Samp­son Nan­ton

Cab­i­net has tak­en a de­ci­sion to once again ban the use of glass bot­tles at all Car­ni­val events on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day this year, a reg­u­la­tion that was first in­tro­duced at the last full-scale Car­ni­val held in 2020.

The reg­u­la­tion, ti­tled ‘The Car­ni­val (Pro­hi­bi­tion of Glass Bot­tles) Reg­u­la­tion’, was con­sid­ered and ap­proved by Cab­i­net yes­ter­day.

It was pub­lished in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette yes­ter­day, of­fi­cial­ly mak­ing it legal­ly bind­ing.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds said it car­ries the same pur­pose as when it was in­tro­duced in 2020, to serve as a lay­er of se­cu­ri­ty dur­ing the fes­tiv­i­ties, in cas­es where glass bot­tles can be used to cause harm.

It will ex­tend to 28 towns and com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go over the two days.

Un­der the reg­u­la­tion, no per­son oth­er than an au­tho­rised per­son, will be al­lowed to have a glass bot­tle in or with­in the vicin­i­ty of a Car­ni­val event in any pub­lic place dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val.

It al­so pro­hibits any­one oth­er than an au­tho­rised per­son, from serv­ing or con­sum­ing a bev­er­age from a glass bot­tle in or with­in the vicin­i­ty of a Car­ni­val event in a pub­lic place.

An “au­tho­rised per­son” un­der the reg­u­la­tion is de­fined as a per­son hold­ing a li­cence un­der the Liquor Li­cences Act; a per­son hold­ing a spe­cial event li­cence is­sued un­der the Spe­cial Event Or­der, 2023 made pur­suant to sec­tion 47C(2) of the Liquor Li­cences Act; a ven­dor hold­ing a food badge is­sued by the Min­istry of Health; a serv­er of a band reg­is­tered un­der the Car­ni­val Reg­u­la­tions, 2023; an em­ploy­ee of– (i) a Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion; (ii) the CEPEP Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed; (iii) Trinidad and To­ba­go Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (SWM­COL), who is on du­ty dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val; or an em­ploy­ee of a man­u­fac­tur­er or dis­trib­u­tor of bev­er­ages in glass bot­tles, who is on du­ty dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val.

This means that while reg­is­tered Car­ni­val bands will be al­lowed to have glass bot­tle drinks on their drink trucks, the bot­tles must be se­cured in such a way that on­ly those serv­ing drinks will have ac­cess to them.

The same ap­plies to ven­dors, al­low­ing them to have bot­tles in their pos­ses­sion al­though they will not be al­lowed to serve any glass bot­tle drinks.

The reg­u­la­tion states: “A per­son who con­tra­venes sub-reg­u­la­tion (1) or (2) com­mits an of­fence and is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of one thou­sand dol­lars and to im­pris­on­ment for six months. Where a per­son is found com­mit­ting an of­fence un­der reg­u­la­tion 3, a po­lice of­fi­cer may, with­out pro­ceed­ing to ar­rest that per­son, seize and take away any glass bot­tle which that per­son has with him.”

It added that a glass bot­tle which is seized shall be for­feit­ed and kept in safe cus­tody by the po­lice un­til dis­posed of “in such man­ner as the Min­is­ter may di­rect.”

The reg­u­la­tions will take ef­fect at 4 am on Feb­ru­ary 20, 2023 and ex­pire at mid­night on Feb­ru­ary 21, 2023.

The doc­u­ment, which was signed by Cab­i­net Sec­re­tary Cheryl Hem­lee, de­fines a ‘Car­ni­val event’ as “an event oc­cur­ring dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val in Port-of-Spain, St James, San Juan, San­ta Cruz, Mara­cas Bay, Tu­na­puna, Arou­ca, Ari­ma, San Rafael, Mara­cas St Joseph, San­gre Grande, Rio Claro, Ma­yaro, Ch­agua­nas, Cou­va, Freeport, San Fer­nan­do, Princes Town, Fyz­abad, Siparia, Pe­nal, Ce­dros, Point Fortin, La Brea, San­ta Flo­ra, Scar­bor­ough, Crown Point and Rox­bor­ough.”

