[News] Québec & Haiti
Anti-Imperialist News
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Mon Apr 14 12:37:12 EDT 2008
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17145
Québec & Haiti
April 14, 2008 By Yves Engler
Over the past century, a line has divided the
left around the world. On one side sit
"progressive forces" willing to support
imperialism and war, usually in return for a
"seat at the table" or some other perk of power.
The most discussed example of Left support for
imperialism was at the beginning of the First
World War when most parties of the Second
International sided with their own ruling class
and governments in the slaughter that followed.
On the other side of the Left divide, are those
individuals and organizations that take a
principled position in favour of real democracy
for all the world's people and oppose imperialism
and colonialism in all its forms, especially when
it is their ruling class involved. Some might say
the former is the "pretend Left" and the later the "authentic Left."
So what sort of Left is there left in Québec? To
help answer this question the case of Haiti is instructive.
Corporations based in this province such as SNC
Lavalin, St. Genevieve Resources and Gildan
Activewear reaped rewards from the overthrow of
Haiti's elected government on Feb. 29, 2004.
Québec City provided the coup government with
important political support. "Various Haitian
ministers have visited Québec, particularly in
the fall of 2004" reports the government's
website. During the coup government's reign, Jean
Charest made the first-ever official trip by a
Québec premier to Haiti. (The government's
website boasts that Charest met the, US-installed
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue four times). These
visits helped advance a variety of educational
and legal initiatives by this province to further
subordinate Haitian political sovereignty. And
since the coup, Québec police have been at the
forefront in reestablishing foreign control over Haiti's police force.
The politicians who shaped Ottawa's decision to
help overthrow Haiti's elected President, Jean
Bertrand Aristide, were all Québec-based Liberals
(Pierre Pettigrew, Dennis Coderre and Denis
Paradis). These federalist politicians acted with
firm support from the Bloc Québecois. In a
telling example, at a meeting of the Standing
Committee on Foreign Affairs and International
Trade, Bloc MP Pierre Paquette criticized the NDP
for using the word "removal" to describe what
happened on Feb. 29, 2004 to Aristide. Paquette
insisted the NDP's Alexa McDonough use the word "departure" instead.
As an advanced capitalist state, Québec support
for Western imperialism in Haiti should not be
surprising. Already, thirty years ago, the Parti
Québecois stated that an independent Québec would
continue its membership in NATO, NORAD and even
the Commonwealth. What's surprising is the extent
to which the left' has been a participant in Québecois imperialism.
A recent report published by Alternatives,
considered to be one of Québec's most
left'-leaning non-governmental organizations,
provides an eye into this province's colonial
attitude vis-a-vis Haiti. The most disturbing
statement in the report titled "Haiti: Voices of
the Actors" reads: "In a country like Haiti, in
which democratic culture has never taken hold,
the concept of the common good and the meaning of
elections and representation are limited to the
educated elites, and in particular to those who
have received citizen education within the social movements."
According to Alternatives, Haitians are too
stupid to know what's good for them, unless, that
is, they've been educated by a foreign NGO. The
report, which was financed by Ottawa, is full of
other attacks against Haitians and the country's
popular movement. "Haiti: Voices of the Actors"
is simply the latest example of (near unanimous)
Québec Left' support for western intervention in Haiti.
At the height of the destabilization campaign
against the elected government in February 2004
the province's largest union federation, the
Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ),
forcefully opposed the Haitian government. On
February 12th, the FTQ sent out a partisan press
release condemning the Aristide government. On
February 16th and 17th, Fernand Daoust, the
former head of the FTQ, along with
representatives of Québec's next two biggest
union federations, participated in an
international union delegation critical of
Haiti's government. The delegation garnered
significant media attention in Haiti and after
returning from Haiti, Daoust was quoted
throughout the Québec media denouncing the
Aristide government. On March 1st, a day after
the elected president was removed by US marines,
the FTQ sent out a press release celebrating the
release of detained union activists and calling
on the international community to "help Haitians
build democracy in their country."
