What ought to be Canada’s policy towards Haiti?

This year, as Canadians head to the polls, a Montreal-based group known as Québec-Haiti Solidarity: Petro Challenge 2019 undertook several actions to alert Canadians that something is horribly wrong with Canadian policy towards Haiti. During my speech delivered at their October 12th demonstration, I emphasized an often-neglected aspect of that policy which is most disturbing: the collusion our government officials have nurtured with Haiti’s predatory “white” families who maintain an unofficial Apartheid system in Haiti.

Indeed, the viciousness of Haiti’s Morally Repugnant (economic) “Elite” (MRE) is well documented. Reportedly dubbed so by a former U.S. diplomat, the MREs behave in Haiti in a manner that is eerily similar to the behaviour once adopted by the Boers of Apartheid South-Africa or that of the Békés of neo-colonial French Martinique and Guadeloupe where descendants of European enslavers maintain in these territories a white supremacist disorder that is backed economically and militarily by their Europe-based cousins and allies.

French Magazine Le Monde published a detailed account of Haiti’s infamous predatory families in January 2012. Les nantis d’Haiti exposes some of the structural violence deployed recently by Haiti’s infamous MRE families such as the overt and well-documented participation of the Brandts and Apaids in the 2004 Coup d’Etat which toppled Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically-elected black President who had dared raise the minimum wage, invest 16% of the national budget in Health Care and demanded that the MREs pay taxes like everyone else.

An older report by Multinational Monitor titled “An inside look at Haiti’s business elite” provides ample details into the connection between the MREs and the brutal forces of repression they finance to help sustain their hegemonic brutal rule over Haitian natives (many among the MREs hold foreign passports and serve as Consul of foreign governments in Haiti).

What is missing in most reports about life on the Caribbean island is the deep interconnection between the MREs and the powerful Western Embassies that operate in Haiti. In an article titled “What is Canada Doing in Haiti“, I posit the following: “The web of connections between the Port-au-Prince-based ambassadors, NGO directors, food importers and sweatshop owners, all of whom live in the same neighbourhoods, send their kids to the same schools and have developed an acute sense of (Apartheid-like) community is an important element that remains to be thoroughly researched, documented and analyzed. Meanwhile, mainstream media continues to propagate the stereotypes which sustain this mentality of a “besieged class” that must be protected from “savage others.”“.

The “savage other” in this instance is the black native, the revolted Haitian youth who represents the vast majority in an Abolitionist Nation that was established on January 1, 1804 by self-liberated Africans, precisely, to end the rule of white supremacist Apartheid on the island. What irony! Today, the Haitian native is marginalized and kept out of every avenue of decision making in his own country, especially, since the 2004 Coup and foreign occupation of Haiti.

It escapes few among us that, currently, Haiti has no real President. Jovenel Moise, like Michel Martelly before him, is nothing more than a “black face” puppet who was set in “power” following the same tradition used with Faustin Soulouque, Rivière Hérard, Jean-Baptiste Riché, in post-October 1806 Haiti. These “Presidents de doublure” were dark skin peasant, many of them illiterate, who got dressed up and sat in the National Palace, while city mulattos and whites ran every aspect of the “Haitian” State for the exclusive benefit of their racial clans. Later, during the 1915-1934 U.S. Occupation of Haiti, the Yankees took over and adapted that formula, placing a string of light skin puppets in the National Palace who are answerable directly to U.S. Admiral Caperton.

It is no secret, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enjoys dressing up in costumes. He also likes to remind us the year in which we live. So, indeed, because this is October 20, 2019, as Canadians prepare to head to the polls, we must, once again, ask: what ought to be Canadian policy towards Haiti? And, we must propose an answer to that question. So, here it comes…

But, first, let me ask my fellow Canadians a related question. Shall we be more concerned about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of black paint on his face than about Canadian officials using our taxes to host “the Ottawa Initiative on Haiti“, a racist imperialist coup plotting meeting held January 31- February 1, 2003 at the Government’s Residence in Meech Lake, Gatineau?

There, a group of white men and women, assembled at the invitation of Francophonie Minister Denis Paradis, plotted the overthrow of Haiti’s black President. A year later, the planned foreign intervention and Coup d’État which was predicted by journalist Michel Vastel in March 2003, effectively occurred on February 29, 2004. Thus, 7000 duly elected Haitian officials were removed from office and replaced by unelected thugs who now run a “black face white mask” brutal dictatorship which is, in all points, similar to the infamous Papa Doc Duvalier regime.

Fellow Canadians, whether we end up tomorrow night with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Andrew Sheer or Prime Minister Jagmeet Singh, or any coalition or combination thereof, it is my humble opinion, that Canadians of all origins who are defenders of truth and justice-based peace, shall continue to have their work cut out for them in order to stir Canadian Foreign Policy away from its dangerous and antiquated white supremacist foundation. It will also take sustained and multifaceted action to break the current wall of silence which the guardians of the status quo have erected in mainstream media. So, this is no time to rest!

On November 17, 2019 there will be marches of solidarity with the revolted People of Haiti, in many world cities, including Montreal. I will join my comrades of Solidarité Québec-Haiti Petro Challenge 2019, to demand that Canada abandons the neo-colonial Core Group and normalize its relationship with Haiti. We are also joining efforts to help the revolted Haitian people trace the whereabouts of over $4.2B Petro Caribe funds which the foreign-imposed thieves (Michel Martelly and Jovenel Moise) who were set in “power” through fraud and violence have embezzled and hidden in foreign banks.

We can only hope that the next Canadian government, whatever its political colour, will finally pay attention to the incessant screams of our Haitian brothers and sisters.

I, hereby, reiterate the same recommendations that we’ve been presenting to Canadian Prime Ministers for over 15 years, now:

1. Support normal commercial relations with Haiti, whereby Canadian mining companies would negotiate with democratically-elected officials who demand fair and environmentally-sound exploitation of Haiti’s natural resources. End Canadian support to coup d’État and foreign-controlled puppet regimes!
2. Withdraw all Canadian military and police from Haiti;
3. Redirect Canadian public funds currently being misused in repressive action by Haiti’s backward oligarchy and their foreign allies against the People (the impoverished Black masses) towards science-based, institution and infrastructure building initiatives – areas of recognized Canadian strength and evident Haitian needs;
4. Support the Haitian People’s legitimate claims for reparations from the United Nations (on behalf of over 1 million victims of Cholera contagion brought about by UN troops who are illegally deployed on the island, since 2004);
5. Leave the Core Group (of foreign entities meddling and messing in Haitian politics since over a decade): Send a clear signal that Canada recognizes the need for radical change in our relationship and that we respect the Haitian People.

Rise Up With Haiti: Justice, Dignity & Reparations!