to carry chocolates for his Valentine. As he passed, there were two police officers interviewing residents over a dispute they were having involving a car. 

As he walked past them, some men jumped out from behind a concrete wall and began firing shots at the police.

Williams, who was in the middle of the road, ran and one of the police officers shot at him. Preliminary assessments revealed that Williams received five to six bullets about the body. 

His mother, Ann Marie Reyes, said he was never involved in any illegal activities nor was he ever arrested by the police. He worked as a cashier at a nearby mini-mart.

A Cocorite mother was stopped yesterday from torching the body of her son, Mark “Markie Boy” Thompson, 33, whose bullet-riddled body was discovered not too far from his home yesterday morning.

Sandra Thompson, on hearing her son’s body was in some bushes a two-minute walk from her home, left and went to Peake’s gas station to buy gasoline. 

Residents said the woman left her home at Freedom Street, Cocorite, fuming, saying she was going to get the gasoline to burn his body.

Some time later Thompson returned with a new canister filled with gasoline and a box of matches.

“Where him? I going and burn he body and call that George,” the woman was heard saying as she made her way to where her son’s decomposing body lay, near a bamboo patch on an incline.

But Thompson was ordered to stop by police officers on the scene and a man, later identified as another of her sons, stopped her and took the gasoline from her and carried her away from the scene.

Speaking with the T&T Guardian at her home hours later, Thompson said she wanted to burn her son’s body and give his ashes to his friends to share. 

“When you die is to bury and is for the living to carry. I was going and burn him and share his ashes for all his friends and call it George,” Thompson said, adding her son’s spirit is now with the Lord but it was only his body that remained.

“When yuh son kill people you didn’t cry, don’t cry now,” one resident was overheard saying after Thompson was seen crying at the scene of the murder. 

According to police reports, Thompson was last seen alive on Friday evening. Residents reportedly heard gunshots in the area around 10 pm but thought nothing of it. 

Relatives made a missing person report to the St James Police Station on Sunday and it was not until yesterday around 8 am that a man heading to work discovered the body and notified the police. Relatives said they were notified around 10 am that Thompson was killed.

Police said Thompson was believed to have been responsible for several murders in the Cocorite area but never arrested him due to a lack of evidence. 

Homicide officers are calling on anyone who “might have been afraid to come forward before” to do so now in the hope they can solve the murders in which Thompson was the suspect. 

Police said Thompson was wounded in a police shootout several years ago and had been due to appear in court yesterday in a case of possession of a firearm and shooting at police. 

Speaking with the media at the crime scene, a female relative of Thompson said the father of three had been receiving disability grants after he was shot. 

She added that from the beginning of the year Thompson had been receiving death threats. 

She added Thompson walked with a limp and suggestions that he was responsible for several murders did not seem likely.

However, residents, who did not want to be identified, all expressed relief that Thompson, who they nicknamed “John Wick”, was dead. One woman said she now felt safe enough to send her child to Thompson’s mother’s pre-school, Sweet Jesus Pre-School, as he was now dead.

The murder toll is now 58 for the year compared to 37 for the same period last year. 

Claiming that abuses prevail within the Government Assistance for Tertiary Education (GATE) programme, acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert says a comprehensive review of the initiative is to be carried out by the Ministry of Education.

He said that during his address to the National Consultation on Education yesterday at the Teaching and Learning Complex, University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

He said the ministry had been mandated “to undertake a comprehensive review of GATE to determine whether we are getting value for money and whether GATE funding is focussed on satisfying our national development needs or whether the whims and fancies of some students.”

Government spends approximately $650 million to $700 million annually to fund education expenses through the GATE programme.

It will be done by a broad-based committee comprising representatives from the Chambers of Industry and Commerce, T&T Manufacturers Association, the University of the West Indies, University of T&T and others.

Imbert said that committee “will look at the efficiency of GATE and make recommendations to improve our system of free tertiary education.”

He then advised Education Minister Anthony Garcia “to move with dispatch to establish your committee and let the Government know what the people think about what we should do about the GATE programme.”