The FTQ's condemnations of Haiti's elected
government took place while a CIA backed
paramilitary invasion (led by well-known thugs
such as Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain)
terrorized the country. All the while, a
well-orchestrated and internationally
(principally the US, France and Canada) financed
destabilization campaign against Haiti's
government was under way. It is clear that the
FTQ's criticism of Haiti's government contributed
to a successful destabilization campaign that
helped justify Canada's participation in the coup.
To the best of my knowledge, the FTQ has not
commented on the transport union that was
destroyed after the coup, the Confederation de
Travailleurs Haitiens (CTH) offices attacked in
September 2004, the death threats by the police
against CTH leader, Lulu Cherie in December 2004
or the massive increase in human rights violations after the coup.
The FTQ, as well as the province's third largest
union federation, the CSQ, are members of the
Concertation Pour Haïti (CPH) - along with
Development and Peace, Amnesty Internationale
(Québec chapter), Entraide Missionnaire and a
half dozen other NGOs. The CPH is an informal
group that branded Aristide a "tyrant," his
government a "dictatorship," and a "regime of
terror" and in mid-February 2004 called for
Aristide's removal. The CPH's antagonism towards
Aristide's Lavalas party wasn't merely a
by-product of the political upheaval of February 2004.
The CPH repeated the claim first made by Haiti's
ruling elite that Lavalas launched an "Operation
Baghdad," which included beheading police
officers. Numerous observers have noted that
"Operation Baghdad" was simply pro-coup
propaganda designed to divert attention from the
de facto government's misdeeds, particularly the
murder of at least five peaceful,
pro-constitution demonstrators on September 30, 2004.
In a January 27, 2006 letter to Allan Rock,
Canada's ambassador to the UN, the CPH and
Montreal-based Rights & Democracy echoed the
extreme right's demand for increased repression
in the country's largest poor neighborhood and
bastion of support for the ousted president, Cité
Soleil. A couple of weeks after a business-sector
"strike" demanding that UN troops aggressively
attack "gangsters" in Cité Soleil, the CPH
questioned the "true motives of the UN mission."
The letter also questioned whether UN forces were
"protecting armed bandits more than restoring order and ending violence."
Criticizing the UN for softness in Cité Soleil
flies in the face of evidence of its brutality
there, including a murderous attack on a hospital
documented by English-speaking Canadian
solidarity activists just prior to the CPH
letter. Of course, the most stark example of UN
repression in Cite Soleil was a raid on July 6,
2005 to kill a "gang" leader. That operation left
at least 23 civilians dead. (Kevin Pina's film
Haiti: The UNtold Story documents the chilling brutality of UN forces.)
The Centre for International Studies and
Cooperation (CECI, in French) is one prominent
Québec NGO involved in Haiti that is no longer
part of the CPH. A year ago, a CECI spokesperson
told me they were uncomfortable with the
political nature of the CPH. Yet prior to the
coup, CECI's honorary spokesperson,
Haitian-Québec singer and high profile Québec
nationalist, Luc Mervil, led a demonstration in
Montreal demanding Aristide's ouster. The group
has also publicly endorsed the UN occupation. On
January 31st 2007, their spokesperson told Le
Devoir "the muscular interventions led by
Minustah [UN forces] in the hot zones of the
capital have cooled down the passion of the armed
groups. We can now circulate more freely in the capital."
Six days before these comments appeared, a UN
raid on Cité Soleil left five dead and a dozen
wounded, according to Agence France Presse. A
month earlier, on December 22, a UN assault on
Cité Soleil (marketed by its architects as an
action against "armed gangs" allegedly
responsible for a spate of kidnappings) left
scores of civilians dead and wounded, including
women and children. Agence France Presse
indicated that at least 12 people were killed and
"several dozen" wounded, a casualty total over
40. A Haitian human rights organization, AUMOD,
reported 20 killed. The Agence Haitienne de
Presse reported "very serious property damage"
following the UN attack, and concerns that "a
critical water shortage may now develop because
water cisterns and pipes were punctured by the gunfire."
