Seeram opened the drawer of his cash register and quietly handed over $4,000 to the gunman who moments before had grabbed him by his jersey and dragged him in front the machine. Seeram’s son, Narindranath, 35, was also relieved on his gold chain valued $10,000, a gold ring valued $500 and a wallet with his ID and driver’s permit. A police report stated that at 5.10 pm on Friday, the father and son of Dow Village, California, were at their business place Natco Hardware located at Southern Main Road, California when two men, one armed with a gun, entered and announced a hold-up. The bandits later escaped in a silver-grey Nissan Tiida car. Investigations are continuing.

Last Wednesday, MP Tewarie retired to bed at his Cunupia home at around 9.30 pm and awoke at 4.30 am the following day to discover a door was opened and the house ransacked. Entry was gained by the intruder through an open window at the western side of the house.

The MP was robbed of an iPad, a Samsung S3 phone, $900 in cash and Parliamentary documents.

Further checks revealed that a Honda Accord valued at $260,000 was also missing.

The report was made to the Cunupia police and finger print expert were able to find workable prints.

Up until yesterday the handyman remained at large. It was not disclosed by police sources if Tewarie’s stolen items including the car, were recovered.

The Sixth Form student of Pleasantville Secondary not only moved some members of the audience to tears with his dramatic presentation, but captured hearts of the judges who crowned him Mr Sanfest 2016. The teenager’s performance to the Michael Jackson song “Gone to Soon” was accompanied by a slide show of images of Yearwood- Marchan in happier times.

The teenager wept as he garlanded a wooden cross that was on the stage with a colorful wreath in her memory.

Mohammed said Marchan was more than a dance teacher to him she was his mentor, mother and friend and he was learnt valuable life lessons from her. On August 3, the charred remains of Marchan, 45, a dance teacher of the La Romaine High School and her husband Peter Marchan, 48, a civilian mechanic at the Mon Repos Fire Station were found in the couple’s pick-up van in Forres Reserve Road in Fyzabad.

The couple had become estranged after 15 years of marriage.

The deaths were treated as a case of murder/suicide. Putting in a solid performance was Shipharah Lewis, 13, of Arima North Secondary School who was crowned Miss Sanfest 2016 with her powerful and convincing dance routine “Just Stand” performed to Donnie Mc- Clurkin’s gospel hit “Stand”.

The petite dancer told her story in dance about someone after losing hope and struggling to find that peace within. Mohammed and Lewis were among a talented field of ten teenagers who brought their ‘A” game to the table on the day.

Other competitors were Moriah Santana (Tabaquite Secondary School), Ilori Waithe ( Bishop Anstey High East), Megan Cox (Asja Girls College, San Fernando) and Makela Edwards (San Fernando Central) Leeum Quan Kep (San Fernando Central Secondary), Jelani Borrel (Presentation College, San Fernando), Kareem Swan (Princes Town West Secondary) and Neakel Lewis (Arima North Secondary). Sanfest which is now in its 46th year is a presentation of the San Fernando Arts Council and National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago. The theme this year is “Sanfest – the divine alternative to…”

“We are giving the Ministry some breathing room before we protest again,” said Larry Dilchan, President of the school’s Parent Teacher Association who has been leading the charge to have the school relocated to the National Enrichment Centre in Carlsen Field while the Ministry sought a solution to the infestation of insects and vermin at the school. “The Ministry and EFCL (Education Facilities Company Limited visited the Enrichment Centre on Wednesday and they said that it is a suitable location.” However, before granting approval for the relocation, permission will have to be given by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services which controls the building and a certificate of completion for the building needs to be sourced. According to Dilchan, the Ministry also wants to assess the state of the sewerage system and conduct repairs on the air-condition units, “but these problems are nothing that cannot be easily rectified.” The parents began their protest outside the school compound last Tuesday following months of inaction by the Ministry of Education to alleviate the problem of microscopic insects in their school. The insect bites students and teachers alike, many of whom have developed skin rashes and fallen ill with headaches and nausea.

The protest escalated last Friday when parents and students gathered outside the Parliament.

While school remains suspended, arrangements are being made for the Standard Five students to still be taught by well-meaning teachers. However, most teachers refused to teach students at any location not approved by the Ministry of Education.

“The legal fraternity is now heavily female-oriented,” he said.

The AG drew on his own experiences as the husband of an attorney. “I’ve been married to a lawyer of 20 years. She’s very much the rock in my life and my admiration for her grows as I watch her juggling the difficulties of the profession and the pleasures of her family.

“Women stand head and shoulders above men in many ways but if I could be so bold to say, they should not forget the power and charm of their family balance and their femininity,” the AG said in a conversation with Newsday yesterday.