Imbert said the People’s National Movement Government remained committed to ensure that the programme “remains accessible and available to all who need it.”

However, he said, that must be weighed against the reality of a petroleum-based economy facing “the adverse effects of a collapsing oil prices.”

He appealed to the large audience to make recommendations on “the approach that should be adopted (by the Government) to prevent manipulation of the GATE system.”

According to Imbert, some successful GATE applicants “do not complete their (approved) programme of studies and just move from programme to programme accessing GATE as professional students.”

He said other students “spend more time on extra-curricular pursuits rather than studying and then insist that they be provided by GATE funding indefinitely.”

He said that was a tremendous cost to taxpayers, adding that the Government must determine “whether we are inadvertently subsidising the training of our people to work overseas.”

He raised the issue of GATE beneficiaries proceeding to work in the United States and Canada as soon as they graduated rather than in T&T.

“These are questions that must be addressed and answered,” he insisted. The minister said the idea of means testing for qualification for GATE should be discussed at the consultation.

Imbert also said reviews were to be carried out on the Concordat and the issue of Government-funded scholarships.

He said another committee had already been established to look at matters relating to national scholarships. According to Imbert that committee is looking at the manpower and development needs of the nation to determine fields of focuss for further scholarships to be granted.

He said it would also make recommendations on how to end the problems beneficiaries have in accessing funds to pay their respective institutions. 

Imbert said the consultation must also examine the granting of scholarships on the basis of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

Imbert, who is also the Finance Minister, said the Concordat—an agreement between the Government and the churches for the management of the schools—must be reviewed to determine how school infrastructure would be funded.

Imbert and the Education Minister was among the Cabinet ministers who attended the event which was hosted by the Ministry of Education. 

Garcia said the Education Act should be reviewed and amended to make it more effective. He also said that religious leaders and the parents must play a more meaningful role in the education system.

National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) president Zena Ramatali said she wanted to know where in the Education Act there was a provision for a test to be administered before a child can be accepted in a primary school. 

President of T&T Unified Teachers Association Devanand Sinanan said there was need for an education policy in the country and the politics should be left out of it.

As hundreds of retrenched steel workers marched to ArcelorMittal’s Point Lisas plant demanding answers, Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (Fitun) president Joseph Remy is calling for the entire shutdown of the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.

Although he acknowledged T&T’s economic problems, Remy said shutting down the estate would send a message to foreign multinational companies that citizens would not be bullied. Workers of ArcelorMittal, Central Trinidad Steel Ltd (Centrin) and Tube City IMS circled the Point Lisas Roundabout in a placard protest, yesterday, calling for ArcelorMittal’s managing director Robert Bellisle to leave.

Even as police tried to prevent workers from marching and converging at the plant at Mediterranean Drive, Point Lisas, Remy said, “Sometimes you have to break the law to bring change in this world. If we have to break it, let us break it.” 

It was a united showing against ArcelorMittal as National Trade Union Centre (Natuc) member Ainsley Matthews and a few members from the Contractors General Workers Union joined with Joint Trade Union Movement members: Steel Workers’ Union (SWUTT), Communication Workers’ Union and Amalgamated Workers’ Union, yesterday.

Remy said ArcelorMittal’s disregard for workers was shared by other foreign companies, which he described as brutal and ruthless in taking citizens back to slavery days.

“I am calling on the union here to challenge the other unions at the industrial estate. I will hope one day that we can shut down the entire estate to send a message to those other foreign multinationals. They can’t come here and do what they want. This is an industrial estate that was built by Trinbagonians. 

“Blood, sweat and tears were shed to build this estate for us to benefit and now we are suffering because of those who came in here, raped and plundered the economy, walking away with the gold and leaving us here with nothing. We can’t afford to allow that to happen.”

The plant ArcelorMittal now operates was previously State-owned and operated under the name Iron and Steel Company of T&T (Iscott).

Crime Watch host, Ian Alleyne, is in police custody after he was arrested outside the home of the owner of a Chaguanas business for allegedly using obscene language.

Alleyne was outside the home of the businessman to follow up on a story about allegations of domestic abuse.

