http://haitianalysis.com/2007/6/29/canada-s-aid-to-haiti-in-context

http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/61/61-TOC.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Canada-Haiti-Waging-Poor-Majority/dp/1552661687/ref=sr_1_2/105-7501114-5742028?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199451228&sr=1-2

http://haitianalysis.com/2007/10/17/burma-and-haiti-comparing-the-government-and-media-response

quote:

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IPS observed that buildings throughout Cité Soleil were pockmarked by bullets; many showing huge holes made by heavy caliber UN weapons, as residents attest. Often pipes that brought in water to the slum community now lay shattered.
A recently declassified document from the US embassy in Port-au-Prince reveals that during a similar operation carried out in July 2005, MINUSTAH expended 22,000 bullets over several hours. In the report, an official from MINUSTAH acknowledged, “given the flimsy construction of homes in Cité Soleil and the large quantity of ammunition expended, it is likely that rounds penetrated many buildings, striking unintended targets.”
Frantz Michel Guerrier, spokesman for the Committee of Notables for the Development of Cité Soleil based in the Bois Neuf zone, said, “It is very difficult for me to explain to you what the people of Bois Neuf went through on Dec. 22, 2006—almost unexplainable. It was a true massacre. We counted more than sixty wounded and more than twenty-five dead, among [them] infants, children, and young people.”

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You may not know that we have had several discussions about Haiti over the years. Here is a sample of some of the threads on babble:

U.N. Commits More massacres in Haiti

Haiti: Preval MUST share power...

Haiti II

Haiti

UN Problems in Haiti

Disgusting Activity in Haiti

Haiti 101

Beloved Haiti

It contains a wealth of new material detailing how the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) contracted a variety of organizations in Canada to aid and abet its policy of regime change in Haiti. Although these largely Quebec-based organizations are part of movements dedicated to peace, development, human rights, "Third World" development and "democracy promotion," they played essential roles in destabilizing President Aristide's elected government.

Some of these Canadian organizations funneled CIDA grants to their "partner" groups in Haiti to conduct virulently partisan, anti-Aristide campaigns. Other CIDA-funded groups in Canada contributed to the cause by lending legitimacy to the brutal dictatorship that was illegally installed in 2004. As enthusiastic cheerleaders for Canada's role in the 2004 coup, CIDA's agents of regime change also helped with propaganda efforts to cover up the worst of the human rights abuses overseen by the coup-backed regime.

This issue of Press for Conversion! examines ten CIDA-funded, quasi-government agencies and exposes details about their shameful roles in the process of Haiti's 2004 regime change:

• Alternatives
• Canadian Foundation for the Americas
• Centre for International Studies and Cooperation
• Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs
• Development and Peace
• Freedom Network
• International Legal Resources Centre
• Québec Association of International Cooperation Organizations
• Rights and Democracy
• Roundtable on Haiti

This issue represents considerable new research into the role of CIDA-funded groups in Canada. In fact, ninety percent of the articles in this issue have never previously been published.
The magazine is exhaustively footnoted with a total of more than 450 detailed references.

Material in this issue was written by Nikolas Barry-Shaw, Yves Engler, Anthony Fenton, Peter Hallward, Isabel K. Macdonald, Richard Sanders, Kevin Skerrett and Kabir Joshi-Vijayan.

From the Introduction to the issue:

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Numerous departments, agencies and organizations acting on behalf of Canada’s government were deeply involved in planning, conducting and covering up the 2004 regime change that overthrew the elected government of Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

One government entity in particular, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), played a key role in this illegal, coup d’etat process. For instance, CIDA funnelled $23 million to Haiti’s notorious Group of 184 (G184) and 10 of its anti-Aristide member organizations. The G184 coalition was led by Haiti’s corporate elite, including those later identified by Haiti’s rebel leaders as having financed and armed their violent attacks in early 2004. (See p.14-15.)

