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For­mer Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell has crit­i­cised Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin over a me­dia re­lease sent to the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ES­CTT), call­ing it poor­ly timed and dis­re­spect­ful.

Ben­jamin’s state­ment, is­sued days be­fore African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, took aim at the ES­CTT’s rel­e­vance, plan­ning and role in the na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tion.

Mitchell said the tone of the re­lease was scathing and amount­ed to a pub­lic scold­ing of one of the coun­try’s longest-stand­ing cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions.