Content warning: This article contains descriptions of coercive control and domestic violence
Coercive control is a deliberate pattern of abuse that can isolate a partner from their friends and family, restrict their movement, and see them being monitored.
It can include emotional and psychological manipulation along with social, financial and technology-facilitated abuse.
But while those working to prevent domestic violence in Australia agree coercive control needs to be urgently addressed, there is no consensus regarding how best to tackle it.
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Some of those working to support survivors of domestic violence worry about the unintended consequences that criminalising behaviour may have for women - particularly those from marginalised communities.
KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY and COREY CONNELLY
Economist Dr Vanus James has described the Draft Constitution Amendment Bill (Tobago Self Government Bill) as a constitutional illusion.
James, a Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) supporter, said the draft bill, currently made public by Parliament s Joint Select Committee for consideration, does not allow Tobagonians the equality they desire.
In a recent interview, James told Newsday the promises in the explanatory note, that Tobagonians will be able to make their own choices and manage their own affairs, are blocked by many specific provisions of the bill.
He said, “Indeed, the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill is a kind of constitutional illusion designed to fool the unwary Tobagonian into seeing two things that are not really there – equality of status and self-determination.”
Charles: Reject JSC draft bills on Tobago self government cnc3.co.tt - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cnc3.co.tt Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland. File photo by Sureash Cholai
PORT OF SPAIN South MP Keith Scotland said he was willing to serve in any capacity on Parliament s Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security.
Newsday contacted him about the vacancy arising when the JSC s former chairman Fitzgerald Hinds was made Minister of National Security in a Cabinet reshuffle after the death of Energy Minister Franklin Khan.
The JSC members are Scotland, Randall Mitchell, Nigel de Freitas and Ayanna Webster-Roy (Government), Dr Roodal Moonilal and Jayanti Lutchmedial (Opposition) and Paul Richards (Independent), with a new government-named elected MP due to be appointed to replace Hinds.
Indarsingh: Pupils left behind by online learning
Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh. -
COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh bitterly complained that after a year of the covid19 pandemic some pupils have been left behind by their inability to access online learning due to a lack of electronic devices and/or internet connectivity. He was part of Parliament s Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Social Services and Public Administration chaired by Paul Richards which on Wednesday held a virtual sitting to meet the Telecommunication Authority of TT (TATT), Digicel, Flow and TSTT/BMobile.
Indarsingh lamented that 35,000 pupils have no devices, while an unnamed school principal had complained that the State had not supplied internet access at her school even as she asked the MP to find a private service provider.