St George North MP Criticizes Opposition Forces Over Government's 'Peace Programme'

St George North Member of Parliament and senior trade unionist Toni Moore has lashed out at opposition forces in a broadside against critics of government’s controversial “Peace Programme”.

The MP was speaking in the House of Assembly on Tuesday during debate on a resolution on the Report of the Joint Select Committee (Standing) on Social Sector and Environment on Child Justice Bill 2023.

Moore told the House she was focused on the proposed legislation’s provision for diversion to keep children who have come into conflict with the law to be diverted from being caught up in a life of criminality.

She told the Lower Chamber that her work on the committee provided evidence that many of the crimes that juveniles committed were “low level offences” which could be corrected with the right intervention and “proper direction”.

It was during her contribution that Moore, who heads the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) cautioned the MPs to “beware of disorder” in light of what was heard from the Opposition over the weekend.

“If we get in the minds of those people we are trying to course correct that there is still a view out there that no matter what good is being done as an intervention, it is not good enough because there is a characterisation of you as being the same yesterday as you are today, then the well-meaning efforts can be undermined”.

During the Marcia Weekes Show’s Roadside Parliament on Sunday at Hastings, Christ Church, Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne accused government of using tax dollars to pay killers and criminals to keep the peace.

City MP Corey Lane has denied the accusation.

Media reports indicate the Attorney General’s Office is investigating unaccounted for funds from a $150 000 payment related to the National Peace Programme.

Moore used the word “anarchists” to describe people, she said preached “democracy but if you study the actions, that they are only aimed at promoting disorder in the country”.

The BWU general secretary told the chamber that there were several pieces of legislation that will not meet with the approval of everyone.

She called on her colleagues to go out into the communities and tell their constituents and speak about the “merits of the legislation” as people may not be listening to what was being said in the House of Assembly but were listening to the radio call-in programmes and “the Roadside Parliament”.

In fact, Moore told fellow MPs it was their responsibility to go out and spread the word to different segments of society they came into contact with about what the suite of legislation was intended to do.

She charged that the ultimate objective of government’s action was to protect the country’s children.

(IMC)