Over the weekend, social media was flooded with images of a woman who was accusing the businessman of assaulting her.

Around 9.30am today when he and the businessman were having a conversation, a group of police officers appeared on the scene.

T&T Guardian understands Alleyne and a well-known senior police officer got into a scuffle outside the home in Orchard Gardens, which led to the TV host's arrest.

They were alleging that he was using obscene language.

Alleyne is currently receiving treatment at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre after complaining about not feeling well. 

When asked by the media if he was using obscene language, he categorically said no.

Alleyne is being represented by attorney Gerard Ramdeen.

It is unclear if the business owner who was accused of abuse is also being charged. 

Keep posted to T&T Guardian for more information.

Via CNC3

A member of the Economic Development Advisory Board is predicting a significant increase in T&T’s unemployment rate from four per cent to 15 per cent this year. Professor Karl Theodore explained that the country’s employment is aligned to the energy sector and he drew a comparison to the last major recession in 1982 when unemployment went from 11 per cent to 22 per cent.

Theodore, who spoke at the first meeting of the T&T Bipartite Forum at the Kapok Hotel in Port-of-Spain yesterday, said: “The country has to make up its mind that it will not link its employment levels...its current standard of living is not to be linked with those energy (sector) earners.

“If earnings are clipped with the energy earnings then what you are saying is when the earnings go down, we are prepared to go down with it.”

He also suggested that T&T follow its Caricom counterparts and implement an unemployment insurance scheme, but warned that if not implemented properly it could threaten the entire system. He said, however, that there is no harm in “starting the conversation.”

“If you know for sure that there will be people without a job...we have to be our brother’s keeper...We have to be smart as to how to set up an unemployment scheme in this country that does not put the National Insurance Board in trouble,” he said.

Chaguanas car dealer Sheron Sukhdeo was detained yesterday by police officers in connection with a report of domestic violence.

Up to late last night he was at the Chaguanas Police Station being questioned but no charges were laid.

Yesterday morning, a team of police officers from the Chaguanas Police Station, led by Inspector McIntyre, went to the businessman’s home near the Chaguanas Government Primary School.

He was later handcuffed and taken to his businessplace on the Caroni Savannah Road and then to the Chaguanas Police Station where he was questioned overnight.

Investigating officers have obtained an official statement from the alleged domestic violence victim, a 28-year-old mother of two.

The statement was taken from her on Sunday following an interview she had with Head of the Central Division, Snr Supt Jayson Forde. Investigating officers were also able to obtain medical records from the respective health institutions, including the Chaguanas Health Centre, to add to their file.

The woman and her two children — ages seven and five — are said to have been under heavy police guard since Sunday.

Early on Saturday morning, the woman took to Facebook to post recent photographs of herself showing blue black marks, cuts, bruises and a bloodshot eye that she said she sustained last week during an alleged confrontation with a close male relative. 

Speaking out publicly for the first time, the woman alleged she has been a victim of domestic violence for the last 12 years.

Thousands of comments were made in support of the woman and her children and on Sunday the police intervened, saying she would also receive counselling from the Victim and Witness Support Unit and the children would be referred to the Child Protection Unit and the Children’s Authority. 

CNC3's Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne last night vowed to clear his name and fight charges laid against him yesterday by Inspector Roger Alexander.

He made the comment after securing bail at the Chaguanas Police Station, having earlier undergone an MRI scan at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), Mount Hope, after he sustained a concussion when he was slammed into a vehicle by Alexander earlier in the day as he was being arrested.

Alleyne vowed to fight the spurious charges against him from Alexander, including using obscene language and resisting arrest, insisting that yesterday’s ordeal was due in part to a ratings war going on between the competing crime programmes.

The argument had been earlier supported by Alleyne’s lawyer, Gerald Ramdeen, who called on acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and head of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West to conduct a thorough investigation into yesterday’s events.

He said: “It is very unfortunate what Alleyne was put through because, clearly, one person is using police powers to abuse another citizen for private gain and many consequences can flow from this and flow from the actions of the police.

