After years of stops, starts and stumbles by successive administrations, swift passage and strict enforcement of laws to prevent unregulated and indiscriminate use of fireworks should be a priority item on this year’s legislative agenda.
Although citizens are yet to hear a definitive statement from Attorney General Reginald Armour on long-awaited laws to regulate the use of fireworks, there are expectations that the promised Bill will finally be laid in Parliament this year.
If AG Armour needed any prompting to push ahead with passage of tougher and more effective laws, the events of New Year’s Day painfully demonstrated the inadequacies of the existing Summary Offences Act Chapter 11:02, Section 99.
Throughout the recent Christmas season, law-abiding citizens all across this country got regular reminders that they are not afforded even the flimsiest of protections under that law, which states: “Any person who throws, casts, sets fire to, or lets off any fireworks within any town, is liable to a fine of $1,000.”
Adding to the problem is the failure of the relevant authorities to consistently enforce the existing laws, as inadequate as they are.
In the absence of enforcement, there were alarming reports, backed up by widely circulated social media videos, of young men in Port-of-Spain shooting off fireworks at one another. In one particularly bizarre incident, a young man appeared to be tied to a lamppost, while other men launched fireworks at his hands to loosen the ties.
This is not harmless fun, or lightheaded revelry, but dangerous mimicry of the gang violence that accounted for most of the 606 murders recorded in the country last year.
There is also the matter of the uncontrolled launching of fireworks sparking a blaze that destroyed three businesses in east Port-of-Spain, as well as citizens traumatised by the noise and countless household pets killed or maimed. And that might just be the tip of the iceberg.
The failure of the government to deliver the promised laws is a serious let down for the citizens, NGOs and interest groups all across T&T that have been appealing for the better part of two decades for implementation of tougher legislation to safeguard the population from the adverse effect of fireworks.
There is a dismal track record dating back to 2003, when there was the failure by the then administration to act on the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission for legislating the use of fireworks.
In June 2018, a Joint Select Committee of Parliament looked into the adverse effects of fireworks and submitted a comprehensive list of recommendations that seem to have been completely ignored.
Hopefully, that will not be the fate of the most recent work on the issue by the Law Reform Commission, a policy paper, Fireworks: A Review of the Law, that underscores the urgent need to strictly control the sale and use of fireworks.
However, just in case the authorities have not been persuaded by these many reports and recommendations, they might be swayed by the distressing account of a Diego Martin resident who called in to a CNC3 talk show and said the noise from the pyrotechnics and explosives was “... like Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan all in one.”
Too much time has been wasted. The laying in Parliament and enacting of fireworks laws must be done in quick time to spare citizens another season of unnecessary distress and loss.