Québec NGOs' (and unions) public endorsement of
western intervention in Haiti has gone a long way
to dampen opposition to the coup. Just as
important, the above-cited NGOs are integral to
the US-Canadian strategy of supporting the
middle-class opposition to the Lavalas movement.
Too often, NGO projects inadvertently divided the
popular movement by channeling Haitian political
actors into piecemeal initiatives instead of
building a mass movement. Foreign NGOs also
directly undermined the Lavalas movement by
funding only opposition groups. In June 2005, for
instance, an Alternative's representative,
François L'Ecuyer, admitted that all 15 groups
Alternatives works with in Haiti are anti-Lavalas.
The differences between the Québec and English
Canadian Left on Haiti are stark. English
Canadian unions, anti-war groups and radical
media have generally been sympathetic to the
notion that Canada participated in a brutal
coup. When progressive media such as The
Dominion, New Socialist Magazine or Canadian
Dimension published recent issues focusing on
Canadian imperialism, they all ran at least one
article detailing Canadian crimes in Haiti.
Conversely, at the height of Canadian-backed
repression in Haiti, radical' Québec publication
À Babord! published an issue devoted to Canadian
imperialism that failed to even mention Canada's role in Haiti.
The story is similar amongst anti-war groups and
unions. Canadian Peace Alliance affiliates
generally denounced and organized against
Canada's role in Haiti. Yet, when members of
Montreal's Échec à la guerre, tried to pass a
(mild) condemnation of Canada's involvement in
Haiti, they were blocked by two of their members,
the Canadian Catholic Organization for
Development and Peace and AQOCI (an umbrella
group representing two dozen Québec NGOs).
In the months after the removal of Haiti's
elected government, progressive elements within
the Canadian Labour Congress tried to pass a
resolution critical of Canada's role in
overthrowing Aristide and supporting a murderous
dictatorship. The FTQ, which claims
responsibility for relations with "French"
speaking countries at the CLC, worked to dilute
opposition within the CLC. Likewise, the FTQ's Le
Monde Ouvriere advanced hard line anti-Aristide propaganda in October 2004.
Last month the FTQ issued a 59-page report on
Haiti that simply ignores the coup and its
aftermath. How can the future of Haiti be
seriously discussed without mentioning the coup?
Would the FTQ discuss the future of Iraq without considering the U.S. war?
The closest thing in the report to a mention of
the 2004 coup is when Haiti's most important
union federation, the CTH, is criticized for its sympathy towards Lavalas.
Probably the most disturbing example of a
radical' group siding with imperialism in Haiti
is Québec Solidaire. Québec Solidaire's
spokesperson, Francoise David, traveled to Haiti
in the midst of the coup government's crimes and
upon returning, she publicly (on Radio Canada and
elsewhere) parroted the elite's perspective,
blaming supporters of the ousted government for
violence in Haiti. On March 9th, 2006, David
spoke at a Concertation pour Haïti event along
with Danielle Magloire, a member of the "Council
of the Wise" that appointed the brutal coup prime
minister Gérard Latortue. In mid-July 2005,
Magloire issued a statement on behalf of the
seven-member "Council of the Wise" saying that
any media that gives voice to "bandits" (code for
Aristide supporters) should be shut down. She
also asserted that Aristide's Lavalas Family
Party should be banned from upcoming elections.
The only example of Québec Solidaire publicly
expressing its opposition towards the
intervention in Haiti that I've come across was a
single line by a candidate running in a heavily
Haitian diaspora riding in Montreal. The party
even remained quiet when in March 2006 Québec
Premier Jean Charest wined and dined bloodstained
coup dictator, Gerard Latortue.
More than four years later, it should be
abundantly clear that the coup dealt a terrible
blow to Haiti. The coup ushered in a terrible
wave of state-sponsored repression, a rise in
kidnapping and other social disorders as well as
a multifold increase in the price of basic food
commodities. Also, Haiti's poor majority have
rejected Canadian policy time and again, most
obviously by electing Rene Preval, an associate
of Aristide, as President. In the face of almost
uniformly hostile national and international
press, tens of thousands continue to demonstrate
demanding an end to the occupation and the return
of Aristide. A month ago, between five thousand
(Associated Press) and ten thousand (Haiti
Liberte) took to the streets of Port-Au Prince on
the four-year anniversary of the coup.
