The price of Haiti's suffering

In her first speech as Governor General, Michaí«lle Jean stated that “My own story begins as a young child in another country, one 'draped in barbed wire from head to toe', in the powerful words of the Haitian poet in exile, René Depestre, who is also my uncle. The story of that little girl, who watched her parents, her family, and her friends grappling with the horrors of a ruthless dictatorship, who became the woman standing before you today, is a lesson in learning to be free.” 

The ruthless dictator who drove Jean's family into exile was Franíƒ §ois “Papa Doc”  Duvalier. The reigns of Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc”  Duvalier were fostered by strategic relationships with the United States. According to a 1986 New York Times article by Mark Danner, “The United States justified its long support for Mr. Duvalier on the grounds that he provided 'economic stability.'?”  In the 1994 book The Uses of Haiti, Paul Farmer reported that in his first four years, Papa Doc Duvalier personally received US$40 million from Washington.

Beginning in 1958, U.S. Marines stayed in the country for five years to train Duvalier's army. Over the almost three decades of Duvalier rule, according to the Historical Atlas of the 20th Century, more than 60,000 Haitians were killed and countless more tortured by the “Tonton Macoutes”  death squads.

The Duvalier regime ended in 1986, when Baby Doc fled a populist movement of Haitians desiring freedom.

Jean was 11 years old when her family fled Haiti. This month, on Sunday (May 14), Jean will return to witness the inauguration of Haiti's new president, René Préval. Anthony Fenton, local coauthor of the book Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority (Fenwood Publishing/RED Publishing, 2005) told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview that “the significance of the Governor General's visit to Haiti is that the Canadian government wants to us to forget the past two years of what has happened.” 

On May 1, the Canadian government announced that it was handing over $48 million to “promote good governance and democracy in Haiti” . According to a news release issued on the same day by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), over the past two years Canada has spent more than $190 million in Haiti. Few Canadians have questioned the details of these projects.

Since 2004, Canada has been involved in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). A 2005 Harvard Law School report harshly condemns these forces, stating that “MINUSTAH has effectively provided cover for the police to wage a campaign of terror in Port-au-Prince's slums.'' Canadian police lead the UN police mission responsible for training and overseeing the new Haitian National Police (HNP). Under their watch, hundreds of former Haitian army officers, death-squad members, and individuals who “have been involved in drug rackets, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, or other illegal activities”  have been integrated into the HNP, according to a 2005 report by the London, England–based Catholic Institute for International Relations.

Despite assurances by the former Canadian special advisor on Haiti, Denis Coderre, that “Canada would not get involved in Haiti's justice system,”  Haitian deputy justice minister Philippe Vixamar is a direct employee of CIDA. According to Haiti's Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, the justice system has locked up at least 700 political prisoners.

The Canadian government may decide to pull its forces out after the recent Haitian election, just as the U.S. is promising to withdraw its occupying troops from Iraq. Yet the economic groundwork has already been laid. Canada has donated $156 million toward the “Interim Cooperation Framework” , an international blueprint for reforms in Haiti that includes slashing of subsidies for Haiti's impoverished farmers, the reduction of the minimum wage, a three-year tax holiday for corporations, and privatization of Haiti's state enterprises, such as electricity, education, and health care. Most significantly, the plan is outrageously antidemocratic, “implementing economic governance reforms...that may be hard for a future government to undo,”  the World Bank said in a 2004 statement.

In her inaugural speech, Michaí«lle Jean stated that her story “is a lesson in learning to be free” . Just as her father aspired to freedom, the Haitian population today struggles against Canadian economic and political interference. The question is: will our Governor General heed their voices for freedom?