Members of the Malick Secondary Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) yesterday called on the Ministry of Education to address health and safety concerns plaguing the school for the past six months.

Some the problems highlighted yesterday, as both parents and teachers staged a protest, was a rat infestation which forced the closure of the school’s cafeteria, mould, unsecured electrical outlets and falling ceiling tiles.

Teachers Megan Ali said while some teachers have opted to work in the unsafe conditions, the majority of them continued to stay off the job since last week. She pointed out some electrical wiring which was exposed to a puddle of water in the school.

Parents upset by the delay in fixing the issues at the school yesterday marched and chanted outside the school’s Coconut Drive, Morvant compound demanding work be done on the school to bring it up to proper health and safety standards.

PTA vice president Karen Walters said they had a brief meeting with school officials yesterday and were given empty assurances the problems will be addressed. She said a Ministry of Education official, whom she identified only as Ms Griffith, could not give a time frame for when the problems would be addressed.

“Today no teachers in classrooms as they have taken a stance that their safety is at risk, and rightly so, and the environment is not conducive to learning. You cannot come to school when you think things will fall and hit you, as the ceiling is also falling down,” she said.

Walters said parents are now forced to keep their children home, which is not sustainable, noting by law parent cannot leave children under the age of 18 unsupervised and they cannot stay home from work to supervise them.

“When you leave idle hands it becomes the playground for the Devil and his imps. So we are not only looking at this situation here but for the safety of our children, our communities,” Walters said.

Two illegal guns were seized by police between Monday night and yesterday.

In the first exercise, two men were arrested after police searched a Nissan Tiida in Tunapuna and found the loaded gun along with a ski mask. The men, 19 and 18, both of Centenary Extension, Pasea were held with a Taurus revolver and five rounds of .38mm ammunition.

The revolver and ammunition were seized by officers of the Northern Division Task Force, during an anti-crime exercise in the Tunapuna area between 10 pm to 4 am.

In the second instance, police found a pistol and a quantity of ammunition concealed in baby clothing on Monday at Mt Hope Road, Champs Fleurs. The weapon was found in an abandoned lot wrapped in blue and pink baby clothes. No one was arrested in relation to that find.

Police say the information they received into the murder of Point Fortin labourer Tai Brankar was not adding up and there may be an attempt to mislead their investigation.

Around 4.30 pm Monday, Southern Division police responded to a report of a shooting in Forres Park and found Brankar, 30, of Techier Village suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the front passenger’s seat of a white Nissan Tiida.

Investigators were told that Brankar was being driven by a woman. Along the way she picked up another man and while driving through Forres Park, gunmen pulled up in another Tiida and opened fire on the car.

Brankar was shot in the chest and head while the others escaped. He was taken to the Couva District Health Facility where he was pronounced dead.

Police found the car abandoned along Hilltop Avenue. Officers searched late into the night and yesterday but no one was held. Police are questioning how the car Brankar travelled in reached to Mills Avenue and whether he was set up for death.

A military procession will be held in honour of slain prison officer Richard Sandy today from his Pleasantville home to a church in the same district.

His eldest child, Sinead, 24, said her father's body will be brought to the house at Ibis Drive, around 9 am followed by a service at the St Barnabas Anglican Church at 10 am.

She said parking will be available at the Village Plaza and Cheshire Home and a shuttle service will be provided. Sandy will be laid to rest at Brothers Road Cemetery. Sandy, who would have celebrated his 47th birthday on Monday, was shot by an ex-convict who was recently released from prison on Saturday night at a bar at Caratal Road, Gasparillo.

He underwent emergency surgery during which doctors had to remove his right leg. However, around 4.20 am the following day Sandy, who suffered a massive amount of blood loss, passed away. His wife of 14 years Jennifer Sandy said her husband loved his job and even cared for the prisoners. He leaves to mourn his five children, ages 24 to two. Expressing outrage over Sandy's killing, Prison Officers Association president Ceron Richards held the government responsible for his murders.

He said for too long prison officers have been murdered, injured and threatened without little or no response from the Government. Richards called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, as head of the National Security Council, to respond to this critical situation immediately by drafting and implementing laws to protect prison officers.

As a result of the funeral, no visits from family and friends of inmates will be allowed at any of the nation's prisons to allow officers to attend the service.

A release issued by the Office of the Commissioner of Prisons confirmed the cancellations of visits and added that normal visitations will resume tomorrow.

Prisons officers need to be more professional and ethical, says PNM's Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General.

Hinds gave the advice yesterday in Parliament during 2018 Budget debate.

He said someone had walked up to prisons officer Richard Sandy and shot him in in the leg, severing an artery, at a bar in Gasparillo last Saturday.