Prior to the coup, CIDA’s "development" strategy in Haiti was to impose an aid embargo on Aristide’s government while simultaneously "investing" heavily in the G184 and other organizations engaged in the struggle to depose Aristide. This manipulative plan to destabilize Haiti’s legal government, was part of a successful effort to ultimately wrest control of that country’s political power structures….

CIDA’s strategy created a tragedy for Haiti’s impoverished masses. The whole raison d’etre of CIDA’s "coalition of key players"—the G184—was to organize and lead a stridently partisan, political campaign to denounce, undermine, destabilize and ultimately overthrow Aristide’s Lavalas party government.Thanks to “sufficient resources" from CIDA and its equivalents in the U.S. and French governments—as well as support from Haiti’s corporate oligarchy—Haitian "change drivers" successfully helped rid Haiti of President Aristide before the end of his five year term.

Sadly and most ironically, CIDA’s strategy was carried out by Québec-based organizations that are widely respected by many progressives as promoters of peace, democracy, human rights and "Third World" development….

Not only then did CIDA use its Canadian "partners" to channel money to political agents of influence in Haiti, it also used its financial clout to recruit support from Canadian organizations that are perceived to be independent from the government. These so-called "non-governmental organizations" (NGOs) not only facilitated the government’s engagement in Haiti, they also did some of the government’s public relations (PR) work about Haiti in Canada. As such, these "NGOs" might more accurately be described as quasi-governmental organizations (QGOs).

Once Haiti’s brutal regime change was underway, in March 2004, several of these CIDA-funded QGOs began to lend their considerable resources, organizational expertise and public credibility, to the cause of building acceptance and support for the handpicked dictatorship that supplanted Aristide’s elected government. This was no small order. It was, in short, a linguistic makeover designed to mask Canadian complicity in a vicious, illegal regime change and to give it the appearance of a beneficial, Third World development program promoting peace and human rights….

In the process of cheerleading the Canadian government’s complicity in Haiti’s regime change, CIDA-funded QGOs in Canada have consistently downplayed, rationalized or completely ignored—and hence covered up—widespread systemic human rights abuses that were committed by the coup-installed dictatorship and its proxies within paramilitary forces, the police, the prison and legal systems. This whitewash was also extended to conceal serious violations by UN-sanctioned troops that have occupied Haiti ever since, waging counter-insurgency operations to quell opposition to the illegal change in government that was forced on Haiti.

This so-called UN "peacekeeping" mission has been fraught with failure and scandals because Aristide was and still remains the most popular, democratically-elected president in Haiti’s history. Aristide was still immensely popular among Haiti’s desperately poor population in early 2004 when thousands of elected officials— from municipal councillors right up to national cabinet ministers—were forced out of office. Haiti’s democracy was replaced by an unelected regime that oversaw the execution, imprisonment and exile of thousands of citizens who dared to support the government they had duly elected. The result was a human rights catastrophe that lasted more than two years….

The U.S., Canadian and French bureaucrats who first conspired at a government resort on Meech Lake, near Ottawa, to lay the groundwork for Haiti’s 2004 coup were only successful because they controlled a legion of agents to carry out the operation. They employed not only those in military uniforms but others clad in the garbs of diplomats, business entrepreneurs, "civil society" leaders and aid workers. People employed in each of these sectors worked hard over several years to ensure the final success of the mission.

Compartmentalized into a various political, diplomatic, economic, security and propaganda duties, these governmental and QGO agents partnered with a similarly diverse range of collaborators in Haiti. However, focused as they all were on their own specific covert and overt tasks, they did not realise how their own specific responsibilities figured into the whole, regime-change operation. This carefully constructed organizational strategy creates a division of labour that separates large operations into isolated working units that are unaware of each others’ activities. This means that the overall perspective of the project and its purpose, can remain hidden from all but a few of the key individuals involved. This method has long been used by military and intelligence agencies to serve the interests of corporate elites. It is important because many individuals would not participate if they knew what they were contributing to.

