A high-stakes political clash has erupted in Trinidad and Tobago after Opposition Member of Parliament for Port of Spain South Keith Scotland, SC, issued a bold public challenge to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, demanding she repeat damaging allegations about his professional conduct in a high-profile legal case outside the protection of parliamentary privilege.
Speaking to journalists outside Parliament this week, flanked by fellow Opposition lawmakers, Scotland pushed back forcefully against claims the Prime Minister leveled during a House of Representatives debate on the Standing Finance Committee’s adoption report. The allegations center on Scotland’s legal work handling a debt claim brought by the state-owned Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) against local company Flavorite Foods Ltd. Scotland has labeled the Prime Minister’s remarks “very egregious attacks” on his professional reputation and firmly denied any misconduct in the case.
After reviewing the Prime Minister’s claims in the hours following the parliamentary debate, Scotland systematically refuted each allegation, laying out clear documentary evidence to back his denial of wrongdoing. The case hinges on whether proper legal procedures were followed for T&TEC’s claim against Flavorite Foods, and Scotland outlined three core points to support his position.
First, he confirmed there is no official documentation that bears his signature confirming any required court filing was never submitted to the court. Second, he rejected the claim that the case was invalid due to exceeding the statutory limitation period, noting that the claim was officially refiled with the court in 2024, and the court has already stamped a request for entry of default judgment after Flavorite Foods failed to enter a formal response to the claim. Scotland also pointed out that Trinidad and Tobago’s courts suspended all statutory limitation periods for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, a critical legal detail he says the Prime Minister overlooked in her allegations.
Scotland explained that after his legal team completed the initial refiling and default judgment application, the client took over the case files, meaning any subsequent developments are not the responsibility of his team. He also noted that he suspended his active legal practice during a previous term serving in the country’s Cabinet, further clarifying the timeline of his involvement.
The Opposition MP stressed that he holds full documentary proof to corroborate every part of his account, including court records confirming the refiled claim, the submitted default judgment application, and an official query from the court registrar addressing outstanding procedural points in the judgment filing — information that has not previously been made public. Scotland accused the ruling government of orchestrating the attacks to damage his reputation in retaliation for his ongoing public criticism of injustice facing Trinbagonian citizens and parliamentary staff, vowing that the efforts to silence him would not succeed.
“They will not silence my voice with attacks on my character, attacks on me and, by extension, my family,” Scotland said, adding that he would continue to speak out against unfair treatment of the public. “I want to set the record straight. What we will not do is that I will not be silenced. I will stand against injustice meted out against any parliamentary staff, meted out against people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Responding to questions about whether all required procedural steps were completed before he ended his active involvement in the case, Scotland confirmed that to his knowledge, all initial issues with the claim were resolved, the claim was refiled within the legally allowed timeframe, and the default judgment application was properly submitted. He also noted that he plans to reach out directly to T&TEC leadership to clarify the full details of the case and resolve any lingering confusion.