Hinds said while police had identified alleged perpetrators and he hoped they would progress to bring the matter to justice. He said prisons officers had dangerous jobs and an ex-inmate had gone out with a vengeance to kill.

Noting attempts by the Prisons Officers' Association to blame Government for the incident, Hinds urged prison officers to be professional and avoid situations.

"If prison officers are going to engage in taking drugs into prisons, if prisoners (sic) are going to take cell phones into the prisons to arrange deals to be struck, if prison officers are going to get involved in relationships with prisoners' families on the outside, if prisoners (sic) are going to be borrowing money from prisoners' families — these things have happened in the world and T&T isn't distant and separate from it."

"So prison officers have to be more professional and ethical. You have criminals operating but we have to behave in a manner that doesn't encourage or fuel that in any way."

"We must resist it and ensure our own conduct as officers — police, soldiers, immigration, Customs — as we have issues in all these organisations with people who aren't true to their oath and endanger the rest. We must deal with that frontally and very frankly. A lot that happens cannot happen without the complicity and support of elements of the State. "

He also expressed condolences to Sandy's family of prisons officer.

National Security Minister Edmund Dillon and UNC MP Rodney Charles also expressed condolences.

Dillon said the country was witnessing National Security members being killed in relation to their job.

He said crime problems like T&T's exist in other countries and it wasn't because of Laventille alone. He said issues concerning Laventille resulted from "inner-city living". But he admitted that culture was dominant in the East-West corridor.

"And I'm seeing it playing out in schools also," Hinds said.

Rosemarie Sant

The leader of the T&T trauma specialist team in Dominica Wendell de Leon says his team has encountered a deep sense of “hopelessness,” “trauma,” “despair” and “loss” in the past two weeks interacting with the people of Dominica devastated by Hurricane Maria.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday, De Leon said many people who lost loved ones are finding it difficult to come to terms with the loss.

“A lot of people lost children, brothers, sisters loved ones but there are 30 plus people still missing across the island,” he said. A number of children were among those killed when Hurricane Maria struck on September 18.

Dominicans, he said, are dealing with a gamut of emotions from loss of loved ones, to property loss, to loss of heirlooms, pictures albums and with many of them in shelters they feel hopeless and a sense of despair.

Some he said had chosen a coping mechanism of turning to “alcohol and drugs,” and some are even participating in “looting because at night they have nothing to do.”

He lamented that “relationships have taken a hit,” families are torn apart because they are now in shelters and they have no money or jobs.

And while countries including T&T have opened their doors to Dominicans, he said, migration has its own problems. “When people migrate, invariably it is the wife who leaves with children, the husband stays here, but what happens with him? He is now experiencing another trauma, the loss of house, property and now family. Those are real issues we not only need to treat with.”

Many people, he said, had lost homes and property which they took years to build, they also lost personal heirlooms, pictures and albums “things they will never recover, so it is mentally difficult to deal with.”

De Leon said he had “mentioned” to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt about the rush to return to normalcy. “I know we want to go back to a sense of normalcy and have the schools reopened,” but he said “we must be mindful that the schools are the shelters where people were placed, and the minute you remove them you need somewhere to put them. Because if you displace them a second time, you will affect their mental psyche severely.”

The return to normalcy, he said, must be handled with “a sense of delicacy and sensitivity.”

He also urged Dominicans assisting in the distribution of relief supplies to “preserve the dignity of those they are giving relief to, don’t shout “come and get your relief,” he said, urging them to "treat them as humans and with dignity.”

De Leon said even the burial ritual has changed because of the hurricane. Many parts of the island remain without electricity and as a result, he said “there is no morgue to keep bodies to wait on a pastor or priest because decomposition is setting in earlier. This is traumatic for those who lost loved ones.”

De Leon made passing reference to the challenges his team had in getting to Dominica, having received no funding from the T&T Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But since their arrival on the island working alongside Dominican trauma team led by Dr Griffin Bejamin, consultant psychiatrist on the island, he said, they had done eighteen Critical Incidence Debriefing (CID), they interacted with 165 individuals in communities, “touched over 15 families, and dealt with 11 children’s groups.”

Eric Lewis is a descendent of this country's First Peoples. It is an ancestry that he is proud of.

Lewis is also the person who sculpted the monument in Moruga of the man blamed for the genocide of this country's First Peoples, Christopher Columbus.

However, Lewis said he does not feel conflicted by this.

"I don't feel conflicted and neither does the Chief of Moruga (Paul Navarro) and neither does the members of our first peoples," Lewis said.

"I have Spanish decent in me, I have indigenous Amerindian descent, I have East Indian and African. I am one person and if it is that one person can exist in oneself with happiness, joy and peace why shouldn't the world exist in happiness, joy and peace among different faiths, among different beliefs and among different customs."