This means that those employed by CIDA-funded QGOs in Canada are probably still not even aware that they were used to facilitate a coup d’état. The directors, staff and volunteers within these organizations are no doubt sincere in their belief that by helping oppose Aristide’s government they were working in the best interests of Haiti’s population. These well-meaning Canadians either had no idea of the links between their Haitian "partners" and the rapacious corporate elites of that country (and their own), or they perhaps harboured some naive faith that these elites are a benevolent force striving to promote peace and alleviate poverty….

It is of great importance that activists in Canada’s peace, development and human rights movements understand how it is that well-meaning, progressive people can be co-opted into implementing such horrific policies as those coordinated by the Canadian government in Haiti. This was not the first time that Canadian organizations were used—in the name of social progress—to conduct regressive government policies against poor populations. The residential school system is but one historic case in point. Let us hope that it will not take 100 years for Canada’s government, and its QGOs, to admit recent mistakes in Haiti. The information and analysis in these pages are a resource tool for activists trying to prevent similar disasters from happening again.

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This issue is an important contribution to the documentation of Canada's shameful role in Haiti.

[ 22 July 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

quote:

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The U.S., Canadian and French bureaucrats who first conspired at a government resort on Meech Lake, near Ottawa, to lay the groundwork for Haiti’s 2004 coup were only successful because they controlled a legion of agents to carry out the operation. They employed not only those in military uniforms but others clad in the garbs of diplomats, business entrepreneurs, "civil society" leaders and aid workers. People employed in each of these sectors worked hard over several years to ensure the final success of the mission.

Compartmentalized into a various political, diplomatic, economic, security and propaganda duties, these governmental and QGO agents partnered with a similarly diverse range of collaborators in Haiti. However, focused as they all were on their own specific covert and overt tasks, they did not realise how their own specific responsibilities figured into the whole, regime-change operation. This carefully constructed organizational strategy creates a division of labour that separates large operations into isolated working units that are unaware of each others’ activities. This means that the overall perspective of the project and its purpose, can remain hidden from all but a few of the key individuals involved. This method has long been used by military and intelligence agencies to serve the interests of corporate elites. It is important because many individuals would not participate if they knew what they were contributing to.

This means that those employed by CIDA-funded QGOs in Canada are probably still not even aware that they were used to facilitate a coup d’état. The directors, staff and volunteers within these organizations are no doubt sincere in their belief that by helping oppose Aristide’s government they were working in the best interests of Haiti’s population. These well-meaning Canadians either had no idea of the links between their Haitian "partners" and the rapacious corporate elites of that country (and their own), or they perhaps harboured some naive faith that these elites are a benevolent force striving to promote peace and alleviate poverty….

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Originally posted by laine lowe:
Thanks for that link M. Spector. Our involvement in Haiti is another issue where not a single political party has the courage to question or oppose.

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That is not true. The NDP questioned and grilled federal Liberals in Ottawa about their compliance with the CIA-US military overthrow of Haiti's democracy. Bloc Party members actually stood up in the House and demanded the NDP stop referring to Aristide as "removed", and even insisting further on the term "departed"

Liberals sent cops and troops to help out with the military occupation in what would be the 25th time U.S. military and CIA invaded Haiti over the years. Canada's plutocracy has never protested U.S. military and CIA interventions in Haiti to put down various Haitian people's revolts and rebellions against a series of intolerable U.S.-backed dictatorships from last century to this one

[ 22 July 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

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That is patently false. The NDP questioned and grilled federal Liberals in Ottawa about their compliance with the CIA-US military overthrow of Haiti's democracy

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Nice try Fidel but it doesn't wash. Yes there are a couple of press releases but there was never a serious inquiry in Parliament on Canada's role in the events prior or since.

http://www.ndp.ca/page/979
Fri 15 Oct 2004
Canada Must Take Action To Help Curb Mounting Violence In Haiti

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OTTAWA - NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Alexa McDonough is demanding the federal government take tangible steps to help stop the growing violence in Haiti. "Canada has an obligation to help initiate and facilitate peaceful dialogue between warring factions in Haiti," said McDonough. "Money alone cannot bring peace to this violence-stricken nation."
Snip
Currently Canada has only two Canadian Forces officers and 100 police with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

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This press release from 2004 doesn't challenge Canada's role and in point of fact implies that Canada should have a bigger military presence in MINISTAH.