“My client is being victimised and treated in a particular way by an officer who has a competing show on a competing channel and if this is what we have come to in 2016, it is very unfortunate. I hope the authorities, moreso the PCA, pick up this matter and deal with what has transpired here and let the chips fall as it may.”

He added: “The footage will verify what my client indicated to me as to what took place this morning (yesterday).”

Alleyne previously had Alexander as a co-host on his Crime Watch programme and often accompanied members of the North Eastern Division Task Force on police exercises. 

However, the two split and Alexander now hosts his own programme. Both have been exchanging verbal jabs at each other in recent months as they tried to win greater viewer share.

Yesterday’s incident occurred when Alleyne and Alexander ended up at the home of a Chaguanas businessman accused of domestic abuse, as police were about to make an arrest and search the property. 

The exercise was being conducted by officers of the Chaguanas Police Station. The entire incident was captured on video by Alleyne’s cameraman.

At about 9.30 am, Alleyne was following up a domestic violence abuse story for his show and went to the home of the woman's husband. He was invited inside by one of the businessman’s close relatives. 

As Alleyne was entering the compound, Alexander was leaning over the verandah's bannister and looking at Alleyne. Alexander was seen smiling at Alleyne and saying something to him and Alleyne was heard saying: “Cameraman.. 

It was at this point that Alexander turned around, walked up to Alleyne and grabbed his arm and pushed him. As other officers tried to figure out what was going on, Alexander claimed Alleyne had used obscene language towards him.

Alexander then began pushing Alleyne off the compound and as the Crime Watch host asked why he was doing this, body slammed him into the businessman’s Toyota Prado which was parked at the side of the road. The impact caused a visible dent on the vehicle’s right side front door. 

After he was body slammed into the vehicle, Alleyne began shouting: “Alexander, you going to put handcuffs on me? It’s a rankings thing or what? It’s a rankings thing, Alexander?”

Alleyne was then handcuffed, placed in a police vehicle and subsequently taken to the Chaguanas station.

At the station, during a brief interview, Alleyne said he was shaken up and trying to be good. He also denied using obscene language or assaulting Alexander.

After he was taken to the Chaguanas Health Centre for treatment, Alleyne said he was in extreme pain as his arm had been twisted and squeezed. He also complained of body pains and a severe headache.

On his talk show yesterday, Alexander insisted Alleyne had obstructed the police in the course of their duties and resisted arrest. He also said by attempting to enter the compound Alleyne could have potentially contaminated the crime scene and that was the reason he initially asked him to leave. 

Ramdeen later said given the circumstances surrounding the way in which Alleyne was arrested, there seemed to be a flagrant abuse of police power “in the worst possible way.” He said in a brief conversation with Alleyne after his arrest, his client denied all the accusations made against him.

“My client was carrying out his civilian duties and what transpired thereafter, Alexander assaults him, body slammed him, wring his arm and in the process of doing that moved to arrest Ian, no bail. There is a most flagrant abuse of police power here,” Ramdeen said.

He also said Alleyne was treated like a common criminal as he was placed in a station holding cell along with other people to be charged on more serious criminal offences.

Ramdeen said while he was interviewing Alleyne, Alexander kept on walking up and down the corridor, adding that for the first time in 15 years he had seen a police officer take a cellphone and video record someone during an interview with their lawyer.

“I indicated that this could be done inside but not from outside of the room. I have never seen a police officer video record someone while they are being interviewed with their lawyers,” Ramdeen said.

Minutes after being taken to the station, Alleyne complained of feeling unwell. An EHS ambulance was called but none arrived and Alleyne's personal doctor, Dr Rai Ragbir, was urgently called to the police station. But when Ragbir arrived he was not allowed to give medical attention to Alleyne.

Speaking with the T&T Guardian, Ragbir expressed concern over Alleyne’s condition, saying he suffered from hypertension and high blood pressure.

“I could have been supervised to attend to Alleyne because life and death can be anytime. The stress alone can kill you. 

“Everyone should be treated at one level. He needs medical treatment and waiting on paperwork before he could get that is not acceptable. What is the difference between him and someone having a heart attack or stroke or severe asthmatic attack?” Ragbir said.