"So taking that into consideration I myself personally have no enmity against Columbus, the Spanish, or against this and against that. I am a cosmopolitan individual and I think that is 2017, people need to understand we can live and coexist harmoniously without the fight," he said.

On Monday, the Christopher Columbus statue in Port-of-Spain was smeared with red paint to symbolise the blood of the first peoples at the hands of the 15th-century explorer, as the activist group, the Cross Rhodes Freedom Project (CRFP) aims to have the statue removed.

While this was being done in Port-of-Spain the Columbus statue in Moruga remained unscathed as the First Peoples conducted a Water Ritual nearby for their upcoming one-off holiday on Friday.

The T&T Guardian yesterday called Lewis, the prince of Moruga, to get his thoughts on the situation regarding the defacing of the Columbus statue in Port-of-Spain.

Columbus statues have also been defaced around the world in recent times.

"I think generally I understand what is happening in the world today, I understand there is a lot of build up of resentment against the colonial past but if we were really to look at some of the negative things of the colonial past then Trinidad should not even be called Trinidad. Port-of-Spain should not be called Port-of-Spain at all," Lewis said.

In August 1498 Columbus claimed this island for Spain renaming it La Trinidad in honour of the Holy Trinity.

This island had previously been called Cairi "Land of the Hummingbirds" by the Amerindians.

"I think it is just a statue made up of concrete and stone and to me (defacing it) is not actually doing anything to Columbus, however, the individuals (who oppose it) are getting their message out," Lewis said.

If the Columbus statue is removed from Port-of-Spain, Lewis said the Moruga museum would be willing to take it.

Lewis said Moruga was recently approached by the director of the CRFP Shabaka Kambon to have their Columbus statue taken down and a meeting was held with interest groups in the area.

"The People of Moruga thought it an insult that someone from Port-of-Spain should come to them and ask for the removal of their statue," Lewis said.

Lewis said no matter how you feel about Columbus there is no denying that he is a part of this country's history.

"The statue of Columbus represents a historical fact of Columbus' influence whether it was good, bad or ugly the statue is there to show the historical significance," he said.

"It is not that we are celebrating Columbus, we are celebrating Moruga and Moruga's history," Lewis said.

"I am not saying forget your past, you take your past, you learn from it and the fact that the Columbus monument stands in Moruga is something we can learn from, it is history," he said.

Today at 10 am, representatives of the CRFP accompanied by various representatives of the Indigenous People of Trinidad and Tobago are scheduled to go the Port-of-Spain Mayor's office to hand over a letter to Mayor Joel Martinez calling for the removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus in the capital.

"The CRFP believes that it is wrong to ask Caribbean citizens, particularly Indigenous People, to accept national property occupied by reverential statues to the man who stole and renamed their lands, who trafficked, raped and enslaved their ancestors, destroyed their way of life and denied their humanity," a release from Kambon stated yesterday.

Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe is challenging local hoteliers to adopt innovative strategies in order to maintain their relevance in an evolving tourism industry.

"Hoteliers have to now be innovative and strategic in their efforts to become more attractive, competitive, and remain relevant in this dynamic industry." Cudjoe said, addressing the gathering at the launch event for the Brix Hotel in Cascade, Port-Of-Spain yesterday

Formerly known as the Carlton Savannah, the Brix Hotel, which forms part of the Marriott Autograph Collection, is scheduled to open in January 2019.

"The traditional accommodation sector now has to compete with HomeAway, AirBnb, and all the other players in the shared economy." she said, referring to the shifting competitive landscape of the hotel industry.

While referring to the uncertainty in the international economic climate, Cudjoe expressed satisfaction that investors were interested in the local tourism sector.

She said, "Government is focused on attracting in the first instance, major brands that will bring their own advertising, marketing networks and destination profile enhancement."

"It is for this very reason that we welcome the investment of Sandals International Resorts in the island of Tobago and now that of the Marriot Autograph Collection in Trinidad."

John Aboud, chairman of Superior Hotels Limited, which is the local ownership company for Brix Hotel also spoke at the event.

Aboud pointed out that the hotel represented a bold bet on the future of tourism in T&T.

"Our investor group, having recognized the opportunities and call from government for investment in the tourism sector, is boldly going where no local group has gone before"

He added that the transformation of the Carlton Savannah to Brix Hotel would cost roughly $300 million.

He said that the investment groups' other two projects, which included an amusement and waterpark in Chaguaramas, and another hotel to be located at Southpark in San Fernando, taken together would represent "an injection of $1 billion into the economy" while being "100 per cent locally owned"

Government's new National Crime Prevention Plan (NCCP) will involve communities conveying information on crime to local government councils and the Tobago House of Assembly with further assistance from an inter-ministerial team, says National Security Minister Edmund Dillon.