Saying it is hard on women who are lawyers, he said there is nothing to replace the love of a mother, or the focus that a woman is as the rock of the home as a wife and mother.

Al-Rawi reflected on the idea of perseverance. “While this was a day of celebration of success, often it is not your successes by themselves which teach you life’s greatest lessons, but it’s more often an appreciation of those opportunities where you had failure,” he said. “As schoolchildren not yet in university, how much more often do you remember the question you got wrong as opposed to the one you got right.

When you walked out of an examination hall, you asked your closest friend ‘what did you put for question 11’, and then found out you’d put the wrong answer. It is that one you remember, much more than the one you got right.” He said the reason people persevere is related to simple concept laid down by their parents early on, telling you to trust, to love, to persevere, to have courage, and to not lose faith.

At the grad ceremony on Saturday, Al-Rawi told the graduates that the legal profession is not just about making money. “There is nothing wrong with pecuniary gain, but better was the thrill that you got in the case that could not be won, or the person who had some degree of personal torture which seemed insurmountable yet you had the ability to bring some measure of relief on. Those were the greatest examples of success in law. Those were the ones you remember sweeter than any pay-cheque that went along with it.” Al-Rawi urged the law graduates to ensure they performed social service in their law careers.

He reminded them that the original design of a lawyer’s gown had an open pocket for a client unseen to put coins into when the attorney’s back was turned and he was walking away from having litigated a case. “That is where the philosophy of service comes from,” he added.

Padarath at the time worked as an aide to Persad-Bissessar in the Office of the Prime Minister.

In a statement, Young (who is a Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister) said Persad-Bissessar, Padarath and other Opposition members continue to mislead the public into believing that the function catered for 5,000 and 4,000 persons.

However, Young said documents in the Government’s possession, which were shown to reporters during last Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, tell a different story.

“The invoices clearly reflect that only 900 persons were catered for,” he said.

Young, who is also a Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General, said, “This is yet another disingenuous and blatant attempt to mislead the citizens of TT.” In contrast, Young said the equivalent PNM Divali function for this year, cost $220,409.06.

“The PNM condemns the continued attempts by the UNC to mislead the population,” Young’s statement added.

Young reiterated the overall cost of the October 2014 Divali function hosted by Persad-Bissessar was $1,677,719.79. The breakdown of those costs were: Decor -$487,400; Catering – $394,568.75; Entertainment – $98,200; Printing/Packaging $128,752.50; Shuttle/Parking $69,750; Tents/ Infrastructure $454,116.54 and Ushering/Ambulance/ Cleaning $44,932.

Last Friday, in response to a question from Padarath on this issue, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said Padarath and the entire Opposition missed what the point on this matter was,” It is not about roti. It is about profligacy in its general sense,” Rowley said then.

The Prime Minister also referred to an employee at the Office of the Prime Minister over the last five years, “carrying a handbag for $1.5 million and $600,000 in overseas travel allowance to carry a scarf.” Padarath was ejected from the House for 15 minutes by Deputy Speaker Esmond Forde for shouting across the floor at Rowley while he was speaking.

The House next sits on December 2 and debate is expected to resume on the Tax Information Exchange Bill 2016 which is key to ensuring TT is FATCA compliant.

This is the contention of Seetaram’s lead counsel in a judicial review action taken against ICATT, which convened a disciplinary tribunal to examine Seetaram’s professional conduct.

Justice Devindra Rampersad is presiding over the judicial review claim and entertained submissions from Seetaram’s attorneys as well as attorneys for ICATT on Thursday last.

Seetaram is seeking to have the judge declare that the investigations committee had no jurisdiction to refer to the disciplinary committee complaints of alleged breaches of ICATT’s rules of conduct for accountants.

In his submissions, Alvin Fitzpatrick SC, who leads a team of attorneys for Seetaram, argued that the actions taken by the tribunal was unlawful and illegal as there was no proper complaint made by the investigations committee.

He also submitted that the investigations committee was not entitled to use Seetaram’s previous statements as the basis for a complaint.

Fitzpatrick’s argument was however challenged by ICATT lead counsel Fyard Hosein SC, who contended that it was a new allegation being raised and could not be argued as leave had not been granted by the court for Seetaram to pursue that point. “It adds a new dimension to the matter.

It was not pleaded and it is unfair,” Hosein said.

After hearing from both sides, Justice Rampersad agreed to give ICATT’s legal team additional time to respond to the argument advanced by Fitzpatrick.

At the commission of inquiry into the collapse of CL Financial’s insurance arm, CLICO and the HCU, Seetaram, in 2012, testified that he failed to disclose a $150 million consolidated loss at an annual general meeting; concealed a $31 million loss among “prior adjustments” in the 2005 accounts; back-dated audited accounts and rushed preparing accounts – represented as fully audited accounts – upon the request of former HCU president Harry Harnarine.

