I am writing this letter to CMAQ today because I want to draw to your attention the fact that the CMAQ name is being misused by a group of media practitioners who call themselves alternative, but in reality do little but follow the line of the neoliberal press, propping up Canada's imperialist role in Haiti.

August 8, 2005

Open Letter to CMAQ,

I am writing this letter to CMAQ today because I want to draw to your attention the fact that the CMAQ name is being misused by a group of media practitioners who call themselves alternative, but in reality do little but follow the line of the neoliberal press, propping up Canada's imperialist role in Haiti.

Finding CMAQ on the list of Alterpresse's partners lends Alterpresse a degree of credibility among activists that is false. Alterpresse is the news outlet that dominates online francophone reports from Haiti. They are also a recipient of funding from CIDA through Alternatives, who recently shared in a $2 million contract to provide media training around the upcoming sham elections in Haiti.

François L'Écuyer, Alternatives' project manager in Haiti, has been an active participant in the disinformation campaign that has characterized coverage of Haiti in the mainstream media. He has also stated that all 15 groups that Alternatives works with in Haiti are anti-Lavalas. [1] Meanwhile, popular movements in Haiti continue to rally around Lavalas, even amid violent repression from a Canadian trained police force and the UN occupying force, which also operates with Canadian guidance, support and resources.

Alterpresse is the media component of what independent journalists and Haiti activists Anthony Fenton and Yves Engler call "…the Canadian connection to NGO-based destabilization" in Haiti. [2]

CMAQ is a trusted and reliable source of independent, critical reporting. I write to ask that action be taken to sever CMAQ's institutional partnership with Alterpresse in Haiti, beginning by having CMAQ removed from Altrepresses' list of partners at http://www.alterpresse.org/parten.php3.

Thank you for your action on this urgent matter,

Dawn Paley
Ruskin, BC

[1] Carten, Ron. "Canada Subverts Haiti" in The Republic, No. 118, July 21 to August 1, 2005. Retrieved August 6, 2005 from: http://www.republic-news.org/archive/118-repub/118_carten.htm

[2] Engler, Y., Fenton, A. (2005). Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority. Red Publishing – Fernwood Publishing: Forthcoming. Page 60.