The consultation which was funded by the Canadian government, sought to strengthen local and regional capacities for addressing issues of sexual violence towards women and children and formed part of ongoing efforts by the CCJ’s Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST), project and the United Nations (UN) Women, to promote a more sustainable approach to how cases of sexual abuse are dealt with in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean region.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day forum, Canadian High Commissioner, Carla Hogan-Rufelds, expressed optimism that the consultation will go on to achieve its goals of improving the quality of justice given to victims of sexual offenses.

“The JURIST project has already partnered with courts in the Caribbean to modernise the strengths, services and competencies in a fair and predictable manner, and the consultation will include members of the judiciaries of Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname. Despite our strides however, sexual violence and the threat of sexual violence remains a serious problem for many women in the region.” Rufelds-Hogan added that one of the initiatives of the forum, was to improve the level of public trust in the justice system and to develop the necessary guidelines to local courts in approaching matters of sex crimes especially as it relates to women and girls.

Director of the JURIST project, Dr Penny Reedie, lauded members of the judiciary for their continued efforts in lobbying for reform and noted that the project has already enjoyed varying levels of success, with respect to matters of policy development with key stakeholders over the next two years as well as the review of court administration efficiencies in the length of trials and the swiftness of justice.

“The success of this programme hinges on the efforts of all our stakeholders, which would involve a review of current court administration procedures and practices, addressing its challenges and how best we can improve the efficiency of the process for the victim.” During her welcome address, Dr Reedie also underlined the importance of sustainable practice within the judiciary to allow for a more uniform approach to matters of sex offenses.

Newsday spoke to Caribbean Court Judge, Adrian Saunders, who said that while he was satisfied with the strides towards development that the CCJ has made with respect to improving the quality of justice in matters of sexual assault, one major challenge to progress would be to improving the swiftness with which victims receive justice and the quality of justice received. “While the issue of sexual assault is one that rarely reaches the level of the CCJ, it’s more of a case for Magistrates’ courts, it is a big challenge to increase the swiftness or the efficacy of the court process. In the forum we intend to discuss the different levels of reform and how this would assist in victims having a better quality of justice.”

Rahamut’s name is synonymous with good cooking so it was no wonder that when the store formally opened on Wednesday, she sold out in a matter of hours. The well-spoken and pleasant diva of food whose smile is almost as big as her love for bringing delight to the taste buds says this venture of hers is close and dear as she loves making a good bread.

Saying she is aware many people just do not have the time – what with today’s hectic life pace – to prepare bread and pastries from scratch, Breadology will fill this void. “This is why I wanted to offer the people of the south land the opportunity to choose from a few healthy choices in bread which are homemade, at their convenience,” she said.

Her bakery is the first store at the southern end of the mall. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York, Wendy was ready to present the best in home-made bread that people can get over the counter.

Breadology offers European- styled bread, cakes and pastries made from all healthy ingredients. Wendy spent 20 years training chefs and she is going one step further in opening this bakery/ cafe. “There was a need for better baked goods on the small retail market.

A lot of bakeries are cutting corners by using artificial ingredients which are not healthy. I am offering the regular white bread, coconut bread, whole wheat bread and will soon be delving into multi-grain bread.” “Bread is the heart and soul of life. That’s why we have the saying ‘so and so is the best thing AFTER sliced bread.’ This is my latest passion and I want to take Trinidad on this journey with me,” said the petite chef who is also known as the author of the books ‘Curry, Callaloo & Calypso’, ‘The Real Taste of T&T’, ‘Modern Caribbean Cuisines’ and many others.

Breadology opens Monday to Saturday from 11 in the morning until six in the evening

As Government MPs thumped their desks in support, the Prime Minister said, “We have terminated OAS Construtora after no claim was made to us leading up to the closure.” Referring to a claim which Rambachan alluded to, Rowley said, “Fortunately for us, we picked up the attempt to dupe the Government into paying a claim that was not payable and had we made that payment, we would have lost our legal standing in claiming the billions of dollars that had been claimed in the courts of London.

