Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is dis­miss­ing a com­plaint filed against her by for­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne, over what he de­scribes as re­peat­ed racial slurs post­ed on her Face­book ac­count.

Browne has lodged a for­mal com­plaint with the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion, al­leg­ing that Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­peat­ed use of the word “c***e” was in­sult­ing, of­fen­sive and in­tend­ed to in­cite an­i­mos­i­ty and ha­tred.

In a Face­book post an­nounc­ing the move, Browne said that since Au­gust 1, the Prime Min­is­ter has “re­peat­ed­ly and in­ces­sant­ly used dis­gust­ing racial slurs” through her pub­lic Face­book ac­count. He claimed the com­ments were “de­signed to in­cite an­i­mos­i­ty and ha­tred” and said peo­ple from var­i­ous eth­nic back­grounds had spo­ken out against them.

Browne said the com­plaint was filed be­cause he be­lieves the Prime Min­is­ter’s con­duct is in breach of the laws of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

But when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day on Browne’s com­plaint, Per­sad-Bisses­sar dis­missed both Browne and the EOC.

She said: “Just two non-en­ti­ties who in­flu­ence ab­solute­ly no one mak­ing com­ments to be in the news. I have no in­ter­est in the com­ments from ei­ther of them.”

The EOC, how­ev­er, con­firmed that the com­plaint has been for­mal­ly lodged.

Chair­man Ian Roach yes­ter­day told Guardian Me­dia that it will now go through the nor­mal process, as would any oth­er com­plaint be­fore the com­mis­sion. Roach stressed that the com­mis­sion is not a court of law. He ex­plained that its role is to in­ves­ti­gate com­plaints and fa­cil­i­tate con­cil­i­a­tion be­tween the par­ties. Ac­cord­ing to Roach, the law pro­vides a spe­cif­ic pro­ce­dure which will now be en­gaged in this case. He said if the mat­ter is re­solved be­tween the par­ties through the con­cil­i­a­tion process, it would not pro­ceed any fur­ther.

How­ev­er, he said it is on­ly if the com­plaint is not re­solved be­tween the par­ties, then on­ly with con­sent of the ag­griev­ed par­ty is the mat­ter then re­ferred to the tri­bunal for a hear­ing and de­ter­mi­na­tion as a high court. The de­vel­op­ment puts the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­cent so­cial me­dia com­ments un­der for­mal scruti­ny from mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion and cer­tain quar­ters in so­ci­ety. How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar main­tains that she does not in­tend to give the com­plaint or its pro­po­nents po­lit­i­cal weight.