CADV: Robinson was a mentor, teacher of activism

The Coalition against Domestic Violence (CADV) has said the late activist Colin Robinson was a teacher and mentor of activism and extended its condolences to his family, friends and the activist and artistic communities.

Robinson, who was also a Newsday columnist, died on March 4 after a long battle with colon cancer.

In a release on Monday, the coalition said Robinson was a lovely person.

“He was wise; he was insightful; he inspired; he was a hard head and he was joyful. He believed in solidarity and would listen to all ideas about how to make change for social justice, asking the hard questions about strategy, with a gentle tone and generous spirit.”

It said it spent many hours with him, usually working on law reform campaigns; ending child marriage, the sex offenders register, the Non-Profit Organisation Bill and the Domestic Violence Act amendments.

“His was a call for informed policy-making, based on inputs of civil society and responsive to social science. He had a fine mind, a restless intellect and the talent for translating complexity into understandable sentences,” the release said.

While Robinson demanded accountability from those with power and understood the power dynamics “that pulled the political space towards populism,” he cared, it said.

“He was not a cynic; rather he was aware and thoughtful about how a social justice movement should respond.”

It said Robinson believed in the NGO sector and apart from founding Caiso: Sex and Gender Justice he also supported other networks such as Laws For Us and Alliance for State Action to End Gender-based Violence.

It added that he left Trinidad and Tobago with the example that “we each can make the world a better place for others, if only we work together, if only we put our minds, our pens, our voice and our actions to it.”