Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh has de­scribed the re­cent in­ci­dent in­volv­ing the MV Pel­i­can as “com­pli­cat­ed,” and that he has been ad­vised by lawyers not to speak about it.
The pub­lic has been ask­ing ques­tions as to why charges for breach­ing the pub­lic health reg­u­la­tions were not laid against the or­ga­niz­er who is the son of a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and 100 pa­trons since the po­lice swept down on the MV Pel­i­can on Box­ing night.

On Wednes­day, jour­nal­ists sought clar­i­fi­ca­tion over the in­ci­dent from the Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, un­der whose name the reg­u­la­tions are is­sued.
How­ev­er, the Min­is­ter said the mat­ter is com­pli­cat­ed and he has been in­struct­ed not to speak about it.

“I think the is­sue that has been raised is one that needs in­ter­pre­ta­tion and that is why I said the mat­ter is cur­rent­ly be­fore the DPP and that is why I have been ad­vised by the lawyers not to say too much be­cause it is be­fore the DPP and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice,” he said at Wednes­day press con­fer­ence.

Ques­tioned about a let­ter or­ga­niz­er Adri­an Scoon sent to him about his in­tent to host the event, Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh said no per­mis­sion was sought from him for Scoon to pro­ceed but was in­formed about the Safe Zone event.

“The let­ter in­formed me that they were do­ing this so let me clear­ly state, un­der sec­tion 8 of the pub­lic health rules…once you down­load the (safe zone) poster that you put up, that is all you need to do and you have agreed to op­er­ate as a safe zone,” he said.
“The min­is­ter nor the Min­istry does not give per­mis­sion or au­tho­riza­tion to op­er­ate as a safe zone. The let­ter did not ask per­mis­sion, the let­ter in­formed me that they were go­ing to op­er­ate as a safe zone.”

Deyals­ingh cit­ed Reg­u­la­tion 8 mul­ti­ple times when ques­tioned about the in­ci­dent. While the reg­u­la­tion does, in fact, cir­cum­vent the need for the Min­is­ter’s sign-off for in­di­vid­ual safe zones, it does not give per­mis­sion for a par­ty boat to op­er­ate as a safe zone.

“The fol­low­ing busi­ness­es may be open to con­duct op­er­a­tions as safe zones and pro­vide ser­vices to the pub­lic where they meet the re­quire­ments set out in sub-reg­u­la­tion(2):
(a) restau­rants; (b) bars; (c) a com­mon gam­ing house, bet­ting pool or of­fice li­censed un­der the Gam­bling and Bet­ting Act; (d) a cin­e­ma or the­atre li­censed un­der the Cin­e­mato­graph Act; (e) a pri­vate mem­bers’ club li­censed un­der the Reg­is­tra­tion of Clubs Act; (f) a the­atre un­der the The­atres and Dance­halls Act; (g) gyms and fit­ness stu­dios; (h) wa­ter­parks; and (i) pub­lic swim­ming pools.”
Reg­u­la­tion 4 (1)(b) al­so pro­hibits par­ty boats from op­er­at­ing.
“For the pur­pos­es of con­trol­ling and pre­vent­ing the spread of the 2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-nCoV), it shall be an of­fense, dur­ing the pe­ri­od spec­i­fied in reg­u­la­tion 19, for any per­son to– (b) op­er­ate a par­ty boat, boat tour or night­club.”

Re­porter: Rishard Khan