HALIFAX – NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Alexa McDonough today stressed that the increasing flow of arms into Haiti and the continuing cycle of violence in that country raise serious questions about the adequacy of Canada’s role in helping to relieve the suffering of Haitians.

CANADA FAILING HAITIANS SAYS McDONOUGH

HALIFAX – NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Alexa McDonough today stressed that the increasing flow of arms into Haiti and the continuing cycle of violence in that country raise serious questions about the adequacy of Canada’s role in helping to relieve the suffering of Haitians.

"Four months ago the Prime Minister, in addressing a conference on the future of Haiti, asserted that, 'an urgent need exists for measures to ensure security by disarmament.' Yet arms continue to flow virtually unabated into Haiti," said
McDonough. "And to make matters worse, George Bush has just provided almost seven million dollars in new weapons for the Haitian security sector that has been accused of carrying out attacks against unarmed Haitian civilians."

The project manager of the Small Arms Survey at the Graduate Institute of
International Studies in Geneva recently reported in the Globe and Mail that despite a "promising recovery strategy" by the United Nations to disarm and re-integrate armed groups in Haiti, and a thirteen-year arms embargo on the
Caribbean nation, the United States is quietly shipping arms to Haiti’s interim government.

"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.

"With this increased arms flow into Haiti, we have a recipe for disaster. There
is an urgent need for the global community, including Canada, to launch
effective measures to alleviate the gut-wrenching poverty in Haiti by
addressing the basic needs of health care, education, jobs and infrastructure,"
said McDonough.