Canada Must Stop Propping Up a Repressive and Corrupt Dictatorship in Haiti
By Canadian Foreign Policy Institute – Feb 19, 2021
More than 100 academics, activists and artists are calling on the Trudeau government to cease its support for Jovenel Moïse
Former UN ambassador Stephen Lewis, broadcaster David Suzuki, author Naomi Klein, Professor Noam Chomsky, poets El Jones and George Elliott Clarke, rock legend Roger Waters, Green MP Paul Manly, as well as former MPs Svend Robinson, Libby Davies and Jim Manly and more than 100 other academics, activists and artists, are calling on the Canadian government to stop propping up a repressive and corrupt dictatorship in Haiti.
It is time to change Canadian policy towards a nation born in struggle to liberate Africans from slavery.
The Canadian government must end its support for a repressive and corrupt Haitian president devoid of constitutional legitimacy. For the past two years, Haitians have demonstrated their overwhelming opposition to Jovenel Moïse with massive protests and general strikes calling for his departure from office.
Since February 7, Moïse has been occupying the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince in defiance of the majority of the country’s institutions. Moïse’s claim to another year in power was rejected by the Superior Council of Judicial Power, the Haitian Bar Federation and other constitutional authorities. In response to the opposition selecting a Supreme Court judge to head an interim government after his mandate expired, Moïse arrested one and illegally dismissed three Supreme Court justices. The police were also sent to occupy the Supreme Court and repress those protesting, shooting two reporters covering the demonstrations. The country’s judges have launched an unlimited strike to force Moïse to respect the constitution.
RELATED CONTENT: Protests Continue in Haiti Against the Government of Jovenel Moïse
Moïse has ruled by decree since January 2020. After the mandates of most officials expired due to his failure to hold elections, Moïse announced a plan to rewrite the constitution. Fair elections are unlikely under Moïse’s leadership as he recently pressured the entire electoral council to resign and then appointed new members unilaterally.
Having garnered fewer than 600,000 votes in a country of 11 million, Moïse’s legitimacy has always been weak. Since massive anti-corruption and anti-IMF protests erupted in mid-2018, Moïse has become steadily more repressive. A recent presidential decree criminalized protest blockades as “terrorism” while another established a new intelligence agency with anonymous officers empowered to infiltrate and arrest anyone deemed to be engaging in ‘subversive’ acts or threatening ‘state security.’ In the worst documented case, the United Nations confirmed the Haitian government’s culpability in a massacre of up to 71 civilians in the impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhood of La Saline in mid-November 2018.
All of this information is available to Canadian officials. However, they continue to fund and train a police force that has violently repressed anti-Moïse protests. The Canadian ambassador in Haiti has repeatedly attended police functions, while refusing to criticize their repression of protesters. On January 18, ambassador Stuart Savage met the controversial new head of police Leon Charles to discuss “strengthening the capacity of the police.”
RELATED CONTENT: Urgent Solidarity with Haiti is Needed
As part of the influential “Core Group” of foreign ambassadors in Port-au-Prince—comprised of officials from the United States, France, the Organization of American States, the UN, and Spain—Canadian officials have offered Moïse important diplomatic support. On February 12 Foreign Minister Marc Garneau spoke with Haiti’s de facto foreign minister. The post-meeting statement announced plans for Haiti and Canada to co-host a forthcoming conference. The statement made no mention, however, of Moïse extending his mandate, illegally firing Supreme Court judges, ruling by decree, or criminalizing protests.
It is time for the Canadian government to stop propping up a repressive and corrupt dictatorship in Haiti.
Signatories
Noam Chomsky, author and professor
Naomi Klein, author, Rutgers University
David Suzuki, award-winning geneticist and broadcaster
Paul Manly, Member of Parliament
Roger Waters, co-founder, Pink Floyd
Stephen Lewis, former UN ambassador
El Jones, poet and professor
Gabor Maté, author
Svend Robinson, former Member of Parliament
Libby Davies, former Member of Parliament
Jim Manly, former Member of Parliament
Will Prosper, filmmaker and human rights activist
Robyn Maynard, author, Policing Black Lives
George Elliott Clarke, former Canadian Poet Laureate
Linda McQuaig, journalist and author
Françoise Boucard, former chair of Haiti’s National Truth and Justice Commission
Rinaldo Walcott, professor and writer
Judy Rebick, journalist
Frantz Voltaire, Éditeur
Greg Grandin, Professor of History, Yale University
André Michel, Président ex-officio Les Artistes pour la Paix
Harsha Walia, activist and writer
Vijay Prashad, executive director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Kim Ives, editor Haïti Liberté
Anthony N. Morgan, racial justice lawyer
Andray Domise, journalist
Torq Campbell, musician, Stars
Alain Deneault, philosopher
Peter Hallward, author of Damming the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment
Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer, journalist and activist
Antonia Zerbisias, journalist and activist
Missy Nadege, Justice 4 Haiti
Jeb Sprague, author, Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti
Brian Concannon, Executive Director, Project Blueprint.
