Although People’s Partnership Tobago East MP Vernella Alleyne-Toppin apologised to the Parliament yesterday for the “mischaracterisation deduced” from her controversial statements on People’s National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley, Independent Liberal Party (ILP) MP Jack Warner has initiated moves for Parliament to recommend “appropriate action” on her “repugnant statements.”
House Speaker Wade Mark said he would rule on Warner’s request, for disciplinary action against Alleyne-Toppin, at the next Parliament session. The respective developments occurred at yesterday’s Parliament sitting, where Alleyne-Toppin and Warner spoke.
Alleyne-Toppin has come under fire for statements she made in debate during the March 25 motion of no confidence against Rowley, in which she alluded to the rape of a young girl, saying the product of that now aspired to lofty office and also graphically detailed other statements on Rowley, including raising questions of his allegedly fathering a child through an act of rape.
Despite open condemnation, Alleyne-Toppin subsequently stood her ground, prompting the PNM to air a video recording of Roselyn Alleyne and her son, who said he was Rowley’s child out of relationship his two parents had decades ago. Alleyne in the video also said she had not been raped and disputed Alleyne-Toppin’s statements.
Yesterday, under the Parliament agenda’s segment for personal explanations, Alleyne-Toppin rose to speak on the issue. But Rowley immediately left the chamber, as did PNM MPs Donna Cox, Paula Gopee-Scoon and Patricia McIntosh. Addressing those present after, Alleyne-Toppin said: “I sought during my contribution to highlight certain sensitive issues in our society with which I have had direct experiences and which I considered relevant to the matter being debated. These issues included the indelicate but pertinent issues of rape and domestic violence.
“In consequent media reports, my contribution was unfortunately characterised and exploited as an attack on persons who may have been the victims of domestic violence and other such offences. “My longstanding and manifest abhorrence of this type of behaviour has been well established over many years and particularly within the recent years I have served in this Parliament.”
She added: “It was and is never my intention to stigmatise any person whatsoever who may have suffered the indignity of domestic violence of any kind. Clearly my contribution during the debate in question had no such purpose. “Against this background, I sincerely and unreservedly apologise to this honourable House and any person outside this Parliament for the mischaracterisation which may have been deduced from the statements during my contribution.”
Reckless behaviour
But when she ended, Warner, citing the Parliament’s privileges, said Alleyne-Toppin’s March 25 contribution made several unsavory statements about the personal life of Rowley, “including analogies to Adolf Hitler and the thief called Barabbas and even suggested that (Rowley’s) birth was a shameful consequence of his mother being raped by his father... she made many distasteful statements and inferences in relation to the Opposition leader.”
“I ask that the Member for Tobago East be referred to the Privileges Committee of this House, not to determine whether a contempt has been committed but for the committee to recommend appropriate action to be taken in relation to the member’s repugnant statements,” he said. Warner said it was now “indisputable that the malignant and distasteful statements were untrue and therefore wholly misleading.”
He added: “The statements must be considered an absolute violation of the free speech accorded to elected Members of Parliament and constitutes a disdainful denigration of the privileges afforded to the House of Representatives. “Even if the member believed her statements to be true, she provided no evidence to support the veracity of these statements. She was therefore wantonly reckless in her responsibility to provide accurate information to the House and seriously misinformed the House in a material way.
“The statements weren’t in the national interest but constituted a vile personal attack on the Opposition Leader and served the sole purpose of bringing the House into serious public odium and disrepute. This must be a contempt of the House. “I therefore submit the member committed contempt of this House on the grounds she grossly and recklessly abused the privilege of freedom of speech, bringing the House into serious public odium, ridicule and disrepute.”
Warner, who walked out on the PP’s motion, later told reporters Alleyne-Toppin didn’t apologise and as an explanation, her statement yesterday “was too little too late.” He added: “The Government is partly to blame for her March 25 statement, since it was planned by the Cabinet. “That statement should be expunged from the parliamentary record. If my privileges request fails, the court of public opinion will judge her and if the Speaker doesn’t approve my request he has only three more months for his term of office anyway.”