McDonough: Reports Of Human Rights Violations In Haiti Warrant Canadian Investigation
Fri 11 Mar 2005

quote:

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"There have been numerous reports of human rights violations taking place in Haiti. Canada has a presence in that country. Accordingly, we have a moral obligation to investigate these reported violations and ensure that we are accomplishing our intended goals of peace-building and capacity building in that country," said McDonough.

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Still no challenge or question of Canada's role and further gives credence to the false statement that we were there solely for peace and governmental capacity building.

Canada Failing Haitians, Says McDonough
Mon 11 Apr 2005

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"The federal government has been silent in the face of repeated demands from observers in Haiti and aid organizations that Canada answer nagging questions about how CIDA funding is being spent in Haiti, and whether Canada's police training and logistical support is enhancing Haiti's ability to actually protect its citizens," added McDonough.

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Again no real challenge just a safe indication that CIDA funding might not be spent correctly. No challenge whatsoever that Canadian training of police was being abused by the Interim Government.

http://204.225.123.146/
New Democratic Socialist Caucus
From their own account of the 2006 NDP convention expressing their concerns on the NDP leaderships commitment to Haiti.

quote:

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In any case, at the foreign policy panel, with over 300 delegates in attendance, former NDP leader and current External Affairs Critic, Alexa McDonough, moved to kill a high-ranked resolution on Haiti, endorsed by supporters of the Canada Haiti Action Network, which calls for an investigation into Ottawa’s role in the overthrow of democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and demands the removal of Canadian police and an end to the ongoing foreign occupation of the super-exploited Caribbean country. McDonough’s attempt to substitute her own resolution, which sought to ignore the past and justify an ongoing imperialist "aid and reconstruction" presence in Haiti, was soundly defeated following a sharp 20 minute debate. No doubt, the leftist Haiti motion would have carried, had it come to a vote – a point certainly not lost on the party brass. Unfortunately, in the course of events, the "Saskatchewan model" succeeded in burying dozens of excellent resolutions, not just on Haiti, but on Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Palestine and militarism.

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And then mimeguy provides proof that the NDP has actually "questioned and opposed" Ottawa's policies on Haiti by a series of weak and ineffective governments, here:

Fri 15 Oct 2004
Canada Must Take Action To Help Curb Mounting Violence In Haiti

quote:

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OTTAWA - NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Alexa McDonough is demanding the federal government take tangible steps to help stop the growing violence in Haiti. "Canada has an obligation to help initiate and facilitate peaceful dialogue between warring factions in Haiti," said McDonough. "Money alone cannot bring peace to this violence-stricken nation."

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And the NDP has continued to question and oppose the two stoogeocratic old line parties various U.S.-friendly policies on Haiti, an island nation which Washington calls, "the freest trading nation in the Carribean"

Liberals fudging numbers again 2004(oops! retro Libranos)

McDonough: Reports Of Human Rights Violations In Haiti Warrant Canadian Investigation

Canada failing Haitians says McDonough

Jack Layton on the election of Rene Preval and his challenges as new leader of Haiti

GlobalResearch.ca 2006:

quote:

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As for the NDP, last spring the party’s foreign affairs critic, Alexa McDonough, called on the government to do more to stop the flow of arms into the country and to address the basic needs of health care, education, jobs and infrastructure there.

Then there’s the Green Party, which called this past weekend for a formal review of Canada’s involvement in Haiti. This follows on the party’s October stance, which called on Canada to seek a delay in the elections until all political prisoners are freed and “intimidation of Lavalas Party supporters by the Haitian National Police is stopped.”

