PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — A junior Government minister has offered a conditional apology over remarks she made in the Parliament suggesting that Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley was born as a result of rape.

But in a statement issued late Thursday, state minister in the Ministry of the People and Social Development Vernella Alleyne-Toppin said, while she unreservedly apologised to everyone who felt uncomfortable or outraged because of parts of the statement she made in Parliament, her questions to Rowley still needed to be answered.

“I will not allow Dr Rowley to use public outrage to hide from the duty he has to answer these questions and put deep and frightening suspicions to rest once and for all,” she said in the statement.

Alleyne-Toppin, speaking during the motion of no-confidence against the Opposition leader filed by the Government on Wednesday, said: “One day a young girl went to take lunch for her father in a coalspit.

“When she got there, her father had gone to change his clothes. It is a true story. She, however, met her father’s best friend and co-worker, alone in the coalspit. This young girl was then raped by her father’s best friend. The product today is the aspirant to lofty office,” Alleyne-Toppin said, adding, “Mr Speaker, can you imagine this mother carrying this pain and shame for nine months and the impact it had on the unborn child?”

In her apology, the Tobago East representative said that her statement was not intended to cause pain or suffering, or to cause people to reopen old wounds of trauma they may have at some time experienced.

“I do, however, hold firmly to the view that incidents such as these, happening in our own country, must never be swept under the carpet. As difficult as it is, these are conversations we must be having as a people if we are to protect young girls from experiencing this kind of horrific violation.

“… And while I apologise from the heart to anyone who felt hurt by my statements, I intend to stand my ground and will insist that questions that have been asked of the leader of the Opposition must be answered. Anyone who seeks to hold the top office of prime minister must not have such questions that are unanswered, as it questions the depth of character and the emotional intelligence that will influence this person’s decisions that will impact on 1.3 million people.”

She said that the questions Rowley must answer include the paternity of a young man who was the product of a relationship out of wedlock; and whether Dr Rowley is the grandfather of one, or in fact two young children.

On Thursday, the women’s arm of the main Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) condemned the statement made by Alleyne-Toppin and acknowledged that Rowley was the father of a 12-year-old before he entered politics in 1988.

Meanwhile, Roselyn Alleyne, Dr Rowley’s mother and the woman whom the Government legislator alleged was raped 46 years ago, has dismissed the statement by the junior minister.

In a front-page newspaper article on Friday, the Canada-based Roselyn Alleyne said she and her son live in Canada for the past 30 years and that “everything that they say is a lie”.

“Wow! I think I am being confused with somebody else,” she told the Trinidad Express newspaper, adding that she became pregnant when she had already finished school and was at home.

“As I keep telling you, everything they say is a lie. And they need to stop. I hear she is saying that he raped me for over four hours. That’s disgusting! Roselyn told the newspaper, adding she had no interest in political matters.

She said Alleyne-Toppin was “slandering my name and it needs to stop. That is all I am interested in. She is slandering me to get at Keith. Attack the person that you want to attack but don’t slander my name. And if you are trying to get back at someone, don’t lie. It becomes a boomerang and we know what boomerangs do. She has to apologise and go and tell the public that the things that she has said are not true,” she said.

On Friday, former Justice Minister Christlyn Moore described Alleyne-Toppin’s statement as a bleak day for Trinidad and Tobago.

“It is a bleak day when a woman rises in the national Parliament to shame another woman and her family, but it borders on psychotic when that woman and her family are the alleged victims and product of sexual abuse. Nothing good can come of this.

“What is worse for me, and it can hardly get worse, is that the thoughtless dribbler of this venom is a Tobagonian woman, carelessly destroying another Tobagonian woman, her child and grandchildren, all in an effort to destroy a Tobagonian man. I weep. I hold no brief for this particular man, but I weep,” Moore said.

Former Government minister and executive member of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption Mary King said Alleyne-Toppin should be awarded for the most vile abuse of parliamentary privilege.

“In common with British constitutional practice, in Trinidad and Tobago the issue of parliamentary privilege is essentially uncodified and relies upon a gentleman’s agreement among the members of Parliament to behave with decorum and in a manner suitable to the dignity of their office,” King said in a statement.

“So much so that any conduct that offends the dignity of the House and indeed Ms Alleyne-Toppin did that, even though no breach of any specific privilege may have been committed — is in contempt of the House,” King said.

She said Speaker Wade Mark should have censured Alleyne-Toppin or even excluded her from the House until she apologised.

“Ms Alleyne-Toppin, who has brought the House into disrepute by her abusive and uncalled for statements, is in contempt of the House with regard to a fellow parliamentarian,” she said.

The Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women said it was completely taken aback by Alleyne-Toppin’s comments, especially since the island celebrated International Women’s Day less than two weeks ago, where female leaders here concentrated on the Beijing+20 Platform for Women’s Rights and the elimination of forms of violence against women.

“This country is affected by issues of rape, incest and domestic violence and we want all victims, men and women, to come forward. This is not an issue to be used for political gain, moreso by a minister whose ministry is responsible for people and social development.

“Ms Alleyne-Toppin was insensitive and not trauma-informed to trivialise any issue surrounding rape or sexual assault, and we implore her to take this issue off the political platform, which reaches into our homes and our schools,” the NGO group said in a statement.