” Government MPs thumped their desks again when Rowley declared, “Thank God we were on the ball.” Opposition MPs thumped their desks when Rambachan insisted that the former People’s Partnership (PP) administration took steps to protect the people’s interests on the project. However the Prime Minister countered, “There can be no protection for the people of TT if we are giving up the opportunity to get rid of a contractor, to terminate a contract because the contractor had become bankrupt.”

Adding that the PP failed to make proper assessments of many things during their tenure, Rowley said the People’s National Movement (PNM) is carefully assessing work on the ground with respect to the highway extension. He reiterated it was Government’s intention to break the project into segments which will be handled by different contractors

Delivering recommendations to deal with school violence contained in the First Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, which was laid in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Mahabir said many of the psychologists, social workers and guidance officers who testified before the committee agreed that one of the causes of the violence in the schools is that many students cannot cope with the mainstream academic curriculum “and the skills of the children transcend the normal narrowly defined academic skills of reading, writing, mathematics and language skills.” According to Mahabir, “There are skills in creativity; there are skills in drama; there are skills in art; there are skills in woodworking; there are skills in building; there are skills in sporting activities; there are skills in other areas – singing and cooking. We need to identify that there are students in the school system who are not able to exploit their innate talents – the talents in the designing of garments, for example, it is not something we emphasise in the school system and, by excluding a large amount of students from the areas in which they have innate ability,we are creating a situation where frustration among the student bodies in their inability to handle the mainstream curriculum can result in a level of frustration which can be manifested in the type of deviant activity that we are seeing.”

The committee is recommending a drastic increase in the number of guidance officers in schools. Mahabir said the current ratio of one guidance officer, social worker or counselling staff to 250 students is inadequate and there is a clear need for much more guidance officers and social workers to address the problems in both the primary and secondary schools. He said providing the additional staff will cost a lot of money but the money must be found if the problem is to be solved. He said the committee had heard from a wide cross section of interest groups including primary and secondary school students themselves who had testified, which he said was a first for the local Parliament and maybe even within the Commonwealth.

He said there needs to be a different type of administration in the school system including the use of peer counsellors for conflict resolution. He said that by peer counsellors the committee meant someone in the school system such as a prefect or a respected member of the school community who could command respect, act as an arbiter in disputes and defuse some of them. He called for effective Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) in all schools, adding that the committee was not convinced that the existing PTAs are as vibrant as they should be.

He said the committee is recommending that the Ministry of Education ensure that every primary and secondary school has a PTA so that parental involvement will be on an ongoing basis “and this will provide early warning systems for the problems which are arising.”

Dillon said among the measures taken to prevent such a reoccurrence, are spot checks to ensure prison officers are in possession of keys, officers do not take keys with them when they are off duty and a closed circuit television camera system is in place. The minister also said a Prisons Service Committee has been established for the drafting of policies governing all administrative areas in the wake of the incident.

In response to another question from Moonilal later in the sitting, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said the paving of a section of the Cuchawan River from Debe Hindu School to Gandhi Village Road would take place in fiscal 2017-2018, once funding was available.

The WASA Table Tennis player/ coach won his first singles title in 15 months and dedicated the victory to his grandmother Nora Caraballo- Francis who passed away a year ago.

Speaking after his victory a relieved Humphreys said, “I`m grateful to be back in winners row after some unacceptable performances over the past year.” The 32-yearold Humphreys completed the sixman round-robin final with four victories and one loss, for a total of nine points.

To determine the next three places was a task as three players finished with eight points (three victories and two losses), as well as same sets win-loss ratio, so the next step was to calculate the point winloss ratio.

In the end, Aaron Wilson (Carenage Blasters) was awarded the silver medal and $1,500 with Yuvraaj Dookram (unattached) placing third and pocketed $1,000 while Barbadian Trevor Farley missed out on a podium spot but collected $700 as he placed fourth.