"We gonna see a difference, we're gonna pull it back," Dillon declared of "game changers" for 2018 to deal with crime.

"There are weapons of war out there and we have to deal with criminality. We all have a role to play," he said.

Citing the NCCP as a "game changer" he said this will empower communities to link with the 14 corporations and THA in treating with crime issues. The inter-ministerial team will handle issues which corporation crime councils won't be able to address.

Out of 4,000 applications for municipal police, he said 130 were short-listed.

The ministerial team comprises National Security, the Office of the Prime Minister, Health, Education, Sports, Public Utilities and Works. This will provide solutions for communities that could halt potential crime.

A 24-month operational plan by his Ministry is being finalised for Cabinet. Other strategic plans (2018- 2023) are also being done by the police, Defence Force, Security Services Agency, Prisons and other agencies.

Dillon said the new police Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit focusing on certain targets will also "make a difference." As will the new US traveller identification system and automated fingerprint format linked with Interpol.

Priority 2018 legislation includes regulating private security firms, child rehabilitation centres, new prison rules and the implementation of the electronic monitoring of offenders via ankle bracelets.

Anti-terrorism training was done by security forces. Police have started using drone technology and a Canadian team has been training prison officers how to deal with prison riots. The Golden Grove video court conferencing facility is 75 per cent completed, he said.

Trinidadian nationals are among women and children from 12 territories who surrendered with Islamic State (Isis) fighters to Iraqi authorities in late August, a recent Human Rights Watch report has stated.

UNC MP Rodney Charles caused an uproar from Government in yesterday's Budget debate in Parliament when he alluded to the discovery of the TT nationals being held abroad and his refusal to disclose the source of his information.

After debate yesterday, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi who was asked about T&T families who went overseas to join Isis in recent years, confirmed, "We have a number of matters that are on track with several of our foreign partners. We'll report on these as and when we're in a position to."

Charles raised the issue of T&T terrorist fighters overseas during the debate and added T&T citizens — women and children — were recently captured in Iraq.

He didn't immediately give the source of that information saying he didn't have it. Government MPs protested. Charles subsequently produced the source and Deputy Speaker Esmond Forde allowed him to state it.

But Charles was hit by Government roars when he attempted to give the information. Opposition MPs shouted back.

Charles started reading the report with some PNM MPs saying "That's not so." Prime Minister Keith Rowley protested Charles "introducing new information."

UNC MPs again objected, continuing as Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi attempted to halt Charles. Both sides continued quarrelling during the lunch break.

Minister in the Attorney General's office, Fitzgerald Hinds who spoke after Charles, said Charles had tarnished T&T's reputation.

Hinds said 180 people were recorded going to fight overseas — men, women and children — "all between 2013 to 2014."

Al-Rawi told T&T Guardian that Government was tracking the families. He said Charles was reckless to quote information without the source.

"Also, there's a penchant from the international community to push out information that's unverified, to tarnish our information. This form of reckless communication from the UNC constantly lands in international papers, tarnishing our reputation," he said.

Al-Rawi said until National Security and international partners deal with the matter "in an evidential way, there'll be no ole talk on this. The reason T&T survived international scrutiny is because it was taken in a strict way."

National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said Charles' information "was unverified". He said he hadn't seen the report.

Details of report

The Human Rights Watch report, which was compiled last month, by Bill Van Esveld states Iraqi authorities are holding 1,400 foreign women and their children who surrendered with Isis fighters in late August, fleeing a military offensive that re-took a town from Isis. They were placed at a detention site, north of Mosul.

The human rights group which visited the camp on September 10 - 11, stated, "The women and international humanitarian staff there said they include Afghan, Azerbaijani, Chinese, Chechen, Iranian, Russian, Syrian, Tajik, Trinidadian and Turkish nationals. Reuters reported they also include Algerian, French and German nationals."

Reuters was told the Iraqi army was holding the women and children "under tight security measures" while awaiting orders how to deal with them — including women described as being "deluded by vicious Isis propaganda."

The report stated on September 16, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said most of the women and children weren't guilty of a crime and his Government was in "full communication" with their home countries to "find a way to hand them over."

Human Rights Watch is a non-profit, non-governmental human rights organisation which publishes reports on human rights conditions in 90 countries.

The home entertainment service formerly known as Digicel Play, has been rebranded to Digicel.

Director of Marketing for Digicel Caribbean Limited, Peter Lloyd said, “This is all about simplifying our business to deliver the best and most amazing experiences and innovation to our customers as one single unified brand.”

He explained, "Digicel has built up a seventeen-year legacy of success, so we’re excited to be streamlining all our products and services under one powerful brand as a total communications and entertainment provider.”

