While the Opposition supported the Government’s Bail (Amendment) Bill, 2024, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, says denial of bail was not the answer to fighting crime and that it was not even an anti-crime measure.
“While we support the bill, it’s clear this isn’t a plaster on a gaping wound,” Persad-Bissessar added in Parliament on Monday in her contribution to the debate on the bill. It was passed with unanimous support from the Opposition, as well as Government MPs.
In supporting the bill, Persad-Bissessar had brushed off picong, saying that it was not a “rubbish” bill.
“This is a bill which remedies some deficiencies in law which, because of the (Privy Council’s) Akili Charles judgment, does give us that balance of proportionality, so we’re prepared to support it; this has to do with the public interest of the people of T&T,” she said.
She added that the Government had asked for the Opposition’s support and took its advice, and certain key amendments in this bill were not in previous bills. Persad-Bissessar said it was the sixth time since 2016 that a Bail Amendment Bill was being debated. She questioned why the Government found it necessary to bring the bill in the last week before the Parliament recess.
“In some ways, we’re playing catch up as we’re on the cusp of a general election,” she said, adding that the Government brought the bill to battle unprecedented crime, which suggested they had failed to tackle that.
Persad-Bissessar said the bill would not curb T&T’s crime wave as it took willpower and competence to do that. She said a speedier justice system was needed and called for the understaffing of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office to be given some priority.