SASCHA WIL­SON

"My body. My choice!” was the chant from a group of cit­i­zens, as they walked from Pleas­antville to San Fer­nan­do this morn­ing, to protest against manda­to­ry vac­ci­na­tion.

Us­ing a long PVC-de­signed sy­ringe as their prop—and led by en­ter­tain­er Tr­isha Hamil­ton and leader of the Kaisokah Moko Jumbies Ju­nior Bis­nath—the group sent a clear mes­sage to the Gov­ern­ment that they strong­ly op­posed forced vac­ci­na­tion for COVID-19.

"To­day's walk is about my body, my choice. We be­lieve that peo­ple shouldn't be los­ing their jobs,” ex­plained Tri­cia Hamil­ton, who is known as ‘Sexy Tr­isha’ in the en­ter­tain­ment are­na.  “We, as Trin­bag­o­ni­ans, we need to be our broth­er’s keep­er.  It is about time we say enough is enough. Too much is too much.  We will not be forced to be vac­ci­nat­ed with some­thing no­body re­al­ly knows what ex­act­ly is go­ing on."

Hamil­ton said it would be spit­ting in the face of the fore­fa­thers who fought for free­dom and lib­er­a­tion to not fight for their rights.

"Even God give us our own will to choose, so no gov­ern­ment, no hu­man be­ing, should take that right from us," she re­mind­ed the church­go­ers and lead­ers.

Junior Bisnath holds the syringe built with PVC piping, as the anti-mandatory vaccination protesters make their way along Harris Promenade in San Fernando, on Wednesday 12 January 2022. (Image by INNIS FRANCIS)

Not­ing that safe zones were not pre­vent­ing the spike in cas­es, Hamil­ton said vac­ci­nat­ed peo­ple should not scorn those who are un­vac­ci­nat­ed. She said to­day’s walk was for all pub­lic ser­vants in­clud­ing po­lice of­fi­cers and nurs­es, and every per­son who is be­ing pres­sured to take the vac­cine.

Ju­nior Bis­nath said his wife went to work a week ago and was sent home be­cause she was not vac­ci­nat­ed. He called on peo­ple who are against manda­to­ry vac­cine to stand up and fight back.  

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has giv­en pub­lic ser­vants un­til the mid­dle of this month to take the jab, or they would not be paid.