Eva Manly, retired filmmaker, activist
Beatrice Lindstrom, Clinical Instructor, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School
John Clarke, Packer Visitor in Social Justice York University
Jord Samolesky, Propagandhi
Serge Bouchereau, activist
Sheila Cano, artist
Yves Engler, journalist
Jean Saint-Vil, journalist, Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Jennie-Laure Sully, Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Turenne Joseph, Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Frantz André, Comité d’action des personnes sans statut/Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Louise Leduc, enseignante retraitée Cégep régional de Lanaudière à Joliette
Syed Hussan, migrant workers alliance
Pierre Beaudet, éditeur de la Plateforme altermondialiste, Montréal
Bianca Mugyenyi, Director, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
Justin Podur, writer and academic
David Swanson, Executive Director, World Beyond War
Derrick O’Keefe, writer and co-founder, Ricochet
Stuart Hammond, Associate Professor, University of Ottawa
John Philpot, international defense lawyer
Frederick Jones, Dawson College
Kevin Skerrett, union researcher
Gretchen Brown, lawyer
Normand Raymond, certified translator, singer and songwriter
Pierre Jasmin, pianist
Victor Vaughan, activist
Ken Collier, activist
Claudia Chaufan, Associate Professor, York University
Jooneed Khan, journalist and human rights activist
Arnold August, author
Gary Engler, author
Stu Neatby, reporter
Scott Weinstein, activist
Courtney Kirkby, founder, Tiger Lotus Co-op
Greg Albo, professor, York University
Peter Eglin, Emeritus Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
Barry Weisleder, Federal Secretary, Socialist Action
Alan Freeman, Geopolitical Economy Research Group
Radhika Desai, Professor, University of Manitoba
John Price, Professor
Travis Ross, co-editor, Canada-Haiti Information Project
William Sloan, former refugee lawyer
Larry Hannant, historian and author
Grahame Russell, Rights Action
Richard Sanders, anti-war researcher, writer, activist
Stefan Christoff, musician and community activist
Khaled Mouammar, former member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Ed Lehman, Regina Peace Council
Mark Haley, Kelowna Peace Group
Carol Foort, activist
Nino Pagliccia, Venezuelan-Canadian political analyst
Ken Stone, treasurer, Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
Aziz Fall, President, Centre Internationaliste Ryerson Foundation Aubin
Donald Cuccioletta, Coordinator of Nouveaux Cahiers du Socialisme and Montreal Urban Left
Robert Ismael, CPAM 1410 Cabaret des idées
Antonio Artuso, Cercle Jacques Roumain
André Jacob, professeur retraité Université du Québec à Montréal
Kevin Pina, Haiti Information Project
Tracy Glynn, Solidarité Fredericton and lecturer at St. Thomas University
Tobin Haley, Solidarité Fredericton and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ryerson University
Aaron Maté, journalist
Glenn Michalchuk, Chair Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Greg Beckett, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Western University
Marie Dimanche, founder, Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Françoise Boucard, former chair Haiti’s National Truth and Justice Commission
Louise Leduc, Enseignante retraitée Cégep régional de Lanaudière à Joliette
Tamara Lorincz, fellow, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
André Michel, Président ex-officio Les Artistes pour la Paix
Monia Mazigh, PhD/author
Elizabeth Gilarowski, activist
Azeezah Kanji, legal academic and journalist
David Putt, aid worker
Elaine Briere, documentary filmmaker Haiti Betrayed
Karen Rodman, Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
David Webster, professor
Raoul Paul, co-editor Canada-Haiti Information Project
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report
John McMurtry, Professor and Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
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