Digicel said the rebranding exercise consisted of a seamless name change with no impact to customers.

There were no changes to the rates, contracts, package structure or service.

They said while the names of packages would be changed to ensure simplicity and transparency, the purple colour that was once synonymous with Digicel Play will be changed over time to Digicel’s iconic red.

Charmaine Lewis will be filing a legal challenge against the Port Authority of T&T for she says is her “wrongful dismissal” as acting CEO/GM, admitting she was “shocked” at the move.

The dismissal letter was emailed to Lewis hours after she left office after returning from vacation Monday and she saw it sometime “between 10.30 and 11 pm.” It was signed by PATT board chairman Allison Lewis.

Charmaine Lewis admitted to being “shocked” when she read the email, which indicated the board had lost “all trust and confidence” in her ability to perform the duties of acting general manager/CEO and as a consequence decided to terminate her employment immediately.

In the letter, Lewis was told to surrender all Port property in her possession, including “but not limited to office keys, credit card(s), cellphone, access cards and documents.”

In the letter, she was accused of refusing to proceed on vacation leave as directed by the board and of deleting emails sent and received during the period January to July 2017, which were critical to an ongoing forensic investigation into the Port’s operations being conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

But Lewis challenged this yesterday.

“I saw some of the emails yesterday (Monday), it is on my desktop. The emails are archived right there. The emails go back to 2009, all are thee properly labelled, so I find it passing strange they will say I deleted emails, everything is there,” she told the T&T Guardian in reference to the findings of the PWC forensic report.

The letter also cited various issues/incidents the board has had with her over the last six months and issues discussed with her when she returned to work on Monday.

Lewis said she was concerned that “due process” was not followed, noting “usually there is progressive disciplinary action, verbal, written and so on,” which did not happen.

Lewis said she felt as if she was “in a witness box on Monday” when she was called to a meeting with the chairman and a board commissioner, an attorney who was linked to the seizure of her computer last week.

“There were points in the questioning, she said, “when I had to tell him (name called) he is behaving as though he is prosecuting a case in a witness box. I had to tell him I don’t like the way he is speaking to me.

“The chairman sat and allowed him to interrogate me in a fashion equivalent to how a lawyer will behave to a person in a court of law. She never intervened.”

But she is not taking her dismissal lightly. She said she had served more than 30 years in various capacities and this was “the first time I am being accused of sub-standard performance. I will be pursuing my legal options.”

At Monday’s meeting, she said she was questioned about her statements to the media after her office was ‘broken into’ while she was on vacation and her computer seized.

She said they had an issue with her speaking to the media about the incident, since those comments had brought the Port into disrepute.

During the meeting, Lewis said she was told by the chairman and the commissioner “they had lost confidence in me.” She said she was told in the six months since the board was in office “they found my performance to be sub-standard. I said to the chairman that is strange because nobody had spoken to me about that.” She said she asked for one example of “substandard performance and the commissioner said nothing came to mind.”

Lewis said she was asked to respond to the concerns raised and went to her office to do so. However, soon after, as she was in her office with her daughter and two managers, the Port commissioner arrive with Port secretary Marcia Charles-Elbourne. Lewis asked her daughters and the managers to leave.

She said she was told she should go on immediate leave. She challenged this but was told “it is a board directive, you are to pack up your belongings and leave the premises right away.”

“They asked me to take all my accumulated leave, above 114 days, citing an HR policy,” she said.

Lewis said with the help of her daughters and the managers, she packed up her belongings and loaded them into her car and left.

Contacted yesterday, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said the dismissal was an “operational issue” and referred all questions to the Port Authority board.

Port chairman Alison Lewis declined comment at this time.

But in a release last night, the PATT confirmed Lewis’ termination. However, it said her appearance before the JSC had nothing to do with the termination.

It added that Trudy Gill-Conlon will now assume her duties and the board will now advertise for the position of GM/CEO.

Members of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) investigating procurement issues on the sea bridge told the T&T Guardian yesterday they were “very concerned” about the dismissal of acting Port CEO/GM Charmaine Lewis.

Committee members, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the dismissal was “extremely harsh and oppressive.”

There was also a concern that the action was “politically driven and motivated by the Government, by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Works and Transport.”

One committee member said: “There are going to be serious consequences arising out of the decision by the Government.”

Efforts to contact JSC chairman Stephen Creese were unsuccessful yesterday. There is also no word on whether the committee will reconvene any time soon in light of what has transpired.

But former Works and Transport Minister Devant Maharaj wrote to Creese yesterday urging him to “initiate immediate and urgent action” from the JSC on the termination of Lewis.

