Book Review: Canada and Empire
Waging war on Haiti’s poor majority: Canada and Haiti by Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton
Review by Harold Lavender
“In both their writing and activism, Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton have done some of the most important work in exposing Canada’s shameful role in Haiti,” writes Naomi Klein about Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, co-authored by Fenton and Engler.
This pointed 120-page book is essential reading for those who wish to hold the Liberal government accountable for its anti-democratic, imperialist intervention in Haiti.
In the wake of an invasion by heavily armed paramilitaries, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was kidnapped and removed from Haiti by US forces on February 29, 2004. Supporting both the coup and the repressive new regime were Canada’s Liberal government and NGOs cooperating with anti-Aristide forces.
In challenging Canada’s so-called “peacekeeper” role, Canada in Haiti reveals how the Liberal government propped up and provided legitimacy to the anti-democratic Haitian regime currently engaged in massive human rights violations.
Liberation Thwarted
Fenton and Engler begin by acknowledging the Haitian people who created the First Nation of Free People in the Americas in a slave rebellion (1791 to 1804). The great powers sought to place an embargo on that regime. Eventually, the US occupied Haiti (1915 to 1934) and left in place the modern Haitian army. The Haitian army installed the Duvalier dictatorship in 1957. In 1986, mass protests forced his son “Baby Doc” Duvalier (who had taken over when “Papa Doc” died in 1971) into exile. The people finally appeared to have their say when they elected Aristide president in 1990.
However, Haitian generals overthrew Aristide in 1991, using paramilitaries to institute a reign of terror. Widespread international opposition prompted US President Clinton to restore Aristide, although with many strings attached (including those from international lending agencies).
George W. Bush barred more than $500 million in aid and loans to the elected Haitian government and his administration launched a destabilization campaign. However, when the US became embroiled in Iraq, Washington was happy to let Canada take a leading role in Haiti. Canada, with its cleaner, supposedly democratic international reputation, was better able to pull the wool over people’s eyes.
But Canada is no force for democracy in Haiti. In 2003, Fenton and Engler write, “Denis Paradis, Canada’s Secretary of State for Latin America and La Francophonie, played host to a high-level roundtable meeting dubbed the ‘Ottawa Initiative on Haiti.’ In a manner that would foreshadow future meetings hosted by the Canadian government, no representatives of Haiti’s elected government were invited.” L’Actualité reported that same year that Paradis and the French Minister of the Francophonie discussed a potential trusteeship over Haiti and the return of Haiti’s military. Paradis would later deny the report, saying the issue fell under the “Responsibility to Protect.”
The Responsibility to Protect
According to this Canadian doctrine, when a state fails to protect its people, the world community and the UN have a responsibility to step in. But the question is: who is being protected from whom?
Canada in Haiti demonstrates that the Haitian crisis was manufactured by elite domestic opposition forces, working in concert with foreign governments, international financial institutions, the international press and NGOs. Canada was deeply implicated in the destabilization campaign that ultimately led to the failure of the Haitian economy and state.
Using NGOs to Destroy Democracy
The book reveals the US imperialist strategy of using funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to openly support groups that had once been covertly funded by the CIA, and to undermine any initiative that could even vaguely threaten US power. But the authors stress the Canadian government is no exception. They document and attack the role of CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) in Haiti: “It appears that in the eyes of the Canadian government, ‘civil society’ was in effect equated with opposition to Haiti’s elected government…. Civil society groups supportive of Lavalas [Aristide’s followers] simply did not receive development money.”
The authors also slam the record of some supposedly progressive Canadian NGOs, which are heavily dependent on government funding. A report by Rights and Democracy, formerly headed by the NDP’s Ed Broadbent, for example, calls the opposition G-184 “grassroots” and a “promising civil society movement.” But G-184 was financed by the International Republican Institute and headed by the country’s leading sweatshop owner and right-winger, Andy Apaid.
Working as Repressors
Five hundred Canadian soldiers joined the occupation of Haiti in 2004, before being replaced by a multinational United Nations force, MINUSTAH. They did little to disarm the right-wing paramilitaries who had helped oust Aristide.
Although their initial goal focused on rebuilding the Haitian National Police (HNP), the US, French and Canadian goal is to restore the Haitian army as an effective force of repression. The authors note that 500 former soldiers have already been incorporated into the HNP, with plans for 500 to 1,000 more to be hired.
Meanwhile, aid has been flowing to the new regime. The US lifted a 13-year arms embargo against Haiti and, in June 2005, the US and Canada officially presented the HNP with over $2 million worth of equipment.
Canada also trains and assists the police. Some 100 Canadian officers are currently in Haiti as part of a UN civilian police force led by David Beer of the RCMP. Beer previously served in Iraq assisting counter-insurgency efforts.
One might think that UN peacekeeping forces would attempt to control police excesses, but this is not the case. Instead they have protected the HNP and joined in armed attacks on poor areas that are hotbeds of support for ousted President Aristide. Residents of a poor Port-au-Prince neighbourhood reported finding 23 bodies after a July 6 UN force raid to kill “gang leader” Dread Wilme.
A recent report circulated by Haiti solidarity activists reports UN forces entered the teeming Cité du Soleil neighbourhood of 300,000 people, killing 15 and wounding dozens.
The book asks why the Canadian government is so directly implicated.
Haiti, unlike Iraq, doesn’t have vast strategic resources. But the authors say that those who stand to gain from slavery, racism and colonialism, imperialism and today’s neo-liberalism have sought to undermine Haiti as an example and block the promise of its independence. And in 2004 they believed they could get away with it again.
The authors do not idolize Aristide or the record of Lavalas, the pro-Aristide party. However, they make a case that the regime (despite lack of funds and IMF strings) served the poor majority better than previous dictatorships or the new regime. They argue Aristide did not kowtow sufficiently to the neo-liberal agenda. His removal has led to attempts to fast-track a drastic program of privatization.
So-called future economic development in Haiti will be based on sweatshops utilizing the cheapest labour in the hemisphere. Canada is a player in this global sweatshop game, particularly through Montreal-based Gildan Activewear, a large supplier of T-shirts. Gildan plans to employ up to 5,000 people in Port-au-Prince, including work subcontracted to Andy Apaid, the leader of the G-184 opposition. Two Canadian mining companies, KWG Resources and St. Guinevere Resources, are planning to mine copper and gold on very favourable terms.
Aristide’s efforts to mobilize the poor majority were threatening to elite interests. In response, the Haitian elite want a strong military to protect their interests. So do Washington and Ottawa.
The authors point out Canada is being increasingly economically and militarily integrated with the US. For them, it is no accident that Ottawa’s Initiative on Haiti took place at the same time the government was deciding not to send troops to Iraq. Some division of labour among imperialists must take place. But Haiti shows how much Canada is a partner in the global war on the poor.
Possible to Resist
The authors believe something can be done. Opposition is mounting in communities and countries with large black communities. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) refuses to recognize Gerard Latortue as prime minister of Haiti. So do the African Union, Cuba and Venezuela. Sixty-nine countries are demanding a UN investigation into the circumstances surrounding Aristide’s departure. The US Congressional Black Caucus denounced the 2004 coup and highlighted post-coup human rights violations.
In Canada, the initial response was tiny, primarily centered within
the Haitian community in Montreal. But the number of people willing to speak out and demonstrate is growing. There are now Haiti solidarity groups in 11 cities able to co-ordinate actions. Haiti Solidarity BC has increased its activities and works in close alliance with Vancouver Stop The War. Opposition to the coup against Aristide is widening into other sectors, including the labour movement.
The work of a dedicated few is slowly having an effect.
