Canada Helps Overthrow Elected President?

[bleeding heart]

To remark that Haiti was in terrible shape under President Aristide is to point out the obvious. But to claim that Aristide was solely responsible for the deplorable state of the country is absurd. Decades of extremely brutal dictatorial rule, supported by Western nations, took its toll.

So why did Canada intervene...overthrowing an elected leader, and in fact an extremely popular one?

And why did they then help install a vicious, murderous regime in Aristide's place...since Canadian officials (notably Denis Paradis, Secretary of State for Latin America, Africa and La Francophonie) claimed the awful state of Haiti's leadership as justification?

Justification, let's not forget, for getting rid of a sovereign nation's popularly-elected president.

(Oh, and by the way, a slight coincidence, the installed, brutal replacement regime...and the winners of future cooked, Canadian-interfered elections....are extremely friendly to Canadian banking and mining interests. But that's, as they say, "correlation, not causation."

On July 29th, Lt. Colonel Jim Davis, Commander of the Canadian Forces contingent in Haiti, acknowledged that at least 1000 bodies had been buried in a mass grave in Port au Prince, within one month of "restoring stability." Davis also would not deny the eyewitnesss testimony that spoke of a massacre of Aristide supporters committed by occupying forces on March 12. According to the eyewitnesses, international forces staged an attack in a Port-au-Prince slum, killing dozens of people. These international forces reportedly took all but two bodies away in ambulances. At the time, US, French and Canadian forces were stationed in Haiti. French troops had explicit rules of engagement: they were not to shoot unless they were attacked. Canadian and American occupying forces had no such limitation.

Said Davis: "I do not deny that these things have happened."

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/features/2004/08/25/canada_in_.html

Since hosting the Jan. 2003 round-table meeting dubbed the Ottawa Initiative on Haiti, Canada has been a dominant player in Haitian life. At that meeting high level U.S., Canadian and French officials discussed overthrowing elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, putting the country under international trusteeship and resurrecting Haitis dreaded military. Thirteen months after the Ottawa Initiative meeting Aristide had been pushed out and a quasi UN trusteeship had begun.

Since that time the Haitian National Police has been heavily militarized and the winner of the recent presidential elections, Michel Martelly, plans to divert scarce state resources to re-creating the military.

Canada helped the right-wing Martelly rise to office (with about 16 per cent of voters support, since the election was largely boycotted). Canada put up $6 million for elections that excluded Haitis most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, from participating. After the first round, our representatives on an Organization of American States Mission helped force the candidate the electoral council had in second place, Jude Celestin, out of the runoff. The Center for Economic and Policy Research explained, The international community, led by the U.S., France, and Canada, has been intensifying the pressure on the Haitian government to allow presidential candidate Michel Martelly to proceed to the second round of elections instead of [ruling party candidate] Jude Celestin. Some Haitian officials had their U.S. visas revoked and there were threats that aid would be cut off if Martellys vote total wasnt increased as per the OAS recommendation.

Half of the electoral council agreed to the OAS changes, but half didnt. The second round was unconstitutional, noted Haïti Liberté, as only four of the eight-member Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) have voted to proceed with the second round, one short of the five necessary. Furthermore, the first round results have not been published in the journal of record, Le Moniteur, and President Préval has not officially convoked Haitians to vote, both constitutional requirements.

......

One reason for this intense political interest in Haiti is the interest of Canadian investors. Canadian banks are among the very few foreign operators in Port-au-Prince and Montreal-based Gildan, one of the worlds biggest blank t-shirt makers, was the second largest employer (after the state) before the earthquake. The mining sector is almost entirely Canadian with many companies entering the country over the past few years. One Vancouver-based company, Eurasian Minerals, acquired prospecting licenses that cover approximately 10 percent of Haitis land mass.

http://yvesengler.com/2011/04/20/secret-documents-show-canadian-interference-in-haiti/

In January 2004, on the bicentennial of Haiti's independence from France, the opposition with U.S. support called for Aristide's resignation, accusing him of corruption. Violent protests erupted on the streets and rebel forces began to take over parts of the country.

