Rowley: “Lets repeal other Laws”

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Rowley: “Lets repeal other Laws”

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has rebuked those that are suggesting that the Sedi­tion Act should be re­pealed be­cause it is too antiquated adding there are sev­er­al oth­er laws we may as well do away with similarly.

The Prime Minister chided detractors saying: “The biggest con­ver­sa­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go to­day is how old the Sedi­tion Act is. And it’s time to get rid of it. Well then if that is how we ap­proach it, we might as well go with the whole bas­ket,”

He went on to elaborate, referencing other statutes including the Trespass Act: “Let’s get rid of the Tres­pass Act, that’s ‘kin­da’ old too. Let’s get rid of the act for mur­der and crime. And while we’re at it, let’s get rid of the act which speaks to com­mon as­sault, which dates way back to the days of King John and the Magna Car­ta.”

The PM made the state­ment while speak­ing at the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice’s spe­cial In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion build­ing on Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain.The Prime Minister’s comments were in reference to the case in which Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke was charged with sedi­tion for com­ments he made last No­vem­ber in re­la­tion to jobs at T&TEC, TSTT and WASA.

Many including Professor Rosmarie Belle Antoine, Head of the Law Faculty have indicated that it’s time to look at these antiquated Laws with a view to possibly repealing them.

Mr. Duke ap­peared in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court on Fri­day and was grant­ed $250,000 bail.

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