At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie is one of three par­lia­men­tar­i­ans re­ferred to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee, which House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh is ex­pect­ed to rule on.

While the sub­jects of the re­fer­rals were not iden­ti­fied, Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Op­po­si­tion MP Colm Im­bert and Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath al­so made re­fer­rals.

Be­fore the sec­ond read­ing of the Home In­va­sion (Self De­fence of Prop­er­ty) Bill, 2025, com­mon­ly re­ferred to as the stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion, Singh said: “I have re­ceived three mat­ters of priv­i­leges by mem­bers in or­der in which I re­ceived them, for Arou­ca/Lopinot, Diego Mar­tin North/East and Cou­va South. I re­ceived those mat­ters, the last two at one o’clock and one at 11 am. Those I have not had time to con­sid­er; I will de­fer my de­ci­sion on whether or not it meets the thresh­old at a lat­er date.”

Dur­ing de­bate on the Vir­tu­al As­sets and Vir­tu­al As­sets Ser­vice Providers Bill, 2025, in a hot mic in­ci­dent, Je­re­mie was record­ed say­ing: “Hush yuh mouth, boy. Go and take yuh lil man.”

There was no clear de­c­la­ra­tion about whom the com­ment was di­rect­ed at, and when asked out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Je­re­mie chose not to an­swer and walked away when ap­proached by Guardian Me­dia.

As he wrapped up the de­bate yes­ter­day, Je­re­mie said he was not afraid of be­ing sent to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee.

“Mr Speak­er, on a per­son­al note, I’ve nev­er been re­ferred to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee. I’ve been here since 2003, and I wel­come my vis­it to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee, if so be it, be­cause I wish to face my ac­cuser and ex­plain the truth be­hind it,” he said.

It was not im­me­di­ate­ly clear who the oth­er com­plaints were against.

Dur­ing an Op­po­si­tion me­dia con­fer­ence on Tues­day, Im­bert said he was con­sid­er­ing whether to re­fer Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for her ut­ter­ance to “cuff him down”, with Im­bert lat­er ac­cus­ing her of threat­en­ing phys­i­cal vi­o­lence.

In a brief but sharp ex­change dur­ing the sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar told him, “Don’t point at me.” Im­bert replied, “Why not?” prompt­ing the Prime Min­is­ter to re­spond, “Be­cause I’ll cuff you down.”

Com­ment­ing on the in­ci­dent over the week­end, Padarath ex­plained that on Fri­day, Im­bert kept taunt­ing the Prime Min­is­ter, who had no choice but to de­fend her­self. He added that the Op­po­si­tion can take what­ev­er av­enues deemed nec­es­sary in seek­ing re­dress, but said an apol­o­gy will not be forth­com­ing. — J LA VENDE