Aristide and his party Fanmi Lavalas (FL), meanwhile, "relied on intimidation, violence and corruption to maintain themselves in power," Alex Dupuy writes in his 2007 book on Aristide, The Prophet and Power.

"But if Aristide and the FL subverted democracy," Dupuy adds, "so too did the organized opposition, the Haitian bourgeoisie and their foreign allies."

Haiti had no army and Haiti's corrupt and lightly armed police provided little resistance to the well-armed rebels.

Within a few weeks Aristide was once again on his way into exile, this time in Africa, on a plane chartered by the U.S. government.

Canada, the U.S. and France, with UN backing, oversaw the formation of a new government, while a UN-approved international force entered Haiti to deal with the violence.

What followed was two years of repression, chaos, lawlessness and severely dysfunctional government.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/haiti-s-jean-bertrand-aristide-1.1014033

Edited November 24, 2013 by bleeding heart

[eyeball]

So why did Canada intervene...overthrowing an elected leader, and in fact an extremely popular one?

And why did they then help install a vicious, murderous regime in Aristide's place...since Canadian officials (notably Denis Paradis, Secretary of State for Latin America, Africa and La Francophonie) claimed the awful state of Haiti's leadership as justification?

Sounds like an economic action plan to me - making the world safe for capitalism.

They need some sort of ribbon/sticker or licence plate that expresses one's support for this tireless struggle.

[Shady]

Aristide's corruption knows no bounds. Haiti will never move forward with leaders like him around. It's not surprising that you're taking a page out of the blame America first crowd. Or in this case, blame Canada. Once again, the left never seems to meet a thug dictator that it doesn't like. Par for the course.

[-1=e^ipi]

Haiti has always been in bad shape for its 200 year history. Are you trying to blame western countries for this?

I'm quite skeptical that democracy is the best system of government for a country as poorly developed as Haiti.

I do not understand your objection to foreign companies (such as mining companies) coming in and providing Haiti with much needed jobs & investment.

[jacee]

Aristide's corruption knows no bounds. Haiti will never move forward with leaders like him around. It's not surprising that you're taking a page out of the blame America first crowd. Or in this case, blame Canada. Once again, the left never seems to meet a thug dictator that it doesn't like. Par for the course.

Predatory capitalists never met a thug dictator they wouldn't support, if they can make money by exploiting his oppressed people and their resources.

[bleeding heart]

Aristide's corruption knows no bounds. Haiti will never move forward with leaders like him around. It's not surprising that you're taking a page out of the blame America first crowd. Or in this case, blame Canada. Once again, the left never seems to meet a thug dictator that it doesn't like. Par for the course.

They replaced an elected leader with a dictator.

Once again, the right (and, it should be noted, liberals) never seems to meet a thug dictator that it doesn't like. Par for the course.

[bleeding heart]

Haiti has always been in bad shape for its 200 year history. Are you trying to blame western countries for this?

???

I'm talking about a coup--an overthrow of an elected leader by the triad of democracy-lovers: Canada, the United States, and France.

The real question is this: why in the world do you think we have any right to do such a thing?

I'm quite skeptical that democracy is the best system of government for a country as poorly developed as Haiti.

Yes...a dictatorship of our choosing, in which political killings skyrocketed, and after which there has been no demonstrable improvement in the lives of ordinary Haitians, is much preferable.

Mind you, the Haitian rich elite--our natural allies--made out quite well. All according to plan, no doubt.

I do not understand your objection to foreign companies (such as mining companies) coming in and providing Haiti with much needed jobs & investment.

This obviously demands that the lives of ordinary Haitians has improved because of the specific investments we're talking about here.

Do you have any evidence of this? And if not, whatever could you be talking about?

Edited November 29, 2013 by bleeding heart