Maharaj asked, “Where was the parliamentary protection that was supposed to be afforded to Ms Lewis as a result of giving her honest and truthful evidence before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament?”

He said added: “The abrupt and unlawful firing of Ms Lewis is nothing short of a blatant attack on our Parliamentary system and it demands a response from those in the JSC and Parliament.”

Maharaj warned that if the issue is not addressed “the entire process of the JSC and the Parliament will be undermined as no public official will be prepared to tell the truth in fear of losing their job or even appear before the JSC.”

Also contacted yesterday, former Port commissioner Ferdie Ferreira said, “As far as I am concerned this a disaster for the Port.”

He said having worked on the Port for more than 30 years “Charmaine Lewis was the most knowledgeable, competent and was the most helpful of all the managers to the board during our time there.”

Ferreira said her dismissal “is not a good signal from a Government who has expressed strong views on whistle blowing.

“This is not a good reflection on the Government and has to be a source of concern to public servants who are invited to these sessions and are required to give evidence. They have to be very careful.”

He said the Prime Minister and the Government “should be very concerned about this. It is a very unfortunate incident and I hope justice will prevail.”

However, former Works and Transport minister Stephen Cadiz, who also appeared before the JSC, said Lewis’ dismissal was inevitable.

“ I don’t know that she would have thought anything other than this would be the outcome,” he said.

But Cadiz was concerned about the Port’s operation and the tenders for the sea bridge with Lewis gone and CEO of the Inter Island Transport Service Leon Grant suspended.

He said: “Is it operational or not, the fast ferry tenders closed three weeks ago and we have not heard anything about it.”

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said yesterday the Port’s board was handling the tender and evaluation procedures. He could not say where the process had reached or whether the evaluation committee had started the process.

Three men who robbed a woodwork shop in Cunupia were all shot and killed by responding police officers last evening.

Details were still sketchy up to press time, but the three men, who were taken to the Chaguanas Health Centre after the shootout with the police, were not yet identified.

Preliminary reports said the men ran into the woodworking shop at Soogrim Trace last evening, where they proceeded to rob the establishment.

The men then escaped in a waiting vehicle but an alarm was raised by the shop’s owner to police officers who were on patrol at the time.

The officers pursued the getaway car and were shot at by the bandits along Egypt Trace. The police returned fire and the car eventually came to a stop.

The bleeding suspects were then taken to the health centre where they died.

Investigations are continuing.

A major downsizing exercise hovers over the University of T&T (UTT), with the Business Development and Marketing Unit (BDMU) possibly facing disbandment.

The T&T Guardian understands staff from the unit were called to a meeting Monday at UTT’s Chaguanas campus by new president, Professor Sarim N. Al-Zubaidy to discuss the way forward. Staff was told that their head, BDMU vice president Navneet Boodhai was no longer there and UTT was “pending restructuring.” The unit, the T&T WGuardian understands, was recently identified as not “fitting in anywhere on its organisational structure.”

“We were told that we will be reporting directly to the president in the interim,” a staff member said.

Another employee said after the meeting they were very “unsettled.”

“We were told that changes are coming and that some of us may not like it and some of us may embrace it. We are very concerned about our job security.”

The BDMU was established to promote areas of collaboration between industry and university, analysis of the labour market to guide programme development, supporting local and foreign investors, bridging the gaps between funding and research, promoting entrepreneurial and career development to the UTT students, and the creation of an international relations office to extend the university’s arms globally.

Contacted on the issue, Boodhai confirmed he resigned one week ago. Asked if he knew about plans to disband the unit, Boodhai replied: “No. I’m really not sure what is happening with the unit.”

UTT sources said job cuts are expected to take place within both corporate and academics areas. Corporate staff members are represented by the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU).

“On the ground, there is word that they are trying to downsize staff as best as they can to facilitate the move to the UTT’s main campus at the Wallerfield E-Tech Park. Even the union say they are in the dark,” one staff member, who wished not to be identified for fear of victimisation, said.

Contacted on the move, deputy chairman of UTT’s Board of Governors, Professor Clement Imbert, said there is a lot of speculation about the future, but admitted “hard decisions” will have to be made.

“Reason being, we have a budget, the budget is much less than what we had spent. We had some savings in the last financial year and that savings ran out. We got a similar budget this year and there is no way we can maintain what we have now with that budget,” Imbert said.

With respect to job cuts, Imbert said: “How we deal with staffing is that we will have to talk to the union. We are going to have to decide what to do at UTT to survive.

There are several things that we will definitely have to cut down on. We have contracts that may not be renewed, we have to look at merges…things like that…but no letters have been sent out.”

Minister of Education Anthony Garcia meanwhile said he is frequently in contact with UTT chairman Professor Kenneth Julien and added that if job cuts are imminent he was not told or is yet to be informed.