So, why in the face of significant evidence
(documented in a number of books, movies etc.)
does the Québec Left' continue to support a
brutal class war by this province's institutions
against an already impoverished population?
Could it be the numerous Québec-based companies
that do business in Haiti? Or the fact that the
Aristide government promoted the Creole language
at the expense of French? Can it be explained by
the role of Québec missionaries in Haiti? Or
have Québec NGOs simply been bought off by Canadian aid money?
Since the time of François (Papa Doc) Duvalier,
Québec missionaries have played a significant
role in Haiti. Many of the clergy that were
pushed out of Québec during the Quiet Revolution
in the 1960s made their way to Haiti to work
under the brutal Duvalier dictatorship (who took
control of the church). This relationship has
continued over the years with Haiti home to more
Canadian missionaries than any country in the western hemisphere.
Much to the dismay of the Catholic church, the
Aristide government supported the voodoo
religion, legalizing voodoo marriages, baptisms
and funerals in May 2003. Some of Québec's most
rabidly anti-Aristide NGOs, most notably Entraide
Missionaire and the Catholic Organization for
Development and Peace, have religious ties. (In
March 2006, a Development and Peace Background
paper explained: "The international media has
shrouded the departure of Aristide on 29 February
2004 with conspiracy theories, going so far in
some cases as to claim that the CIA deposed the
president in a coup d'état...In fact, Aristide
himself was largely responsible for the
circumstances that led to his forced departure.")
An encounter with a Québecoise nun running a
convent where I stayed in Haiti's second city,
Cap Haitien, provides a window into Québec
missionary thinking. She told me that Aristide
was the country's biggest drug runner. When
pressed on the matter, she said she wasn't there
for politics, but to help people out.
The importance of Québec missionaries in Haiti
should not be dismissed. The convent where I
stayed in Cap Haitien was the largest institution
in the neighbourhood. Moreover, Québec
missionaries have long received official support.
The initial disbursement of Canadian aid to Haiti
went to missionary work and in 1964 Prime
Minister Lester B. Pearson justified sending a
Canadian naval vessel to Haiti by noting, "if
Canadian nuns or priests should be wounded or
killed, it would be difficult to explain why the
Canadian government had not...taken some form of action."
Of greater consequence in tying the Québec left'
to imperialism in Haiti, are the large number of
international NGO's in this province. In the late
1960s, Ottawa drastically expanded its aid to
francophone nations as a way to placate Québec
nationalists. Prior to this, Canadian aid was
focused on the recently decolonized former
British colonies. Aid to the Francophonie was
designed to convince Québec nationalists that the
Canadian government was sympathetic to
francophone culture. Québec's large number of
CIDA-funded international NGOs (and the jobs they
provide) is a testament to the federal
government's policy of tying Québecers to its
overall aid objectives. (Additionally, Québec
City provides much more development assistance
than any other provincial government, largely to
project this province's linguistic heritage.)
Dependence on government money helps explain many
NGO's position on Haiti. Most of the groups that
supported Canadian intervention in Haiti,
including the unions (through the Centre
International de Solidarité Ouvrière), have long
received money for work in Haiti from the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
And post-coup Haiti has been an absolute bonanza
for Québec-based NGOs they have received tens
of millions of dollars from the Canadian (and Québec) government.
Canadian NGOs working in Haiti are largely from
Québec. The reason is simple: a perceived common
language. Canadian Development Assistance to
Haiti explains Haiti's importance to Québec: "As
the only independent French-speaking country in
Latin American and the Caribbean, Haiti is of
special importance for the preservation of the French language and culture."
But most Haitians don't speak French, they speak
Creole. French is the language of Haiti's elite
and language has served as a mechanism through
which they maintain their privilege. A Québecois
group in Haiti almost invariably reinforces the
influence of French. Whether conscious or not, a
French-focused foreigner in Haiti has taken (at
least linguistically speaking) a side in the
country's brutal class war. The Aristide
government had (successfully) weakened the
influence of French, which no doubt contributed
to many "progressive" Québecors' antagonism.
