Her Ex­cel­len­cy, Paula-Mae Weekes, Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go has of­fi­cial­ly de­clared the be­gin­ning and end­ing days and times for Car­ni­val 2020.

In an of­fi­cial re­lease is­sued to­day, the Pres­i­dent made the fol­low­ing de­c­la­ra­tions in ac­cor­dance with:

1. Sec­tion 47 C (2) of the Liquor Li­cens­es Act, the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val shall com­mence at 8:00 a.m. on Sun­day 9th Feb­ru­ary, 2020 and end­ing at mid­night on Tues­day 25th Feb­ru­ary, 2020; and

2. Sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Hol­i­days and Fes­ti­vals Act, Chap­ter 19:05, has de­clared that Car­ni­val 2020 shall com­mence at 4:00 a.m. on Mon­day 24th Feb­ru­ary, 2020 and shall cease at mid­night on Tues­day 25th Feb­ru­ary, 2020.

The Reg­u­la­tions pre­scribe cer­tain be­hav­iours, this and every Car­ni­val, and con­tra­ven­tion of any of them could lead to stiff penal­ties. On sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion, the guilty par­ty must pay “a fine not ex­ceed­ing one thou­sand dol­lars” and be sub­ject “to im­pris­on­ment for six months”.

One such re­stric­tion con­cerns the wear­ing of ap­par­el or cos­tumes that re­sem­ble or rep­re­sent the uni­forms of any mem­ber of the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty forces.

An­oth­er pro­hibits the por­tray­al or mock­ery of any re­li­gion prac­tised in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

There is a reg­u­la­tion con­cern­ing dis­guis­ing of the per­son, or hid­ing one’s iden­ti­ty by cov­er­ing the face in a par­tic­u­lar way.

Sev­er­al of the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern the car­ry­ing and use of weapons; how many peo­ple should ide­al­ly trav­el in a ve­hi­cle; and al­so guides band lead­ers—whether of mas­quer­aders or mu­sic or­ches­tras—on how they should move their mem­ber­ship around on Car­ni­val days.

De­tails of the reg­u­la­tions fol­low…

LE­GAL NO­TICE NO. 29

RE­PUB­LIC OF TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO

PUB­LIC HOL­I­DAYS AND­FES­TI­VALS ACT, CHAP. 19:05

REG­U­LA­TIONS

MADE BY THE PRES­I­DENT UN­DER SEC­TION5 OF THE PUB­LIC HOL­I­DAYS

AND­FES­TI­VALS ACT

THE CAR­NI­VAL REG­U­LA­TIONS, 2020

Ci­ta­tion

1. These Reg­u­la­tions may be cit­ed as the Car­ni­val Reg­u­la­tions, 2020.

In­ter­pre­ta­tion

2. In these Reg­u­la­tions, “leader” means the per­son re­spon­si­ble for the or­gan­i­sa­tion of a band or an or­ches­tra.

Re­stric­tions

A per­son shall not–

(a) ap­pear dressed in–

(i) 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 the Po­lice Ser­vice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice, Sup­ple­men­tal, City or Bor­ough Po­lice, Fire Ser­vice, Prison Ser­vice or any unit of the De­fence Force; or

(ii) any cos­tume which may be mis­tak­en for 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;

(b) por­tray or rep­re­sent or ap­pear wear­ing any cos­tume which por­trays or rep­re­sents, in any man­ner, any de­ity of a liv­ing re­li­gion or por­tray any event in a man­ner like­ly to bring in­to dis­re­pute, ridicule or con­tempt any re­li­gion prac­tised in Trinidad and To­ba­go;

(c) throw any sub­stance, mat­ter or thing like­ly to cause dam­age, in­jury or dis­com­fort;

(d) smear or daub on any oth­er per­son any sub­stance, mat­ter or thing, or with in­tent to in­tim­i­date or to ob­tain from that oth­er per­son any mon­ey or valu­able thing, at­tempt or threat­en to smear or daub on that oth­er per­son any sub­stance, mat­ter or thing;

(e) have in any pub­lic place any ex­posed flame or any ar­ti­cle of an of­fen­sive na­ture;

(f) car­ry any lethal weapon or any ar­ti­cle ca­pa­ble of caus­ing dam­age or in­jury, un­less that per­son is a mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice, Sup­ple­men­tal, City or Bor­ough Po­lice or the De­fence Force, and is on du­ty;

(g) play in any or­ches­tra on the road, un­less the name and ad­dress of the per­son and the name of the or­ches­tra are reg­is­tered in ac­cor­dance with reg­u­la­tion 5;

(h) dri­ve any mo­tor ve­hi­cle when masked or fa­cial­ly dis­guised;