“That is something I am not aware but I will have to look into that,” Garcia said.

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Education Minister Anthony Garcia may not have considered the parenting of the aggressors involved in the violence at the Siparia West Secondary School before labelling the acts as ‘criminal.”

This was the view yesterday of South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) Director of Health Dr Albert Persad, who said children’s behaviour is predicated on the environment their parents provide.

Persad was addressing SWRHA managers and supervisors at a mental health workshop in commemoration of World Mental Health Day. Under the theme “Mental Health in the Workplace,” Persad said parents have to be careful not to allow workplace stresses to enter their homes, as it can have consequences on their families.

“Look at what happened in a school yesterday. I noticed that the Minister of Education said it was a criminal offence and therefore do what is necessary. I think he is missing the ball, in that there is always something else behind it,” Persad said.

“The behaviour of our children sometimes is really predicated by parents who are living in a stressful situation. That is translated right down the line to the children, and yet the parent says ‘I don’t know what wrong with this child you know’ when in fact it should be, ‘I wonder what is really wrong with the parents?’”

With one in four adults expected to experience mental health issues at some time, Persad said it leads to a reduction of efficiency and productivity in the workplace. Stressing that it was important for employers to address workplace stressors, he said employees should look out for each other and when necessary, suggest that their affected colleagues seek professional help.

He said many times his colleagues would speak about how busy their lives were and how they would get home at 8 pm to continue work.

“Listen, I know we have a lot of work to do, but we also have to be responsible persons. We need to manage our time properly. There is another life, isn’t there?” he said.

Persad added: “My advice to you is as much as possible, keep your work in here.

From the time it gets out there and starts to get into your kitchen and TV room and all of that, and then there is a price to pay in terms of your mental health if nothing else.”

Of the 474, 610 citizens in the SWRHA’s catchment area, regional manager of Psychiatry/Mental Health Pooran Sankar revealed that in 2016, the psychiatric population was 11,658, in which 5,712 were men and 5,946 were women.

To date, Sankar said approximately 12,000 people are registered at the SWRHA’s mental health outpatient clinics, with an annual projected increase of 1,200 patients, including 200 children and adolescents.

Members of the Malick Secondary Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) yesterday called on the Ministry of Education to address health and safety concerns plaguing the school for the past six months.

Some the problems highlighted yesterday, as both parents and teachers staged a protest, was a rat infestation which forced the closure of the school’s cafeteria, mould, unsecured electrical outlets and falling ceiling tiles.

Teachers Megan Ali said while some teachers have opted to work in the unsafe conditions, the majority of them continued to stay off the job since last week. She pointed out some electrical wiring which was exposed to a puddle of water in the school.

Parents upset by the delay in fixing the issues at the school yesterday marched and chanted outside the school’s Coconut Drive, Morvant compound demanding work be done on the school to bring it up to proper health and safety standards.

PTA vice president Karen Walters said they had a brief meeting with school officials yesterday and were given empty assurances the problems will be addressed. She said a Ministry of Education official, whom she identified only as Ms Griffith, could not give a time frame for when the problems would be addressed.

“Today no teachers in classrooms as they have taken a stance that their safety is at risk, and rightly so, and the environment is not conducive to learning. You cannot come to school when you think things will fall and hit you, as the ceiling is also falling down,” she said.

Walters said parents are now forced to keep their children home, which is not sustainable, noting by law parent cannot leave children under the age of 18 unsupervised and they cannot stay home from work to supervise them.

“When you leave idle hands it becomes the playground for the Devil and his imps. So we are not only looking at this situation here but for the safety of our children, our communities,” Walters said.

The Court of Appeal has rejected the appeal of a 34-year-old man convicted of raping his 12-year-old niece on two occasions in 2006.

Delivering an oral judgement at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Appellate Judges Rajendra Narine and Prakash Moosai dismissed all the grounds raised by the man, whose identity has been withheld to protect the victim.

The judges disagreed with attorney Daniel Khan that his client had been given an unfair trial before Justice Devan Rampersad, last year.

Khan had contended that Rampersad failed to give a modified good character direction to the jury, explaining that his client had only one conviction for marijuana possession and none for sexual offences.

"The judge gave a careful and complete summation," Archie said as he noted that the judge's failure would not have affected the jury's eventual verdict on the evidence before them.

Archie also noted that there was no logical connection between a clean criminal record and a person's credibility.

“Experience of life tells us that. There are people who have not yet been convicted but would never get a character reference,” Archie said.

The judges also refused to modify the man's sentence as they agreed with State prosecutor Mauriceia Joseph, who submitted that he "got off easy" with a 20-year sentence from Rampersad.

