Communications bill debate resumes in Senate

DEBATE on the Interception of Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will continue in the Senate when it sits at the Red House from 1.30 pm on Tuesday.

The intention of the legislation is to allow for the interception of communications from prisons and vehicles used to transport prisoners and for communications to be recorded in a prison or a vehicle used to transport prisoners.

The bill also seeks to provide for police to apply for a warrant to obtain stored communication from a telecommunications service provider and to also obtain stored data and to disclose the stored communication and the stored data as specified under a warrant.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi opened debate on the bill in the Senate on February 11.

The Opposition Leader has said the Opposition will not support the legislation in its current form.

At a news conference at the Red House on February 7, Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the legislation also widens the use of intercepted information from the use in criminal matters in the parent bill to now include any proceeding such as a civil lawsuit or a tribunal proceedings.

“Where the State can now intercept communication, they are now at a superior advantage compared to the ordinary litigant,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar also claimed, “The media will be severely impacted. Confidential media sources will be impacted upon. That is Big Brother really watching you.”

The House of Representatives sits at the Red House from 1.30 pm on Wednesday. On the House's agenda are motions to adopt the report of the joint select committee on the tax package and approve the Sexual Offences (Amendment to Schedule 1) Order, 2020.

Time permitting, debate will begin on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Age of Retirement of Judges, Interpretation and Chief Judicial Officers) Bill, 2019.