It de­fines a “pub­lic place” as “any high­way, street, road, bridge, square, park or oth­er open space, oth­er than a beach, to which the pub­lic has, or is gen­er­al­ly or con­di­tion­al­ly grant­ed ac­cess” and the term ‘vicin­i­ty’ means a ra­dius of 100 me­tres from the Car­ni­val event.

Hinds: Reg­u­la­tions in­tro­duced for safe­ty rea­sons

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia fol­low­ing Cab­i­net’s de­ci­sion yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Hinds said it had every­thing to do with na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

“It was a recog­ni­tion that these glass bot­tles have been and can be used to very in­ju­ri­ous ef­fect by hu­man be­ings up­on each oth­er in pub­lic places in the fes­tiv­i­ties of Car­ni­val, which in­cludes the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol, so it re­al­ly is to re­duce the pos­si­bil­i­ty of in­jury and harm in the event that tem­pers flare,” Hinds said, adding, “It is sim­ply a mea­sure on be­half of the peo­ple to min­imise ex­po­sure to the vi­o­lence that we are very ca­pa­ble of.”

He added, “I’ve seen men take bot­tles by the neck, crack it on a wall or on a pave­ment and now have a dag­ger in their hand you know.

The Min­is­ter said the Po­lice Ser­vice has been briefed on the reg­u­la­tion.

The ban on glass bot­tles for Car­ni­val was first pro­posed by for­mer Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing in 2012 but it took eight years be­fore it was fi­nal­ly in­tro­duced in 2020.

Ma­jor bev­er­age man­u­fac­tur­ers chose then to dis­trib­ute their prod­ucts in tin cans and plas­tic bot­tles in­stead.

Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions were can­celled in 2021 be­cause of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and a scaled-down ver­sion known as ‘Taste of Car­ni­val’ was held in 2022 with­out a pa­rade of the bands or oth­er Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day ac­tiv­i­ties.

Oth­er Car­ni­val reg­u­la­tions

Cab­i­net al­so rub­ber-stamped two reg­u­la­tions re­lat­ed to Car­ni­val yes­ter­day - the Pub­lic Fes­ti­vals (Car­ni­val) Or­der, 2023 (Le­gal No­tice No. 48 of 2023) and the Car­ni­val Reg­u­la­tions, 2023 (Le­gal No­tice No. 49 of 2023).

The Pub­lic Fes­ti­vals (Car­ni­val) Or­der of­fi­cial­ly de­clared that Car­ni­val, 2023 shall com­mence at 4 am on Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 20, 2023, and shall cease at mid­night on Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 21, 2023.

The Car­ni­val Reg­u­la­tions, 2023 out­lines what can and can­not be done dur­ing Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

It in­cludes a clause pro­hibit­ing any­one from dress­ing in the uni­form pre­scribed for the Po­lice Ser­vice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice, Sup­ple­men­tal, City or Bor­ough Po­lice, Fire Ser­vice, Prison Ser­vice or any unit of the De­fence Force, un­less the per­son is a serv­ing mem­ber of those or­gan­i­sa­tions.

Any cos­tume that can be mis­tak­en for the uni­form of those units is al­so banned.

This reg­u­la­tion al­so pro­hibits the wear­ing of cos­tumes that por­tray or rep­re­sent any de­ity of a liv­ing re­li­gion, or the por­tray­al of any event in a man­ner like­ly to bring in­to dis­re­pute, ridicule or con­tempt any re­li­gion prac­tised in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Oth­er claus­es pro­hib­it any­one from in­dulging in be­hav­iour or ges­tures which are im­moral, lewd or of­fen­sive, from dri­ving or trav­el­ling in a ve­hi­cle when masked or fa­cial­ly dis­guised, and from dri­ving or dis­play­ing any ve­hi­cle dis­guised as a tank, an ar­moured mil­i­tary ve­hi­cle, a rock­et-launch­er, ar­tillery or a war­ship. —with re­port­ing by Chester Sam­bra­no