The coali­tion of 13 in­de­pen­dent trade unions and the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) have sharply crit­i­cised Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­fence of con­tro­ver­sial State of Emer­gency reg­u­la­tions re­strict­ing pub­lic as­sem­blies with­in 500 me­tres of 15 des­ig­nat­ed lo­ca­tions, ar­gu­ing that democ­ra­cy can­not be re­duced to a cal­cu­la­tion of land space.

The back­lash fol­lowed re­marks by Per­sad-Bisses­sar in Par­lia­ment on Wednes­day, in which she dis­missed claims that the reg­u­la­tions in­fringe on cit­i­zens’ rights to protest.

Re­spond­ing to a let­ter de­liv­ered by union rep­re­sen­ta­tives out­side the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the protest it­self demon­strat­ed that cit­i­zens were still free to as­sem­ble.