"From hockey championships to humanitarian and military leadership roles in Afghanistan and Haiti, we can say again this year that Canada is a citizen of the world and we make our contribution in a positive way."
- Stephen Harper, Canada Day Greeting, July 1, 2007

Beginning July 15, Prime Minister Harper will embark on a six day tour through Chile, Colombia, Barbados and Haiti.  According to media reports, the stated objective for his trip will be to "bolster Canada\'s relationship" with the Americas and "showcase his leadership" in the region.

When the Prime Minister reaches Haiti on July 20, he will repeat his claims that Canada\'s "military leadership" there has been "positive" for the country.  In fact, Mr. Harper has exercised no leadership at all during his first 17 months in power. Looking back, we can recall that it was under the Liberal government of Paul Martin that Canada provided troops and political support for the coup d\'etat that toppled Haiti\'s elected government in February 2004.  This attack on democracy was followed by a two-year period of intense repression unleashed by an unelected government that Canada helped install, finance, and militarily secure.  The human rights disaster that resulted (thousands killed, hundreds illegally imprisoned) is a blight on Canadian foreign policy, but it is one that the Harper Conservatives completely supported.

Since forming his government in February 2006, Stephen Harper has deepened the previous government\'s close coordination of Haiti policy with that of the Bush administration.  It was the Bush administration that led the way in the destabilization of the previous Aristide government, with crucial assistance from both Canada and France.

Most distressingly, in recent months, the Canadian government has played a key role in pressing the UN Mission in Haiti to pursue more brutal "anti-gang" operations, which have had a disastrous record, often resulting in large-scale killings of poor Haitian civilians.  In large part as a result of pressure from the Canadian government, the UN military force launched a "stepped-up campaign against armed criminal gangs."  As part of this campaign against "criminal gangs" a UN raid on the seaside shantytown of Cite Soleil on December 22nd, 2006 left at least 22 civilians dead, including women and children.  A report to the Parliamentary standing committee on Foreign Affairs, penned by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay, applauded this massacre, stating that "more robust operations led by MINUSTAH and the Haitian National Police from December 22, 2006, further improved the security situation."  

Today, with a government in Haiti that was elected on a platform of social reform for Haiti\'s vast poor population, the policy of the Bush-Harper alliance has been one of containment, to effectively limit the options available to Haiti\'s President, Rene Preval.  This is carried out through several mechanisms:

- A 9, 000-member military/police occupation force established under UN auspices

- Provision by Canada of training and logistical support to the brutal Haitian National Police

- Financial aid that is conditional on prescribed economic policies; and

- Channeling development "aid" through a network of Canadian, American, and Haitian NGOs that can be trusted to uncritically support the policies of their government sponsors

What Stephen Harper Should Be Doing in Haiti

The Prime Minister will try to use his trip to Haiti to underline the script of his spin doctors - that Haiti has been "stabilized" thanks to Canadian and American  intervention, and the country receives vast sums of aid money. But his time there could be much more usefully spent:

He could announce that Canada will cancel all outstanding debt owing to Canada, and appeal for other countries to follow suit.  Haiti received some debt relief earlier this year, but it will not take effect for three years.  The Prime Minister could also announce that Canada\'s aid program will be adjusted to remove the "strings-attached" conditions that make "Canadian aid" into a political weapon.

While in Haiti, Mr. Harper could meet with Haiti\'s most respected human rights lawyer, Mario Joseph. Mr. Joseph is responsible for heroic work on the cases of political prisoners such as Yvon Neptune, Annette Auguste, and Father Gerard Jean-Juste - all of whom were jailed illegally by the Canadian-backed Latortue government. Hundreds of other prisoners languish in Haiti\'s prisons, due either to
political repression or to wanton neglect by the Canada-funded and trained justice system.

Mr. Harper could also visit Haiti\'s national penitentiary to see first-hand the conditions that Edmond Mulet, the head of the UN mission in Haiti, recently described as "pretty horrible".  While in a prison, he might hear about the grim reality of human rights violations by the UN military force that have left dozens of Haitian civilians dead and many injured over the past 12 months, with impunity.

Finally, Prime Minister Harper could take a simple step to demonstrate his interest in the situation of Haiti\'s workers by meeting with a representative of the country\'s struggling trade union movement.  Organizers with the Canada Haiti Action Network recently hosted two principal leaders of the Confederation des travailleurs haitiens (CTH) trade union on an 11-city tour of Canada.  These same leaders are no doubt available to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss the incredibly difficult situation of Haitian workers, who face mass unemployment, anti-union repression, and poverty wages of less than US$2 per day.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Stephen Harper will do any of these things.  Instead, he will repeat the same message that he delivered to Canadians on Canada Day - that his government is making a "positive contribution" in Haiti.  Nonetheless, as the gap between Prime Ministerial posture and Haitian reality becomes more obvious, such public relations strategies are sure to fail.

- Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN), http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/