http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Vernellas-obsession-with-Rowleys-past-297905701.htmlVernella’s obsession with Rowley’s past
By Analysis by RIA TAITT Political Editor
Story Created: Mar 28, 2015 at 9:07 PM ECT
Story Updated: Mar 28, 2015 at 9:15 PM ECT
Last Wednesday’s historic debate in the House of Representatives on Government’s no-confidence motion in Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley was not the first time Minister Vernella Alleyne-Toppin had raised the situation of rape, for which she demanded Keith Rowley give an account.
Alleyne-Toppin had addressed the issue in fairly graphic detail in at least three previous contributions in Parliament. There were several common themes on each occasion—a teacher at Roxborough Secondary, a dean of discipline who had kidnapped and raped a pupil whose aunt was his landlord and who was related in some way to the minister.
In her contribution on the Children’s Bill, on March 9, 2012, Alleyne-Toppin focused her whole presentation on teachers who abused children, saying she had both professional and personal knowledge of this unfortunate practice.
“I am saying again that in my own family, my cousin’s education was brutally cut off by a teacher who went on to university and ran out of Tobago.... She is my cousin, she carries my name and she carries my blood. Our family was devastated because the child’s aunt was boarding the teacher and cooked for him. When the child went to deliver a meal to the teacher, he raped her. She got pregnant and this child had a child,” she said.
“I am not talking about allegations, about ‘it is alleged’...I am talking about persons in this country who
have gone to high office with those things hanging over them. I am talking about one teacher, in particular, who violated all the schoolgirls and every time he violated a student, he burnt her leg with a cigarette butt and said: ‘That is the mark of the beast’. These statements were given no play in the media at the time but are recorded in Hansard.
Alleyne-Toppin went on to state
the statute of limitations does not run out on paedophilia. “My family could still bring a lawsuit against the teacher.”
In the same debate, she pointed out Rowley taught at Roxborough Secondary and was the dean of discipline there.
Referring to a song by Valentino, she cited its words: “The Trinidadian, the ambitious guy with the jacket and tie who does walk the road and hold up he head high, you will be shocked to know where that ambitious fella head does go.”
She ended her contribution by saying, “People in glass houses must not throw stones”.
On May 21, 2013, Alleyne-Toppin, speaking on a motion of no confidence in the Government, brought to the Parliament by Rowley, waded into the Opposition Leader. She then referred to the story of a “man, a teacher, a dean of discipline” who violated a young girl bringing the lunch that her aunt had cooked because he was a boarder. “He kidnapped her, kept her hostage for four hours and raped her.”
She was speaking around 11 p.m. When People’s National Movement (PNM) MPs Donna Cox and Amery Browne, who were present, raised objections which were not sustained by the Speaker on the point of rele-
vance, Alleyne-Toppin said she received the information in an e-mail, similar to the e-mails received by Rowley which made allegations against top office-holders. It was in this debate Rowley had made the emailgate revelations.
She continued, in reference to the rape, “Mr Speaker, would you then say that you could have full confidence in this individual in the story, were he to become a Member of Parliament? How could you now have confidence in him?
Were he now to become
a person in the Parliament who is striving to be a prime minister, could you then have confidence in that person?”
As recently as January 22 this year, speaking on the motion to approve the foster care regulations, Alleyne-Toppin found the opportunity to squeeze in the story of the “rape and kidnap of this a minor and the abandonment of her
and her offspring”. She noted pointedly: “A paedophile cannot enter Canada.” Rowley’s son and his mother live in Canada.
Last Wednesday, speaking on the motion of no confidence in Rowley, Alleyne-Toppin once again returned to the topic.
She referred to the “niece of Mrs Ufema Grey, better known as Tantie Gremie” and showed a large picture of the house of Grey, whose address she gave in the Parliament as “Chapel Street in Charlotteville” where a teacher used to board.
In posing questions for Rowley to answer, she referred to the niece, “the unsuspecting girl” who was “kidnapped and kept detained for four hours against her will”. And, she noted, “the inappropriate evil encounter” produced a “boy child”. “And I am asking these questions, not from any stories,” she continued, “...I am asking...because my name is Vernella Alleyne by birth. This is my name...I am speaking to circumstances that involve my family.”
Roselyn Alleyne, in an interview with the Express on Thursday, confirmed Ufema Grey was her deceased aunt. In categorically denying the allegations made by Alleyne-Toppin,
Roselyn said she (Roselyn) had received texts on Wednesday night from Trinidad, from people telling her Alleyne-Toppin “had talked about me and my child” in the Parliament.
Alleyne-Toppin, during the debate, had in fact referred to a Newsday report which mentioned Garth Alleyne was the son of Keith Rowley “from a previous relationship”. Alleyne-Toppin then stated: “Mr Speaker, we must submit all records to scrutiny. We need to know of the so-called previous relationship mentioned in that article...It is important for the nation to know all of our stories, past and present, if we must be parliamentarians.”
On Friday, in the wake of the public furore over her statements and following the interview with Roselyn Alleyne, the person involved in the “previous relationship” with Rowley which had produced his son, Garth, to which Vernella Alleyne-Toppin referred in Parliament, the minister issued a statement, emphasising she never called Roselyn Alleyne’s name. She concluded, therefore, the responses by Roselyn Alleyne in an interview with this reporter were based on things that were never said.
The release stated: “It is not clear whether many of the things said in the article emanate from the writer of the article or the person she purportedly interviewed.” She added: “MP Alleyne-Toppin is of the firm belief that the author of the article, Ria Taitt, and, by extension, the Trinidad Express, did not exercise due diligence regarding facts surrounding the issue.”
The minister therefore called on the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) to address “this unacceptable practice of its members”.
Nowhere in the article was it ever stated Alleyne-Toppin actually called the name “Roselyn Alleyne” during the debate. But based on the reference to Mrs Ufema—Tantie Gremie, who is Roselyn’s deceased aunt, the picture of the house and address and the naming of Garth Alleyne, the son of Roselyn, and references by Alleyne-Toppin to her maiden name (“Alleyne”) and her claims of her family relationship, the Express published the interview.
All the contributions in which Alleyne Toppin dealt with the rape issue came after Rowley exposed her misuse of the Government’s credit card in Parliament in March 2012.