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There were lots of questions and opposition, even though our Liberal and Conservative-friendly newspapers and news agencies rarely report it. Vote anything but Liberal or Conservative for even more opposition to the longest-running stoogeocracy in this part of the world.

[ 22 July 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Originally posted by mimeguy:
I have personally witnessed the damage done to schools, water projects and, medical clinics as the result of these attacks in Cite Soleil during my work there in May 2005, 2006 and recently in 2007.

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What do you think about Richard Sanders's thesis (above, and below)) on what NGO participants thought they were doing in Haiti?

quote:

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However, focused as they all were on their own specific covert and overt tasks, they did not realise how their own specific responsibilities figured into the whole, regime-change operation. This carefully constructed organizational strategy creates a division of labour that separates large operations into isolated working units that are unaware of each others’ activities. This means that the overall perspective of the project and its purpose, can remain hidden from all but a few of the key individuals involved. This method has long been used by military and intelligence agencies to serve the interests of corporate elites. It is important because many individuals would not participate if they knew what they were contributing to.

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M. Spector - I work with a small charity that exists under the radar really because of our small size. So we do not work with CIDA funding and are not a QGO. There was a conspiracy on the part of the Canadian government acting through CIDA and the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. I think some groups actually thought that Aristide should go and so allowed events to take their course and in doing so they are a party to the events. Others I don’t think knew the extent of Canadian government involvement but would have known that the Group 184 and Andy Apaid were working to overthrow the Lavalas government. I don’t cater to the Aristide as saint philosophy but how corrupt he was, the extent of human rights violations committed by the Lavalas government is not the point. Canada conspired to overthrow the government and install a compliant government in full knowledge that the installed government intended to commit human rights violations and operate outside the Haitian Constitution. That was the whole point of the operation. The Canadian government knew the extent of corruption and human rights violations but continued its support for the Interim government in order to facilitate economic advantage for Canadian corporations especially in the mining sector. That is what needs to be investigated.

Overall NGOs play a significant part in weakening domestic governments because they take on work that should be done by the state. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation. Unless there is a partnership involving the state taking over projects it becomes an endless cycle of poverty because NGOs can never reach the funding level of a government and can never unify under a single philosophy and system of regulation in the same manner as government legislation and programming. So we become blind to the isolationist philosophy that we are helping without looking at the connections. This is change I am trying to work on within the Green Party. I have written much of the Haiti policy for the party, (which includes a specific call to investigate Canada’s role in the events leading up to 2004 and after until the election of Preval in 2006) and working on policies guiding NGOs and corporations.

quote:

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Originally posted by mimeguy:

...Overall NGOs play a significant part in weakening domestic governments because they take on work that should be done by the state. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation. Unless there is a partnership involving the state taking over projects it becomes an endless cycle of poverty because NGOs can never reach the funding level of a government and can never unify under a single philosophy and system of regulation in the same manner as government legislation and programming. ....

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[non-haitian related compliment]

this is very well said mimeguy, and can be applied generally i would say. i was trying to make this very point in a discussion i was having a few days ago, and wish i was as articulate as your description above, so thanks!

The NDP and Bloc may be vigilant on dealing with the symptoms, which is again a compartamentalized approach at dealing with what is a very flawed foreign policy from a progressive perspective. What is lacking is the courage to make a statement about foreign manipulation of events that resulted in regime change or to criticize the continued effort to mold Haiti into a compliant colony that serves the need of multinational corporations and the Haitian elite. IOW, what is missing is a policy position on Canada's foreign policy respecting developing nations.

Another good article courtesy of CHAN:
FOCAL's Role in the Privatization of Haiti

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On behalf of the Canadian government, the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) is playing a central role in facilitating certain key aspects of a major neocolonial ‘reconstruction’ program in Haiti. This program involves the dismantling and subsequent restructuring of Haiti’s entire political, economic and social structure by the “international community.” What we are witnessing in Haiti is the complete destruction of a nation, to serve the interests of capital. Every aspect of Haitian society is being colonized and opened up to the ‘free’ market flood of foreign products. Much of the country is being handed over to a supposedly “progressive” “civil society” of extremely wealthy Haitians, or simply seized by transnational corporations. The role of Haiti’s elected government is being reduced to simply watching over this colonial arrangement as the Haitian state becomes increasingly powerless.

