Haiti: Authors criticize Canada’s role in 2004 Haiti coup

But Yves Engler has found this one hits a bit closer to home.

He was surprised to learn how involved Canada was in Haiti’s coup in 2004. But after he and Anthony Fenton began researching their book, Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, the facts became clear.

"The more we looked, the more we saw that Canada was tied up in all of this," Engler said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Montreal. "And that this was certainly not a step forward for democracy in Haiti and not a step forward for a human rights situation."

With information gleaned from government documents, visits to Haiti and other sources, Engler and Fenton provide an overview of how Canada, the United States and France destabilized and overthrew the elected government of that country.

"Most people look at it and know that the U.S. has destabilized lots of governments in Latin America," Engler said. "But to see just how involved Canada was — that definitely took a little while to come to grips with."

He points out that while the Liberal government of former prime minister Jean Chretien was turning down the Americans’ invitation to join the coalition of the willing and overthrow Iraq, Canada was scheming to unseat Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"This is a way of sort of making up with the Bush administration," Engler said.

"It’s certainly not up to Canada, the U.S. and France to decide whether Aristide is right for Haiti. That’s up to the Haitian people."

Over the two years that have followed Aristide’s ouster, social conditions in the country have worsened, he said.

There’s more poverty and insecurity. Violence is even more common.

"There was a big step backward," Engler said.

"Haiti didn’t exactly have a functioning justice system before the coup, but that justice system has gotten more politicized, even more dysfunctional.

"Canada has made that place even poorer, even more violent, even more unstable. That’s Canada’s role in Haiti over the past two years."

It’s a far cry from the image most Canadians have of their country as a benevolent and peaceful nation respected around the world, Engler said.

Even more shocking is the role several non-governmental organizations played in Haiti.

"There are individual instances of Canadian funding doing good things but the overall picture is one of disaster," Engler said. "The NGOs were used as a way to destabilize, to demonize the government.

"Since the coup, they’ve refused to condemn the gross human rights violations by the Canadian-backed (Haitian) government."

Canada needs to acknowledge its wrongdoing in Haiti and apologize for it, Engler said.

"Once that’s happened, then there can possibly be some sort of movement in the direction of genuinely aiding Haitian democracy and genuinely aiding Haitians to empower themselves," he said.

"But not this sort of neocolonial relationship that’s been taking place over the past two-plus years."

jsimpson [at] herald.ca

Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor

Majority

by Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton

(Red Publishing/Fernwood Publishing, 120

pages, $14.95)