Canada’s Assistance
to Haiti
With Friends like
Canada, Does Haiti Need Enemies?
There are currently
three countries in the world considered priorities for intervention and aid by
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of
Foreign Affairs: Afghanistan, Iraq and
Haiti. In Afghanistan this intervention
is clearly linked to support for the Canadian role in the military occupation
of the country. However, in both Iraq and Haiti the purpose of Canadian aid is
less clear. In Iraq most Canadian aid seems tied to support for the
Anglo-American occupation of the country, while in Haiti Canada’s goal seems to
be to support government and institutions that are aligned with a neo-liberal
trade agenda for the Americas.
Canada, along with other donor countries, cut off all aid to the elected
Haitian government in 2000, in protest at what it described as a lack of
commitment to principles of democracy and free markets. In reality, the issue
was the refusal of President Aristide and his ministers to accept the numerous
restrictions and conditions placed on how aid money could be used. In February
2004, following direct and indirect foreign intervention, a violent coup
overthrew the Aristide government. The coup, carried out by armed mercenaries
affiliated with Haiti’s small but extremely wealthy elite, was supported by the
U.S. Bush administration and Paul Martin’s Liberal government in Ottawa. Within weeks of the coup, Canadian aid once
again began flowing into Haiti.
According to a CIDA report: “In 2004, the Government
of Haiti presented international donors with an Interim Cooperation
Framework (ICF) to support Haiti's development. … Since the spring of 2004, in cooperation with other donors and
in support of Haiti’s interim government, Canada has actively assisted in
developing and implementing the ICF. …
From April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2006, Canada disbursed more than $190
million.” The report identifies four
“priority sectors” for Canadian funding:
a.
Political governance and national
dialogue – security, justice, policing and disarmament, penitentiaries and
human rights, the electoral process, and national dialogue;
b.
Economic governance –
institutional capacity building and local development;
c.
Economic recovery – electric
power, rapid job creation and microfinance, and environmental protection and
renewal;
d.
Access to basic services –
water and sanitation, health and nutrition, and education
The CIDA report goes on to note: “Canada
also contributed to the re-engagement of certain international financial
institutions by paying a portion of Haiti’s arrears to the World Bank, Haiti’s
membership cost to the Caribbean Development Bank, and a portion of Haiti’s
debt to the Inter-American Development Bank. … Finally, Canada supported [the
interim government] through the deployment of 100 police officers.”
While Canadian aid money in support of
governance and democracy was once again pouring into the country, the coup
leaders - none of who had been elected - ruled Haiti through terror and
intimidation. Armed gangs, established by the “interim
government”, openly roamed neighbourhoods, targetting
anyone who expressed support for Aristide. This situation was condemned by
numerous human rights organizations that also documented the disappearance of
hundreds of human rights activists, trade unionists and opposition politicians
between 2004 and 2006. They also
expressed concern about the illegal and arbitrary arrest and detention of
several thousand Haitians by the Haitian National Police.
It is worth noting that training Haitian
police forces has been a cornerstone of Canada’s intervention in Haiti.
Millions of dollars have been spent on sending RCMP officers to the country to
offer courses in things like respect for human rights, due process and the rule
of law. Ironically, much of this
training took place at the same time that the RCMP was being exposed for its
routine violations of human rights in Canada, including handing Maher Arar and other Canadian citizens over to foreign spy
agencies to face torture and imprisonment.
The leaders of the coup in Haiti were
eventually replaced following national elections in 2006. However, their
influence remains prevalent in both the country’s police and armed forces. According to the Canada-Haiti Action Network
(CHAN), around 4,000 of those arrested during the coup period still remain in
jail to this day.
Most recently, mercenaries reportedly
working for the country’s wealthy elite kidnapped one of Haiti’s leading human
rights leaders. Lovinsky
Pierre Antoine, whose work in Haiti has focussed on trying to get those
illegally detained released from prison, has been missing since August 12. A CHAN delegation, on a human rights mission
in Haiti that Antoine was working with at the time of his kidnapping, urged the
Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince to issue a statement condemning his
disappearance. The embassy has, to date,
refused to do so.