He later denied he cooked the books, but blamed a typist for a crucial oversight on the HCU books. Seetaram was the auditor appointed to look into HCU’s accounts following its collapse.

His testimony resulted in a disciplinary probe by a committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, after former minister Mariano Browne made a complaint calling for an investigation into Seetaram’s conduct.

An investigation committee was set up by ICATT which later found a prima facie case had been made out against the accountant and a disciplinary committee was established.

Seetaram was given notice on March 16, 2015 to appear before the committee and he did so on April 30. He later challenged the power of the investigations committee to refer any matter to a disciplinary tribunal.

His preliminary points were dismissed and the disciplinary committee found that it did have jurisdiction to hear the alleged breaches of the Rules of Professional Conduct which govern the accounting profession. Seetaram filed a judicial review claim in the courts, bring to a halt the disciplinary proceedings inquiry into his conduct.

Seetaram is represented by Senior Counsel Alvin Fitzpatrick, Adrian Byrne and Jason Mootoo while ICATT is represented by Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein, Anil Maraj and Sasha Bridgemohan.

Minister Gadsby-Dolly saluted longtime supporters, the party’s executive council and especially Deputy Political Leader Joan Yuille Williams – who served in a previous administration as the Minister of Culture, Community and Gender Affairs and was instrumental in organising the event.

The first round of competition began around 8 pm with all 11 singers delivering sterling contributions.

Lady Wonder began with “Nation Building”, followed by Michelle Henry (“Our National Watchwords”), Skatie (“Portrait of Trinidad”), Karen Eccles Thomas (“What’s Wrong”), Cro Cro (“Ban Yuh Belly”), Sekon Alves (“God Bless Our Nation”), Gary Cordner (“Put Country First”), Duane O’Connor (“Citizens Pride”), Karene Asche (“Every Knee Shall Bow”), Twiggy (“Me and You”) and Tigress ending off the round with “Crossroads”.

“Cro Cro” and “Karene Asche” were clear crowd favorites throughout the contest, while Gary Cordner and Duane O’Connor received some PNM-ite angst for their second round selections, “No Doctor No” and “Pay As You Earn”, respectively. The very vocal and clearly biased audience derived no entertainment from and gave little tolerance to any politically-tinged contribution that was not in high praise of the host party, so it seemed as if “Cro Cro” had the title sewn up long before his second song, “Man Family” elicited peals of laughter and excitement from the masses.

Somehow, “the Mighty Midget” was left out of the winnings and Karene Asche adjudged in fifth place, with Karen Eccles- Thomas, Duane O’Connor and Sekon Alves taking fourth, third and second places respectively.

Chants of “Cro Cro” were silenced as Carlos “Skatie” James was declared the winner.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley made a brief appearance onstage and thanked TUCO, the organisers and the party faithful. “Let’s hear it for Mrs Joan Yuille-Williams and the organisers, the calypsonians, Len Cummings and the band and of course…Balisier! Balisier! You can’t wait… November 28th,” Rowley said.

THE DRAFT policy document for people with disabilities uses the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as a framing philosophy. Why then, one may well ask, do the policymakers not simply adopt the CRPD as its policy? As one of my colleagues pointed out, governments are not allowed to cherry-pick once they have ratified the convention.

Needless to say each national policy must be specific to the social, cultural and economic needs of a particular nation. But that said the basic principles must be adhered to. What is more, this policy is not to be taken lightly. It must be backed by adequate funding and determined will.

Moreover, it is imperative that people with disabilities should be included at all stages of the writing of a policy document. Drafters need to keep in mind that there are many different types of disabilities: there are people with physical disabilities, the blind and visually impaired, the deaf and hard of hearing, people with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and, yes minister, people with mental health issues. This latter is pretty invisible at present and the document really does not speak for or of them. But they do exist and their rights include access, education at the very highest level and equality legislation that speaks to their needs.

It is therefore not enough to cut and paste from previous documents, given how little we in this country are aware of such matters. Nor is it enough to write a document simply to fulfil the reporting requirement, the deadline for which is June 21, 2017.

While we are on this, can anyone tell me what is the criterion for sitting on the inter-ministerial committee? There is only one person with a disability serving in this capacity.

What exactly is the knowledge base or even the interest level of people who comprise this reporting committee, which will speak to the UN about Trinidad and Tobago’s progress in implementing the CRPD? Can these individuals enter into the lives and experiences of people with disabilities? Should the Government call a public consultation, given the requirement to consult with civil society, since many key people may not be on the invitation list of the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services? These are important questions and speak to the intentionality behind the policy document. Such intentions can only be assured by threading educational policy right through so that people with disabilities can become more effective and access their right to elect a representative of their choice and thereby have their voices heard. Education is the key to bringing about equity.

