The Prime Minister says security and safety are two major issues with which Canada can assist the Caribbean Community (Caricom). Dr Rowley said the crime situation in the region was worsening with the proliferation of arms and ammunitions contributing to the crisis.
Speaking during the session on regional security and Haiti during the Canada-Caricom summit in Ottawa on Wednesday, Rowley said there has been an explosion in the use of illegal arms and ammunition.
“The data now shows that we’re losing by violent killings about 15 people a day in the Caricom region, nearly all of it by the use of firearms. There’s a proliferation in recent times of assault weapons, so the instances of shootings usually end up with multiple casualties, many deaths. Because of the operationalisation of gangs and the relative ease of which the arms and ammunition are coming into the region, gangs have been arming themselves more and more effectively and efficiently. They have become better killing machines, to the point now where they pose a threat to the state itself.”
He said in TT recently there had been two major arms finds, including 50-calibre weapons and armour piercing ammunition.
“So people are arming themselves to carry out their criminal business, largely the drug trade and of course the human trafficking trade. In talking to Canada, it’s not the same conversation we’d have with the US, because we’d tell them straight that they are producing these things and they’re easy to get.”
He listed five areas in which Canada’s cooperation could benefit the region. He said the first was Caricom countries needed to be able to patrol their coastal areas with small craft, which were difficult to acquire immediately.
“I’m amazed how difficult it is to get small craft for littoral zone patrolling, but Canada has a long coastline, you have good business and it may very well be that in conversation with your people we might be able to find some assistance in that. We’re not talking here about handouts, we’re talking about actually getting the equipment to be able to help us patrol our littoral zones.”
Another issue was that of the effectiveness of the police and the need for training.
“We have to admit the criminal element engaged in this violence using the arms and ammunition have grown their ability faster than the police have been able to cope with it. We’ll need improved police training and more effective policing, and this is an area where we believe Canada can help us with, because your management of policing is something quite significant.
“Again, collaboration, cooperation and training the trainer and getting some assistance with our middle to upper-level management police officers to bring about better management of the criminal on-surge, that would definitely help.”
Rowley said cybersecurity was now an imperative as a significant amount of crime and criminality was carried out in cyberspace, and he said collaboration with Canadian experts could increase Caricom’s ability to cope with the threat.
He said the col
