00:00The House of Representatives has adjourned to next Wednesday, November 26th,
00:04when the Stand Your Ground legislation will be debated.
00:09The latest joint training exercises involving the U.S. military and members of the Trinidad
00:14and Tobago Defense Force were due to end today. The training which started last weekend has
00:19resulted in more questions than answers about the timing and the ultimate goal of the military
00:25exercise. Even today in Parliament, there was no comment from the government when the opposition
00:30asked during question time, quote, was authorization granted to the United States to conduct operations
00:36in TNT territory, as demonstrated by videos, satellite imagery, photos, and media reports
00:42of U.S. warships in the Gulf of Paria and military aircraft in TT airspace. The Defense Minister
00:48sought parliamentary protection.
00:50Until the member can't convince me as to how disclosure, either way, is in public interest,
00:58I would have no choice but to rely on the protections afforded by standing order.
01:05The member for Aruka Maloney proposed a supplemental question, which was initially queried by the
01:11House Speaker.
01:12I think we all agreed that the invocation of the public interest immunity exemption is an
01:20absolute exemption. So what possible question could you conjure up on the invocation of the
01:31public interest immunity exception?
01:33The question was eventually allowed.
01:39Thank you very much, kindly, Mr. Speaker. But Mr. Speaker, the question to the minister
01:43is whether or not he intends to perform his duty as a minister in this parliament.
01:49That was, of course, to the ire of the Speaker, Jagdao Singh.
01:53It's an absolute prohibition. So where it is invoked, whether you think it's an abuse or
02:03whether whatever views you may have one way or the other, the parliament is not the place
02:09to air those concerns. So you come now and I blame myself for it because you've lured me.
02:19No, no, I blame myself for it because you've lured me. You've lured me into thinking that you
02:30had a legitimate question.
02:32Only to be told, it was a grand deception to make a speech.
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