Union leader charged against sedition sparks debate about freedom of speech in Trinidad and Tobago
On August 26, 2019, Watson Duke, president of Trinidad and Tobago's Public Services Association (PSA) and the minority leader of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), was arrested for statements he made in a speech he made back in 2018 that are in violation of the country's Sedition Act. Though Duke is no stranger to controversy, his arrest has spurred a widespread public debate on the legislation itself.
The fact that the Sedition Act originates from laws made under the British colonial government has caused many to question whether it impinges upon citizens’ freedom of speech. After Duke was released from police custody on August 31 — Trinidad and Tobago's Independence Day — his attorney said that his client may well join others in challenging the act.
What is the Sedition Act?
Designed to protect against rebellion against the state's authority by punishing insurrectionary acts or declarations and suppressing iconoclastic publications, the Sedition Act remained in place even after the country became independent from Great Britain in 1962. In fact, it was amended in 1961, 1969, 1971 and 1976, and criminalises any person or publication deemed to be carrying out seditious acts or communicating with seditious intent.
As defined by the Act, sedition is “to bring into hatred or contempt, or to excite disaffection against the Government or the Constitution”. Duke was charged with seditious intent under section 4(1)(b) of the Act — “communicat[ing] any statement having a seditious intention” — over a speech he gave on November 16, 2018, at the country's national telecommunications company, TSTT.
At the time of the speech, there were rumours of possible mass retrenchment at public companies which included the national water company, WASA. During the speech to union members, Duke discussed the possible extreme actions members of the union would have to take “for what they believe in” and to protect their rights as public servants. He said the following:
So when America was fighting Japan […] America retaliated with one big bomb and that was it. We could march from now every day, every day, every day. What marching does is call attention to the nation as to your problem, which I believe the nation already know[s].[…]And we have to be aware that we must be prepared to die, folks. You know why? This is your belief. This is your family, and I tell you the message is clear, yuh know. [Let] Rowley [the prime minister] [and them] know that the day the [has] come for us in WASA [the country's water and sewerage authority], we are prepared to die, and the morgue will be picking up people, because when men and women are prepared to die, people does recognise [the] level of a conviction, trust me.[…]We have to become people of conviction. I doh support, forgive mih language, jackass behaviour. I am king march. I love to march. Buh you see me, I looking for a bomb, something to end the fight”.
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