Scotland: Special Operations Bill a ‘sprawling assault’ on citizens’ rights

Akash Sama­roo

Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land has brand­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill a “sprawl­ing as­sault” on cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, warn­ing that it could trans­form Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to a “po­lice state” and sub­ject peo­ple liv­ing in crime-af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties to a less­er stan­dard of free­dom.

Scot­land made the re­marks dur­ing de­bate on the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, 2026, in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day, ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of ex­ploit­ing pub­lic fears about crime to jus­ti­fy weak­en­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al safe­guards.