Over sixty people rallied last Tuesday in Montreal in front of both the U.S and French consulates as well as the major federal government offices, marking the 18th anniversary of Haiti's post-Duvalier (Baby Doc and Papa Doc) constitution. Montreal’s information picket was in solidarity with a much larger mobilization in Port au Prince where, despite a terribly repressive political climate, tens of thousands gathered to march from the slum of Bel Air.

 
Over sixty people rallied last Tuesday in Montreal in front of both the U.S and French consulates as well as the major federal government offices, marking the 18th anniversary of Haiti’s post-Duvalier (Baby Doc and Papa Doc) constitution. Organisers chose these sites to highlight the role these three countries played in last year’s overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s elected President. The anniversary of the constitution was seen as a fitting day to demand the return of constitutional order in Haiti, including the physical return of Aristide.

Montreal’s information picket was in solidarity with a much larger mobilization in Port au Prince where, despite a terribly repressive political climate, tens of thousands gathered to march from the slum of Bel Air. Although the march was publicized well in advance, that morning U.N soldiers handed out leaflets urging people not to protest. U.N soldiers then proceeded to block the march from leaving Bel Air, preventing people from reaching their goal - the Constitutional Plaza. Later in the day the 47 year-old brother of a Montreal rally organizer was shot and killed for wearing a t-shirt with Aristide’s picture.

Angered at the dismantling of their democracy, Haitians have taken to the streets en mass in protest upon protest recently. In Port Au Prince, on February 28th - the first anniversary of the coup – thousands marched only to be fired upon by the Haitian National Police. At least two protestors were killed as U.N soldiers looked on. Three days later 10,000 marched in Port Au Prince. On March 18, yet again thousands marched from the Port Au Prince neighbourhood of Delma 2 demanding the return of Aristide. A few days after this, police opened fire on a March 24th protest in Cité Soleil – at least one protestor was killed. Late Wednesday night gang lord, Thomas Robenson who was paid by Andy Apaid, Haiti’s leading sweatshop owner, to terrorise Lavalas (Aristide's party) sympathizers in Cite Soleil was killed. Early morning Thursday, celebratory demonstrations erupted, forcing the police to flee the Cite Soleil precinct. In response the U.N sent a thousand soldiers to block protestors from leaving the massive seaside slum.

Outside of Port Au Prince on March 29th, in Hinche thousands marched for the return of the elected president and as many as 12,000 took to the streets in Haiti’s second city, Cap Haitien. Similar numbers demonstrated in Cap on December 16th and again February  27th.

Considering how scant Canadian media attention has been of pro-democracy demonstrations in Haiti, it is difficult to believe that so many large marches have taken place. Yet they have, together with politically motivated imprisonments, rapes, and killings meant to put a stop to these mobilisations.

The dominant media rarely makes known the Canadian backed violence that is taking place in Haiti. A recently released Harvard Law School report condemning the UN’s mission in Haiti was almost entirely ignored by the Canadian media. The dearth of coverage on the this report is especially striking since Canada is in control of the entire 1400 member U.N civilian police (CIVPOL), not to mention the fact that the most cited individual in the report is Canadian CIVPOL commander, David Beers. This sobering report claims, ''MINUSTAH [U.N forces] has effectively provided cover for the police to wage a campaign of terror in Port-au-Prince's slums.''

With the exception of a good summary in La Presse and a short mention in Le Devoir, the rest of the media, as far as I can tell, ignored the Harvard human rights report. Much as (with the exception of an opinion piece in the Toronto Star and a few lefty columnists) they ignored the even more disturbing University of Miami human rights investigation released at the end of January.

Canadian media has barely reported on the ample evidence of state sponsored and U.N backed human rights violations taking place in Haiti. This lack of media attention allowed Foreign Affairs Minister, Pierre Pettigrew, to make his second trip to Haiti in four months without having to defend the violence of the installed government or Canada’s crucial support for this regime. (Canada’s financial support for the installed regime is significant, including paying the salary of the deputy justice minister and another official in Latortue’s inner circle. Canada has already dished out $90 million to installed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, only $10 million less than the U.S with an economy ten times the size.)

Pettigrew knows full well the kind of regime Canada is supporting. One month ago I gave him a copy of the University of Miami human rights investigation and three weeks ago Canadian special advisor to Haiti, Denis Coderre received a six-person delegation detailing the horrific human rights situation in Haiti. Yet during Pettigrew’s trip to Haiti on March 17th, he told Latortue, “Canada holds you in high esteem, you have in us solid allies