Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­ba­go East MP David Thomas says con­sul­ta­tions on the pro­posed stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion are “on the hori­zon” and like­ly to hap­pen on the is­land be­fore the end of Au­gust.

Thomas yes­ter­day told Guardian Me­dia that he planned to for­malise the con­sul­ta­tion process, dur­ing a meet­ing with Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials in Trinidad.

“The con­sul­ta­tion is on the hori­zon and should take place be­fore the month ends,” he said.

This comes as the Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues con­sul­ta­tions across Trinidad on the con­tro­ver­sial bill, which seeks to ex­pand self-de­fence rights. The leg­is­la­tion has stirred sig­nif­i­cant de­bate, with some rais­ing con­cerns about po­ten­tial mis­use and calls for stronger safe­guards.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said To­ba­go would be in­clud­ed in the con­sul­ta­tion process but stressed that the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) would not lead dis­cus­sions.

“I ex­pect that there will be con­sul­ta­tions in To­ba­go, be­cause there are im­pli­ca­tions for us, for our tourism sec­tor,” Au­gus­tine told re­porters last Fri­day.

He ex­plained that Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment rep­re­sent­ing To­ba­go East and To­ba­go West would en­gage di­rect­ly with res­i­dents to gath­er their views.

“At the end of the day, we are guid­ed by what the pub­lic and what To­bag­o­ni­ans say and feel about the mat­ter,” he said.

“We are not go­ing to do any con­sul­ta­tions our­selves, but cer­tain­ly our mem­bers of Par­lia­ment will en­gage in some con­sul­ta­tions, be­cause we will def­i­nite­ly want to know how To­bag­o­ni­ans feel on the mat­ter,” Au­gus­tine added.

The Gov­ern­ment has been con­duct­ing a se­ries of pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions across Trinidad over the past weeks on the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion. These ses­sions have in­clud­ed dis­cus­sions with a mix of sup­port and op­po­si­tion voiced by cit­i­zens, le­gal ex­perts, and civ­il so­ci­ety groups.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, many peo­ple said they were con­cerned that the bill’s broad pro­tec­tions might en­cour­age vig­i­lan­tism or es­ca­late vi­o­lence, while oth­ers ar­gue it would em­pow­er law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to de­fend them­selves with­out fear of pros­e­cu­tion.

The con­sul­ta­tion aims to gath­er pub­lic in­put be­fore the leg­is­la­tion is de­bat­ed and po­ten­tial­ly passed in Par­lia­ment.

Thomas said sched­ul­ing the con­sul­ta­tions in To­ba­go be­fore Par­lia­ment re­opened was im­por­tant.

“We’ll try to sched­ule it dur­ing the pe­ri­od, es­pe­cial­ly be­fore Par­lia­ment re­opens, when we should be com­plet­ing the con­sul­ta­tion, so that you know we could go ahead with the leg­is­la­tion in terms of de­bat­ing it in the Par­lia­ment,” he said.