Less than a year af­ter ad­min­is­ter­ing the oath of of­fice to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s top ju­di­cial of­fi­cer, Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark will to­day stand along­side Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh and for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan as re­cip­i­ents of the na­tion’s high­est award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT).

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing on cit­i­zens to put the safe­ty and fu­ture of their chil­dren ahead of per­son­al and par­ti­san in­ter­ests, while Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is warn­ing that democ­ra­cy is un­der at­tack as Trinidad and To­ba­go marks 50 years as a re­pub­lic.

Cul­tur­al icon and Moko Jumbie Mas­ter Ju­nior Bis­nath, whose life’s work has kept hun­dreds of young peo­ple off the streets, will re­ceive the Hum­ming­bird Medal Bronze for his con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie has ro­bust­ly de­fend­ed Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill in the Sen­ate, re­ject­ing claims that the leg­is­la­tion is root­ed in racism or re­sem­bles apartheid and in­sist­ing that any lim­i­ta­tions on in­di­vid­ual rights are jus­ti­fied by the threat posed by vi­o­lent crime and gang ac­tiv­i­ty.