What motivates an individual to actively support
imperialism is difficult to pinpoint. But vocal
anti-Aristide critic, the FTQ's Fernand Daoust
provides some interesting hypotheses.
Daoust, who is one of Québec's leading advocates
for the French language, sits on the board of the
Fondation Paul Gérin-Lajoie (named after the
former head of CIDA). The Fondation Lajoie
teaches Haitian primary-school children in French
and is known to be antagonistic to Creole, the language spoken by all Haitians.
Was Daoust antagonistic to Aristide for promoting
Creole? Maybe not, but his views of Haitian
politics were likely shaped by people who were.
The former leader of the province's largest union
also has revealing ties to parts of "Québec Inc"
that benefited from the interruption of democracy
in Haiti. When Daoust went to Haiti in February
2004, he hadn't worked for the union for a
decade. Rather he was Special Advisor to the FTQ
President regarding its investment arm, le Fond
de Solidarite, which he's helped turn into a $7
billion source of capital. Le Fond controlled 12%
(once as high as 16%) of the world's largest
blank t-shirt maker, Montreal based Gildan
Activewear, had one of three outside seats on the
company's board and was cited throughout Gildan's
internal financial reports. (Three months prior
to the coup, le Fond announced it would sell its
highly profitable shares in Gildan due to the
company's history of terrible labor practices in
Honduras, yet as of Feb 2007 La Presse reported
that le Fond still held a significant amount of Gildan stock).
At the time of the coup, Gildan had a factory in
Port-Au Prince and planned to close its remaining
North American operations to expand in both Haiti
and the Dominican Republic (which they've done).
Gildan was also the primary subcontractor for
Alpha Industries, owned by Andy Apaid, head of
the Group 184 domestic opposition to Aristide.
Directly and indirectly, Gildan employed as many
as 5,000 people in Haiti's assembly sector.
Presumably, both Gildan and Apaid were
disgruntled with the Aristide government's
decision to increase the minimum wage from 36
gourdes to 70 gourdes in February 2003.
Did anyone Daoust knows at le Fond de Solidarite
with connections to Gildan, criticize Aristide to him?
Daoust also has ties to the leading beneficiary
of post-coup Canadian government reconstruction
projects in Haiti, Montreal based SNC Lavalin.
(SNC is probably Canada's leading disaster
capitalist' corporation.) As a Fond
representative, Daoust sits on the board of the
Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, along with
SNC Lavalin's vice president for the Americas and
a number of other pro-coup NGOs. Similarly he
sits on the board of the Université de Montreal
with Bernard Lamarre, president of SNC-Lavalin.
In 2004, le Fonds purchased Papeterie Gaspésia de
Chandler for $350 million with SNC and another partner.
Did Daoust's contact with SNC representatives
contribute to his support for western intervention in Haiti?
In February 2004, Daoust confidently opposed
Haiti's elected government yet during a
conversation in the Fall of 2007, Daoust
confessed little knowledge of Haiti. He did not
even want to talk about the subject without
notes. Daoust admitted that after the coup he was
surprised to encounter Haitian Montrealers who still supported Aristide.
To summarize, there seems to be four structural
reasons that led the Québec Left to participate
in brutal western intervention in Haiti: the
French language, missionaries, Québec Inc and
Canadian aid dollars. Tying them all together is
nationalism. The Left is reaping the reward for
decades of allying itself with nationalist elements of the Québec ruling class.
What sort of Left is left in Québec? The type
that is willing to side with its bosses and the
bosses of Haiti against the poor majority of
Haitians. The sort of Left that participates in
imperialism. Most of the Left in Québec even
sides with Ottawa and Washington, against much of the English left.
For many decades the English-speaking left in
Canada was impressed by the militancy and
strength of Québec unions, political parties and
grassroots organizations. If the example of Haiti
is an indication, it's about time they look elsewhere for inspiration.
Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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