Canada in Haiti


Waging War on the Poor Majority



The authors of this book will be in Windsor next week speaking at a union hall and at the university. The book was just published and they are traveling about telling Canadians a story most have never heard. I'm on the organizing committee for the local events, fulfilling a promise I made last year.

It's been over a decade since I did this kind of thing. Leafleting the Labour Day parade brought back old memories of a younger militancy.

Some things have changed. We have had only two short meetings. Instead, we correspond daily over a listserve. I've received over 160 emails the past few weeks.

Last week I made a brief presentation to the District Labour Council. This is what I said:

In January 2004 the people of Haiti celebrated the 200th anniversary of the only successful slave revolution in history.

By the end of February they had watched their country be overrun by a right wing coup and witnessed the kidnapping of their president by US Marines and the Canadian military.

Since then many of the supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have been hunted down and killed by death squads.

It is sad but true that most Canadians are completely unaware of the role our government played in encouraging, supporting, indeed in orchestrating the removal of the democratically elected government of Haiti.

Next Monday and Tuesday two writers, Yves Engler of Montreal and Anthony Fenton of Vancouver, will be in Windsor to speak about their new book: Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority.

We invite you to come and hear them speak and get copies of the book so you can find out for yourself how we have betrayed the homeland of our next governor-general.


Yves Engler gained some notoriety last June when he splashed the Honourable Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's foreign affairs minister, with fake blood. It was a protest "against human rights abuses in Haiti and Canada's role in overthrowing the country's democracy." He later apologized for ruining Pettigrew's suit. "I intended for the fake blood to stain only Mr. Pettigrew's hands."

Anthony Fenton has been almost as dramatic in his condemnation of "Canada’s role in the extermination of supporters of ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide’s political party, Lavalas."

I may be the only member of the organizing committee that doesn't share with the authors the general perspective of the anti-war movement. Nevertheless on Haiti I'm with them. I've read their book and think they have done an excellent job explaining Canada's disastrous complicity in an unwarranted regime change.

You can read one of the first reviews here.

You can buy the book from here.

You can download the trailer of the movie Haiti: The UNtold Story here.

If you live near Windsor you can meet the two of them on Monday, September 19, 6:30 pm, at C.A.W. Local 200/400 Hall, 1855 Turner Rd.

On Tuesday, September 20, 12.30 pm, Yves will be speaking at the Katzman Lounge, Vanier Hall, University of Windsor. Anthony will be on his way back to Haiti at that time.

For continuing coverage of events in Haiti read HaitiAction.net and CanadaHaitiAction.ca.

Oh, yes. About the new Governor General of Canada. Michaëlle Jean was born in Port au Prince. She fled Haiti with her family from dictator François Duvalier's regime in 1968.


Posted: Fri - September 16, 2005 at 08:17 PM          

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