They referred to the victim's impact statement, which was used in his sentencing.

The victim, now 24, claimed that she has never recovered from the attacks. She said she contemplated suicide several times as she felt that it was the only way to end her recurring psychological trauma.

She claimed that she was also forced to drop out of secondary school as she was unable to interact with her peers, who she felt would judge her over her experience.

As a result, she said that she has had difficulties in finding employment.

According to the evidence presented at the trial, the man attacked his niece, while he lived at her home in Central Trinidad.

Her uncle tied her hands, gagged her and then raped her. He threatened to kill her and her parents if she resisted or reported the incident. The attack was repeated several weeks later.

Her parents eventually found out and reported the matter to the police.

A "murderer, monster, barbarian, genocide sailor" is being glorified on a pedestal in the heart of Port-of-Spain, Shabaka Kambon, chairman of the Cross Rhodes Freedom Project said yesterday as he took the group's campaign for the removal of a Christopher Columbus statue to the Office of the Port-of-Spain Mayor.

Kambon, accompanied by a contingent of First Indigenous People, delivered a letter to the Port-of-Spain City Corporation asking for the statue, which they described as a "monument of oppression and genocide", to be taken down. He also called for a complete review of how history about Columbus is taught in local schools.

"We want to see a complete overthrow of the false narrative, the imperialist narrative, that is being taught to our kids today," he said.

"My son, your child, your daughter, will go to school today and learn the Arawaks were peaceful and the Caribs were eating their way up the Caribbean."

He said it was not strange in any way for changes to be made in every city.

Kambon saluted the City Corporation for renaming Queen Street to Queen Janelle Commissiong Street. He said street in the city had been arbitrarily named by the British.

He said: "This is not a Trinidadian thing, it is a global thing and statues are being removed in Venezuela. All other states in America and the northern hemisphere have awoken to the genocidal sailor and we have to revisit the hero myth that allows a monster like Christopher Columbus to stand on a pedestal in the heart of Port-of-Spain."

A spokesman for the group, Felipe Noguera, compared the Columbus statue to celebrating Hitler, the disgraced German leader.

"Monday was Columbus Day in America. It is if we had a Hitler Day, who was responsible for the deaths of the Jews. It is like a Jew supporting Hitler," he said.

President of Partners for First Peoples' Development, Roger Belix, said he will be celebrating the First Peoples holiday on Saturday rather than Friday because it was on October 14 Hyarima was first recognised and became a hero in St Joseph in 1636.

Deputy Mayor of Port-of-Spain Hillan Morean, who was on hand to receive the letter from the group, advised Kambon to present good proposals on the matter.

Morean said he hoped the group was not responsible for the recent defacement with red paint of the Columbus statue and wished the First People all the best on their holiday.

"Let that day define what it means to you all," he said.

Attorney Nicole Beaubrun-Toby was yesterday appointed as the fifth member of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission by President Anthony Carmona.

Chief Justice Ivor Archie said Beaubrun-Toby's appointment meant that the JLSC was now fully functional and staffed.

He said all her experience would bring "sobriety and focus" to the entity. He said her appointment came at a time when it was greatly needed in the public service. Last month, Justice Charmaine Pemberton was appointed as a member of the JLSC.

Accountant Pete London was also reappointed as a member of the Integrity Commission by Carmona yesterday.

Carmona said he was certain that Beaubrun-Toby and London would bring renewed energy to their respective positions.

Speaking after the ceremony at President's House, St Ann's, Carmona hailed Beaubrun-Toby not only for her outstanding performance in the field of law but said her volunteer work at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital also made her a fine exemplar for society.

Describing her task as one which entailed a "tonne of responsibility" Carmona said it comprised the responsibility of choosing the top luminaries in the legal profession.

But he said he had the fullest confidence in Beaubrun-Toby as her work over the years was one of the highest professional standards.

Carmona also praised Beaubrun-Toby's father, a medical doctor, whom he said was not only an advocate against alcohol but was instrumental in looking after the needs of children of the Princess Elizabeth Home.

"Your father was responsible for bringing in the best surgeons for the children. He also had a strong philosophy about saving lives and this was shown through his strong advocacy work," Carmona added.

Among her achievements Beaubrun-Toby also served as bptt chief counsel.

The President also urged others to follow in similar footsteps saying it would uplift humanity.

The JLSC, the body which appoints judges, magistrates and other senior legal officers, was affected following the resignations of former Justices of Appeal Roger Hamel-Smith and Humphrey Stollmeyer which took place in June this year.

The resignations had come just over a month following calls for the Chief Justice and the entire JLSC to resign as a result of the imbroglio surrounding the facts and circumstances of the appointment of the former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar to the High Court and the subsequent cancellation of that appointment.