By doing all this, the threat that a future Jean-Bertrand Aristide might bring popular reforms is being eliminated. The 2004 coup, the brutal murder of thousands in resistant neighbourhoods, and the continuous extensions of the UN occupation were (and are) necessary to assure this program’s successful implementation. Canada has taken a leading role in this whole operation and, as former Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has stated, “Canada will be [in Haiti] for an indefinite period of time.”1

FOCAL, which bills itself as “an independent, non-governmental organization”2 is, in reality, a Canadian government-funded “think tank” that was established in 1990 as part of a cabinet strategy to deepen ties with Latin America and the Caribbean.3 That was the same year that Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS). In the early 1990s, Canada’s economic and political interests in the region increased because—according to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)—the area had “moved from state-run, protectionist economies to a more liberalized, free-market approach.4 ” (By 1990, Nicaragua’s populist Sandinista government had been forced out of power after the U.S.-instigated contra war and embargo. Meanwhile in El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru, revolutionary forces had either capitulated or been beheaded by 1992. In other words, through genocidal tactics, imperialism had successfully crushed many popular movements.)

Through all aspects of its work, FOCAL supports the political and economic interests of the Canadian government. A 2004 Foreign Affairs review of FOCAL happily states that it “effectively fills a strategic niche that is currently unoccupied by any other institution in Canada.”5 The government and its policy makers rely on FOCAL to provide “an up-to-date snapshot of what is really happening on the ground.”6 Unfortunately however, FOCAL—like other CIDA-funded institutions—are hopelessly out of touch with Haiti’s impoverished majority. FOCAL has preferred instead to initiate partnerships with Haiti’s notoriously self-interested business elite. FOCAL has been instrumental in forging links between the Canadian state, Haitian corporations and international financial institutions, like the World Bank and the IMF. Together they are working to achieve their common strategic goals.

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quote:

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And the NDP has continued to question and oppose the two stoogeocratic old line parties various U.S.-friendly policies on Haiti

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and lists as evidence of this:

quote:

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Alexa McDonough, called on the government to do more to stop the flow of arms into the country and to address the basic needs of health care, education, jobs and infrastructure there.

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Note she doesn't actually oppose anything. She merely disagrees with how things are going. It's like "anti-war" Americans who oppose the Iraq war because the troops don't have adequate body armour.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jingles:
Fidel wrote:

Note she doesn't actually oppose anything. She merely disagrees with how things are going. It's like "anti-war" Americans who oppose the Iraq war because the troops don't have adequate body armour.

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That's wonderful hyperbole. I can almost picture the NDP going along with the bombing and invasion of oil-rich Iraq, even though we all know that was Paul Martin and the federal Liberals' near miss.

quote:

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NDP Criticizes Canada's Haiti Policy

Fortunately, not all parliamentarians have bought Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew's marketing of his Haiti policy. In a letter dated Aug. 3, 2005, NDP Foreign Affairs critic Alexa McDonough informed Pettigrew that she has "serious questions about the legitimacy of the current interim government and the acquiescence of Canada in the seemingly active attempts by the interim government to ensure President Aristide's Lavalas Party does not participate in the upcoming elections." Quite rightly, Ms. McDonough concludes that "Canada must take stock of its role in the removal of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide, evaluate its actions in Haiti since February 2004, and re-commit to helping end the violence and restoring true democracy in Haiti." So far, the "stock-taking" called for by McDonough appears unlikely. -- Jean Saint-Vil

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No political party is as indistinguishable from political Conservatives when governing than the very weak and ineffective and U.S.-friendly Liberals have been over the years.

[ 23 July 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Fortunately, not all parliamentarians have bought Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pierre Pettigrew's marketing of his Haiti policy.

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