[News] Québec & Haiti

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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.






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