Category Archives: Law

As Israel murder Palestinians, where are we?

By Danielle Frederick
May 22, 2018

Israel killsOne would have hoped that a nation such as ours, created from genocide and enslavement, one which has felt the destructive, manipulative forces of colonialism would want to raise its voice clearly against war, oppression, exploitation of human beings and anything that threatens humanity. Alas not. The Trinidad and Tobago government has failed to issue any statement, whether in support or condemnation with regards to the actions of Israel against Palestinians. Being the descendants and continuing victims of white, male, Christian dominance and violence, it is hoped that we would come to our senses and stand for truth and justice, the foundation blocks upon which tyranny cannot stand.
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BOY CHOPS OFF MOM’S HAND

By Nalini Seelal
April 19, 2018 – newsday.co.tt

ViolenceA 15-YEAR-OLD form three Presentation College student, in a fit of rage, yesterday chopped off his mother’s right hand and then chopped her several times on the back of the neck after an argument at their Waterloo home. The teen, who was in his school uniform, with blood splattered over his shirt, was found in a daze at the nearby Waterloo Cremation site. While being escorted to a police van, he began weeping and told police he was sorry.
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Britain: Theresa May ‘Deeply Regrets’ Anti-gay Colonial Laws

By teleSUR
April 17, 2018 – telesurtv.net

Theresa May British Prime Minister Theresa May said, “nobody should face persecution or discrimination because of who they are or who they love.”

Only days after Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court repealed the country’s sodomy laws, arguing that they were unconsitituional, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said she “deeply regrets” Britain’s historical legacy of colonialism which imposed anti-gay laws throughout the Commonwealth.
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Garbage Country

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 05, 2018

“The constitutional conventions…provide the flesh which clothes the dry bones of the law; they make the legal constitution work.” —Sir Ivor Jennings

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSomehow I can’t get the image out of my mind: a garbage truck, driving into East Dry River and dumping its contents in the middle of a city street. Some say the driver was forced at gunpoint to do so, while others said he showed his loyalty to his friends. The police contend that he dumped the garbage out of spite, malice, or mischief. He was charged “for willfully obstructing the free passage of a road and for littering” (Guardian, February 23).
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Questions over shooting of gay man with links to Trinidad judge

UPDATE: MARCH 19, 2018: ‘Johnson planned hit on WASA official’
CJ’s close friend a suspect in 2 murders, says police report sent to UK…
ACTING Police Commissioner Ste­phen Williams has said it is alleged convicted fraudster Dillian Johnson, a close friend of Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who planned a hit on an official of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).

Dillian Johnson fears being killed for sexuality and is seeking asylum in the UK after attack

By Robert Booth
Wed 28 Feb 2018 09.11 EST – theguardian.com

Dillian Johnson and Chief Justice Ivor ArchieLawyers in Trinidad and Tobago are challenging the conduct of the country’s top judge, following questions about his relationship with a man who was shot in an ambush and is now seeking asylum in the UK.

The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago is investigating allegations involving the chief justice, Ivor Archie, after local media queried his conduct in relation to Dillian Johnson, 36, who survived a night-time shooting outside his home in December. Johnson fled Trinidad to the UK three weeks after the shooting and says he fears for his life if he is forced to return.
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No guns in our schools

By Raffique Shah
February 27, 2018

Raffique ShahWhile I empathise with the trainee teacher who was robbed at gunpoint on her school’s compound last Wednesday morning—I suffered a similar fate at my home back in 2002—I do not understand why people are shocked by the brazen, early morning robbery.

If we feel schools should be sacrosanct, that bandits and other criminals should show respect for our institutes of education, perish the thought. Some parents, teachers and students have long jettisoned that notion by their misbehavior, and students’ brawls captured on the ubiquitous phone-video-cameras are among the most popular fare uploaded onto sundry so-called social media Internet sites, providing perverse entertainment for people who seem to spend all their waking hours digesting cyber-garbage.
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“Christmas” killed, residents protest

By Ryan Hamilton-Davis
February 20, 2018 – newsday.co.tt

Akeil “Christmas” is dead, and Port of Spain residents are not happy about it.

Police allegedly shot a man with that alias during the hours of last night, and in response, residents have taken to the streets in fiery protest, burning debris and blocking major roads which lead to the capital.
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Contradictions & Counterfactuals – Pt 2

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 13, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1 — PART 2

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn the nineteenth century Trinidad saw the first massive giveaway of lands and bonuses to the Indians in lieu of their passages to India. Those options were never available to Africans. This was the first step in the systematic dispossession of Africans in the land to which they had been brought. Few of us seem to remember it.

Fast-forward to one hundred and thirty years (around the year 2003) when a PNM government engineered another massive giveaway of lands, which is taking place in front of our eyes under the faulty premise that Indians had the first preference because they farmed the lands. This was/is strange logic since these lands belong to all nationals.
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Mad, mad Trinidad

By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2018

Raffique ShahWhen opposition and government parliamentarians jointly pursue any issue that seems to be of national importance, I become very suspicious. Recently, when they did in the instances of the passing of former President Max Richards and election of Justice Paula Mae Weekes to the presidency, I expressed my fears in this space. Now that they have unanimously appointed a special select committee of six MPs them to probe the fiasco that the appointment of a Commissioner of Police is turning out to be, I smell a rotting rat whose putrid stench permeates both political parties, some commissions and commissioners, and possibly holders of high office who are aiming to go higher and higher.
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$$ FOR FB POSTS

By Jada Loutoo
February 06, 2018 – newsday.co.tt

Justice Frank SeepersadSocial media users beware. You may have to pay if your posts are found to be defamatory. The warning came from Justice Frank Seepersad who yesterday ordered a woman who posted defamatory statements on Facebook, to compensate an entire family. She was sued after a series of post appeared on her page in 2016.
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