This is something that we in the Caribbean know very well. It has fuelled our society in Trinidad and Tobago for at least five decades.

We need to apply similar ideals to educating people with disabilities, as we did to those disfranchised by colonialism. But we need to learn from the mistakes we have made and adopt a system of differentiated learning that allows all people access to all levels of education.

There must be a commitment to the provision of mechanisms that ensure that differences do not hinder the intellectual or social development of a child or adult. This means foregrounding education even within the key principles. This will go far to ensuring equal opportunities for all people with disabilities.

This should also be enshrined within the section on health/rehabilitation which lists methods of habilitation and rehabilitation. The focus here should be on the development of the full potential of the individual. It must specify integration rather than encouraging segregation.

Under access to information and technology, there is no mention of training in the use of technology.

Throughout this document continuing education continues to be an issue that is evaded. Properly educated people will be able to access meaningful jobs.

Indeed, why not utilise people who are disabled in creating more posts for the provision of services.

This may put a stop once and for all to the idea that people with disabilities should be recipients of charity.

I noted some of these key issues last week. Perhaps some further examples might be useful: the drafting of legislation was actually included in the draft action plan for the Inter- ministerial Committee to Promote, Protect and Monitor the Implementation of the CRPD for TT and according to the timeline, legislation should have been drafted by October 2016.

That has not happened, but the new draft policy document now informs us that “[a]ll activities and national programmes should operate within the confines of the law and policies relating to disability.” It is therefore imperative that there is legislation that will protect the rights of people with disabilities.

The draft policy document, however, fails to specify that government will need to both provide and exercise safeguards against abuse and discrimination.

The exclusion of the word “exercise” or an equivalent means there is no legal imperative to functionalise any policy or any law that is passed.

We know in Trinidad and Tobago much is said and many laws are non-operational.

It is important that laws should protect both the autonomy and independence of citizens who are disabled and additionally provide protection and well as regulated assistance for people who may be unable to fully access their legal rights.

The balance is a difficult one to attain and needs careful consultation and though

After all, I do not have onetenth of the information at my disposal as compared to the Prime Minister. Yet I need to share some concerns and to ask to be guided by the dissemination of relevant information.

Firstly, I do not have to be convinced about the bona fides of Sandals as a company and a brand. It is the equivalent of buying a Mercedez-Benz if seeking a vehicle. Who could criticise such a choice? But surely you would first choose from within the range according to your needs and your pocket. You would not select a van for driving to and from work.

Similarly, I ask what is the nature of the proposal from Sandals? Without that we may end up with a proverbial van.

I note that in Sandals CEO and Deputy Chairman Adam Stewart’s recent presentation to the Chamber of Commerce he referred to the benefits of the plan they have for Tobago. We now know that there is a plan, something that we had been told previously did not yet exist.

I can’t imagine that he could give the projections that he did unless the plan was quite advanced. Effective consultation demands that it be shared with us. We do even know for sure how many rooms are to be built or where.

With respect to the anticipated net gain annually to the economy of $500 million, is it asking too much for a simple breakdown between taxes (PAYE, corporation, sales etc), purchases, wages and anything else? Can we be told who pays for the construction and what will be the total cost to us of the development, including water and electricity contracts? What will be the net foreign exchange footprint, positive or negative and how much? If the resort does in fact comprise 750 rooms, then the claimed benefit equates to $1,826 per room per day at 100 percent occupancy and $2,029 per room per day at 90 percent occupancy. I need some convincing about such a projection.

We could then have a proper discussion that rises to the level of consultation that eludes us thus far. But the manner of this project’s progress raises two critical concerns beyond the financial and procedural. They are legal.

One should recall that in advance of this announcement, the Prime Minister informed us that he had taken over control of the tourism product in Tobago. We also need to consider the relevance of the Aliens (Landholding) Act.

Control of tourism in Tobago rests in the hands of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) under a schedule of the THA Act. It is not there as a gift from a sitting Prime Minister to Tobago. Rather, it is given by way of an Act of Parliament.

It is the law of the land.

My concern therefore is about the right or lack thereof to remove that power back to central government without approval by Parliament. Is this power now to be treated as discretionary, to be given and taken away at the whim of the Prime Minister of the day? If yes, will the same apply to the imminent Autonomy Bill? Where do the various political parties stand on this? There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Prime Minister being a key player in this or any other transaction. That should be applauded. I do not see how he can legally take control away from the THA.