Rounding out the “Top 6” were Reeza Burke (Arima Hawks) in fifth with seven points (two wins and three losses) and his clubmate Arun Roopnarine ended without a victory in five matches. They bought were awarded $500 and $300 respectively.

Linda Partap-Boodhan (Arima Hawks) won her first title for the year to remain the number one ranked women`s player in the country. About her performance, she said, “it wasn’t a pretty win but a win is a win. I have not been training as much as I wanted because of an injury I picked up at the Caribbean Championships in Dominican Republic so it was mostly mental fitness that got me over the line.” To decide the winner of the Women`s “Top 3” calculations were needed again as all three women recorded one victory each.

Partap-Boodhan was adjudged the winner and claimed the top prize of $1,500 as she had a better sets win-loss ratio. Placing second was Brittany Joseph (WASA TTC), who received $1,000, while Aleena Edwards (UTT) took home the bronze medal and $700.

The Super Singles Tournament is the last tournament for the calendar year of 2016 and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Trinidad and Tobago Table Tennis Association should be in January 2017.

Speaking to the media at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair yesterday, Russell stated, “we are going to start the CPL at the beginning of August next year and run through until the first week of September.” He explained, “the cricket calender is such a conjested calender so it was trying to fit it in at a time that worked for everyone.

Obviously India comes here (to the Caribbean) in terms of ODIs in July (2017), we wanted to avoid that so August was the best month to do it.” The 2016 edition of the CPL was held from June 29 to August 7.

Russell said it is a possibility that matches may be held at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, which is scheduled to open by early 2017.

“It may be too premature to have those conversations until we know more about the status of the (Brian Lara) Stadium. I went down there (on Wednesday) and I had a quick look at it and it looks like there is a lot of action being taken to get it finished in good time.” He added, “I was surprised how state of the art it looked. I think that is a possiblity (for matches to be held in Tarouba) if that comes on stream to play some games hopefully there.”

Russell explained that the economic impact of the CPL was US$90 million during the 2016 season, a huge increase from the 2015 season which made US$76.2 million. “The economic impact has been very strong. Over $90 million was delivered in terms of the Caribbean countries. People come into the islands and spend, what we spend, all of that adds up so it is a significant investment that we make and that is part of the good news story because it was a huge increase from the previous year.”

The CPL Chief Operations Officer said the television audience is an indication of the popularity of the tournament. “Our TV audience now is 134 million, 82 million of that comes from India and it shows that this a product that everyone wants to see on and off the pitch. The Carnival atmosphere the fans bring to it is something that really gets a strong following.” The CPL will have top international players again next year according to Russell. “It will be exactly the same quality. For us that is very important, you got to make sure you get the best players on the pitch.”

The lawsuit came up for hearing before Justice Carol Gobin which arose out of a challenge by the Dinanath Ramnarine-led slate which, on October 21, was granted an injunction by the judge to stop the elections which were due the following day.

Ramnarine, a former West Indies spin bowler, ex-national cricketer Daren Ganga, West Indies T20 leg-spinner Samuel Badree and officials Anil Kamal, Camal Basdeo and St Servius Clint Pamphile, are challenging a number of alleged breaches. In their lawsuit, they are contending that certain articles of the TT CB’s constitution govering the election process, are unconstitutional.

As a result, the TT CB’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the National Cricket Centre in Couva, was put on hold.

Yesterday, both Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, instructed by Vivek Lakhan-Joseph representing the Ramnarine-led slate, and Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein for the TT CB, expressed to Justice Gobin their consensual position, that the current executive will further extend a concession, to undertake not to hold executive elections until the hearing and determination of the leave application as well as the substantive matter.

Both attorneys also agreed before the judge, that they propose to have the court determine both the ‘Leave’ application, and the substantive matter on the merits of the case, together, instead of having separate and consecutive hearings.

