PNM Tobago leader scoffs at pre-action letter from education secretary

A LEGAL battle is brewing between Secretary of Education, Research and Technology Zorisha Hackett and PNM Tobago Council political leader Ancil Dennis over alleged defamatory remarks made by the latter in relation to the THA’s tertiary student support programme.

Dennis posted the comments on social media on February 5.

Attorney Marion Ingrid Melville, who is representing Hackett, issued a six-page pre-action protocol letter to Dennis at his Plymouth home, on February 12.

Describing his statements as “untrue, malicious and reckless,” Melville has requested that Dennis retract his statements and apologise publicly to Hackett within seven days of the receipt of the letter.

“However, should you fail to retract, apologise and cause the publication of a public apology no later than seven days from the day hereof, our client will further demand that you make a statement in court and accordingly will commence legal proceedings in the High Court against you, including proceedings for such interim relief as may be advised,” she wrote.

Melville also has asked that Dennis “not repeat the statements or similar statements about our client for the injury of her reputation and the considerable distress and the embarrassment that she has suffered and continues to suffer.”

In his post on February 5, Dennis claimed he had received “numerous calls and pleas from university students and some parents nervously awaiting tertiary education support from the THA.”

He further claimed that over 100 university students from Tobago have been awaiting support from the THA for almost a year, “for as little as $25,000 in some cases, some on the verge of being thrown out of universities across the Caribbean, others wondering how they will meet their real and necessary living expenses outside of Tobago.”

He also queried the THA's support of a particular student's studies at a foreign university.

Dennis said, “This secretary has travelled the globe at tax-payers expense on several unnecessary and wasteful trips and their overall travel bill is perhaps $20 million by now.”

Dennis continued, “This high level of disregard and callousness meted out to Tobagonian university students is highly unacceptable and I am calling on the THA to get their priorities in order…”

In her letter, Melville told Dennis that “attached to your post (on February 5), you uploaded a clip of a video recording of an interview done by our client on Tobago Updates on January 27, 2025.”

She added, “The statements which you made and published attribute to our client and are understood to mean, that our client, as secretary of DERTech, is acting improperly, negligently, irresponsibly and is failing to execute her duty of care to tertiary education students from Tobago who apply for and require financial support.

“In the natural and ordinary meaning, the words signify and are understood to mean that the interview done by Ms Hackett on 27th day of January 2025 on Tobago Updates was an excuse for an alleged failure by the THA to provide tertiary education support for university students from Tobago.”

Melville said Hackett provided the firm with contemporaneous data from Department of Advanced Training and Advisory Services, which showed that as of February 6, all students from Tobago seeking tertiary education support had received it.

But Hackett, through her attorney, acknowledged there were 23 bursaries not yet reviewed, 13 deferred bursaries, two grants not yet reviewed, four deferred grants, seven student requests not yet received and one deferred student, by request.

Dennis responded to Melville’s pre-action protocol letter in a post on his Facebook page on February 13, saying he has instructed his attorneys to respond to it.

“Up to me, I’ll throw this letter in the garbage but out of respect for our legal systems, I’ve instructed by attorneys to respond most appropriately,” he wrote.

Saying his “courthouse clothes is pressed and ready,” Dennis claimed he has evidence and described Hackett’s action as “another attempt to muzzle dissent and criticism.

“The secretary admitted through her attorney in this letter that approximately 40 students are awaiting support from the THA but did not indicate the ridiculously long delays, in excess of a year in some instances, nor did she include those applications that were rejected for whatever reason. Playing smart with foolishness!”

Dennis said the secretary did not respond to his claim about a particular student at a foreign university.

He said he can “find many reasons to truthfully label this secretary as irresponsible...therefore I make no apology for what is being implied.”