(i) trav­el in any mo­tor ve­hi­cle when masked or fa­cial­ly dis­guised, un­less the ve­hi­cle is li­censed in ac­cor­dance with reg­u­la­tion 6;

(j) sing or re­cite any lewd or of­fen­sive song;

(k) in­dulge in be­hav­iour or ges­tures which are im­moral, lewd or of­fen­sive;

(l) car­ry or use in a deroga­to­ry man­ner the flag or Coat of Arms of Trinidad and To­ba­go or of any oth­er coun­try;

(m) have in his pos­ses­sion or car­ry in any band any­thing re­sem­bling a firearm or am­mu­ni­tion;

(n) car­ry any ex­plo­sive or smoke pro­duc­ing sub­stance or any­thing like­ly to pro­duce smoke; or

(o) dri­ve or dis­play any ve­hi­cle dis­guised as a tank, an ar­moured mil­i­tary ve­hi­cle, a rock­et-launch­er, an ar­tillery or a war­ship.

Chap­ter 16:01

(2) Sec­tion 2 of the Firearms Act ap­plies for the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of such ex­pres­sions as are re­ferred to in sub­para­graphs (m), (n) and (o) and are de­fined in the Act.

Reg­is­tra­tion of Bands

4. The leader of every band–

(a) of more than fifty per­sons, shall reg­is­ter his band not lat­er than 3rd Feb­ru­ary, 2020, with the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent or Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice in charge of the Po­lice Di­vi­sion in which the leader re­sides and on reg­is­tra­tion, the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent or Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice shall as­sign a reg­is­tra­tion num­ber to the band;

(b) shall en­sure that his band is iden­ti­fied by a ban­ner on which the name and reg­is­tra­tion num­ber of the band are in­scribed in a con­spic­u­ous man­ner; and

(c) of more than fifty per­sons, shall pro­duce the cer­tifi­cate of reg­is­tra­tion of the band at the re­quest of any uni­formed mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice, Sup­ple­men­tal, City or Bor­ough Po­lice.

Reg­is­tra­tion of Or­ches­tras

5. (1) The leader of an or­ches­tra shall not al­low his or­ches­tra to play on the road, un­less he has reg­is­tered its name and the names and ad­dress­es of its mem­bers with the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent or Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice in charge of the Po­lice Di­vi­sion in which the leader re­sides and on reg­is­tra­tion, the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent or Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice shall as­sign a reg­is­tra­tion num­ber to the or­ches­tra.

(2) The leader of an or­ches­tra shall en­sure that his or­ches­tra is iden­ti­fied by a ban­ner on both sides of which the name of the or­ches­tra and the reg­is­tra­tion num­ber are in­scribed in a con­spic­u­ous man­ner.

(3) The leader of an or­ches­tra shall pro­duce the cer­tifi­cate of reg­is­tra­tion for the or­ches­tra at the re­quest of any uni­formed mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice, Sup­ple­men­tal, City or Bor­ough Po­lice.

Li­cens­ing of Ve­hi­cles

6. (1) A mo­tor ve­hi­cle shall not be used to con­vey the mem­bers of any or­ches­tra or any per­son who is masked or fa­cial­ly dis­guised, un­less a li­cence has been is­sued by the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent or Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice in charge of the Po­lice Di­vi­sion in which the own­er of the mo­tor ve­hi­cle re­sides.

(2) The own­er of the mo­tor ve­hi­cle shall make an ap­pli­ca­tion for a li­cence not lat­er than 3rd Feb­ru­ary, 2020 and the ap­pli­ca­tion shall con­tain–

(a) the names and ad­dress­es of the per­sons to be con­veyed;

(b) the name of the band to which the per­sons be­long; and

(c) the names and ad­dress­es of the per­sons, not more than three in num­ber, who would be dri­ving the mo­tor ve­hi­cle dur­ing Car­ni­val.

(3) Any mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice, Sup­ple­men­tal, City or Bor­ough Po­lice may stop and search any mo­tor ve­hi­cle in which there is any per­son who is masked or fa­cial­ly dis­guised or may re­quire any per­son in the mo­tor ve­hi­cle to give his name and ad­dress.

Penal­ty

7. Any per­son who, dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val, con­tra­venes any of these Reg­u­la­tions is guilty of an of­fence and li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine not ex­ceed­ing one thou­sand dol­lars and to im­pris­on­ment for six months.

Du­ra­tion

8. These Reg­u­la­tions ap­ply for the pe­ri­od of Car­ni­val 2020 as de­clared un­der sec­tion 5 of the Pub­lic Hol­i­days and Fes­ti­vals Act.