Justice Gobin gave further directions to the parties with respect to further affidavit evidence and legal submissions. Both sides are to next appear again before the judge for hearing and determination of the matter on March 13 2017.

John captured the coveted title and won $250,000. In a hardfought Christmas-themed battle against second place winner, Teriann Baker, John gained the final approval from both the judges as well as the voting at home audience. Baker earned $150,000, however, both contestants received trophies, handsets from corporate partner Huawei, a year free service on Digicel Play and mobile services.

Speaking of her performance John stated: “Before every performance I silently battled anxiety, but when my name was announced as the winner of the 2016 Digicel Rising Stars, I felt like I was in the eye of a hurricane.

“I am grateful to everyone in the Digicel Rising Star team who truly made my experience unforgettable and helped me grow into a calm confident performer.

“I plan to celebrate by keeping the ball rolling. My fans can expect good quality music from me with the same touch of versatility I exhibited in the competition,” John said in a media release.

She thanked her supporters both past and present “who never cease to encourage me.” The finals of the competition opened with a stellar performance from the 2015 Rising Star, Angela Didier.

Also performing was Digicel Staff Star winner, Allana Salandy who stayed in Christmas theme with her rendition of “Oh Holy Night

The event was simply called “A Jam For Patti” and it asked musicians, friends and family to bring their love, their instruments and just jam together in memory of Rogers. The musicians, all carrying their instruments get on stage to bring Rogers’ memories back to life.

There was the great Clive Zanda, Michael Boothman who worked with Rogers, Ann Fridal who hosted Rogers’ last concert, Michael “Ming” Low Chew Tung, Russell Durity, Theron Shaw, Douglas “Doggie” Redon, Richard Joseph, Roger Salloum, David Collymore, Andre Jack, Jerry Banfield, Earl “Biter” Edwards, Mavis John, Candice Alcantara, Llettesha Sylvester, John John and Whitney Cummings.

Alcantara and John John started the jam with songs like “Fever” (one of Patti’s favourite) and “Is this Love”. The young and talented Cummings appeared a bit shy but went on stage among the “big guns” like Ming, Theron and Richard and delivered “I Will always Love You” to a thunderous applause.

As she left the stage there were shouts of “one more”, “one more”.

After consulting with Ming, Cummings obliged with Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture” again to the delight of the audience.

There was a change in musicians as Zanda replaced Ming and Durity replaced Jack and Roger Salloum came on congas.

Master musician Zanda started off with with “Sayamanda” and it raised the level of musicianship in the room. He controlled the set perfectly. Zanda told the audience he knew “Girl from Ipanema” was another of Patti’s favourite and he allowed his fingers to roll on the keys.

During the song Patti’s mother Lorna came on stage with her maracas and performed with the band. The audience went wild as Zanda again controlled the players to perfection. She received a long and sustained round of applause before she left the stage.

Zanda continued with Kitchener’s “Carnival is Over” and finished off his set with his very own classic “Fancy Sailor”. He made way for Ming and the Caribbean’s queen of jazz, Mavis John. As always John kicked things off with “Jazz in the Callalloo” an “Ode to Patti”, “Lifeline”, a beautiful duet with Candice Alcantara and then finished off with another classic “Carnival is Over”.

The music just kept coming, John’s exit made way for Michael Boothman’s entrance and he played with Ming on keys, Joseph on drums and Salloum on congas.

Boothman’s set included his Billboard hit “Heaven”.

Theron Shaw was back on stage as Sylvester made her entrance and she delivered “The Way We Were” to the amazement of the audience. She too was lustily called back by the audience and she performed “Summertime” (a song Patti grew up on) as an encore. That was supposed to be the end of the jam session but one of Patti’s schoolmates and long-standing friend, Kenwin Frank, held back the tears and performed “Smile” with the band.

Alcantara climbed on stage to give him support.

The jam for Patti was organised by Alcantara and Arlene Sylvester in association with Carl Jacobs and Kaiso Blues Cafe.